For at least a year, Kingston National Bank has required its tellers to run all money through a counterfeit bill detector that can both count currency and detect counterfeit bills. The process is done upon receipt so they can determine who brought in the money.

Bank officials then turn over the information and money to law enforcement.

Once a bill is reported, Chillicothe Police Capt. Larry Bamfield said they will try to talk with the person who tried to pass the bill. However, the counterfeit often isn’t found right away, which makes it more difficult to find the person who passed it.

Local businesses have been doing a better job of checking their money because the majority of recent reports have been of bills detected upon receipt.

“The majority of businesses anymore check them all (with a counterfeit detector pen),” Bamfield said.

Local police handle the investigations, but the money eventually is sent to the Secret Service field office in Columbus to possibly help in larger investigations. In fiscal year 2010, the Secret Service reported making 3,028 domestic and foreign arrests for counterfeiting offenses and helping remove more than $261 million in counterfeit money from circulation across the country.

The Secret Service was created in 1865 to combat widespread counterfeiting that was threatening the financial infrastructure of the country at the end of the Civil War.

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