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.

Comments

Hmmm

[Gortbusters.org]

is the next story for today, "How to use your Linux machine for forgery?"

This is off the norm, with the decline in jobs I don't see too many 20s! :(

Re:Hmmm

[Surak]

You need SANE, a scanner supported by SANE, The GIMP, a modern printing system (CUPS is pretty good), and a good inkjet printer supporting on your printing system of choice.

First you ... &^&*^(*^%^&%*&%%*%* %%^T&(

THIS USER HAS BEEN ARRESETED UNDER THE U.S. PATRIOT ACT. MOVE ALONG, NOTHING TO SEE HERE.

Re:Hmmm

[KDan]

Ok then, here's a five dollar bill that should be appropriate for a slashdot poster :-)

Daniel

Re:Hmmm

[Sylver Dragon]

The question I have now, as I did the last time the US Treasury decided to do this sort of thing is, why would a forger bother with trying to forge one of the newer looking bills? The old $20's are still accepted everywhere, and have not become harder to forge. Seriously, if I was going to do something like this I would just make up a batch of older style $20's, put them in a wallet and run them through a few washer/dryer cycles to make them look a bit beat up. Then trek down to my local Wal-Mart and pass a few of them off to buy stuff. Wash-Rinse-Repeat (literally).
If anything this is just another example of our tax dollars being wasted in a futile attempt to stop a crime which, I believe, is not very rampant. This money could be better spent keeping the govenment out of debt and keeping inflation down. Sure the counterfeit bills increse inflation, but probably less so than the government printing more money everytime it feels the need. If anything, I think we would be better off if the govenment would only print as much money as it destroys, and then turn the presses off.

Re:Hmmm

[weave]

This is an excellent point and one that i was wondering about. Unlike other countries who routinely decommission monetary instruments (with a brief trade-in period), the United States refuses to do so. Why? It helps support the dollar's strength. Everyone all over the world knows if they stuff chests full of american currency inside their walls, it will still be good in the future. They won't have to drive it to some US bank to exchange it for the latest bills. Why do you think Saddam had so many dollars stashed?

So, basically, in order to keep our currency the choice of the (under)world, we refuse to expire it.

Re:Hmmm

[Cowboy]

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.

Re:Hmmm

[Ancil]

why would a forger bother with trying to forge one of the newer looking bills? The old $20's are still accepted everywhere

Take an old $20 or $100 bill anywhere in Russia and try to spend it. Good luck. In parts of the world where forgery is rampant, the "new" bills are all people will accept. I imagine this will be true of the new monopoly money, as well.

this is just another example of our tax dollars being wasted in a futile attempt to stop a crime which, I believe, is not very rampant. This money could be better spent keeping the govenment out of debt and keeping inflation down

Oh Lord, here we go. Contrary to what Rush Limbaugh might be telling you, redesigning the currency is not causing the record $300 billion dollar Bush Deficit. You can chalk that up to a lack of fiscal discipline on the part of Republicans.

And counterfeiting isn't rampant here in the States. In some parts of the world 20 and 30 percent of US bills are counterfeit. The government would rather sell real US currency than have someone sell knockoffs. Much of the best counterfeit currency is printed in places like Libya and Iran, where US law enforcement is non-existant. Supposedly, North Korea is getting into the business as well.

Re:Hmmm

[rkent]

Alright, this is just kind of another wrinkle in the story, not really an "answer" to your question. I figure you'll want references, so here are the 2 pages I used as a basis for this post:

US Treasury Currency FAQ:
http://www.ustreas.gov/education/faq/currenc y/prod uction.html

Bureau of Engraving and Printing FAQ:
http://www.moneyfactory.com/section.cfm/19

Basically, 2 important points from there:
1) No, there will not be a "recall" like the EU countries did when switching to the euro, and
2) "about 95%" of money printed by the US replaces worn-out bills (which are taken out of circulation and destroyed).

The point about people stockpiling bills in foreign countries is a good one; some huge portion (I want to say 2/3?) of US bills, particularly hundreds, are circulating outside of the US. Frankly, we LOVE this phenomenon, because for each amount that's printed, the government takes out an interest-bearing security which is cashed in as the note is destroyed. Of course, it's not "the same" security that's cashed in when a bill is destroyed, but a corresponding number are redeemed as bills are taken out of circulation (which probably has a lot more to do with removing currency from circulation than "the bills wore out"). So basically, the widespread use of US currency outside the US amounts to a free loan to us by everyone else in the world.

So of course we're interested in maintaining this state of affairs. But this isn't the cause for *not* collecting old bills. It is the cause for *designing new ones*. If our bills were easy to forge, do you think they would remain the preferred currency of the world, and yes, the underworld as well? No! Drug dealers don't want to have their money devalued any more than anyone else. And it's partly (perhapts primarily) their demand that keeps the amount of US currency so high. Drug dealers probably prefer the new bills when they can be had -- they don't forge money from whole cloth, they launder real money that people have given them illegally.

So basically, the old money does come out of ciculation, just not all at once. I for one have noticed it getting rarer; this past weekend at the casino was the first time I'd seen old 20's and 100's in a long time (in the sheer volume of currency I saw, it was inevitable to spot a few). The money with increased security features is in demand because it's in almost everyone's best interest to have it that way, from US citizens to foreign drug dealers.

Have old bills?

[Joe the Lesser]

Send them to me and I'll dispose of them in an environmentally safe way.

Re:Have old bills?

[Planesdragon]

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.)

7-10 years?!?

[Phroggy]

Holy crap, redesigning bills every 7-10 years? What the hell are they thinking?

When the current $20 bills came out, I heard of people having trouble using them, because apparently a few people somehow didn't hear that new bills were being released so obviously thought they were counterfeit. The current bills are pretty obvious, though, now that everybody knows about them. Now they're saying there will be subtle changes every few years, so in another decade there will be like 4 different versions of the $20 bill, ALL LEGAL. If you saw a fifth version, which was counterfeit, would it be obvious to you?

Yeah, they're including new security features. That's cool and all, but how often do people really check them? Sure, on a $100, people check. On $20 they usually don't. They still go by appearance and texture, just like they always have.

Re:7-10 years?!?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't know about that 4 different versions thing... according to this, the average lifespan of a 20 dollar bill is 4 years. Two different types could be in circulation at the same time, but 4?
For that matter, when was the last time you saw an "old-style" 20 from before the last redesign?

Re:7-10 years?!?

