Superdollars are exceptionally high-quality counterfeit U.S. $100 bills that are designed to replicate virtually all genuine security features, making them nearly impossible to distinguish without specialized detection equipment.
Key Qualities of Superdollars
- Authentic Paper Feel: Superdollars are printed on a high-quality cotton/linen blend paper, similar to genuine currency, which often allows them to pass basic “feel” tests and even fool counterfeit detector pens (which only check for starch).
- Replicated Security Features: These counterfeits have been known to successfully replicate watermarks, security threads, and microprinting, which are standard features in genuine bills designed to prevent counterfeiting.
- High-Quality Printing: They are created using sophisticated printing methods, such as intaglio printing or high-resolution industrial printers with custom-mixed inks, allowing for sharp details that rival government mints.
- Targeted Flaws: Early versions had subtle, almost undetectable, printing mistakes (e.g., a specific line on the lamp post or the clock hands on Independence Hall) that were likely included to help the counterfeiters distinguish their own product from the original. Later versions corrected these errors, making them even more convincing.
- Ability to Bypass Basic Detection: Due to their advanced quality, they can bypass traditional detection methods like simple visual inspections or basic detector pens, often requiring automated detectors that check for magnetic properties, UV fluorescence, and precise measurements.
The U.S. government issued a new $100 bill design in 2013 with enhanced security features, like a 3D security ribbon and color-shifting bell in the inkwell, specifically to counter the threat posed by these supernotes.
What Counterfeit Bills Look Like (or Don’t)
Genuine U.S. currency is printed on a unique blend of cotton and linen with embedded red and blue fibers, which is not sold commercially. Counterfeit bills typically lack the following:
- Wrong Texture: Fake bills often feel too smooth, waxy, or like regular paper, missing the slightly rough, raised texture of real money (known as intaglio printing).
- Blurry Details: The fine lines in the borders, seals, and portrait on genuine bills are sharp and distinct. Counterfeit bills often have blurry borders, dull portraits, or uneven points on the Treasury seal.
- Missing or Printed Security Features: Counterfeiters may try to print or draw the embedded security fibers onto the paper, which appear to be on the surface rather than a part of the paper itself. They also lack genuine watermarks and security threads that are embedded in the paper.
Why People Get Fooled
Most people are easily fooled by counterfeit bills because they fail to check the built-in security features using the recommended “Feel, Look, Tilt” method:
- Lack of Inspection: In fast-paced transactions, cashiers or individuals often perform only a quick glance or single test (like a counterfeit detection pen, which isn’t always reliable).
- Focus on Similarities: Good counterfeits look similar to real ones at first glance. People look for similarities instead of focusing on the specific differences that indicate a fake.
- Unawareness of Features: Many individuals are simply unaware of all the security features, such as the color-shifting ink on denominations of $10 and higher, or the specific glow of the security threads under a UV light.
- Sophisticated Forgeries: Highly sophisticated counterfeits, sometimes called “Superdollars,” are created using advanced techniques that can even bypass some basic detection machines, making it difficult for the average person to spot them.
By familiarizing yourself with the security features on each denomination, you can better protect yourself from unknowingly accepting a counterfeit bill.
In 2025, superdollars are primarily traded through high-level underground networks that bridge physical and digital criminal environments. Unlike common counterfeits sold in street-level scams, the sophistication of supernotes requires specialized, often state-backed or organized crime-led distribution channels.
Where to Find Fake Dollar Bills
- State-Sanctioned Networks: High-quality supernotes have been historically linked to North Korean diplomats and front companies. These notes are intermingled with genuine currency in diplomatic pouches or distributed through embassies in hubs like Moscow to be exchanged for local currency or laundered into the global banking system.
- The Dark Web: While many darknet markets specialize in drugs, several in 2025 cater specifically to high-end financial fraud.
- STYX Market: A prominent 2025 hub for financial crime where stolen data and high-value counterfeit items are traded under strict vetting and escrow systems.
- Abacus Market: Until its mid-2025 exit scam, it was a major English-language marketplace for all manner of contraband, including counterfeit documents and currency.
- Regional Markets: Markets like WeTheNorth focus on specific regions (e.g., Canada), trading forged IDs and counterfeit currency tailored to local systems.
- Encrypted Messaging Apps (Telegram): In 2025, Telegram has evolved into a “dark web lite”. Criminals use encrypted channels and bot-enabled shops to trade high-quality fakes with lower barriers to entry than traditional Tor-based markets.
- International Transshipment Hubs: Global “notorious markets” and regions with high criminality scores, such as the Mekong region and parts of China, serve as physical distribution points for industrial-scale counterfeit operations.
- Bureaux de Change and Money Laundering Fronts: Criminal syndicates, such as the Official IRA, have been linked to schemes that launder millions in supernotes through international currency exchange offices to convert them into “clean” local currency.