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New US $20 bills Released, Colors & Layout Change
JayBonci writes "CNN is running a story with the newest advances in the original copy-protection arms race, a new US $20 dollar bill. From the article, specifically color and different number arrangements as an improvement over 1996's "Big Face" dollar bills." Little off the norm for Slashdot, but it's interesting since computers have vastly simplified forgery.
You can find some better pics here.
Don't forget that in Britain (and many other countries) bills of different values have differnt physical sizes.
Your favorite sig sucks
Some of the Rumanian lei-bills (at least the 10000 bill) are quite difficult to counterfeit (with a standard pc). They have a hole covered with transparent plastic (which also has some kind of watermarking). I don't see why anyone would counterfeit lei though, since the 10000 bill was worth 50 cents or less when I visited Bucharest.
I've talked about this problem with several blind people and most of them have a system (usually involving) folding the money in different ways so they know which bills they're dealing with. Several of these methods are described in the Int'l Organization for the Blind web page.
Unfortunately, I can't see the Treasury Department putting some sort of Braille marker or other deliniating factor into future money production.
Definately not likely.
The other benefit of different sized bills is for the blind. You can tell denominations by feel.
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon
Blockquoth the poster:
Look at the "20" in the bottom-right corner on the current $20 bill.
Look closely...
The problem with braille, or raised markings, or cut corners, etc, is that they make it really easy to rip the blind off.
Cut the corner off an old one and give it to the blind guy, asking him for change for a "hundred". Or use a toothpick to poke out "100" in braille.
The markings and raised letterings wear off and become confusing as well, and it causes quite a problem for blind folks back in Canada, as I have a couple blind friends back there.
I dont think the solution is in the currency itself, perhaps some piece of handheld tech, like a miniaturized version of the scanners that vending machines use, maybe built into a wallet that says "20" as you stick the bills in.
A little Googling turned up this article in December's Business 2.0 about counterfeiting and terrorism... interesting for the background into several counterfeiting technologies.
"For every right, an equal responsibility..."
What's wrong with different styles of banknotes? In the UK there are perhaps five or six different styles of each denomination of note, issued by different banks. They are all roughly the same colour as each other though.
Specifically, banknotes in England and Wales are issued by the Bank of England. [Which is more or less equivalent to the federal reserve.] The notes change every few years as extra anti-forgery features get introduced - the most recent change was the new £5 note, which is about a year old.
In Scotland, notes are issued by the Bank of Scotland and the Royal Bank of Scotland. Apart from issuing notes, those are normal banks. The notes from each bank look slightly different, but have the same size and colour, so it's obvious what denomination it is. The Clydesdale bank also issues notes, but they're not as common.
http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/banknotes/ has details of the English notes, and http://www.scotbanks.org.uk/design.htm the Scottish ones.
You can use English notes in Scotland, and Scottish ones in England, although merchants tend to retain them so they don't generally circulate.
Pedants may wish to know that English banknotes are Legal Tender in England and Wales, but not in Scotland. Scottish banknotes aren't Legal Tender anywhere - the only legal tender in Scotland for unlimited amounts are the £1 and £2 coins. Pedants may also wish to know that legal tender has a very narrow definition, and isn't really very useful in most cases...
Pictures
The President on the $2 bill is Thomas Jefferson.
And not only are the bills of a different size, but in the lower right hand corner ( IIRC ) of the bill face are a number of raised dots. One dot == 1000 yen, two dots == 5000 yen and three dots == 10000 yen.
A Human Right
http://www.thelouisvillechannel.com/lou/news/stori es/news-20010130-161443.html
All Troll + "offtopic" mods are meta moderated as "Unfair", because you abused the system.
We run the web infrastructure for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing on our DataHost platform. Starting about 2 hours ago (when the unveiling press conference ended) we've been sustaining over 20Mbits per second of traffic. As I look at the monitor now, we're doing 33Mbits/sec. Most of the traffic has been US-based, though we expect an overnight surge as Asia wakes up. Gotta go back and look at histograms now - Bolivia just took a keen interest in the new $20 note. Don't forget to stop by the BEP store (http://www.moneyfactory.com/store) and pick-up some neat collectibles (though, nothing with the new twenty until later this year). All the info on the new twenty is at http://www.moneyfactory.com/newmoney.
sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn't get it.
What do they do with old bills and coinage? Do they recycle it? Does anyone know?
