Since its inception in the 1980s, tales of the "Supernote" have popped up here and there throughout the years like a bad case of shingles. This post however is not about the aforementioned Supernote, but rather the Made-in-Murica pseudo-Supernote that earned Jeff Turner the "Picasso" of counterfeiters moniker.
At the time of his arrest, Jeff Turner had printed over one million dollars. Let's stop here and address that "over one million dollars" figure; for each $100 dollar bill, Jeff Turner had to print 2 sides of the note on 2 pages of blank bible paper taped to regular printer paper and then print the watermark and security thread on the "back of the back side." Why bible paper, you ask?
Jeff Turner used Art Williams' technique culled from Jason Kersten's book The Art of Making Money: The Story of Master Counterfeiter which relies on opaque, ultra-thin paper glued together to mimic a monolithic bill.
From the custom-blended eyeshadow used to make the color-shifting ink to using a red invisible ink marker to make the security thread properly fluoresce red under UV light, to using matte lacquer for creating a liquid resistant barrier to the iodine-based counterfeit detector marker ink and also re-create the texture of Crane's proprietary cotton/linen rag used in real dollars for centuries, Jeff Turner had a solution to these and other security features implemented by the Federal Reserve.
Just as Eldon Tyrell once said in Blade Runner: "The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long, and you have burned so very, very brightly Roy." Eventually Jeff Turner was arrested with all tools, files, and even a document with every serial number used since day 1. Jeff Turner's sentence was reduced from 3 years to 10 months after pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit an offense or to defraud the United States by counterfeiting obligations of the United States, by giving a full DIY to the Secret Service on the tools, techniques, and background info on how said tools & techniques were chanced upon.
As a side note, I would be remiss if I didn't mention Danny Jones and his team at Koncrete.com, where they peel back the thin facade of society's normality to reveal the varied machinations of criminality that lubricate the wheels that drive history forward. Below is a short list of captivating stories that you may like if you've made it this far below the fold:
- FBI's Most Wanted Con Artist | Matthew Cox
- Miami's Darklord of Credit Card Scams | John Boseak
- Venezuela's Most Wanted Fraudster | Juan Sanchez
- America's Most Wanted Cyber Fugitive Explains How He Stole Millions | Brett Johnson
- Florida's King of Radio Speaks Out On His Dark History | Bubba The Love Sponge
- Ex-CIA Spy Explains How the United States Turned Him Into a Dissident | John Kiriakou
