The Art of Making Money: The Story of a Master Counterfeiter

Written by Jason Kersten

Narrated by Jim Bond

Art Williams was a precocious student with a bright future, but his dreams shattered when his father abandoned the family and his bipolar mother lost her wits. Living in one of Chicago’s worst housing projects, Williams was breaking open parking meters at age twelve and by his mid-teens he was robbing drug dealers. His quest for both a father figure and stable income would merge at the age of sixteen, when a criminal master nicknamed “Da Vinci” taught him the centuries-old art of counterfeiting.

Following a stint in prison, Williams returned to society to find that the Treasury Department had issued the most secure hundred-dollar bill ever created: the 1996 New Note. He spent months trying to circumvent its security features before arriving at a bill so perfect that even law enforcement had difficulty distinguishing it from the real thing. Williams went on to print millions in counterfeit, selling it to criminal organizations and using it to fund cross-country spending sprees. Spending his fake money as quickly as he could print it but still unsatisfied, he dropped everything to track down his long-lost father in the wilds of Alaska, setting in motion a chain of betrayals that would be his undoing.

The Art of Making Money is a stirring portrait of the rise and inevitable fall of a modern-day criminal mastermind.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Brilliance Audio
• Release date: Jun 11, 2009
• ISBN: 9781423399179

Jason Kersten

Jason Kersten is the author of the bestselling book The Art of Making Money as well as New York Times Notable Book, Journal of the Dead: A Story of Friendship and Murder in the New Mexico Desert. Between books, he often writes for national magazines such as Rolling Stone, Men’s Journal, and Reader’s Digest. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Reviews for The Art of Making Money

[reenum_4 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Art Williams' story is a thrilling one. The book takes the reader through Art's life in the Bridgeport projects of Chicago to Alaska, where his estranged father lives. The book glorifies Williams, ignoring many of the moral quandaries presented by his crimes. Still, it's a fun read, and the counterfeiting techniques Art used are detailed and fascinating.

[denton_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

As a fan of literary fiction, I don't often read books that might fall into the 'true crime' genre, first because they are often not well written, and second because... ok, I confess, they can be addicting!In this case the book is both well-written and addicting. It tells the story of a boy (Art) in Chicago, both academically gifted yet tough, who while growing up in gangland learns how to be a master counterfeiter. Along the way you will learn a lot: from US currency and printing technologies, the criminal code of ethics, and how to survive in the underworld . Psychological dramas are well explored: between Art and his deadbeat father; what it takes to be a passer of fake currency, and why ultimately even the smartest criminals make dumb mistakes that cause their downfall. An excellent book and a real page-turner.

[themockturtle · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This story explores the full spectrum of human emotion and experience. I bought it out of sheer curiosity as to how a man with limited means could create a convincing counterfeit of a bill designed to thwart the efforts of those with far more resources at their disposal; and, further, how such a man could ever be caught. This book succeeded in answering those questions, but it was so much more. It proved to be a stark depiction of the relationships that tie people together and the intricacies that create a criminal mastermind. So compelling was the author's ability to relate to his subject, that by the end, I found myself wanting Art Williams, Jr. to succeed in his endeavors, to overcome his own past and present, his own failings and those of others, just once more, one last time.

[sullijo · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A fascinating (and true!) tale of a young man from a broken home who finds joy in becoming a craftsman of a dying art: counterfeiting money. In perfectly replicating the new $100 bill he reunites with his estranged father, with terrible consequences for both.

[Matthew Gibb · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

fantastic story that had
me laughing out loud several times. Art Williams was a master forger and the descriptions of how they hit malls and gas stations and donated many things to charity in order to pass his excellent forgeries for legit cash was wonderful. His bills were two pieces of paper with his hand drawn picture of Franklin holographically reproduced via computer. He even got the corners of his bills to flash by using a specific kind of metallic paint from a muscle car stamped into the corners. Kinkos helped him create the stamp which read 1005, but he chopped off the five. Apparenly there was no law preventing someone from using the font that the Federal Reserve uses to make US currency.