Estimating the Volume of Counterfeit U.S. Currency in Circulation Worldwide: Data and Extrapolation

Ruth Judson and Richard Porte
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Ruth Judson: Federal Reserve Board
Richard Porte: Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago

Chapter 11 in Financial Institutions and Markets, 2010, pp 241-268 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract Abstract The incidence of currency counterfeiting and the possible total stock of counterfeits in circulation are popular topics of speculation and discussion in the press and are of substantial practical interest to the U.S. Treasury and the U.S. Secret Service. This chapter assembles data from Federal Reserve and U.S. Secret Service sources and presents a range of estimates for the number of counterfeits in circulation. In addition, the chapter presents figures on counterfeit passing activity by denomination, location, and method of production. The chapter has two main conclusions: first, the stock of counterfeits in the world as a whole is likely on the order of 1 or fewer per 10,000 genuine notes in both piece and value terms; second, losses to the U.S. public from the most commonly used note, the $20, are relatively small, and are miniscule when counterfeit notes of reasonable quality are considered.

Keywords: Banking System; Federal Reserve; Commercial Bank; Monetary Aggregate; Federal Reserve System (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2010
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-0-230-11736-5_11

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DOI: 10.1057/9780230117365_11

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