The allure of counterfeiting is obvious. If you could do it without getting caught, you would be able to print your own money and buy whatever you want with it. Counterfeiting is the ultimate technology for people who want to get something for nothing.

In the not-too-distant past, counterfeiting was a difficult and expensive endeavor. It required large printing presses and the ability to cut intricate designs by hand into metal plates. Today it is much easier to create counterfeit bills. As thousands of teenagers discover every year, you can create fake money with a PC, a scanner and a color inkjet printer in about 10 minutes.

In this article, we will look at the technology of counterfeiting. You will learn about the techniques that you might use if you wanted to create your own counterfeit bills. We'll also discuss the punishment that you will receive when you get caught trying out these techniques. In the process, you will learn how to detect "funny money" yourself and also discover whether the U.S. money supply is vulnerable to collapse from a sea of counterfeit bills.

Let's say that you would like to start a life of crime by creating your own counterfeit currency. The easiest way to print your own money is to use your PC. If you own a scanner and a printer, it is pretty easy to get started.

The first thing you would do is put a $20 bill on your scanner. Then you would set the scanner for its highest resolution -- perhaps 1,200 or 2,400 DPI -- and scan an image of the bill. Your scanner will drop a 5 to 10 megabyte file on your hard drive that looks something like this:

Photo courtesy U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing The new $20 bill has added features to deter counterfeiting.  See more counterfeiting pictures.

The $20 bill pictured above is one of the latest, high-tech counterfeit-proof bills from the U.S. Treasury. It first entered circulation in late 2003. If you zoom in on different areas of the bill and look at them closely, you can see a number of features designed to deter "casual counterfeiting."

We'll look at the specific features on the face of the bill in the next section.

$1 Million Bill In 2004, a woman attempted to purchase goods at her local Wal-Mart using a $1 million bill. Of course the U.S. Treasury does not make a $1 million bill, so the funny money was quickly detected. Reportedly, Alice Pike tried to purchase more than $1,600 worth of goods using the counterfeit bill. Perhaps she was planning to visit Target and K-Mart next; Ms. Pike was found to be in possession of two other $1 million notes [MSNBC].