[Havokmon]

For that matter, when was the last time you saw an "old-style" 20 from before the last redesign?

Yesterday. No foolin.

And not everybody keeps their money in banks.

Re:7-10 years?!?

[EinarH]

Now they're saying there will be subtle changes every few years, so in another decade there will be like 4 different versions of the $20 bill, ALL LEGAL. If you saw a fifth version, which was counterfeit, would it be obvious to you?

[trollmode]
You live in a banana republic with almost an banana economy; so what did you expect? ;-)

Several different versions of the same bill is so thirdworldish.
[/trollmode]

Re:7-10 years?!?

[RealAlaskan]

When the current $20 bills came out, I heard of people having trouble using them, because apparently a few people somehow didn't hear that new bills were being released so obviously thought they were counterfeit. Look here. I don't think that the ``new look'' will be a big deal: it's not that new.

Now they're saying there will be subtle changes every few years, so in another decade there will be like 4 different versions of the $20 bill, ALL LEGAL. If you saw a fifth version, which was counterfeit, would it be obvious to you?

Here I think you've found a real problem. People DON'T look at their money. It's surprising how few people even check the $50's and $100's. Right now there are two versions of every bill, in 2004, it will be three, and just as you say, NO ONE is going to know what the newest versions look like until they see them.

That leads to a sick-but-funny possibility: some merchant takes a ``new'' $20. Later, you come into his shop, spend your ``new'' $20, and he calls the cops, who haul you away for counterfeitting. The problem? The first $20 was counterfeit, and yours was real, and neither the merchant nor the cops knew the difference.

Since no American is educated about their money, it could happen. When the new bills with the watermarks and threads came out, I had to explain what they were to most of the store clerks who noticed. I only knew about them because I'm a coin collector.

Re:7-10 years?!?

[AKnightCowboy]

The current bills are pretty obvious, though, now that everybody knows about them.

My $20 bills already look like this new one since everytime I seem to have one the god damn cashiers run a highlighter over it. What, pink and yellow highlighting is the new anti-counterfeiting technique? I thought defacing currency was a federal offense.

Re:7-10 years?!?

[Milo Fungus]

Yeah, they're including new security features. That's cool and all, but how often do people really check them?

That's the most troublesome thing about it, IMO. From the article:

Thomas Ferguson, director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, acknowledged the new bill would not discourage counterfeiters from this process [leaching], but he said there would still be features that, with a quick look, could distinguish a "leached" note as counterfeit.

"It will still have a different watermark and security strip. You could tell the difference in about 15 seconds," Ferguson said. (emphasis mine)

15 seconds?! Imagine how long you would be standing in line at Wal-Mart if the checkers took 15 seconds on every $20 bill they saw! 15 seconds adds up quickly, especially the day after Thanksgiving or Boxing Day. Another thing is that this guy is an expert. He's probably among the most knowledgeable white hat money makers out there. If it takes him 15 seconds, it's bound to take Suzy Dropout, the Wal-Mart checker, a bit longer (if she does it properly, that is).

As an aside, I spent a couple of years in the UK and learned to really appreciate their money system. US notes are BORING. It's good to see more colors on our new ones. Maybe they'll also change the relative sizes of the notes? (Not that changing the sizes would necessarily thwart counterfeiting, but it was a nice touch to the UK system, IMO.)

Re:7-10 years?!?

[stratjakt]

That leads to a sick-but-funny possibility: some merchant takes a ``new'' $20. Later, you come into his shop, spend your ``new'' $20, and he calls the cops, who haul you away for counterfeitting. The problem? The first $20 was counterfeit, and yours was real, and neither the merchant nor the cops knew the difference.

When I still lived Canada, this happened to me. I went to an ATM, took out some cash, and walked next door to McDonalds.

I ordered my QP with Cheese, and handed the clerk a 20. She then went back and got her manager, both of them gawked at the bill, and then the manager tells me she cant accept it.

This pissed me off, since I don't like people accusing me of a felony. The funny thing was, the currency was at least a year old at the time. I guess McDonalds employees dont often see anything bigger than a five. (Having worked there when I was 14 I can attest to that).

Anyways, I told the manager to either accept the bill, or call the cops. It says right on the currency, "This note is legal tender for all debts public and private". Technically, that means, you either accept it as payment, or agree not to be paid. (I've heard of assholes running around with 1000 dollar bills demanding that if a clerk doesnt accept it they dont have to pay at all)

Now where am I going with this story? Oh yeah, she called my bluff and called the cops. The cop came and asked what the problem was, and she walked around the corner with him all in private like she just busted some great counterfeiting ring. The cop, visibly annoyed, pulled one out of his wallet, held them side by side for McTwitwich, and said there was nothing wrong with the bill.

So then I decided I wanted Arbys. I didnt really want Arbys. Noone really wants Arbys. But thats what I said, and I left.

People are educated about their money. You read the article just now didnt you? If people are too stupid to educate themselves, thats their own fault.

Re:7-10 years?!?

[PhilHibbs]

Your bills are all the same size? Good grief, how do visually-impaired people cope? I suppose I should have deduced that from the mention in the article of the technique of bleaching and reprinting smaller bills as larger denominations. It's totally impossible with ours.

Re:7-10 years?!?

[Saige]

Visually impared people? In the US? They're not impared, they're just lazy mooches who can't be bothered to put effort into seeing. They shouldn't be able to tell the bills apart if they're not going to work hard enough to see clearly like all the other hard working Americans.

And don't get me started on all those people who are in wheelchairs because they are too lazy to walk. Don't give me that wussy politically-correct "they're paralyzed" crap either. That's just a lie of the liberal media!!!

Re:7-10 years?!?

[PhilHibbs]

What the hell is Boxing Day?

The day after Christmas Day.

Colorful currency = children's toy.

I think it's a question of what you're used to. Our currency is fairly colourful, but the subtlety and complexity is more than one would expect in play money. The Euro looks a little toy-like to me, but as I said, maybe it is just familiarity after all.

Re:7-10 years?!?

[kmac06]

My uncle is blind, and can handle money just fine. He folds different bills into different shapes or puts them in different parts of his wallet. When he is getting change from something, he just asks the guy what bill is what and puts it in the appropriate spot.

Re:7-10 years?!?

[PhilHibbs]

There must be some physical difference then. On UK notes, there is a small shape that is of a different texture than the rest of the note - the £5 has a circle, £10 has a diamond, £20 has a square, and the £50 has a triangle.

