Only a few years ago, one Judge J.F Palmer imposed a sentence of 42 months prison time on Mathieu Flynn. 24, of Vancouver. Mathieu Flynn was no small time crook, he was a millionaire, some might call him an entrepreneur of sorts. In drawers around his Coquitlam home the RCMP had found his secret stash, piles and piles of $100, $50 and $20 bills. In fact Mr Flynn had been busy over the previous three years counterfeiting over $2 million dollars in Canadian currency.
Counterfeiting was dubbed by Michael Young in the Dallas morning News in 2009 as, "the worlds second oldest profession." In the 1200s China introduced paper money, mulberry trees used to make paper money had to be guarded to prevent counterfeiters. Back then, the penalty for counterfeiting was death by beheading.
In the 21st Century we are more used to reading a life threatening warning on a packet of cigarettes, in 7th century China however paper money carried a similar warning "To counterfeit is death" Ming notes read. Fake money has been a problem since coins and paper currency came into use at the time of the American Civil War for example it was estimated one third of currency in circulation was counterfeit.