Forgers make illicit copies of documents, while counterfeiters produce illegal currency. These arts are as old as written documentation and coinage, respectively. Perpetrators may be punished harshly – death and mutilation were common sentences (see Enforcement and Coercion). Criminals and honest heroes alike might need to pass fake IDs or bogus cash during an adventure. Spies often use forged papers. Nations have been known to engage in large-scale counterfeiting in an effort to destabilize enemy economies; in WWII, both sides did this.
Making fakes may require unusual inks, paper, etc., as well as the tools below. No price is given for such materials. Obtaining them is often its own covert op!
Stolen property may bear identifying marks; for examples, see Brands and Tattoos (p. 124). These must be removed or altered to prevent the goods from being traced back to the original owner. Most are intentionally made difficult to delete, and have to be altered to resemble somebody else’s mark or disguised as something else. Roll a Quick Contest of Forgery vs. Vision or Search whenever such a deception is examined.
For most of history, a coin’s value corresponded to that of the metal from which it was made. One way to profit from counterfeiting such coins is to use a metal that looks like the original but is worth less. This involves two steps. First, the precious metal must be debased with the less-expensive one; e.g., mixing silver with tin or gold with copper.
Alternatively, coins can be made entirely from a base metal and plated with the precious one; e.g., gold-plated lead. Second, the design on the coin must be duplicated. All that’s required is an original sample, some artistic talent, and engraving tools to make the die. For more information, see Counterfeiting (p. B185).
An easier method is to take an original coin and cut or shave around the edges (called “clipping”) so that it weighs less than it should. The counterfeiter can simply pocket the shavings. Clipping a coin requires jeweler’s shears (see Smithing, p. 30) and 2 minutes per coin. This still requires the Counterfeiting skill, but now the roll is DX-based. Each 5% that the counterfeiter wishes to shave off gives -1 to skill. However, don’t actually roll against skill until someone examines the coin (see below).
There are several ways to detect fake coins. Pure gold coins are quite soft, and simply biting them will tell an experienced trader whether they’re made from gold or debased with a harder, cheaper metal; this requires an unmodified Merchant skill roll. Clipped coins can be noticed if examined closely; this involves winning a Quick Contest of Perbased Merchant, at -2, vs. Counterfeiting modified as explained above. Plated coins can be discovered by digging a blade into them; this calls for a Merchant roll at +1.
Another method is to compare the weight of the suspect coins with that of an equal number of authentic coins (or an equivalent scale weight; see Weight, p. 44); if the piles don’t weigh the same, they aren’t made of the same metal. The same test works for clipped coins. Appropriate scales and weights give +5 to Merchant skill rolls to spot fakes.
There are two steps to producing false documentation. First, the physical token – usually a signet or a seal (see Hard Solid Media, pp. 45-46) – must be duplicated. Second, the content must be believable. Falsifying the signet of a particular royal official is pointless if everybody knows that he died last year! Documents and seals can be duplicated from memory, but it’s easier if the forger has access to the originals. Basic equipment for Forgery at TL1-4 is paper (see Paper and Its Cousins, p. 25) and ink (see Writing Tools, p. 46). To create false seals and signets, roll against the lower of Forgery and the relevant craft skill (e.g., Jeweler, for a ring). For further details, see Forgery (p. B196).
At TL5 and earlier, a counterfeiter’s work is comparatively easy. Coins and paper money are handmade, or use hand-engraved printing plates; minor variations are common, even expected. It has been estimated that as much as two-thirds of the currency in England was counterfeit during the 1700s. This was largely the work of Irish and English silversmiths, who also did a brisk trade in copying and selling American bills – and the plates to print them – to criminal elements in the Thirteen Colonies. Boston papers often reported counterfeiting operations seized aboard ships in the harbor.
At TL6-8, high-volume printers and automatic coining machines let nations eliminate unintended variations; people are therefore more likely to spot imperfect fakes. At TL8, a surprising volume of counterfeit money is printed on desktop computer printers (p. 21). The technology to track counterfeiting is equally advanced: many printer manufacturers use tiny dots, invisible to the naked eye, to mark each printed page with a serial number that can be tracked to the printer. Roll against Counterfeiting to avoid buying a model that does this!
