Here's an odd story that really has me wondering, and I'll be right up front with what my suspicion is. My suspicion is that this "little" story might just possibly have something to do with this coronavirus outbreak. This story was shared by "B." and it has had me wondering for the past few days, and I finally decided to blog about it.

Here's the story:

CBP officers seize $900K worth of counterfeit U.S. currency

Here's the "gist" of it:

INTERNATIONAL FALLS, Minn. ― U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers at the International Falls Port of Entry seized $900,000 in counterfeit United States currency Friday that was discovered in a commercial rail shipment originating from China.

“CBP officers strive every day to protect the United States from a variety of threats,” said Jason Schmelz, Pembina Area Port Director. “Those threats don’t always come in the form of terrorists or narcotics, but also in the form of counterfeit currency and other goods that have the potential to harm the economy of the United States. Thanks to the dedication of our officers and our partnership with the Secret Service, we were able to keep this currency from entering into circulation.”

Due to the vigilance of CBP officers, a rail container was referred for a Customs Exam Station inspection on Dec. 14, 2019.During the examination, CBP discovered 45 cartons of possible counterfeit currency in the form of $1 bills with a total face value of $900,000. The United States Secret Service was contacted determined the currency is counterfeit. The counterfeit currency was seized and will be turned over to the Secret Service.

Needless to say, this has me thinking that perhaps this virus outbreak and this counterfeiting operation, which the article clearly implies is based in China. Would nations engage in the covert counterfeiting of a rival's currency? Sure. It's been going on all the time. Think of the vast coin-clipping operations in the Italian city-states, not to mention a "highly unusual coincidence" connected to Venice, the Fourth Crusade, and the Venetian counterfeiting of Byzantine coinage. Or think of the British counterfeiting the assignats of the French revolution, or for that matter, their counterfeiting of American colonial scrip. Or think of the Nazis' "Operation Bernhard," counterfeiting such good copies of British pound sterling notes that the entire issue had to be redesigned after the war and new types of currency issued.

However, there's something very odd about this counterfeiting venture. But to understand that "oddity" and why I think it might be something indicating a connection to the coronavirus story, we have to understand a basic feature of counterfeiting operations. Firstly, counterfeiters do not counterfeit things that do not exist. They do not, for example, counterfeit seven dollar bills for the simple reason that it would be a waste of time and effort. This basic fact has been at the core of my arguments that the various bearer bonds scandals - in which the denominated bonds are denounced as fakes and hoaxes because said denominations supposedly do not exist - are really indicative of the possible existence of a wholly hidden bond market. For those who know the story, think of Japanese Prime Minister Tanaka and the so-called "57 bonds."

Secondly, counterfeiters normally do not counterfeit bills in small denominations, but rather, in larger denominations that typically can be broken down into smaller (real) denominations. Typically, this has meant that counterfeiters focus on American bills of $20, $50, or $100 denominations. These are spent, or broken, for real currency, and thus the profit is made.

Thus, in this story, the counterfeiting of $1 bills is highly unusual, for it's an indicator that profit is not the primary motivation of whomever was ultimately behind the operation. But if currency were selected as the principal means of circulating as a biowarfare platform, it makes eminent sense, for $1 bills circulate widely and quickly, from the change in the grocery store line to tips given in restaurants, and so on.

There are to my mind four corroborating indicators that this high octane speculation may have some traction: (1) the timing of the find occurred in the time frame of the outbreak of the virus; (2) the seizure of the counterfeit bills notes the ultimate source was China, via Canada, and there has already been a Canadian side to the coronavirus story, (3) the rapid spread in the USA suggests perhaps that there may be vectors of delivery we're not being told about, and finally, (4) the seizure itself suggests that the US customs was already on the lookout for something. If I can suspect a potential connection of money as a delivery vector for a bioweapon, rest assured, so can the Chinese or American customs.

See you on the flip side...