The new $20 bill ...

[Shant3030]

I've always been in favor of having a hologram on our currency. It seems to be an effective way to curb counterfitting. Without a change of the shape and surface area of the bill (ie. a clear patch with a hologram), just changing the colors on a bill is more of a nuisance than a deterrent.

Re:The new $20 bill ...

[Accipiter]

This was actually considered, attempted, and dismissed. The problem with the hologram was that it didn't survive all of the torture tests required, since paper money gets the shit kicked out of it in circulation.

If memory serves, I think the hologram they designed had passed all but one of the torture tests. These included baking them in extremely hot ovens, rolling them, washing them, etc.

The test on which it failed was the crumple test. They set the bill on top of a metal tube, and a shaft came down and pressed the bill into the tube, crushing it incredibly. When it came out and was flattened, the hologram was severely wrinkled and crushed, and the holographic image was (obviously) no longer able to be seen.

Better pics

[Kaeru the Frog]

You can find some better pics here.

Re:Better pics

[GMontag]

Don't forget to leave the word "SAMPLE" intact when printing. This is a key component in detecting fakes :-)

Yesh!

[jdehnert]

If they change them any faster, You'll be able to make your own and pass them off as the latest, newest , most non counterfitiest $20.

More efficient

[L. VeGas]

I can finally use all the colors in my ink-jet cartridge.

Counterfitting measures updated.

[Angry White Guy]

It's about time the U.S. has updated their bills, but I don't think that this is enough. Take a look at British Money to see how difficult you can make it for a counterfitter. Big watermarks, multiple color dyes that penetrate the fibres of the paper. The old U.S. bills you could bleach a $1 bill clean and print a $20 dollar bill on it, and nobody would be the wiser.
Ironic that the most precious thing a nation could have would also be the cheapest.

Re:Counterfitting measures updated.

[legojenn]

I'm surprised that they didn't include that little scratch & win thing like they have on Canadian 20s and above. Nothing makes a currency seem valuable than making it look like a lottery ticket.

Re:Counterfitting measures updated.

[th77]

Don't forget that in Britain (and many other countries) bills of different values have differnt physical sizes.

Re:Counterfitting measures updated.

[stratjakt]

Actually, there are the colored bands that go through the paper with the denomination printed on them. So while you can bleach a one, you cant remove the plastic strip inside that has "1 1 1 1 1 1 1 1" on it.

It's virtually impossible to replicate every single feature in modern currency. What the big counterfeiters hope for is to fool most of the people most of the time, and get an army of kids/lackies to pass the bad notes for them.

Counterfeiting is more about finding ways to pass the bills than create them - it always has been.

You have to find clerks and gas station attendents. But since most stores have you on camera, it's easier to find the guy who passed the bad bill. You'd be a complete idiot to go to Best Buy and pick up a fancy Alienware PC and 21" LCD monitor with counterfeit 20's.

Better would be strangers on the street ("hey buddy can you break a 20?"). Street level drug dealers and prostitutes no doubt get a lot of funny money.

But it's a slow, labor-intensive process.. You have to pass one note at a time, and in the smaller denominations, as to not arouse suspicion.

It's much like other organized crimes like drug dealing or bookmaking - it's not generating the money thats the problem, it's getting rid of it (laundering).

They'll probably never make an "impossible-to-duplicate" bill, but they can make the enterprise of counterfeiting so fraught with headaches and dangers that few would even bother.

Re:Counterfitting measures updated.

[Draoi]

Ironic that the most precious thing a nation could have would also be the cheapest.

The most precious thing a nation could have is not its money! Geez ....

Re:Counterfitting measures updated.

[yanestra]

Ironic that the most precious thing a nation could have would also be the cheapest.
The most precious thing a nation could have is not its money! Geez ....

Its weapons? Its lawyers?

Re:Counterfitting measures updated.

[Jonny Ringo]

The Liberty dollar has better counterfit protection then federal reserve notes. dna coding, micro printing plus 3 other secret messures. This is from verify first technologies. http://www.verifyfirst.com Its also backed by silver and gold.

Re:Counterfitting measures updated.

[Pyrosz]

Because it is a lottery ticket, you never know how much its going to be worth from hour to hour.

As a Canadian who buys a lot from other countries, you just never know what its going to cost you in the end.

Most counterfeits look stupid

[Dark Paladin]

I've worked in the financial world for a bit, and I'm always surprised by how bad most counterfit bills look.

95% of the time, counterfeit bills are accepted by people who don't seem to notice that while the bill corners say $20, George Washington is in the center. Or that they're printed on normal grade paper.

I'm sure the government is making the change to the $20 for "big time" counterfeiters, but it seems like most of the time it can be prevented on the retail level by people just using their heads.

Re:Most counterfeits look stupid

[CausticWindow]

Aw yeah, I forgot, middle eastern countries don't have to follow U.N. resolutions.

Much, in fact, like the US.

But...

[archetypeone]

they haven't changed the size?! Why is it that no blind people have sued over this?

Re:But...

[L. VeGas]

When will people learn that SIZE DOESN'T MATTER.
(My shrink makes me say this 50 times every morning. Or until I stop crying, whichever comes first.)

What about size?

[sebi]

Isn't it about time that different dollar bills start coming in different sizes? Isn't it pretty standard for counterfeiters to bleach a small denomination bill and print the image of larger ones? Different sizes would at least make this practise a bit more difficult. That doesn't stop forgery in euro-land, but it does make it just a bit more difficult. I thought that holographs would be pretty effective, but in day to day commerce nobody looks to closely. The best way to make sure that your bills are genuine is using ones that are really unpopular. Last weekend was the first time that I saw a 200 Euro bill. And that was one and a half years after the introduction of the currency.

Re:What about size?

[gmhowell]

The other benefit of different sized bills is for the blind. You can tell denominations by feel.

From � to � (not!)

[cwernli]

As long as the name doesn't change it's A-OK: immagine the dollar being called the "Amerio"...

Interactive Flash Movie That shows new features

[phnx90]

http://www.moneyfactory.com/newmoney/flash/interac tivebill/index.cfm

I have some swiss francs.

[Unknown Poltroon]

Not only are they all different colors, with holograms and different sizes, but they also have a raised pattern on each bill, a tiragle, square or circle. I understand why tehy cant change the size of our bills easily, but a raised pattern on the bill would be easy.

Re:I have some swiss francs.

