The tremendous irony is that economics have overwhelmed the very idea of counterfeiting.
To start with, all US paper money is printed in just two high security Bureau of Engraving and Printing offices, one in Washington, D.C., and the other in Fort Worth, TX.
Working around the clock, printing mostly $1 bills, and proportionately fewer $5,$10,$20,$50 and $100 bills, they can barely produce enough paper currency to back just less than 5% of daily US retail. (And most $100 bills are sent to other countries who must have physical US paper money.)
So if someone else is willing to print higher quality counterfeit paper money for us, it really isn’t a problem, because we *need* more paper money in circulation.
Some years ago, Iran tried counterfeiting US dollars, and did us a huge favor in the process.
First of all, the Middle East was desperately short of US paper money. It helped to ease that shortage, and in doing so, it made local currencies less desirable. Everybody wanted dollars, and followed Gresham’s law (economics) by spending their local money and saving dollars.
It was also very expensive for the US to ship planeloads of dollars to the Middle East. And the real zinger was that all told, the Iranians probably made about $300 million by doing so, when over the same time period they made $6 billion on just oil sales.
Some wits suggested that the USBEP should just rename the Iranian counterfeiters as the “Iranian USBEP office.”
I wouldn't put it past The PRESidENT to have a personal payoff buried somewhere in the bowels of his recent NUC deal with the Mullahs.