Complaints Surface in Two Kentucky Towns About ‘Motion Picture Money’

I was watching some old show the other night, and in one of the scenes, someone opened a suitcase full of money. It was BRIGHT green and obviously fake. I wondered how many board games they had to buy to supply the prop department.

But that's how it was for the longest time--money you see on TV or in a movie usually looked fake. Today, that's not the case.

'MOTION PICTURE MONEY'

"Motion picture money" is very authentic-looking from the right distance. The trouble is this...once it's no longer on a movie set, it can cause problems. And it has in Glasgow, Kentucky where the local police department has been receiving complaints about it circulating in the area. This follows similar reports from the Scottsville Police Department just a couple of weeks prior. You can see how someone not paying close enough attention could pass something like this.

Seriously, how often do we just reach into our wallets or pockets and pull out "x" number of bills and hand it to the sales clerk without looking at them? Most people probably aren't expecting to be in possession of counterfeit money--at least, I hope not.

HOW 'MOTION PICTURE MONEY' CIRCULATES

What I was curious about was how prop movie money escapes into the general population so that it CAN circulate, but I guess that video explains it. It's perfectly legal to order prop money online. A 2019 report from CNN details an explosion scene from the 2001 film Rush Hour 2 and how some of the fake bills were not destroyed and ended up in circulation. That was the hard way.

And that likely explains how "motion picture money" made its way to Kentucky. By the way, these incidents in Barren County and Allen County are not isolated, nor are they recent.

'MOTION PICTURE MONEY' IS EASY TO SPOT

Absent any solid explanations as to how fake money of this type makes its way around the country, I'm going to guess it's because movies are FILMED in many locations around the country. I can't think of another way it could be happening.

But it IS happening. Clearly, the fake bills aren't hard to spot, if we'll just take a look at notes when we get them. Scottsville police say the texture is an immediate clue; it feels like regular paper. But that phrase "FOR MOTION PICTURE PURPOSES" is a pretty big red flag, too.

Obviously, if you see any, turn it in to the local police immediately.