The One Dollar Counterfeiter

https://www.amusingplanet.com/2026/05/emerich-juettner-one-dollar.html

by cainxinth • 3 months ago

365 143 3 months ago

gobdovan2• 2 months ago

Fun fact: in parts of East Africa, a $50 bill may be worth about 60-70 $1 dollar bills, due to the $1 bill being easier to counterfeit (and also more likely worn down).

Barbing4• 2 months ago

Immersed yourself there or…?

dnnddidiej3• 2 months ago

That guy East Africas

m463• 2 months ago

In parts of the USA (well, amazon.com), you can buy bills of $10,000,000,000 from Africa for very little.

example: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01L3536O2

eesmith• 2 months ago

In parts of the US (well, eBay.com) you can by bills of 50 trillion from Europe for very little.

In other words, Africa is a big place. Just say "Zimbabwe".

JKCalhoun• 2 months ago

I'd like to think that they would switch to scientific notation past a million…

noduerme9• 2 months ago

Very interesting. It's probably because fewer people take the time to counterfeit $50s, $10s or $2s than anything else. What about $100 bills? In Argentina, if you have an older $100 bill, no one will take it. And apparently there's a roaring trade in fake $20s in Costa Rica, which I only learned at a casino there recently when I took USD directly out of an ATM and had it inspected by a pit boss in the same establishment. It's ironic, because if I were someone with an interest in counterfeiting, I'd focus on forging Pesos or Colones or something no one looks at before I'd take a stab at USD.

madaxe_again2• 2 months ago

I’ve had USD rejected both for being too new and for being too old in various corners of the earth - different cultures seem to want their currency differently aged.

gobdovan2• 2 months ago

In Tanzania specifically, the $100s were fine. The weird pricing seemed driven partly by perception. It was usually street vendors who would say $1 bills were worth 2000 shillings (~84 cents), while the larger banknotes were fine. Other vendors would charge X shillings or Y dollars, and when you did the calculation, it would be about 70 cents per dollar. I had crisp $1 bills and asked them why they discounted $1 bills so much? And some responded they were easy to counterfeit. There was also something about banks not taking pre-2009 (if I remember correctly) dollars, and sometimes they may not be bothered to check the dates.

But even at exchanges, the bid for $50s was beating the ask for $1s, I was thinking there's a trivial arbitrage opportunity haha.

RobotToaster• 2 months ago

He was also made to pay a fine of $1

I wonder if the cashier checked the bill closely when he paid it.

Lutzb• 2 months ago

Maybe it was a test.

DoctorOetker2• 2 months ago

it would be impossible to rely on the test, the cashier could keep the fake dollar to frame it or sell it later, and chip in the real dollar themself.

Barbing4• 2 months ago

If he wrote a check the office would’ve had a bet pool on whether it would be returned

Barbing4• 2 months ago

  Under ordinary circumstances, a federal counterfeiting arrest would have generated little sympathy. But the story of Emerich Juettner struck the public imagination immediately. Here was an old man surviving in poverty by printing crude one-dollar bills one at a time. He was not violent, greedy, or glamorous.

  At trial, Juettner admitted his activities openly. The judge sentenced him to only a year and a day in prison, and he was paroled after 4 months. He was also made to pay a fine of $1. It has been agreed that Juettner’s complete lack of greed was the rationale behind the light sentence. …

  Juettner returned to a life of normalcy, and lived out the rest of his days in the suburbs of Long Island, where he died in 1955, at the age of 79.

(Edit - thanks, leaving as a highlight)

a_t48• 2 months ago

Literally the single paragraph you omitted:

    After his release, Juettner briefly achieved celebrity status. His notoriety became so widespread that Hollywood adapted the story into the 1950 film Mister 880, directed by Edmund Goulding. Eventually, Juettner made more money from the release of Mister 880 than he had made by counterfeiting.

Barbing4• 2 months ago

(Thank you!)

neonstatic• 2 months ago

References:
The 70-year-old retiree who became America’s worst counterfeiter. [link]

He evaded capture for 10 years, making him one of the best. Also got less than a slap on his wrist and ended up making legal money on the whole ordeal.

kristianp2• 2 months ago

One dollar in 1943 is worth about $19 today's dollars.