[91degrees]

Good in two ways - Firsty for the blind, secondly, it's that little bit of extra work for a counterfeiter.

Actually

[Kelz]

It looks strikingly similar to the canadian dollar or the old british pound.

Facelift extends to e-moeny too

[jocks]

IN the UK we are about to roll out a massive scheme whereby we don't use our signature to validate our bank card/credit card transactions, we use a PIN number instead.

I guess the days of innocence are passing, my concern is that the general public is going to be the ones that get hurt and the criminals will carry on regardless.

This will stop counterfeiting how...?

[Jerk City Troll]

Have you ever handed a cashier a note and had them examine it with an expert eye to determine if it was real or not? Obviously if you hand someone a piece of monopoly money, they're going to know right off the bat that it's "not real". But if I hand a clerk at Subway a counterfeited 20$USD, nobody is going to know it until the bill falls into the hands of someone who's paying attention. By then, it's covered with finger prints. Now this will make it more difficult to make similar-looking currency, but I don't see how it solves the problem.

Re:This will stop counterfeiting how...?

[Timesprout]

This is part of a cunning plan in collusion with HP to make forging the new colour bills prohibitively expensive due to the new massive overhead of time limited, half full HP ink cartridges.

One change we won't likely see

[Chagatai]

While the adaptation of colors and revising the layout of the dollar bill is a nice deterrent, there is one thing that would be nice to see: dollar bills that the blind could use.

In Japan for years now, not only are the coins and dollar bills used in different colors (for easy glances to see how much money someone has), but they are of different sizes and shapes that make the coins recognizable by the blind. The 10,000 Yen bill is the longest, while the 1,000 is the shortest. Even the 5 Yen coin has a hole in it to separate it from the other coins (yes, this also goes back thousands of years to the Chinese "cash" coins).

Seeing as how all American bills are of the same size, I imagine that it must be slightly frustrating for a blind person to trust someone they don't know to be completely honest about money and take $5 instead of $50. Unfortunately, I can't see the Treasury Department putting some sort of Braille marker or other deliniating factor into future money production.

Re:One change we won't likely see

[antelopelovefan]

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.

Re:One change we won't likely see

[meloneg]

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.

Re:One change we won't likely see

[grassy_knoll]

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.

Re:One change we won't likely see

[Idarubicin]

While the adaptation of colors and revising the layout of the dollar bill is a nice deterrent, there is one thing that would be nice to see: dollar bills that the blind could use.

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.)

Anti-counterfeit or vending lobby?

[adzoox]

I read some time back that that a move like this costs the taxpayer/letter sender close to 200 MILLION everytime we change the currency (stamp machines in postoffices) and that it costs companies like Coca Cola several BILLION to change over or update their machines. It makes me think of the motive. Is it the vending machine industry or anti counterfeiting / retailers lobby?

Moves like this reak of the Sopranos. The same people that make vending/coin change machines also make lottery ticket distribution and numbering systems and slot machines!!

If the vending industry were smart they'd be lobbying for money readers REQUIRED to accept cash at retail that would authenticate bills and serial numbers OR going to plastic/mark of the beast I suppose would solve the whole thing ;)

Best thing that could happen for funny money

[doublem]

This will be a boon for counter fitters.

"Don't be an ass, it's not counterfeit, it's the new twenty that just came out this fall."

All a counter fitter needs to do is come up with a bill chock full of security features and start spending it like there's no tomorrow. As people get used to the new bill every few years, it will become commonplace.

Remember the story of the person who passed a $3.00 bill with Bill Clinton's face on it? All they could charge him with was failure to pay, since he hadn't really counter fitted any money.

Re:Best thing that could happen for funny money

[doublem]

counterfeiter vs counter fitter

Damn spell check. You'd think with the average spelling on slashdot, I'd get away with such a slip up.

As for the counterfeit bill I mentioned. My memory was flawed. It was $200 and George Bush, not $3.00 and Bill Clinton. (Thanks Unknown Poltroon (31628) ) Funny how your memory starts to fail as you age.

Google Cache

Danville DQ Gag 'Talk Of Town'
Restaurant, Residents React

UPDATED: 6:42 p.m. EST January 30, 2001
DANVILLE, Ky. -- It started out with a blizzard and now a Dairy Queen in Danville is getting an avalanche of attention.

This $200 bill was used at a Danville Dairy Queen Sunday
A woman who paid for her food with a fake $200 bill Sunday left with plenty of change. The bill had a picture of George W. Bush on the front and oil rigs on the back.

"That's the talk of the town," Danville resident Joseph Bourne said. "It's got to be one of those dumb blonde stories."

Added fellow resident Drew Hammond: "It's the kind of news I like to hear out of my own hometown. Usually things don't happen of great significance here. It gets a lot of attention."

The 18-year-old employee has offered to refund the store. Her manager, Mike Tracy, tried to be supportive, and said that she probably was just too busy to notice the mistake.

"We try to do things as quick as possible here," Tracy said.

At least he's being a good sport about it. The restaurant is now distributing coupons on the backs of fake $200 bills.

"We're going to play off this advertising a little bit and try to think of it as something positive," Tracy said.

Local law enforcement said that the joke became a crime when the woman took off with all that change.

"When the woman received the money and left with it, the joke ceased," Danville police officer Bob Williamson said.

Still, because there's no such thing as a $200 bill, the woman, if caught, couldn't even face federal counterfeit charges.

Anecdote

[Schnapple]

True story: a friend of mine went to a popular burrito joint in town and paid for his $5 burrito with a then-new $20. The cashier somewhat blindly thinks its a then-relatively-new $100, so gives him $95 in change instead of just $15. The friend took the money and left quickly.

I told him he was all horrible and evil for doing so - but I'm not sure I wouldn't have done the same.

Re:Anecdote

[digitalsushi]

I gave the first window at Wendy's a 10 dollar bill a few weeks ago, and they gave me back change for a 20. So I told the lady at the second window what she did while giving her a 10 dollar bill, and the lady put the 10 in her pocket and called me "retarded" right before shutting the window. I'm thinking that's ironic somehow.

Re:Anecdote

[weston]

True story: last week I was shopping with a friend and the cashier somehow rang up the purchase at about $30 less than it should have been. Said friend pointed this out to the cashier, who then rang up the purchase at the correct price.

So retail folks often make mistakes. Sometimes in your favor, sometimes in favor of the store. Which is more impressive: remaining silent and taking advantage of it, or saying something?

