“They had a lot of confidence and thought they could do even better,” Mr. Wiley said of Mr. Kellogg and the five other people who have been charged with conspiracy to counterfeit currency.

If you handle money regularly, it is likely that you have passed at least one fake bill, according to the Secret Service, which was created in 1865 to stop rampant counterfeiting.

Advances in technology have allowed more people to make somewhat passable fakes, Mr. Wiley said. Those in the business range from high school students to gang members with prison records.

Nationally, the Secret Service seized nearly $81 million in fake money and arrested 2,424 people in the fiscal year that ended in October. Bills come in from other countries — Peru is a particularly big contributor — or from local criminals who shift to counterfeiting as an alternative to the drug trade.

Eventually, after it has been discovered by bank tellers, automated teller machine scanning equipment or astute citizens who have taken the time to learn how to identify fake bills, much of the counterfeit money makes its way to the Secret Service.

Georgia, with its busy airport and postal distribution center, is better known for stolen Social Security and tax refund checks than for counterfeiting, but the state ranks third in that crime category. In 2011, a federal task force was formed to attack the problem. One of its biggest victories came last month when a postal supervisor pleaded guilty to stealing United States Treasury checks worth more than $3 million.