The denomination of the average bogus bill is also increasing, Mr. Gardner said.
He worked at the Electric Boat Company in Groton and had purchased the bogus bills from a co-worker in Rhode Island.
Prosecutors said that $35,000 to $40,000 worth of the bogus bills were being passed every week in the New York area.
A former bill collector himself, Mr. Katz rebelled after a debt buyer damaged his credit score with what he says was a bogus bill.
A Chase bank official said that the canisters designed to snare bogus bills for this purpose in the A.T.M.'s were full of them.
In addition, he said, the county is only a couple of train stops from New York City, where many of the bogus bills probably originate.
The euro, which goes into circulation in 12 European countries on Jan . 1 has been shielded from the public until now for fear that counterfeiters would make bogus bills.
Hospitals in Los Angeles and Orange Counties are accused of submitting bogus bills for hundreds, perhaps thousands, of homeless patients recruited from downtown's Skid Row.
For example, some bogus bills used a series of names -- Cedars Medical Imaging, General Medical X-Ray Inc., Mercy Medical Center Inc. and X-Ray X-Ray/Tech Medical Groups -- which all reported the same Miami address, which was a postal box.
But the conspirators are not concentrating on any specific companies; indeed, industry executives said, virtually every insurer that does business in states where the scheme has emerged, like Florida, has been deluged with the bogus bills.
Rodriguez could be the target for every fan's venom over today's strike date because he makes more money than any other player in baseball, but he has not had hundreds of bogus bills floating in his face.