Especially considering that the more you think about it, the more you realize society runs on trust and relies on people to do the right thing more often than not...

Rumanian Lei

[neonstz]

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.

Re:Rumanian Lei

[ehiris]

Actually the 2000 lei solar eclipse limited edition bill is the coolest bill I have ever seen. Not because of its buying power since its value is 10 cents but because it promotes space science on top of politcs and also looks cool.

And BTW, the country is called Romania not "Rumania". Romania has a lot more to do with the Romans then it has to do with rum.

Forgers (and whistleblowers) beware!

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

At the behest of the FBI (or maybe it is the secret service since counterfeiting is their purview) all color photocopiers in the USA embedded a watermark with a unique serial number identifying the copier used.

For some reason this fact is not well documented, but here is at least one reference(pdf) in an IBM report from 1998. See the section on tracking.

This can be a problem for cheap counterfeiters (well-equipped ones won't have a problem either acquiring a copier on the blackmarket or using a modified one) but it also can suck for whistleblowers making copies of documents. If the copier used can be identified it makes it that much easier for a vengeful company/government to identify the whistleblower and take "corrective action."

Time to verify?

[Havokmon]

"It will still have a different watermark and security strip. You could tell the difference in about 15 seconds," Ferguson said.

Umm. 15 seconds is the MAX time a credit card terminal should take to authorize a transaction (including dial-time which should only be once if you have a lot of customers in a line). Do they really think people are going to spend that amount of time, PER BILL for each customer?

Counterfeit Detection

[non]

in europe, many stores, kisoks, etc. have purchased small uv light detectors, especially after a flood of fake 50 bills. the interesting thing is that washed bills of any denomination usually fail this test. at one point i had carried a 50 that i had been told was fake by my bank for six months. i went to another bank and asked them about it, they told me that it was real, and then took me downstairs to while they checked it with the 100,000 machine they have. they also explained that there are very simple tests for checking a bill; they have little ridges stamped into the bill that can't be washed off and are very difficult to fake.

Request for future features

[guacamolefoo]

Date: May 12, 2003
Re: New version of $20 bill

Dear Treasury Department (cc to Bureau of Printing and Engraving):

The new release of the product looks ok. I think it still needs some work, though. There are some additional features that I would like to see in the upcoming $20 bill v. 2.3 beta release:

1. P2P sharing
2. Centerfolds (!) (note: not Andrew Jackson - think modern, maybe Denise Richards)
3. Self-generation (try making paper from those Wizard's Apprentice broomsticks)
4. Encryption, so that only I can use my bills

BTW, please, please do implement a "software activation" thingy. That would be really lame.

Respectfully,
GF.

Are they brazilian looking?

[Transient0]

No.. but they are edging more towards looking like canadian bills (or even euros). Seriously though, I've always found that one the problems with American money is that it is too hard to tell the denominations of the bills apart at a glance. If they are going to start using different colors on different bills, good on them. Or they could go even one step further like the Euro and have different denomiations be slightly different sizes. I know this sounds wacky, but imagine trying to use American cash if you are blind.

Also... the article mentions 2-dollar bills. Since when have the States had Twos? We (Canada) got rid of ours almost a decade ago and the states is just starting to make them now? talk about behind the times. Or is that a joke?

Re:Are they brazilian looking?

[B3ryllium]

I'm Canadian :) The new fives are cool. (As for my "Brazilian-looking" comment, it came from people who accused the new Canadian bills as looking too South American)

Anyway ... I don't recall the states having a two dollar bill, but they've had the one dollar bill for ages.

And they call *US* loonie.

Re:Are they brazilian looking?

[jd142]

Since when have the States had Twos?

For *decades*. Two dollar bills have been around for a very long time. I remember one of my great grandfathers would always give us kids a two dollar bill for our birthday. Doesn't sound like much until you realize he had a lot of great-grandkids.

Re:Are they brazilian looking?

[B3ryllium]

Mmmm, uncut. (hahah)

Re:Are they brazilian looking?

[The Almighty Dave]

Boy, had I trouble in the US keeping the different bills apart...

The easiest way is to look at the number in the corner.

Re:Are they brazilian looking?

[Gropo]

Since when have the States had Twos?

Since 1776.

An interesting thing to think about - in order to acheive $100:

One, $100 bill

Two, $50 bills

Five, $20 bills

Ten, $10 bills

Twenty, $5 bills

Fifty, $2 bills

One-Hundred, $1 bills

Makes a little more sense now, eh?

Re:Are they brazilian looking?

[Amiga Trombone]

If there are two dollar bills are they a limited run, collectible currency thing like silver dollars? what do they look like? why have I never seen one?

I don't know it they're still printed, but they are real, and still in circulation. They just not commonly used.

Here's a link to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The have a picture of Jefferson on them.

And here's a link to a funny story about someone who recently tried to spend one at a Taco Bell.

Re:Are they brazilian looking?

[pianophile]

It was eliminated due to thus negative stigma attached to it.

It was not eliminated .

Re:Are they brazilian looking?

[B3ryllium]

According to the Canadian Government, our economy is more robust today than at any time in the past decade. It's funny to see the Canadian dollar at $0.72 American, since it's been at $0.67 for so long.

As for travelling ... well, I've never travelled. I've only left BC and ventured a few miles into Washington. But something tells me that carrying any cash on vacation, at least in some areas, might be a poor idea. Traveller's checks are insured, after all.

Yes, relying on an ATM card is unwise - but the statement that "few banks will exchange canadian money" a few posts above is totally untrue.

Have you ever seen a bank that would refuse to take money from someone?

Re:Are they brazilian looking?

[Guppy06]

The US $2 bill, like the US $1 and $0.50 coins, are in a bit of a Catch-22.

1. The BEP printed up a series of $2 bills around 1995
2. The bills are distributed to banks to be inserted into circulation
3. But the banks generally don't hand out $2 unless they're specifically asked for
4. Nobody gets $2 bills from the bank
5. Nobody puts $2 bills into actual circulation
6. The banks are sitting on gobs and gobs of $2 bills
7. The banks never run out of $2 bills
8. The banks never ask the Federal Reserve to replenish their stock of $2 bills
9. 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)

Yeah, yeah! Re:Becoming more and more like Europe

[StefanJ]

Next thing you know, these traitor$ will be pulling other Socialist-communist tricks, like putting scientists and authors and artists on our money!

Damn them and their evil black collektivist souls!

Quick Martha, git me my gun!

