Currency
Change Aimed at Adding Security
Sunday August 26, 12:44 pm ET
By Martin Crutsinger, AP Economics Writer
Ben Franklin in Line for a High-Tech Face Lift
on $100 Bill
WASHINGTON
(AP) -- After six decades in which the venerable greenback
never changed its look, the U.S. currency has undergone a
slew of makeovers. The most amazing is yet to come.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- After six
decades in which the venerable greenback never changed its
look, the U.S. currency has undergone a slew of makeovers.
The most amazing is yet to come.
A new security thread has
been approved for the $100 bill, The Associated Press has
learned, and the change will cause double-takes.
The new look is part of an
effort to thwart counterfeiters who are armed with ever-more
sophisticated computers, scanners and color copiers. The C-note,
with features the likeness of Benjamin Franklin, is the most
frequent target of counterfeiters operating outside the United
States.
The operation of the new security
thread looks like something straight out of the Hogwarts School
of Witchcraft and Wizardry. This magic, however, relies on
innovations produced from decades of development.
It combines micro-printing
with tiny lenses -- 650,000 for a single $100 bill. The lenses
magnify the micro-printing in a truly remarkable way.
Move the bill side to side
and the image appears to move up and down. Move the bill up
and down and the image appears to move from side to side.
"It is a really complex
optical structure on a microscopic scale. It makes for a very
compelling high security device," said Douglas Crane,
a vice president at Crane & Co. The Dalton, Mass-based
company has a $46 million contract to produce the new security
threads.
Larry Felix, director of the
Bureau of Engraving and Printing, confirmed details about
the security thread in an AP interview.
The redesign of the $100 is
about one-third of the way complete. The bill is expected
to go into circulation late next year.
Starting in 2003, splashes
of color have spruced up the $20 bill and other currencies.
Those changes followed the addition of a first round of security
features in the mid-1990s.
Benjamin Franklin's latest
makeover was delayed while the government searched for a high-tech
security device that would provide extra protection on the
bill.
The $100 bill represents more
than 70 percent of the $776 billion in currency in circulation,
two-thirds of which is held overseas.
Holograms, used extensively
on credit cards, were considered for the $100. They were rejected
because they did not offer the strong visual signal the government
wanted.
"We were looking for
features that had very distinctive types of actions so that
we could tell the American public, you will know that it is
authentic if you do this and the note does that," Felix
said.
The new security thread is
used on the Swedish 1,000 kroner note and has been selected
by the government of Mexico for some higher denomination notes.
Felix said many other devices
expected to be included in the $100 redesign will be similar
to features added over the past four years to the $20, $50
and $10 bills. That means subtle pastel colors on the currency
and patches of micro-printing that are difficult to duplicate,
along with a touchup on Ben Franklin's portrait.
Originally there were no plans
to redesign the $5 bill. That decision was reversed once counterfeiters
started bleaching $5 bills and printing fake $100 bills over
the bleached paper; certain security features were in the
same location on both bills.
The new $5 design will be
made public on Sept. 20 and will go into circulation early
next year.
The bleached bills represent
the latest skirmish in a battle with counterfeiters.
"Counterfeiting is becoming
highly organized and highly efficient," Felix said. He
said some clandestine printing plants in Latin America and
Eastern Europe have been caught counterfeiting not only the
U.S. currency but other countries' notes.
The government says $118.1
million in counterfeit U.S. currency was detected in 2006,
an increase of 3.8 percent from 2005.
While that is a fraction of
the currency in circulation, the Secret Service is concerned
with the threat, especially the challenge posed by new digital
technology. Digital copies account for about half of all counterfeit
notes passed in the U.S., compared with less than 1 percent
of all counterfeit bills detected in 1995.
"The quality of the counterfeit
currency has gone down, but the ease by which people can make
this currency and the access to the computer equipment has
had an impact on the rising numbers," Secret Service
spokesman Eric Zahren said.
To stay ahead of the counterfeiters,
the Bureau of Engraving and Printing plans to redesign U.S.
currency every seven years to 10 years. That is a far cry
from the practice for most of the 20th century -- from 1929
to the 1990s -- when the currency stayed the same without
any major changes.
"We had three generations
of engravers who spent their entire careers at the bureau
and never saw their designs hit the streets," Felix said.
"Now since 1996, we have all of these changes."
All the new security devices
have added to the complexity of making money. The government
churns out 38 million notes each business day with a face
value of $750 million at two facilities -- one in Washington,
D.C., and the newest one in Fort Worth, Texas.
By order of Congress, the
$1 bill, which accounts for 45 percent of the notes printed
each year, will not be redesigned. Lawmakers were concerned
about the cost to business if low-end vending machines that
only take coins and $1 bills had to be upgraded.
In addition to redesigning
the money, the bureau is putting in new printing presses with
more capabilities to handle the increasingly sophisticated
security features.
The new presses can vary the
size of the bills being printed. That is something the American
Council for the Blind is urging the government to consider
as a way of helping the visually impaired distinguish between
different denominations of currency.
Felix says no decision has
been made on such a change. The government is appealing a
federal court ruling that could force such a redesign.
In its continuing effort to
stay ahead of counterfeiters, the bureau is reviewing a wide
range of new ideas such as adding a sense of depth to the
designs.
"Currency is essentially
a confidence situation," Felix said. "You have to
always stay ahead in changes."