Counterfeiting

In Mexico’s Aztec empire, criminals even faked the cacao (chocolate) beans that were used as currency. They simply emptied a bean’s husk (shell) and packed it with mud. Counterfeiters (people who create fake currency) are a constant headache, because unchecked counterfeiting can undermine faith in money. People are never certain whether what they have is real or fake. To stop counterfeiting, governments use expensive machines, paper, ink, and metals. The need to create hard-to-copy details on currency has turned money into small works of art.