Real or Fake $20

The top bill is the one in question. From what I can tell all the security features are there. The bill is shorter than other twenties. I used the bottom bill as a comparison.

 

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That’s very odd. The whole bill is shrunk down. They’re both 2017As. Can’t figure it.

 

I think I would run down to the convenience store and ask them to mark that small bill with their counterfeit marker.

 

I think I would spend it before anyone asked questions.

 

The text looks to be the same size. Somebody probably just cut it with a paper cutter or something.

 

No, all of the printed elements on the bill are smaller; it’s not just the size of the note. I have heard that it’s possible to shrink U.S. paper money, but I am far from an expert.

 

I've seen some stories about shrinking coins, but not paper currency. Maybe someone knows...

 

That must have been one of mine that accidentally got sent through the washer & dryer. I swear, my wife can shrink steel if she puts it into the dryer. My shirts keep getting tighter and tighter! Lol

 

...and that's your wife's fault...hmmmm

 

Paper money is made of cloth which will shrink. I don’t think you can reduce the size of coins with changing the metallic molecules. I think cloth is much easier.

 

If that bill (which is spent now) is smaller, does that mean that all the other bills following or prior to that twenty will be the same?

 

Shrinkflation in real life application?

 

I’ve heard about shrinking a bill as it’s a special paper/cloth. Don’t use a counterfeit pen as they leaves a permanent mark which is considered damage. So is shrinking a bill. It wasn’t run through a washing machine as the colors would be faded and the note would have creases.

 

That's what I'm trying to figure out, how it could have happened at the BEP. I'd have kept it. At the least, it's a novelty. Or I'd have at least researched it to death first.

 

Someone in the past posted an article about how some high voltage apparatus can actually make coins smaller...anyone else remember?

 

I don’t believe anyone here is saying it happened at the BEP. I certainly don’t.

 

There is a process of shrinking a bill with ammonia. More information about this in this video:

 

It didn’t happen at the BEP but after it left them.

 

Search "how to shrink a coin", lots of videos showing how it works. Example:

 

Judging from that picture, it apparently also turns a 1996 Washington quarter into a 1999 or later Statehood quarter.