Basic counterfeiting tools that allow the production of a few bills or coins per hour are $1,200, 20 lbs. LC4.
At TL8, counterfeiting includes reproducing and modifying credit cards. This requires a computer running a credit card-number generator program (Complexity 1, but LC3 or less, and not for sale), plus some special equipment:
Card Printer (TL8). Required to create cards. $5,000, 30 lbs., external power. LC4.
Magnetic Strip Decoder/Encoder (TL8). Needed to modify or create cards. $600, 4 lbs., external power. LC4.
Frank W. Abagnale went to prison in 1969 at 21 years of age, having “kited” over $2.5 million of forged Pan Am checks. He had traveled the world as an airline pilot, posed as a doctor, and acted as the assistant to an attorney general. His tools included boyish good looks, a photographic memory, and the ability to pass forgeries with ease. His most complicated piece of equipment was the decal from a model airplane kit. Checks are easier to fake than ID, however.
There are two steps to establishing false identity: duplicating the card, badge, or document, and ensuring that official records show the fake as valid. No matter how realistic the ID looks, it’s worthless if a two-second computer check shows that the owner doesn’t exist or died 20 years ago!
At TL5, forgery is mainly about replicating handwriting. All that’s needed is stationery. See Office Technology (pp. 18-19).
At TL6, forgers must keep pace with photo-ID cards and high-tech bureaucracy, and need cameras, rubberstamps, and embossers. Basic forgery tools are $1,200, 20 lbs. LC4.
At TL7-8, forgers need a computer with a printer (see Computers, pp. 19-22) as well as basic tools. Counter-forgery technology grows even more sophisticated. To fake things like hologram-stamped ID cards, it might be easier to break into the issuer’s office and use – or steal – their equipment.
Most ultra-tech forgery involves the gaining of passwords, personal information, or biometric data through computer hacking, the breaking of encryption, corruption, theft, coercion, or simple carelessness. However, some special tools are also available.
This is a dedicated terahertz scanner and specialized 3-D printer that is used to copy and manufacture the special dyes, fibers, films, foils, inks, papers, and plastics used in TL8+ identity documents or currency. Higher-TL document fabricators incorporate better scanners and molecular nanotech. With a sample to analyze, they can forge documents from any prior TL.
Desktop Doc-Fab (TL9): Table-sized. Provides a +2 (quality) bonus for Forgery and Counterfeiting skills at its own TL, increasing to +TL/2 for any lower-TL documents. Most documents take an hour per attempt to scan plus a minute per copy to print. $20,000, 50 lbs., 4D/10 hr. LC2.
Suitcase Doc-Fab (TL10): Suitcase-sized. Provides a +1 (quality) bonus for Forgery and Counterfeiting skills at its own TL, increasing to +TL/2 for any lower-TL documents. Somewhat slower than the desktop version: most documents take about two hours per attempt to scan, plus five minutes per copy to print. $4,000, 10 lbs., 4C/10 hr. LC2.
This wallet contains a miniature dedicated nanofac (pp. 91-93). Using pre-fab “blanks” of smart material, it can change their molecular composition to become identity cards with an integral Counterfeiting and Forgery-15 skill; this takes only a minute. It’s often used when visiting lowerTL cultures lacking molecular nanotech. It has a -5 (quality) modifier to Forgery or Counterfeiting at its own TL, but counts as basic equipment for lower-TL documents. $500, 0.2 lb., 2B/15 min. LC1. A pack of 100 blanks of various sizes (for passports, paper money, ID cards, etc.) is $100, 0.1 lb. LC2.
This device can instantly morph to create a realistic falsified document at Forgery-15, suitable only for fooling a visual search. It will not defeat examination at its own TL or higher, but is quite realistic for lower TLs. $100, 0.1 lb. LC2.