To Live and Die on Halloween

Anyone who has known me for any length of time knows that I’m more or less obsessed with the movie To Live and Die in LA. Because of the film I became interested in the subject of counterfeit currency in the mid 1980’s.

A recent post on the aag blog reminded me of a similar document that I possessed. I can’t remember positively where I received it, but I think it was given to me by Jan Gregor, author of Circus of the Scars.

Unlike the situation of giving away a “novelty” bill in a face-to-face situation with a trick-or-treater, my bill was clearly intended to be set down for a random recipient to pick up. It was carefully creased to disguise that it wasn’t wide enough to be a real bill. The inside of the crease, or reverse side, contained the text message. Folded with the obverse side out, it could be set down in either of two ways, and the illusion would still work.

I must say, the quality of the counterfeit bill is quite good. It’s clearly been created with an offset press.

Higher quality scans can be seen here and here.