The US dollar is the most popular note to counterfeit

A ‘supernote,’ or nearly-perfect counterfeit $100 bill, was recently found in South Korea

These “supernotes” have even fooled US government officials. North Korea is widely believed to be behind the creation of these counterfeit banknotes.

The US dollar is the most widely circulated currency in the world, and is involved in nearly 90% of global transactions

Governments have historically used counterfeiting for economic warfare

Inserting fake currency into an economy can help destabilize it. During the American Revolution, for instance, the British distributed counterfeit “Continental Dollars” in an effort to devalue the currency being used in the US at the time with the goal of undermining America’s growing financial credibility. The Nazis also ran an extensive counterfeiting scheme during WWII.

The US dollar is the official currency of the United States and is the most circulated currency around the world

The US dollar was established in 1792 and comes in the form of coins or paper money. It's considered one of (if not the most) stable currencies in the world due to America’s strong and robust economy, as well as its relatively stable government.

A man who counterfeited over $1M explains how to counterfeit money

In 2019, after Jeff Turner forged US banknotes such as the 1996-series $100 bill and the 2013 “blue note,” he was indicted on federal conspiracy and served 10 months in prison. In this video, Turner explains how to spot a fake banknote, and provides information about the materials and processes required to make fake money.

Today, in the US, people can face years in prison for counterfeiting money

There are both federal and state laws that punish people who use or create counterfeit money. The crime can not only trigger hefty fines, but could also lead to decades behind bars.

The US Currency Education Program created a guide to authenticating currency

This video was created to teach everyday people a few easy ways to spot some counterfeit banknotes. Specifically, it outlines the main security features to check for that are common across many US banknotes, such as the color-shifting ink visible when tiling US banknotes $10 or higher.

The Federal Reserve tracks how much US currency is circulated around the world every year

It's estimated that about half of US currency is circulated outside of the US. In 2023, there were 54.6B US notes circulated, with 18.9B of those being $100 bills. This chart shows how many US notes have circulated since 1997.

There have been many versions of US banknotes throughout history

From the Civil War to the present day, the US has gone through many, many versions of paper money (or “notes”). Some notes, like “demand notes,” were created to finance the Civil War. Others, like “treasury notes,” helped pay for silver.

The $1 bill hasn’t been redesigned in over 60 years

From a counterfeiting and forgery perspective, this makes the $1 bill one of the least secure American banknotes. In this video, the Wall Street Journal sits down with a leading currency expert to explore the techniques used to keep cash safe and figure out what's going on with the $1 bill.

America's most misunderstood dollar

The $2 bill isn't rare; it's just hiding. First printed in 1862, stopped in 1966, and revived in 1976, there are still 1.6 billion in circulation. People just don't spend them.

The Secret Service was originally formed to combat counterfeiting

By the 1860s, an estimated one-third of US currency in circulation was counterfeit. In 1865, the Secret Service was created specifically to combat the country's serious counterfeiting problem, which had led to widespread financial instability. This was partly due to the lack of federal currency standardization in the country at the time.

Some coin denominations have ridges on their sides in part to prevent counterfeiting

You may have noticed that dimes and quarters feature small ridges on their sides that other coins, like pennies and nickels, don't have. This video can help you learn more about why the practice, called "reeding," was first started—and why it's still used today.

The dollar’s value stems from public trust and demand

In simple terms, a dollar bill’s value relies on two elements: that people believe it will be accepted in exchange for goods and services, and how much demand for the currency there is.

Some coin denominations have ridges etched on their sides, partly to prevent counterfeiting, in a practice called 'reeding.'

As of 2025, an estimated $3.2B in annual revenue flows through dark web platforms

The untraceable cryptocurrency Monero is used in about 60% of transactions across more than 37 active marketplaces that sell copyrighted materials, private information, and phishing kits—tools that help bad actors more easily create fake sites to steal users' data—for financial fraud.

A former financial crime investigator says Hollywood has done a pretty good job depicting money laundering

A former financial crime investigator says "Narcos" and "Ozark" have pretty realistic scenes, but other well-known financial crime depictions like "The Wolf of Wall Street" are off base. Some of the main inconsistencies include overly dramatic gunfights and unrealistic cash amounts.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

How the Montreal Protocol made CFCs the most valuable Miami contraband after cocaine

Following the 1990s production ban, smugglers flooded Miami with illegal chlorofluorocarbons used in air conditioning. A 15-kilogram cylinder bought for $70 in Europe could sell for $242 in the US, fueling multimillion-dollar black-market trade. (Some users may experience a paywall.)

The value of a dollar differs from state to state

Did you know that $100 is worth 26% less in California than in Arkansas? The value of a dollar isn't consistent in every US state due to a multitude of factors, such as taxes and other varying cost-of-living differences.