He started in 1938 and was arrested in 1948:

    1938 23.42
    1943 19.09
    1948 13.70

Enough to buy some supplies, but how did he pay the rent? Perhaps he owned his apartment.

https://www.in2013dollars.com/us/inflation/1948?amount=1

kennywinker• 2 months ago

Juettner began working as a maintenance man and building superintendent in New York's Upper East Side. His job allowed him and his family to live rent free in the basement of the building where he worked.

kristianp2• 2 months ago

Yes, but he was forced to counterfeit when that job ended.

noduerme9• 2 months ago

Would owning his apartment disqualify him from being a folk hero? If he was a renter, does he deserve to be a hero? Just wondering. If he'd gotten rich from printing fake currency and become a right wing dictator would you think the same as if he was just a broke tenant? Why or why not?

miksuko• 2 months ago

The hell are you talking about?

dnnddidiej3• 2 months ago

If $1 is $19 I am suprised more people didnt check that their $1 notes are legit back then. Story makes it sound like $1 was chump change.

HarHarVeryFunny6• 2 months ago

Do you check the $20 bills the ATM spits out, or just stuff them in your wallet and spend them?

gus_massa• 2 months ago

My guess is that almost everyone was paying with cash, so a $1 bill was not uncommon.

I don't remember the last time I paid $20 in cash. [That's like AR$30K here in Argentina. For that ammount, we mostly use credit card, debit card or one of the apps with QR.]

rz2k• 2 months ago

Since they were silver certificates he could have redeemed them for a 26.73g coin composed of 90% silver and 10% copper. In 2026, the value of the silver has fluctuated between about $46 and $94 (and the value of the copper content has stayed a little over 3 cents).

spwa42• 2 months ago

If you swap them in stores, maybe. But taking counterfeit bills to the national bank is just stupid, even if very well made.

sokoloff• 2 months ago

Those stopped being redeemable for silver in 1968, so their value is no longer defined by the metal prices of 2026.

shrubble• 2 months ago

A shabby NYC apartment in the 1940s could be rented for $30/month. So producing just 1 bill a day would be enough to meet the rent.

seabass-labrax• 2 months ago

10 years went by and the search for Mister 880 turned into the largest and most expensive counterfeit investigation in Secret Service history.

The article doesn't explain why the Secret Service made this their biggest case, and it doesn't make much sense to me. If the dollars were accepted by the general population, it would cause an infinitesimal increase in inflation of no consequence to others. And if shopkeepers wised up to the false dollars and rejected them, at worst he was defrauding the public by a few hundred dollars a year. In either eventuality, surely the Secret Service had more notorious counterfeiters to track down?

noduerme9• 2 months ago

Maybe it's just that any investigation that takes 10 years is by definition one of the more expensive ones.

gradschool• 2 months ago

A small leak can sink a ship. The fake dollars weren't knowingly accepted. If public confidence in the value of money is lost, we're all in big trouble. The Secret Service was right to pursue the case zealously.

HarHarVeryFunny6• 2 months ago

I think the public take a pretty pragmatic view on this and don't care as long as they are not losing money on it. A few years ago it was estimated that 3% or so of the 1 pound coins in the UK were fake (there is now a more secure coin type); AFAIK the quality was pretty good, so they weren't glaringly obvious, and it seems no-one really cared - if the supermarket or pub would accept it, then it's effectively money, right?

gosub1002• 2 months ago

exactly, plus punishment also acts as a deterrent.

tux3• 2 months ago

The state reserves some of the harshest punishments for counterfeiters, since large scale counterfeit operations is one of the few crimes that is an attack on the state itself.

The US secret service was originally created specifically to combat counterfeit money, it's no surprise that they would keep tracking this man for a decade.

This man is unusual because he did the tiniest amount of one the most severely punished crime.

cenamus2• 2 months ago

Also a fascinating read: The Nazi counterfeiting operation, intended to devalue the Pound and crash the British economy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Bernhard

intrasight2• 2 months ago

I have two "counterfeiting" stories - both of which are humorous even though one involve the Secret Service.

The first was in college. A buddy of mine scribbled a facsimile of a $20 onto a piece of paper with a green marker. He then handed it to the checkout clerk at the cafeteria who took it and started to hand them back change. He stopped her and said "no, no it's a joke - look at what I just handed you". She was embarrassed but they both laughed together.

The second story which does involve the Secret Service is when my friend had a bunch of presents that he had wrapped and put in his front porch until was going to depart for a party. One of the presents was wrapped in a sheet of uncut dollar bills - which you could buy for that purpose.