Dollar coins

[PateraSilk]

(soapbox)
What I wanna know is, when are they going to phase out the dollar bill? The Sacagawea dollar coin went the way of the Susan B because they kept printing singles. Coins have a pocket life of 30 years, compared to 3 for bills. If we're gonna spend the time and money in a coin let's actually make it work.
(/soapbox)

Re:Dollar coins

[yy1]

To me, the dollar coin is perfect for vending machines, yet not even the government supports this.

If you take the Metro in Washington, DC, the nation's capitol, and put a 20 in the machine for your fare, you will get change in quarters.

Almost no vending machines accept the dollar coin either, this is the perfect use for them yet nothing accepts them. If they can't even use 'em in their back yard, do they expect anyone else to use them either?

Re:Dollar coins

[Tenebrious1]

The Sacagawea dollar coin went the way of the Susan B because they kept printing singles.

No, they went that way because nobody used them.

They are too heavy to carry. I have a couple sitting in the ashtray of my car in case I need to get a soda or something, but I never carry any in my pocket- they're just too bulky to replace singles.

Second, most vending machines still don't accept them. They get stuck, and you lose a buck.

Third, you ever try slipping a dollar coin into a stripper's g-string?

New Canadian bills

[Yosemite Sue]

One of the things that surprised me with the latest version of our Canadian bills was that braille is used! (Bank of Canada - currency - accessibility features)

I do wonder how well the braille stands up to the wear-and-tear such bills would go through during the normal lifetime of paper currency ...

YS.

How about some _techie_ proposals?

[dpbsmith]

They have to print a unique serial number on each one, anyway... well, why not a barcoded serial number? You've seen the "Where's George" website... well, as part of Total Information Awareness, why not equip every cash register with a scanner that relays the serial number to a central database, and as soon as the same serial number is seen in two places at the same time, zap!

Yeah, yeah, yeah... not very good... how about get some _creative_ suggestions for ingenious, wonderful, complicated technical fixes?

Re:How about some _techie_ proposals?

[Ioldanach]

You've seen the "Where's George" website... well, as part of Total Information Awareness, why not equip every cash register with a scanner that relays the serial number to a central database, and as soon as the same serial number is seen in two places at the same time, zap!

Anonymity. The people with the tinfoil hats already tend to think the plastic strip with the #'s printed on it (20 20 20 for a $20 for example) includes a magnetic id that tracks who spends what, where. If your suggestion came to pass, the anonymity of purchases made with cash would be just as transparent to law enforcement as credit cards.

While I may never have purchased anything illegal, it still remains that I don't want the government tracking my every purchase. Allowing money tracking (which I do think the currency changes over the next 50 years will work towards) is a slippery slope. Sure, you can claim its ok because its being used to thwart counterfitters, but with all that nice juicy data in the computer they can find all the people who bought pot from some dealer they caught. And then someone decides to extend the 2050 Patriot Act to allow the feds to track down the people who bought certain books without having to ask the bookseller or librarian (like the current Patriot Act allows them to do).

I like my anonymity, thin as that veil is. Please don't give the government an excuse to take it away.

Counterfeiting and Terrorism

[NewbieV]

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.

Now if they'd only take Jackson off the twenty...

[zipwow]

If they'd just take Jackson off the twenty, I'd be happy.

If you're not aware, this is the guy that was responsible for deporting many of the native americans to Oklahoma. You might recall that the Cherokee were pretty well "integrated" into society at the time, and they did what any other wronged group would do: they sued in court.

And won. The Supreme Court ruled that "the laws of the state of Georgia 'can have no force' within Cherokee boundaries."

This fine president, who we honor by putting his name on our money, said "John Marshall has made his decision, now let him enforce it!"

What a fine example of our American politics.

-Zipwow

Seems counterproductive

[A nonymous Coward]

The more features you put in a bill, the fancier they get, and that seems to me like more work to detect a counterfeit. How many stores actually have the time to spend even 15 seconds checking every $20 bill? Buy something for $41, pass 3 twenties, get $19 back ... is the clerk really going to spend 45 seconds checking those bills? No way can they do that every time, all day, all year, and be any good at it.

Plus, changing them all the time, now there are several different kinds in circulation, more things to remember to look for.

I'd like to see a good study done of different bills and how much they are counterfeited. You'd have to make allowances for how desirable the different currrencies are. I am not convinced that all these doodads really do any good.

Plastic Money

[awol]

Australia has been using plastic notes for years. These notes are much harder to forge they have a transparent section and a translucent dual sided motiff incorporated into the design to aid forgery identifcation. And that is just for starters, other benefits include that the notes last many times longer (and hence despite the higher cost to produce they save the treasury loads), they go through the wash just fine (and you can even have them in your board shorts whilst surfing without fear of being unable to buy a pie for lunch). They don't really tear (they do but its much harder to get started on the rip) and are generally much more durable. They look kinda weird even for Australian currency, and the one drawback is that IIRC they are a bit more difficult to handle if you are manipulating lots of cash manually.

But why?

[homebru]

What problem is solved by adding another new design?

The two previous designs are still legally in circulation. Since they were / are apparently counterfeitable (is there such a word?), adding a new design does nothing to make the older designs un-counterfeitable.

Unless the older designs of currency are de-monetized, new designs do not solve a problem. (Older readers with military service may remember the MPC[1] script coversion days[2].) Yes, eventually almost all paper money will wind up being captured by banks and turned in for destruction. But it takes years to remove most of a type of bill and the remaining copies are still legal money. So the older patterns are still vulnerable.

[1] MPC - Military Payment Certificates. See google or eBay.
[2] Script conversion days - A twenty-four hour period during which all personnel were required to exchange their MPCs for the same value in a new series (new colors, new pictures). At the end of the conversion period, old series script was worthless and had value only as a colorful curiosity. Failure to exchange meant that you lost. No excuses, no make-ups, see the chaplain.

What about the older bills?

[Xaroth]

My thought is this, and I'm surprised it hasn't floated its way to the top of the modded posts already:

Of what use is a new anti-counterfit bill if they don't recall the old, easily counterfitted ones? Counterfitters won't even try to adjust to the new bills if the old ones are still in circulation and legal tender - there's just no reason to.

US $2 Bill Fact Sheet/Pictures

[burgburgburg]

Treasury Department $2 bill fact sheet

Pictures

The President on the $2 bill is Thomas Jefferson.

lack of desire

[irving47]

Why? Because you lack desire to have the Secret Service busting your door down?

