Q&A for How to Check if a 100 Dollar Bill Is Real

Someone might pay you with counterfeit money, and when you use that money to buy something, you could get into trouble.

They are checking to see if the bill shows black or yellow. Black means it is a fake bill; yellow proves it to be real.

You don't get reimbursed, which is why detection of counterfeit bills is so important. Suspect bills are given to the Secret Service; they keep them if they're counterfeit and return those that are real. If the person who passed the counterfeit bill is apprehended, you could file against the perpetrator in small claims court to attempt to reclaim the money.

That is very unlikely. The Secret Service can tell if a dollar is just damaged or if it is actually fake. If someone does still get arrested though, they can still challenge the arrest in court.

Some collectors like to have every series of certain denominations, and pre 2009 100s are no longer produced, but they are still somewhat common. While they may not be very collectable now, I would expect it to increase as time goes by.

This article mostly serves as a guide for merchants to verify a $100 bill during a sale. If a merchant finds a fake bill, then they obviously would not accept it for payment. The incentive would be that they would not lose out on $100. For individuals who are checking their own bills, the incentive is not going to jail, since using a counterfeit bill could land you there.

You can check the method for pre 2009 series bills to verify older $100 bills.

Those bills are counterfeit. Those bills were made by Chinese banks to train their bank tellers. They should have never entered circulation, but some have. You should contact the Secret Service to report these bills to them.

You can get it replaced. The wikiHow article, How to Get Damaged Currency Replaced has detailed instructions that should be able to help you.

If you scroll down to the bottom, underneath the languages, but above the thank you message, there should be some menu options. One of the options is "Print". When you click the button, a dialog box will open asking you whether or not you want to include pictures. Click the option to include pictures, and then print from there. If you're having trouble finding the link, check out the images on How to Print a wikiHow Article, which highlight the print button.

No, the serial numbers should be different for every bill. If you see a bill with the same serial number as another one, then one or both of them are fake.

Possibly, but only an attorney can give you reliable legal advice. Cashiers are expected to know that if it appears yellow, it's likely real, and that if it's black or dark blue, it's fake.

No, because it is prop money, if a fake bill says "Motion Picture Use Purposes" or "Not legal tender", it would likely be prop money. Prop money is used in movies, counterfeit money is fake money used by criminals. Instead, keep it and file it away in a scrapbook of memories.