A neppy neighbor saw it through the window and called the police who called the FBI who called the Secret Service who came knocking on his door to investigate. They were also embarrassed but I don't think they laughed. My friend told him he understands that they're just doing their job and that it's an important one.

lukan• 2 months ago

"since large scale counterfeit operations is one of the few crimes that is an attack on the state itself"

If somebody beats someone else up, to teach him a lesson - this is also a direct attack on the state itself, the monopoly on violence.

But "large scale"? This old man with his crude tools and bad 1 dollar notes?

"The press adored him and the public sympathized with him. "

That is probably the bit, that got them engaged. Cannot have this set as an example that works out for someone.

JumpCrisscross2• 2 months ago

the state reserves some of the harshest punishments for counterfeiters

This is empirically untrue [1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Counterfeit_money#Penalties_by...

eru• 2 months ago

The state reserves some of the harshest punishments for counterfeiters, since large scale counterfeit operations is one of the few crimes that is an attack on the state itself.

Which is pretty ironic, given that the state need not be involved in providing physical cash at all.

ImPostingOnHN• 2 months ago

If the dollars were accepted by the general population, it would cause an infinitesimal increase in inflation of no consequence to others.

That would depend on how many counterfeit dollars were out there, which the authorities did not know at that point of the investigation

latexr• 2 months ago

We have the benefit of hindsight. The Secret Service couldn’t know the true scale of the operation, how many fake bills were in circulation, and that they were only singles.

Salgat• 2 months ago

To set an example, as a deterrent to larger operations. If they go after even the smallest impact counterfeiters, it leaves no room for a plausible level at which an operation can safely run under, no matter how small.

albert_e2• 2 months ago

Is it possible that he might have spent almost $1 in materials and labor and allocated capital expenses on equipment ... to create each of these counterfeits.

Attempting this today would probably surely cost that much in today's dollars?

EDIT: on a second thought ..this almost feels like "proof of work" for currency :)

selcuka2• 2 months ago

The U.S. government spends approximately 4.1 cents [1] to produce each $1 bill. It would probably be more expensive to counterfeit it because of the volume, but I doubt it would be more than $1.

[1] https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/currency_12771.htm

dgacmu• 2 months ago

The US penny and nickel are the only bits of currency we use that cost more to produce than their face value.

albert_e2• 2 months ago

I meant the cost of counterfeiting

If I hypothetically set out to create a single fake one dollar bill that can pass for real ... i would have to spend a lot more than one dollar on the materials ro pull it off, surely?

selcuka2• 2 months ago

He was also made to pay a fine of $1.

I see what they did there.

spwa42• 2 months ago

These days it is much more effective to pay employees to swap payment terminals (or just employees doing it themselves), changing where the money ends up, and banks don't really know what to do about it.

azepoi• 2 months ago

It reminds me of Bojarski https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ceslaw_Bojarski

The 2025 movie is worth watching https://www.imdb.com/title/tt35495035/

calrain• 2 months ago

The lack of greed is wonderful. It makes me think of how many endeavours would have succeeded if the founders and advisors weren't greedy.

At least this story shows that the lack of greed didn't improve quality.

JCharante• 2 months ago

Eventually, Juettner made more money from the release of Mister 880 than he had made by counterfeiting

I'm guessing this was before the law where you couldn't benefit from crimes?

andreareina• 2 months ago

First enacted 1977 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Son_of_Sam_law

bell-cot• 2 months ago

Old family story: Back in the 1920's and 1930's, one of my cousins (a bit removed) was a poacher in rural northern Michigan. Everyone from the County Sheriff on down knew that she was a poacher. Everyone also knew that she was a widow with several children, living in (even for the place and time) grim poverty, and the she was poaching to feed her children.

As kids, we were told more details - both to know about our extended family, and to support various lessons about poverty and charity and pre-WWII rural communities.

But one of the more subtle lessons was that "the law" and society's actual rules are, at best, overlapping circles on a Venn diagram. No matter what lawmakers, those invested in the legal system, and those telling simplistic stories to children might say.

mplanchard2• 2 months ago

If you want to know more, there is a much better and very entertainingly written series of articles about this, from a 1949 issue of the New Yorker: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1949/08/27/old-eight-eigh...

m348e912• 2 months ago

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcuDTEbR8CE. Mr 880, a movie loosely based on the case.

morkalork• 2 months ago

https://archive.ph/MLJHu

retired• 2 months ago

Emerich Juettner would approve of bypassing a paywall for a news article.

