One of the most important aspects to any modern currency is its security features.
Elements of the design that prevent people from being able to easily copy it.
No matter where you are in the world right now, if you take out a bank note and look
at it, you'll probably see some of these features - many of them are evident in how the note
reacts to light, like holographic emblems or designs that can only be seen when the
note is held up to the light.
These are intended to be difficult or downright impossible for the average person to replicate
- so that counterfeiting doesn't render the currency worthless.
But what if you weren't an average person, what if you were willing to dedicate years
to perfect a counterfeit bank note in meticulous detail?
This is Arthur J Williams Jr., and this is how he broke the security features of the
100 dollar bill.
Arthur J Williams Jr. was born in 1972 and grew up in the projects in Chicago, USA.
His father had done time in prison for auto theft and abandoned the family while Williams
and his siblings were young.
Williams himself got into crime at a young age, robbing parking meters and hotwiring
cars.
He got involved in a gang lifestyle and even survived being shot.
By age 17, he had a child - Arthur Williams III.
Huh.
"I'll name you after the man I was named after - my deadbeat father who ran out on us".
In his teen years Williams struck up a friendship with a man that frequented a diner his mother
worked at.
Williams nicknamed him "da Vinci" - not because he was a polymath who was well versed in painting,
engineering, sculpting, botany, astronomy and architecture - but because he was a counterfeiter
- which is one of the few things Leonardo didn't do, as far as I'm aware.
Da Vinci showed his operation to Williams, who quickly picked up on the techniques da
Vinci employed.
A few years later, Williams was printing his own counterfeit money, which he made a little
money on, selling to criminal contacts.
In 1994 he was imprisoned for second-degree burglary.
He was released in 1996, the same year the US Treasury Department issued a new iteration
of their banknotes - featuring new designs and security features.
When Williams got a hold of these new banknotes, he was astonished - this was way above anything
da Vinci was capable of.
These new notes were counterfeit-proof.
And that's actually what they were designed for.
Counterfeiting had become rampant in the preceeding years with the rise of computer printing and
image scanning technology, and these new notes had a few features that were designed to put
a stop to the antics of people like da Vinci.
Take for example the $100 dollar bill, a favourite for counterfeiters:
There was a watermark of Benjamin Franklin, that only appeared when held up to the light,
due to variations in the thickness and density of the paper.
The 100 in the lower right corner shifted from green to black in appearance when viewed
from different angles, thanks to optically variable ink, aka "colour shifting ink".
There was also the security strip, once again only visible when held up to the light - this
is essentially a ribon of foil or plastic that's interwoven into the note.
The new notes were supposed to be impossible to counterfeit, but to Williams, that just
sounded like a challenge.
He became determined to produce his own $100 dollar bill.
The first issue would be finding the right paper to print the money.
If you've ever seen a cashier mark a note with a pen, they're testing to see if it's
counterfeit - probably because you don't look trustworthy, you scumbag.
If the pen leaves a yellow mark, that's a real bill, because the pen will leave a brown
mark on anything else.
Williams and his wife bought some of these pens and began ordering different types of
paper from all over the world, then testing them with the pens, each time leaving a brown
mark.
They spent an incredible amount of time ordering and testing paper, and the two became frustrated
as none of these efforts bore fruit.
Eventually, during the course of an argument, William's wife brandished the telephone book
at him, before slamming it down on the table.
Almost as an afterthought, she then marked a page with a pen.
It was yellow.
All that time, the answer was right in front of them.
She called up the printing company pretending to be a teacher looking for school supplies,
and just like that, they had their paper.
Examining the paper, Williams noticed that two sheets together was the same thickness
as the hundred dollar bill.
This meant he could effectively put designs between the sheets before pressing them together
- meaning he could now defeat the watermark and security strip.
The colour shifting ink was a much harder problem though, and it had Williams stumped.
That was until he was out walking and came across a car with an irridescent paintjob
- the kind where the car appears to have two colours at once, and they shift as you view
it at different angles.
He called up the manufacturer to find out more about who made the paint, and when he
got in touch with them he found it they were the same people who supplied the colour-shifting
ink to the Treasury Department.
Bingo.
With all of this, Arthur J Williams Jr became the world's greatest counterfeiter.
He was extremely meticulous in making sure all the details were perfect - he even had
a system in place to ensure he never printed the same serial number twice.
He would burn vast amounts of his bills that weren't up to his standard and spent a long
time making sure his $100 bills were perfect.
Then he and his wife travelled from store to store - entering with a counterfeit hundred
dollar bill, buying the cheapest thing they could find, and getting their change in real
banknotes.
Williams continued printing his hundred dollar bill for the next fifteen years - over which
time he estimated he counterfeited millions of dollars.
In 2001 he was arrested for counterfeiting after being caught with 60,000 dollars worth
of fake cash.
But the charges were dropped because the search and seizure had been performed illegally,
because there's a reason cops are cops and not lawyers.
Despite this narrow escape, Williams continued counterfeiting - after all, why would you
let a thing like good fortune cloud your judgement, or uncloud it, I suppose.
He was arrested again in 2002, after he had moved to Alaska to reconnect with his dad.
Arthur Williams Senior joined his son in his counterfeiting, but was foiled when his two
idiot friends were caught with the money and brought the whole operation down with them.
I'm telling you Arthur, that father of yours is no good.
He died of a heart attack in jail the same day Junior was released in 2004.
Williams was arrested again in 2006 - this time for using his counterfeiting to help
finance his son's career as an aspiring rapper, of course.
Assumedly before he was imprisoned, he taught his son everything he knew, because in 2009
his son was arrested for the same thing.
They served their time in the same prison, and were even cellmates for a while.
Now, Arthur J Williams Jr. doesn't really seem like the sort of fella to learn from
his mistakes, based on what we've heard so far, but being in the same prison as your
son, who's in there because he learned from you, is enough to make even the dumbest, knuckle-draggin'est
mouthbreather reflect and realise; this situation is not good, something has to change.
Williams began reading and learning about famous artists like Michelangelo, Dali, Warhol,
and da Vinci.
Maybe he even learned enough about the fella to realise nicknaming a two-bit counterfeiter
after him was a gross affront to the man's talents.
He took up art and began to apply the same obsessiveness to that as he had to counterfeiting.
When he was released in 2013, he continued his passion for art.
He had become quite a talented artist, and that; combined with his story of how he got
to this point, was enough to generate a lot of interest in his work, which often depicts
themes of money and sometimes even incorporates the design of the hundred dollar bill.
He now makes a living as a successful artist and has owned three separate art galleries.
He says he wants to use his success as an example to others, showin them through his
artwork that people can change.
Overall, quite a wholesome story of a man who used his dedication and talents to great
success and showed that if you can be a competent criminal, you can probably be a competent
something else.
If you liked this story I have another about a man who pulled off an amazingly well thought
out bank heist and similarly put his talents to turning his life around.
And if you didn't like this story I have many others where someone does something crazy
and doesn't turn their life around, if that's more your speed.
What I'm saying is I have a lot of videos and I'm sure you'll like at least one - so
better watch them all until you find it.
If you can't, subscribe and you'll see a new video every week - I'll get you eventually
you little slippery devil you.
Until next time, stay safe.