Deception Dollars!

[funwithstuff]

Does that mean they'll be producing a new Deception Dollar?

http://www.deceptiondollar.com/

Seriously, though, the US could do worse than differentiate its different bills more clearly. Almost every other country makes it clearer (different sizes, very different colours) which can make it tricky for tourists. Australian notes (plastic, bright colours) are great, purely because they go through the wash and come out the other side. But I don't have to count large piles of the slippery things...

There's nothing appealing about Denise Richarards

[cryptochrome]

Those vapid, empty eyes, the mouth hanging open 90% of the time... for sure SHE would never notice if money was counterfeit or not.

It's a "Simpson's" reference

[blach]

Dude,

"Are they Brazilian looking?" is a reference to the great Simpson's episode where homer is kidnapped by Brazilians, and when they get the ransom money, they look at the greenbacks, and note that they sure look like serious financial documents, and then remark something like "Hey, our money is pink and purple" "Yeah, our money sure does look gay"

So there you have it =)

James

Actually, it was a 200$ bill, not a 3$ bill

[Unknown Poltroon]

http://www.thelouisvillechannel.com/lou/news/stori es/news-20010130-161443.html

Re:What I've never understood...

[MeerCat]

is why there is no recall on older bills?

The US $ has been the worlds leading "hard currency" for quite some time. A large proportion of the issued paper is not in the USA, but is in use overseas. If they recall the older bills, you'll get hit by a huge flood of people desperate to change their notes from all sorts of back-waters (you'll get this anyway even without the recall, but not as much).

This flood of cash movement is a great chance for fraud, and it can cause currency problems as some people may decide to cash in old US to local currency instead, and that would cause all sorts of problems as large amounts of paper money wash back.

When the $100 bill was changed a few years back, it triggered quite a stampede in several countries, as rumours started that the old bills would not be valid.

Anyone doubting how much cash is held overseas - the Columbian drug barons have so much dirty money in US bills that they're unable to clean - in both senses - that they shrink wrap it, stack it in pallets, and are supposed to be holding warehouses full of $5 and $20 bills. One of them reputedly threatened the US that if they didn't call off harrassing him, he'd fly a few pallets over the poorest US ghettos and drop tens of millions of dollars from the air, which would trigger some very nasty riots and major local economic,civic and social problems.

So, in short, I'd suggest a major answer in that the US is being a responsible provider of hard currency by not recalling old notes.

www.moneyfactory.com hosting service

[jea6]

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.

The most ridiculous thing I've read...

[WIAKywbfatw]

This will be a boon for counter fitters.

Firstly, I think you mean counterfeiters, not counter fitters - counterfeiters forge money, passports, designer clothes, etc but counter fitters fit counters. OK?

Secondly, issuing a new design of bank note clearly cuts down on counterfeiting and opportunities to commit monetary fraud in several ways:

1. The new design is different from the old one.

Thus, any plates, etc a counterfeiter has for the old note are useless once the old note has been removed from general circulation. This also applies to all the counterfeit notes out there too.

2. A new design takes time to counterfeit.

Granted, today's hardware and software has speeded up the traditional counterfeiting process (Photoshop, Illustrator and QuarkXPress coupled with the best printers will work wonders), but the fact remains that being able to successfully reproduce a bank note's aesthetic appearance is still time consuming and expensive. Obviously, if you're good at it, money's no object because you'll be able to print your own...

3. New designs incorporate tougher security measures.

Watermarks, magnetic strips, even holograms can be used to make notes harder to forge. These features cost treasuries money to incorporate but they cost counterfeiters even more (per bill) to duplicate. Most will mimic some features but not all, making detection possible to anyone who's vigilant enough to care.

4. New note designs promote consumer vigilance.

Seeing something different reminds consumers that bank notes can be forged and subconsciously encourages them to be more alert to the possibility of receiving counterfeit notes. Ever checked your speed after seeing a police car? It's the same thing.

5. New bank notes are successfully introduced and old ones replaced every day.

Just about every country on the planet retires old designs in favour of new, more secure ones on a regular basis. The people in those countries don't have any problems with new bills leading to more rather than less fraud, so why would the opposite be true in the US?

I live in the UK and all of our notes (£5, £10, £20, £50) have undergone at least one redesign each in the last twenty years and there's never been one occasion where a new note has led to more fraud. The same can pretty much be said of the rollout of the Euro notes throughout most of the EU, which was the single biggest rollout of paper money ever.

Again, unless you're suggesting that the average American is too dumb to take care of their own money, why would there be a problem?

Re:The most ridiculous thing I've read...

[hackstraw]

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.

They actually encourage you to print it!!

[morcheeba]

On this page, the mint encourages you to "View, download or print glossy images of the new notes" from this pdf!

Re:It will still be worth less than the euro....

[thelexx]

Not entirely a troll. The Euro is stronger than the dollar right now, with the dollar having lost ~25% of it's value relative to it over the last several months, and in fact days (check the dollar index chart). The only reason this hasn't bitten the Average Joe in the US square in the ass and HARD is that China has their exchange rate fixed at 8 renminbi to 1 dollar. With our most massive trading partner at a safely fixed rate the current administration is OK with a weakening of the dollar vs the euro for a couple of reasons, the (much) lesser of which is as a boon to US manufacturers (all three or so of them that are still left). The big reason is as a slap at the EU as now all European goods will cost much more in the US, which tend to be the more 'up-market' goods (German cars, French wine, Danish furniture, etc). When the price of an already expensive item is suddenly 25% higher, it has an effect. That'll teach them to go against the wishes of the US, as in the case of Iraq. Also take note of the fact that the major dollar fall of the last week or so coincides nicely with the acquisition of a big fat huge pool of oil.

It's a big mean game being played out there with our money. The new bills are but a sideshow.

pics of money around the globe

[witts]

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

Re:Obviously a hoax

[NighthawkFoo]

Don't forget about the $100,000 bill.

It was never in public circulation. The department of the Treasury used it internally for transferring funds.

You cant do this.

[Unknown Poltroon]

Youre going to tell me that my 20 year old dollar bill, issued with the full faith and trust of the governemnt, is no longer good? Gee, what a quick and dirty way for the government ot make money. "WEre sorry sir, despite the fact that we promised it would be good forever, you missed yesterdays cutoff date for trading your bills. Theyre wastepaper. Thank you for paying off part of the debt" Yeah. Like this wouldnt shatter the economy, as i and most other people switch to gold and euros as my currency of choice.

