I just took a look at Operation Bullpen; interesting stuff! I see your point and it's interesting how they fooled some serious collectors, etc. I also would fail to spot a counterfeit a $1 bill for the same reasons, but there probably aren't even that many out there. Bills have to be redesigned constantly to stay a step ahead of the forgers, and every bill has been redesigned since the 60's- except the $1 bill. Therefore, the government sees that forgers aren't faking the $1 bill and haven't exhausted any resources to stay ahead of the counterfeiters, because there aren't many. You might very-well see low-end fakes at swap meets, etc, but not on ebay and here's why. The listing fees are too high to sell $3 fakes for little profit. Paypal takes a cut and listing fees are per auction, and the card might take 5 times to sell if there's no demand. It's not worth those listing fees and paypal cuts to sell a low-end fake on ebay. However, I wouldn't trust a $1 auto at a swap meet or some other forum where it costs nothing more to have more cards for sale and there is nothing lost if the card doesn't sell. At swap meets, I would say that any auto is fair-game to be forged, but much less so on ebay.
