Artful forger: artist who draws ‘real-life’ US banknotes for fun gets visit from China’s anti-fake police and more than a million online followers
- Talented Shi Yunlong draws lifelike, one-sided US and UK banknotes which look so much like real thing they piqued police interest
- The Guangdong province-based artist also crafted a ‘fake’ ticket for the soccer World Cup final in Qatar to become a major online hit in China
Handcrafted US banknotes drawn by a young Chinese man were so much like the real thing that he was questioned by police over suspected counterfeiting in an episode that has seen him attract more than a million followers on mainland social media.
Shi Yunlong, 30, has been posting videos on Douyin of himself drawing 1996 and 2013 US$100 bills at his home since September 2021.
The greenback artist from south China’s Guangdong province began with hand drawings and later experimented with security features such as intaglio printing and invisible ink watermarks.
For US$100 bills bearing the face of Benjamin Franklin, Shi made three copper plates in November to make his work look as genuine as possible.
He also drew inspiration from the 2018 Hong Kong crime thriller Project Gutenberg, directed by Felix Chong Man-keung, which starred Chow Yun-fat and Aaron Kwok and featured the step-by-step counterfeiting of US dollars.
Shi also crafts banknotes from other countries, such as the £50 note and the 100 trillion dollar Zimbabwe bill, to entertain his followers.