One of the most famous counterfeiters did not make fake bills in the expected manner, but rather used a sophisticated scheme to have an unauthorized run of genuine notes to be printed by the central bank! Alves Reis was born to a poor family in Portugal in 1898. He did not let his modest circumstances stop him and cooked up a scheme that became known as the Portuguese Banknote Crisis.

Reis orchestrated a fraud involving 1922 Bank of Portugal 500 Escudos notes. This high denomination, large format banknote is infamous today, as it was the byproduct of a forged work order by the smooth criminal. He cleverly crafted fraudulent paperwork and forged an order for the Bank of Portugal from printer Waterlow & Sons. 200,000 notes were delivered to Lisbon in 1925, one year after this design entered circulation. That was the equivalent of 100 million escudos face value, or nearly 1% of Portugal's GDP at the time--a huge coup for a criminal!

After receiving his ill-gotten delivery of paper money, Reis went on to use these notes to purchase gold-backed foreign currencies and make change for smaller, less suspicious denominations. He went on a spending spree that ended when he was eventually caught and the fraud was identified.

To read the complete article, see:
Rare Scam Note From the Portuguese Banknote Crisis Is a Collector's Item Today(https://www.greysheet.com/news/story/rare-scam-note-from-the-portuguese-banknote-crisis-is-a-collector-s-item-today)

To read the earlier E-Sylum article, see:
REIS SPURIOUS 1922 PORTUGAL 500 ESCUDOS NOTES(https://www.coinbooks.org/v22/esylum_v22n05a29.html)