Fiscal Fun Facts: All About Fakes.

• Author: Griffin, Kelley
• Position: Sine Die - Money counterfeiting

Not long after the first money was printed in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in 1690, people began trying to create counterfeit versions. So began the ongoing effort to make money distinctive in small yet complex ways so the copycats couldn't copy.

The colonies all eventually printed these notes--a promise to pay--and the British tried to stop it, in part by undermining them with counterfeits. The Continental Congress got in on printing money in 1775, as did banks of the era. During the next 125 years or so, paper money...