Forgers make illicit copies of documents, while counterfeiters produce illegal currency. 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!

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.