Someone told an account of a time where he had a bunch of $2 bills for some reason to do with giving them out to a boy scout troop for something or other. Well, he had a whole bunch left over (and they were his own personal money) and went to use them at a home depot. Since he had got them all at the same bank they were all brand new and all had sequential serial numbers. Since the bank hardly ever dispensed them the bills were all of quite old issue compared to more common currency.

The Home Depot clerk thought they were counterfeit. They called the police, who called the local secret service branch. It would have been fine that the clerk thought they were counterfeit, but the secret service themselves were SO unfamiliar with the $2 (and its lack of the now “normal” anti counterfeit features) that THEY thought it was a fake. It took something in the order of some hours of … charming conversation… to resolve the confusion.

It is sad when the secret service cannot themselves ID a real vs fake bill…