No humor in funny money for merchants. If money makes the world go around, then counterfeit cash can slow it down, way down!

Now you can instantly verify the authenticity of money you take in from your business transactions and significantly decrease any losses from counterfeit bills. The CASH-TESTER CT 2002, is a self controlled, electronic micro-processor scanner with the dimensions of a small mobile phone weighing only 105g (3,7 ounces), including two AA 1.5V batteries. This new "State-of-the-Art" device is the latest and best answer to counterfeit fraud. The CASH-TESTER CT 2002 was released into the European market in April 2002, and the U.S. and Canadian markets in July of 2002.

"Last year U.S. merchants lost $47.5 million by taking in phony money," said Marc Connolly, Secret Service special agent in Washington. You accept it, you lose. That's the hard truth of merchant life.
Salt Lake area-based ATEC offers a solution to the problem: a portable scanner nearly the size of a mobile phone and priced at less than $400 that sorts good money from bad electronically. The company sees a range of markets for the portable scanner, ranging from taxi cabs and banks to trade show vendors, retail merchants and casinos.
"The Cash Tester can scan two pre-selected currencies," said John Petty, ATEC's VP Sales. The tester can authenticate the US dollars, Canadian dollars, British pounds, the Euro and other currencies as they come available. Simply insert and scan a bank note bill into the reader. It gets an immediate green or red LED light indicating a good or bad bill. Operating off two AA batteries, it will run for 1,000 to 1,200 hours without recharging or replacing batteries, according to company literature. AC and DC adapters are also available for worldwide use.
"Outside the country another $1.5 million in U.S. currency was passed last year," said the Secret Service's Connolly. When the Federal Bank of Germany was evaluating the Cash Tester, it scanned 215 known pieces of counterfeit currency in with a batch of good currency. The machine rejected all 215 of them, something no other detector had ever been able to accomplish, the company said. "It even discovered two additional counterfeit notes that the bank didn't know it had," said John.
In operation, it checks everything in a bill from watermark and metallic filament strip to high resolution images with special inks. The heart of the electronic device is sealed, and if the seal is broken, it is destroyed, a safeguard against reverse engineering, according to company literature.
"Whenever a currency changeover occurs, counterfeiters have a field day," John said. "Next year, the U.S. currency gets changes. The former greenback will get a number of color hue variations along with new security marks. Counterfeiters love changes." And the Cash-Tester can be updated free, via Internet, as the updates become available.