If you can't figure out whether you're holding counterfeit currency, a fraud expert from the RCMP has a few tips.

Corporal Joseph Stubbs is a counterfeit coordinator from the RCMP. He says you should pay attention to the feel and look of today's modern polymer bills. Then, flip them over and check the other side.

“It feels like a polymer. It doesn’t feel like there’s anything pasted into it. It doesn’t feel anything’s been taped into it. It has the proper raised print, as it should,” Stubbs said.
Examine the details in the holograms and peer through the “open windows” of the bills, he adds.

Stubbs was giving a public presentation at the Red Deer detachment yesterday on how to spot counterfeit currency. He says that in many cases, the fakes are being circulated because people don't know what to look for.

Stubbs describes preventing counterfeit currency from entering circulation like a game of cat-and-mouse: although making money with polymer has cut down the volume of fake bills, police are constantly trying to stay ahead of the new techniques.

“They’re taking the legitimate holographic strip and cutting it out of smaller denominational bills and then taping it into paper counterfeits of larger denomination bills,” he said.