Bank tellers are getting nervous over $100 U.S. bills

By the A.M. Costa Rica staff


Costa Rican banks are refusing to accept $100 U.S. notes for fear they are actually high-quality fakes.

Several U.S. citizens reported that Banco Nacional and Banco de Costa Rica have been vigorously checking $100 notes for weeks. But one resident said Tuesday he was unable to negotiate $1,200 in $100 bills at any bank in the city.

The suspect bills carry the serial number that includes the letters CB-B2 and the issue date of 2001.

A U.S. Embassy spokesperson said that officials there have not had any reports of bad bills. But the spokesperson also said that the U.S. Secret Service visited Costa Rica recently and gave training to bank officials and staff, Judicial Investigating Organization personnel, as well as embassy cashiers and other staff on how to identify counterfeit and authentic U.S. currency.

The fake bills appear to have come from Colombia
where counterfeiting is an art form. Problems have been reported with the fake $100 notes throughout South America for two months, beginning in Peru.

The bulk of the money with the suspicious CB-B2 is legitimate currency because those are real serial numbers from actual bills.

Two weeks ago a teller at Banco Nacional took a $100 bill, gave a customer a receipt for it and then vanished into the back offices for 20 minutes. He returned to declare the bill genuine and accepted it as part of a transaction.

But Tuesday a reader reported that banks had refused to accept the U.S. currency.

The $100 U.S. banknote is the largest denomination bill in general use. Most expats keep their money in dollars because of the continual devaluation of the Costa Rican colon. The $100 and the $50 bills are preferred ways of transporting the cash. The fake $100 bills are said to have subtle differences by which one can distinguish a bad bill from

wouldn't it be a lot easier to counterfeit CR colones instead of U.S. dollars?

Last trip in May had a little trouble with them. But they will take all others.