mplanchard2• 2 months ago

I don’t get a paywall for this even in private browsing. Just me somehow?

kccqzy2• 2 months ago

That article had an unsatisfactory and anti-climatic ending. It ended right when the Secret Service arrested the counterfeiter, where a normal reader would expect more discussion of how the Secret Service found the man and how they questioned the man after the arrest.

stevenwoo• 2 months ago

Did you read all three parts? They laid the groundwork by alerting local police and store owners about the counterfeiter probably living in that area of Manhattan and got lucky because the neighbor's apartment caught fire and the building owner threw out some of his burned possessions, including the plates and some counterfeit bills.

forinti2• 2 months ago

About 20 years ago there was a gang that made fake Brazilian R$1 coins (they must have been worth 50 US cents then, I don't recall precisely). And I have collected a couple of very shady R$0,50 coins that I'm pretty sure are fake. I collect commemorative coins so I always check my change carefully.

I don't think the materials are expensive, but the electricity required might be. So my guess is that this might make sense if someone steals the power. One guy was busted stealing electricity to mine bitcoin a few years ago.

OTOH, maybe they just do it for fun.

bhickey2• 2 months ago

This was pretty common with £1 coins until they moved to bimetallic coinage. The fakes would be rejected by vending machines.

The biggest tells were poor reeding quality and slightly soft detailing. On very low quality fakes, the face and obverse weren't aligned, though I never encountered one of these in the wild.

ljf2• 2 months ago

Back in the 2000s/10s I had a little jar of various £1 and a couple 50p I was certain were fake. Interestingly the fake £1 I got most frequently were -from- vending machines - I wonder if those refilling them slipped them in?

Sadly not sure where they are now, they were also mixed in with a good few £5 coins I bought, I used to love paying for things with a £5 coin. Hope I find them again!

hankerapp2• 2 months ago

Slightly off-topic, but the first time I saw a (real) 2-dollar bill, I almost called the Secret Service on a customer. Was then educated about the legality of 2-dollar bills.

teddyh• 2 months ago

Ask Steve Wozniak about his two-dollar bills.

sidewndr462• 2 months ago

So you're the person that called the cops on that guy at Best Buy?

hankerapp2• 2 months ago

I don't know which story you are talking about. I was working at a frozen yogurt place.

IAmBroom2• 2 months ago

There's a legendary Reddit story about such an incident at Taco Bell's.

Ignorance is not a rare trait.

dennis_jeeves2• 2 months ago

Moral of the story:

It's ok for the govt to print as many notes as is needed to satisfy the govt's needs needs but it is not ok for the common Joe to do the same. One is labeled as inflation or quantitative easing and the other is labeled a crime

IAmBroom2• 2 months ago

The US does not pay its bills with printed cash.

Money is actually generated by changing the interest on, and selling, bonds.

Various governments can, and many have, done what you describe, but banking in this day & age is about moving digits in a register, not shipping truckloads of $100-bills.

einhard• 2 months ago

This was an interesting read. I am somewhat reminded of J. S. G. Boggs (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._S._G._Boggs), who used to hand draw banknotes and bills as a performance art of sort.

There is an excellent book about him by Lawrence Weschler called _Boggs: A Comedy of Values_.

tedggh• 2 months ago

The Frank Bourassa story is pretty incredible. There’s a TV series but I recommend listening to his interviews. I think NPR has one that is pretty good. The level of planning, logistics and craft the guy put into his illegal money printing shop is admirable. Extremely intelligent and driven person. He could have succeeded in any other legal business if wanted to, but looks like it would not be the same thrill for him. His counterfeit US bills were so good that allegedly some of it is still in circulation with silent approval of the US government.

sandworm101• 2 months ago

The other side of the trade: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superdollar

In short, there are a great many US 100s out there that are so good that experts are required to spot them. The companies that sell/service the equipment necessary to print these only deal with national governments. So all eyes are on north korea.

fnord77• 2 months ago

Crime paid modestly and then a jackpot for the movie rights

ck2• 2 months ago

Meanwhile on TV now there are real, serious, expensive advertisements selling a 50 cent roll of pennies for TEN DOLLARS

Whatever legal business we are in otherwise, apparently it's the wrong one

hristov• 2 months ago

Slightly off topic, Vladimir Nabakov wrote a beautiful, sad story about a guy like this -- a lonely counterfeiter that made a small number of individually crafted bills. It is called The Leonardo.

The One Dollar Counterfeiter

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