AFAIK, they melt down old coins and re-use them (they're mostly just raw scrap anyway), and they burn the bills (which are just colored cotton & paper anyway.)
Found a great website for pics of paper currency from around the world. My personal fave has to be Netherlands 50 Guilder note, sunflower and bee. Makes U.S. paper money look downright ugly... http://aes.iupui.edu/rwise/notedir/mappage.html
pot.kettle(black);
So, basically, in order to keep our currency the choice of the (under)world, we refuse to expire it.
1. The new design is different from the old one.
Doesn't matter, the old design is still (il)legal tender.
2. A new design takes time to counterfeit.
Exactly, so they'll keep using the old ones (see #1). However, their are the "king of the mountain" counterfeiters that are just in it for the accomplishment of gettting away with a phony bill, but they also do not typically do large runs of their bills.
3. New designs incorporate tougher security measures.
See #2 and #1.
4. New note designs promote consumer vigilance.
I guess, but if I have only explicitly checked my money for fun to see the different things added to the new bills. I don't really care if I have a phony bill, if it was good enough to be given to me, its good enough to spend.
5. New bank notes are successfully introduced and old ones replaced every day.
No, the old ones are not replaced, they are still valid money, and every 20years is hardly every day. Plus the note in question has been replaced in 1996 so the new one would be 7 years.
Here's a link to a detailed list of features that can be used to make currency more accessible to the visually impaired. There's a discussion of pros and cons for each. (For example--Braille or other raised markings seem like a good idea, but they can wear off. Also, when stacking large amounts of currency, raised markings can cause trouble.)
The Appendix to the report also has a list of features that were rejected outright for practical reasons. These include (among many) microencapsulated odorants (different denominations smell different) and acoustic effects from the edge of the bill (different denominations sound different when you blow across their edges.)
~Idarubicin
You may want to check out this page. An average $20 bill is only in circulation for about 4 years before it gets replaced. More to the point, 95% of all bills printed in a given year go to replace existing currency. Better ways to keep the US government out of debt would include reducing military spending and rolling back existing tax cuts. In case you hadn't noticed, keeping inflation down is the least of our worries concerning the US economy.
Sweet Merriam-Webster! It's COUNTERFEITERS. They're not trying on counters as articles of clothing!
It was eliminated due to thus negative stigma attached to it.
It was not eliminated .
'Your brain is God.' -- Dr. Timothy Leary
Federal Reserve Notes and Treasury Notes are produced by divisions of the federal government. Hence, the provision of the consitution is fulfilled.
"Light is faster than sound." - "Is that why people tend to look bright until you hear them speak?"
When's the last time they actually printed a $2 bill?
1996 (series 1995)
No, I don't want to explore the Recycle Bin.
There's nothing appealing about Denise Richarards
There are lots of appealing things about Denise Richards - her tits, her ass, and her "mouth hanging open 90% of the time."
If you need convincing, you can check out her tits:
- Here and
- Here
You can rest assured that I have check the links thoroughly. I will consider the site to be slashdotted in advance. If this post isn't a "+5, Informative" then nothing is.
GF.
Lots of petrified grits
Jackson set up the federal bank? Or not. From "A Time Line of the National Bank", Jackson vetoed the National Bank's recharter in 1832.
Lastly, I think that in retrospect, the deportation of the Cherokee (and the thousands of deaths incurred during the process), despite a Supreme Court Ruling in their favor, slides down that hill from "controversial" to plain out and out "wrong"
-Zipwow
I don't know which is more depressing, that 2/3 didn't care enough to vote, or that 1/2 of those that did are crazy.
- The BEP printed up a series of $2 bills around 1995
- The bills are distributed to banks to be inserted into circulation
- But the banks generally don't hand out $2 unless they're specifically asked for
- Nobody gets $2 bills from the bank
- Nobody puts $2 bills into actual circulation
- The banks are sitting on gobs and gobs of $2 bills
- The banks never run out of $2 bills
- The banks never ask the Federal Reserve to replenish their stock of $2 bills
- The BEP doesn't print any new $2 bills
Despite their artificial rarity (they're "in circulation," just not really in circulation), US $2 bills aren't collector's items. They're worth $2.00. If you want some, go in to any bank and ask to change a larger bill. Just remember that, like with the $1 and $0.50 coins, you'll get reactions ranging from funny looks to outright anger* if you try to pay for anything with these.*(I swear to God a former roommate of mine would go ballistic whenever I tried to repay a debt to him with dollar coins)