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If someone ever hands you a one million dollar bill, hand it back to them. Then let them know it is not real. This is just one of the types of money that people have made and tried to pass off as real.

When someone makes fake money and tries to spend it like real money, it is called counterfeit money. Most of the time, people who make counterfeit money try to make it look like actual money. For example, they may make a fake $1 bill or $100 bill. To spend the money, the usually mix the counterfeit money in with real money. They hope no one will notice. Sometimes people also try to make money with fake dollar amounts. They may make a $3 bill and hope the cashier is not smart enough to notice.

Making money, whatever the denomination, or amount, and trying to pass it off as real is illegal. You can be arrested and go to jail for printing counterfeit money. To help catch people who make counterfeit money, the government has made its money more unique. While a $5 or $10 bill might not look very special, it has a lot of unique features. This helps tell it apart from the fakes.

1. Real money feels more like cloth than paper. It is hard for counterfeiters to copy the exact texture of the money.

2. Real money has a watermark. When you hold it up to the light you can see the watermark on the bill. Some bills have more than one watermark. This adds additional security.

3. Real money has a security thread. It is a string of numbers and an image that can only be seen when it is held up to the light.

4. Real money now adds in colors that fade out as they get closer to the edges. Some bills even use color-shifting ink. It looks like one color when tilted one way and another color when tilted another way. These colors are very hard to copy.

5. Real money has small yellow numbers printed on the front and the back. These yellow numbers are hard to recreate.

It's easy to tell that a one million dollar bill is fake, but it may not be so easy for you to tell if a $5, $10, or $20 bill is fake. However, by adding in all of the unique features, the government makes sure it can always tell the real money from the counterfeit money.

Grade 3 Main Idea CCSS: CCRA.R.5, RI.3.5

Why does the author start with the example of the one million dollar bill?

to introduce the idea of counterfeit money
to show an example of an outrageous bill
to explain that the one million dollar bill isn't real
to make you laugh at the idea of the crazy bill

Question Info

Main Idea Question

Grade 3 Main Idea CCSS: CCRA.R.5, RI.3.5