The money, which was not washed or bleached, was printed from a high-end printer on regular paper.
Officers say the currency number was the same for every bill, and on the back of the bill there was foreign writing in the location where one of the security features would exist.
Translated, the "foreign writing" read: Made in China.
Just kidding on that last part. I think.
(Thanks, Charles Pescovitz!) Read the rest
My pal Shalaco sent me this video he made with the following message:
Read the restAs a photographer I lost 100% of my income due to the Covid-19 crisis. I applied to every form of financial support out there and recently had a lot of success. I want to share what I've learned with the community with these tips for applying for financial resources for photographers, creatives, or really anyone.
The amount of epic resource lists out there can be overwhelming, this video focuses on walking people through the process.
• U.S. jobless claims totaled 2.98 million last week, unemployment is close to 16% Read the rest
New jobs report from U.S. released on Friday:
JOBS LOST IN APRIL: 20.5 million
UNEMPLOYMENT RATE: 14.7%
This is the worst U.S. jobs report since the World War II era. Read the rest
Five years ago, a farmer in Anhui Province, China buried the equivalent of $280,000 on his property. Unfortunately when he recently dug up the cash, the bills were completely falling part. Apparently, employees at the Agricultural Bank of China did the best they could separate the mess of deteriorated paper bundles but he still lost about 25 percent of his savings. From UPI:
According to the People's Bank of China's regulations, bills that retain 75 percent of their original features can be exchanged at full value, but bills disfigured such that only 50 to 75 percent of the note is recognizable, can only be exchanged for half the amount.
FYI, here are United States Treasury Department's similar rules:
Lawful holders of mutilated currency may receive a redemption at full value when:
• Clearly more than 50 percent of a note identifiable as United States currency is present, along with sufficient remnants of any relevant security feature and clearly more than one-half of the original note remains; or,
• Fifty percent or less of a note identifiable as United States currency is present and the method of mutilation and supporting evidence demonstrate to the satisfaction of the Treasury that the missing portions have been totally destroyed.
image: Wikipedia Read the rest
Already among the richest people in the world, Jeff Bezos and the Walton family are even richer thanks to the lockdown. The BBC reports that Amazon founder Bezos's money mountain surged $24bn to $138bn in the last few weeks. And between them, the Walton family, owners of Wal-Mart, now share a growing $168m fortune.
But other billionaires are out of luck, according to Bloomberg, with the pandemic wiping half a trillion dollars of the top 500's collective wealth.
Read the restWith millions now working from home, online meeting site Zoom has seen founder Eric Yuan's fortune more than double to $7.4bn.
The Bloomberg Billionaires Index said the world's 500 richest people lost $553bn so far this year.
Investors in the global oil and gas industries have seen sharp drops in net worth as crude prices plunged on reduced global demand and a row - now resolved - about oil production between Saudi Arabia and Russia.
Today, the Dow Jones Industrial Average experienced its largest gain in a single day since 1933. Read the rest
“What does this guy worth $60 billion own, who wants to be president?” Read the rest
At Minnesota's International Falls Port of Entry, US Customs and Border Protection seized $900,000 in $1 bills in a shipping container from China making its way on a train from Canada into the United States. The bills were packed inside 45 cardboard boxes. From US Customs and Border Protection:
Due to the vigilance of CBP officers, a rail container was referred for a Customs Exam Station inspection on Dec. 14, 2019.
During the examination, CBP discovered 45 cartons of possible counterfeit currency in the form of $1 bills with a total face value of $900,000. The United States Secret Service was contacted (and) determined the currency is counterfeit.
The counterfeit currency was seized and will be turned over to the Secret Service.
(via CNN)
In November, we posted that mysterious rolls of cash were showing up on sidewalks in the small English village of Blackhall Colliery, on the North Sea coast of County Durham. In the last 5 years, around US$30,000 had been found in twelve rolls. Now, the mystery has been solved. Two anonymous individuals have been placing the bundles on the sidewalk as random acts of kindness. From CNN:
Read the restThe generous pair voluntarily came forward to the police after residents were left puzzled by the regular appearance of cash bundles, which have been found 12 times in Blackhall Colliery since 2014.
The couple, who have asked to remain anonymous, received unexpected windfalls and wanted to leave the money to help people, Durham Constabulary said in a statement.
They chose Blackhall Colliery as they had an "emotional connection" to the village after being helped by a resident, police added.
The pair would often stay to make sure the cash had been picked up, police said.
It is not clear whether the pair will continue to leave cash, but police said that any money handed in will be returned to the finder.
Yes, it has come to this. Democratic Presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg and acting U.S. president and warmongering dumbass Donald Trump are both buying duelling $10 million dollar campaign ads to run against each other during the Super Bowl. Read the rest
Last March, game devs Alex Schwartz and Ziba Scott gave a presentation at the Game Developers Conference called "1,500 Slot Machines Walk into a Bar: Adventures in Quantity Over Quality in which they described how their own dissatisfaction with falling revenues from mobile app stores led them to muse about bulk-creating crappy apps and seeing if they could get paid. Read the rest
PayPal on Thursday says it has halted payment support for models with PornHub, the online adult site, after Paypal says it found that Pornhub made certain payments without PayPal's permission. Read the rest
Technically, it's illegal for Chinese merchants to refuse payment in cash, but this rule is hardly ever enforced, and China has been sprinting to a cashless society that requires mobile devices -- not credit-cards -- to effect payments, even to street hawkers. Read the rest
