A phony $20 bill that a woman tried to spend at the Coupeville Country Store last week may have come from a movie set, Coupeville Marshal Chris Garden said.

The bill looks realistic but states “????” on the front.

A clerk at the store realized it was a fake after marking it with a pen that detects counterfeit cash. The woman who tried to spend it was dumbfounded, Garden said, since she got it from her father, a Mount Vernon resident, and hadn’t noticed it wasn’t real.

Garden said no crime was committed. The fake $20 bill isn’t really a counterfeit bill since the words on it clearly state that it isn’t real. It may have been made in Hollywood for use in TV or movies, he opined.

The phony money almost certainly isn’t part of the $150,000 in counterfeit dough that Garden warned in October could be coming through Whidbey Island.

The warning was based on a rumor heard by a confidential informant for an off-island agency.

There’s no sign of the large infusion of fake money. Garden said it’s possible that the public warning may have persuaded the crooks not to bring the fake dough to the island.