Hello Everyone

I live in Africa and I can't use US currency. I find the Mismade idea for the Bill Switch the best. Is there any possible way to constuct proper Mismade bills like the ones in the US? How the heck is it done without using tape or do I have to break into my Central Bank and steal the machine? lol

Thanks

Kyle

One word ---- scanner

In The United States you can buy sheets of uncut dollars from the Treasury. Then you can cut them at home.

Charles Spector

A scanner would work, but I would like it to feel like real currency, not just look it.

Pitty I don't live in the states, huh.

Kyle

...or you can buy the mismade bill (mail order from magic shops).

Yeah, sure. GOOD LUCK!!! This is not NEARLY as easy as it sounds.

dpe666, I'm interested to know why you think it's not easy. There's absolutely nothing to it as long as you have a ruler and a razor blade. I'm probably the most unhandy (is that a word?) person in the world (it takes me about an hour just to hang a group of pictures on a wall), and I found it incredibly easy to make these (I've made about a dozen). What do you find difficult about this?

Buy the mismade bill from a magic shop in USA. Ask them how much more it will cost you for a few USA $1.00 bills.

In you situation I wouldn't mind using USA money. We use coins from other countries with tricks, for example: Mexican peso, Chinese coin, English penny, etc.

Thanks for the input.

Someone offered to make me a few if I send them the bills, but I can't see how they plan on doing it.

I will go to the bank and find out if it is possible to buy uncut bills. If not, then it will have to be the 1 to 100 trick. Another problem is all the bills in my country have different colours and sizes.

A magician friend of mine uses the best idea so far. He gets a blank till slip and cuts it to the exact size of the bill he is switching. The he changes their money to blank (by washing the ink off) and vise versa, etc.. This also gets rid of the problem of having to answer to giving the 100 bill away.

Cheers

Kyle

Here is a link to the bureau of engraving and printing.
http://www.moneyfactory.com/store/section.cfm/69
They will sell you uncut sheets of $1,2,5,10 or 20's in various quantities.
A sheet of 32 $1 bills cost $50 and will yield 12 mismade bills for a cost of a little over $4 each.
Not that hard to do....
Paul

One word ---- illegal!

Even though the bill is obviously not put together properly or printed on the right paper, it is ILLEGAL to copy, scan or reproduce currency of any kind, unless you use certain measures as stated by the government. In the USA, paper currency can be copied, but must be resized. I believe the numbers are either 70% or less/ 130% or more, of the size of the bill to be copied.
Not to mention your printer could probably not pull off a passing job to fool a spect's eye. You would have to tweak the color to get it right, as it is naturally altered when strong light is applied.

In other words, invest in an uncut sheet.

Thanks for the tip on uncut sheets.
Making them is more fun than buying them anyway!!
It's worth the $4 per bill as a give away,
just for the look on the people's faces.

Depending on South Africa's currency rules, find your mint in your country. If they are on the web you can email them or write them.

Here in the states, our Mints make many collectables as well as our currency. They sell these. Your country may do the same thing.

I'm a little late on this topic, but a sheet of 32 bills will yield 21 mismade bills, not 12. (It's a 4 x 8 sheet so you get 3 x 7 mismade.) That puts the cost at a little over $1.50 each.

Craig

Here's a minor but important quibble. Paper currency is printed not minted. More technically in America paper currency is engraved and printed. So for bills you go to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. For coins you go to the U.S. Mint.

~ Dan

Any one wanna send me all the little edge pieces that they don't want? j/k If you can piece a whole dollar back together with tape, I believe its legal currency.

Anything 50% or more is legal currency.

Which techniquely means if you slice a bill down the center, it should be redeemable for 2 dollars, they should really change it to 51% imho.

That's true, which is why any mismade bill is really worth 3x the price of the bill.

Because out of a sheet of $20's($80 dollars) you get a $60 dollar mismade $20, and then you can piece back together the 4 corners to make 1 $20 bill which you can use as currency...

Sorry, I did the math wrong...the cost per bill is actually around $2.40, not $1.50. Also, while taping the leftover edge pieces together will in fact give you a whole dollar bill, the serial numbers won't match on the two halves and that probably makes them illegal to spend. (I wouldn't want to take my chances unless I knew for sure!)

Same problem piecing back together the four corners from a 2x2 sheet.

If I'm wrong, then with the $1 bill 4x8 sheet you'll end up with 21 mismade bills and 11 pieced-together $1 bills, bringing your cost for the mismade bills down to $39 or around $1.50 a bill.

Craig

K-B-G, The different bills here (Belgium) aren't the same colors neither. It isn't really a problem. It is true that, with dollar bills, the "magic moment" dissolve itself in time, i.e. you can't tell when the magic happened, but with different colors, you CAN tell when the magic moment happens: that's quite magic too! If your switch is well made, that doesn't bring to an explanation.

A bill cut exactly down the center isn't legal.
For ripped/ cut bills to be legal, they need to be more than half of a bill and obvious that its more than half just by looking at it.
If half a bill was legal then everybody would be abusing the principle and cutting bills in half to make a dollar more than they had.

TJ