Fast, cheap, and deadly: How fentanyl replaced heroin and hooked America

This interactive article details how fentanyl has largely replaced heroin in the drug trade, with fatal results. Fentanyl was first developed in 1959 as an anesthetic for pain relief, but the drug took hold in the US black market in 2014 and has since exploded in the intervening decade.

The US tips more service providers and leaves larger amounts than anywhere else globally

This map shows how other countries stack up to the US in terms of tipping norms, and could be helpful if you’re planning to budget for a trip abroad. It also indicates if tips are typically included in the bill in each country.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide

The market value of art is entirely subjective, allowing paintings to be worth millions while also being lightweight and easy to smuggle. However, most successful heists are the result of luck and don't include a plan for selling. The smartest option for robbers is typically the less famous painting, as it won't be as difficult to sell as the Mona Lisa.

Dollar stores procure their merchandise in bulk to help cut costs

In order to keep prices cheap, dollar stores source this merchandise from a variety of places, including liquidation sales (an event that happens when retailers need to sell off inventory quickly), directly from distributors, foreign markets, and more.

The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage is by far the most popular in the US

The most common types of loans are conventional, jumbo, fixed-rate, adjustable, and government-backed.

An overview of drugs, crime, and cartels in Mexico

In 2006, the Mexican government launched a war on the drug cartels. The cartels and the drug trade fuel rampant corruption and violence in Mexico, contributing to tens of thousands of homicides in the country each year. Mexican drug cartels are also...

Soda is one of the most overpriced items at restaurants

All restaurant food is marked up—that's how they turn profits, after all—but soda is one of the most egregious. Fountain soda is remarkably cheap, with restaurants often paying a few cents for each glass before selling it for a few dollars. Food publication The Takeout estimates that the typical markup is around 1,000%.

The world's most (and least) corrupt countries

The annual index measuring every country's relative levels of corruption. In 2022, Denmark earned the top spot for transparency, with Sudan, Syria, and Somalia identified as having the highest levels of corruption in the public sector. The rankings...

US consumers collectively owe more than $1T to credit card companies—almost as much as they owe in auto loans.

The United States is one of only around two dozen countries with a fully federal system of government, in which power is divided between national and state governments.

Memecoins are a type of cryptocurrency—a form of digital currency with a wide variety of uses—created around popular 'memes,' or viral internet jokes.

The idea for the Federal Reserve was conceived in secret in 1910—with bankers donning duck hunt gear for disguise while traveling to a remote country club on Georgia's Jekyll Island

The price of gas is a composite made up of several different factors, with the federal gas tax making up less than 20% of what drivers pay at the pump.

The US first hosted the World Cup in 1994, a tournament that lives in soccer infamy for its poor planning and the murder of Colombian player Andres Escobar, who'd accidentally scored on his own net.

The USPS spent $3.97B in 2024, accounting for .058% of the federal budget.

The most expensive ad of all time was for Chanel No. 5 perfume and cost roughly $33M to produce in 2004—about $57M in today's dollars.

Up to a million Girl Scouts sell about 200 million cookie boxes every spring, generating $800 million, largely because refusing a child is frowned upon

US intelligence allegedly pursued more than 600 schemes to assassinate Cuban revolutionary Fidel Castro.

Despite being favored by 87% of Americans, Congress does not have term limits.

Discover the catastrophic consequences of a failure of the US electrical grid—something that is more likely than many Americans think.

The 1987 Nintendo video game 'Stadium Events' isn't known for being particularly fun, but its scarcity has made it a highly sought-after item that has sold for up to $35K at auction.

Before the current East Wing ballroom project, only two White House renovations in the past 100 years cost more than $10M.

Three Ebola species are responsible for most large outbreaks of the disease, yet the only approved Ebola vaccine is known to work against just one of them.

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

'Shogun,' a 1980s TV series, helped popularize sushi in the US by stimulating an American interest in Japanese culture.

The American cockroach is actually from Africa, an apparent hitchhiker aboard ships carrying enslaved people, with evidence suggesting the bug may have arrived in the New World as early as the 1600s.

For centuries, Niagara Falls has been a magnet for daredevils seeking to conquer one of nature's most powerful wonders, with its 200-foot drop and water rushing at 32 feet per second with 280 tons of force.

Elk Cloner, the first computer virus to spread in public, was written as a practical joke by Richard Skrenta, a Pittsburgh high school student.

Artificial coral reefs have been 3D printed from nontoxic, biodegradable terracotta clay, which coral polyps have used as a foundation for rebuilding marine ecosystems.

A small portion of The Winstons' 'Amen, Brother,' an obscure '60s gospel record, is the basis for thousands of hip-hop tracks, making it one of the most sampled records ever that's informally known as 'the Amen break.'