Fake Bill From CitiBank ATM!


Active Member
when i lived in argie in 2002, 6 months after the crash, i worked in villa gesell on the coast in a nightclub as a cashier. needless to say, the cash register had to tally up right at the end of the evening, otherwise $ sort was deducted from my pay, as would fake bills if any were to get past me.

i am proud to say that in the whole three months i worked there, no dud notes got by me, although many times they tried to pull a fast one. on the first night a colleague took over from me, a guy slipped her a 100 peso note. gutted!

i got pretty adept at identifying counterfeit bills, with the help of my UV light but also from some tips given to me my the nightclub owner.

yes, you are right, the 100 peso bill is often counterfeited but so is the 50. fake bills often don't have the strip, and generally the watermark is the tell tale sign that it's a counterfeit, either it's absent altogether or it's faked, often badly. i saw some laughable examples of faked watermarks, i was able to tell straight away. in many cases the inks used are brigher, compared to the more muted colours of the genuine article. ALSO, scratch the notes with your nails, the forged notes are often printed on different/thinner paper and don't carry the thin ridges on the paper. also look at the lettering and the detailing on the note itself.

lastly, don't think that smaller denominations aren't equally as forged - 50 centavos and peso coins (look for the ridging finish on the side of the 50 centavo coins) but also two peso notes, but obviously the damage to your pocket and pride is less severe if you find you've been given change with these. believe it or not, in the time when patacones (promisory deeds) were issued when the banks for the time after the crash, even these were forged!

just go with your gut feeling, if the note looks a little funny, chances are it's not the genuine article.
Thank you diosaarenosa for you informative post about how to identify fake notes. Are faked notes a particular Buenos Aires phenomena or is it country wide problem?


So many wishful thinkers from the expat community have previously declared, "oh its the same back home''. well, its not now, and wasnt in the 60s either when i was born. All day long people shake, twist, hold up the bills as i buy things. i told one woman recently as i had to wait while she did her thing, you know what?, i remarked. "Youll be doing this for your whole life. it will never change". i really believe that. fake money, no coins, broken sidewalks, black clouds of pollution from public busses. the govt. is on permanent vacation. oh, lets not forget the excrutiatingly slow legal system.

we give up, sacrifice, do without a lot to live here.