Expanish Volunteer Blog
How to Spot Fake Money in Buenos Aires
It is not a very common occurrence in Buenos Aires but there is a chance that at one point or another you will receive a fake bill from someone and probably will not notice until you try to pay for something and the vender will not take your bill. For most Argentines, it is not hard to spot the fake bills but as a foreigner you are a little more susceptible to receiving and not realizing that you have been slipped a fake bill. The best thing you can do is learn the differences between the fake and real bills and learn how to spot them.
The main difference between real bills and fake bills are that real bills have a water mark (silhouette of the character on the bill) in the empty spot on the left part of the bill and on some bills the clothing of the character on the bill is slightly rigged.
- How to check you $2 and $5 bills: Hold the bill up towards the light and check for the water mark; it will be about 2cm below the writing and just to the right of the red numbers. 2’s and 5’s do not have rigged lines.
- How to check you $10 and $20 bills: Check for the watermark again, plus look for a single rigged line that runs along with left edge of note where there is color.
- How to check you $50 and $100 bills: Check for the water mark, and a rigged line that runs through the entire length of the bill. Also, check for rigged lines on the suits of the characters.
If you do receive a fake bill, politely show the vender your fake bill and point out to them that it must have been given to them by mistake and that you will want a new bill. Do not accuse anyone of trying to steal from you or rip you off; it is often the case that this happens by mistake and the most common thing to do is just pass it on because no one wants to lose money.
Volunteers in Buenos Aires ~Learn more about how to keep safe in Buenos Aires!
January 12th, 2010 at 3:31 pm
[...] eat some Amazing Meat from the parilla in a tiny grubby restaurant downtown. David shows me what a fake 10 peso bill looks like. (Easy spot if you ask me, it comes out of an inkjet printer!) and walks me through the [...]