Phony money: Fake bills had the wrong face

This is why teaching history in schools is so important. Police in Massachusetts say a counterfeiter got his historical figures mixed up and passed off fake bills with the wrong picture on them, according to The Sun Chronicle.

According to police accounts, the man used counterfeit $100 bills to buy stuff at a Target store in North Attleboro, Mass. The bills had a picture of President Abraham Lincoln on them.

But Lincoln's picture isn't on $100 bills. That spot's reserved for inventor and Founding Father Benjamin Franklin. Lincoln's visage graces the $5 bill.

But neither the alleged counterfeiter — nor apparently Target store clerks — knew the difference. For three consecutive days, the man used the counterfeit bills at the Target store to buy socks and other items for less than $25, police said. Then he left the store with the change.

It took a sharp-eyed local police officer to finally nab the suspect. A police officer across the border in Central Falls, R.I., recognized the man, a Rhode Island resident, from a surveillance photo distributed to law enforcement agencies in the area.

The man was jailed in Massachusetts after pleading innocent to multiple counterfeiting charges. He was ordered held on $10,000 surety bond or $1,000 cash bail — in real money, of course.