America's Worst Counterfeiter Creates Fake $100 Bills With Picture of Abe Lincoln

by Jon Azpiri | September 23, 2008 at 09:52 am

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P. Diddy once said that "It's All About the Benjamins", but for one Memphis man it's all about the Lincolns. James Rhyne tried to pay for a meal using a counterfeit $100 bill featuring a portrait of Abraham Lincoln instead of Benjamin Franklin, who actually appears on the $100 bill.

Memphis police officers were called to the restaurant at 4314 American Way at 2:30 a.m. Saturday, where a security guard was holding a man who’d given the funny money to waitress Chantilly Smith to pay for his food.

Officers checked the bill, which a police affidavit states “clearly shows the face of Abraham Lincoln,” instead of Benjamin Franklin, on the right side when held up to light.

James Rhyne, 32, is charged with forgery and is being held on $25,000 bond.

In related news, Honest Abe will be appearing on real US money in the near future.

For the first time in 50 years, the penny is getting redesigned, with four versions coming next year to commemorate the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth, the U.S. Mint announced Monday.

While the coin will continue to depict Lincoln's likeness on the front, the reverse side will bear one of four new designs, the Mint said.

The designs show milestones in the life of the 16th president: the Kentucky log cabin of his birth, his youth working as an Indiana rail splitter, his service at the State Capitol in Illinois, and his effort to preserve the union during the Civil War as depicted by a half-finished image of the U.S. Capitol dome.