Should paper money die?

[re-geeked]

So, to give you all something to bicker about, I wonder if this means we should go to coins only, and start minting $100, $50, $20, $10, and $5 coins.

Pros:

they can't be counterfeited (or at least it's much harder, correct?)
machine sorting is easier
last longer
that cool jingle in your pocket
will accelerate use of debit cards

Cons:

Form factor - need a coin purse, not a wallet (correctible? credit-card shaped & sized coins?)
Heavier
More expensive to produce (but really, how bad can it be if pennies are coins and $100 bills are paper?)
How big would a $100 coin be anyway?
Will accelerate use of credit cards

Thoughts?

"Forgued" Notes

[Anonymous Coward]

Dennis Forgue, an anti-counterfeiting expert
Has anyone else noticed that this anti-counterfeiting expert's name rearranged spells "u forge"?

Same sized bills = a Boon for leachers

[sully67]

Am I missing the point or would be making the bills a different size the easiest way to kill this practice stone dead?

This practice has been common in the UK for as long as I can remember with each different note being a different size and in recent years colour.

It just seems that clinging on to the sacrosant colour is holding back security for the larger donomination notes.

Is U.S. currency a victim of foreign competition?

[mpthompson]

I wonder if these relatively rapid changes to U.S. paper currency are a reaction to the fact there is now another paper currency vying for dominance -- namely the Euro. I believe that the vast majority of counterfeiting of U.S. currency occurs outside the U.S. and if the Euro is considered more secure in this regards it could be a serious threat to the dominance of the U.S. currency throughout the world. If this is indeed the case, it is in our (the U.S.) best interest to react to real and perceived vulnerabilities as quickly as possible and the American public had better get used to these kinds of changes to the revered greenback on a regular basis. As always, competition is a potent catalyst for change.

silly money!

[wfberg]

Pre-euro Dutch money was the absolutely silliest money on earth.

Check out these babies (the top ones are the newest you should be looking at;
10 guilder note
10 guilder note 25 guilder note 50 guilder note
100 guilder note
250 guilder note
1000 guilder note

If you don't have much time, just check out the 250. The newest notes feature almost exclusively abstract images, raised ink as well as different levels of height in paper (quite distinguisable by hand, or even in daylight), LSD induced colors, barcodes, microprints of poems, and no image of any identifiable person whatsoever!

Really, click on those links, and if you collect money (who doesn't? ;-) get your hands on some of those notes.. They are very purdy! Did I mention silly?

I was sad to see these wonderful notes go the way of the dodo with the introduction of the euro.. The euro is even a weaker currency (the guilder was linked to the Deutsch Mark, one of the hardest currencies in the basket).

What about Chips?

[hipster_doofus]

One of the most secure "currencies" I've seen are casino chips. A counterfeiter would have to be incredibly skilled to create anything similar to some of the chips that Chipco and Paulson Gaming produce today. These are the chips that you see most-often at any major casino around the world. Not only is the chip material nearly impossible to duplicate, the counterfeiter would have to have some *very* sophisticated equipment to duplicate the dye and printing that chip manufacturers are able to accomplish.

As an owner of a set of Chipco chips, I can also attest to the fact that they are very durable and easy to clean, which should mean that we wouldn't have to make so much new currency each year just to replace the currency that gets worn out.

Why don't we all start using chips and plaques (the rectangular chips that you see used mostly in high-roller rooms)?

And what about other denominations?

[dacarr]

I once received a bogus $10. Wanna know something weird? Because of the bad quality, it looked a little like that new $20 on CNN.

And the subtle changes thing is nothing new. I mean, the Sackopotatoes dollar coin was apparently put in place to phase out the $1 bill, and before they refaced the $10, they put the security strip into it. As far as the dollar coins, I myself prefer them to $1 bills anyway - I don't have to fart around with trying to convince the farebox on the bus that the bill I feed it is a one, rather I just drop the coin in and go along my merry way. But I digress.

That they're making Yet Another version of the US $20 bill is kinda cool, but let's go with a standard and stick there for a bit. Better yet, let's reface ALL paper currency, conspiracy theories be damned.

Still paper? Still green?

[Xenex]

Why paper? Polymer notes last longer, are much harder to damage, and are much more difficult to counterfeit. Also, adding extra anti-counterfeiting measures such as transparent windows, micro-print, and watermarks is simple.

Why so much green? All the US notes are green, which makes distinguishing between denominations take longer than it should. If the notes were coloured, only a quick glance would be required to check denomination, especially for people with vision impairment.

To speak from my own experience in Australia, it's been all polymer notes since 1990. Each note is a different colour and length, doesn't rip, and is terribly difficult to counterfeit.

I'm just surprised this new $US20 isn't polymer. The technology works - why not use it?

It happened to me.

[TerryAtWork]

I was in a coffee shop about 3 am one Saturday when this kid tried to pay for his coffee with a fake ten (This is in Canada, the land where Moose rule).

The fake was easy to spot, printed on smooth paper on a colour ink jet printer - what made me laugh was some of it had got wet and the ink had run...

We called the cops and the kid disappeared.

...as well as religous proclamations

[f97tosc]

On the back I can still read that we trust in God. Well, I am not so sure I share these supersitious beliefs. Does that mean that I am not an American or that I should not use the bill? Tor

and the RIAA...

[Anonymous Coward]

the newest advances in the original copy-protection arms race

yeah, right... i'm sure copies will be available on Kazaa any day now.

a.c.

Why have money at all?

[bmalia]

I think that carrying around currency is outdated. How much of what you buy these days do you actually pay in cash? I use direct withdrawl for my car payment. When I pull up to a gas station, I'll use the pay-at-the-pump feature with my debit card. The only thing I need cash for is for buying a double-quarter pounder with cheese value meal or maybe a can of Mountain Dew from the vending machine.

Electronic forms of payment are becomming more prefered among vendors. And as a consumer, you should prefer them too. In 7 to 10 years, we should focus our attention on making electronic payments more secure and not finding a color scheme that is difficult to print out on an ink-jet.

Coins and bills are for collectors. Its 2003 people... we're supposed to have flying cars by now!

you have to...

[zogger]

.. you have to differentiate between the concept of "money" and produced "wealth". You are correct, anything can be made "money" and used, especially at gunpoint and by inertia. the difference is, when your "moeny" is backed by a tangible, it cannot be inflated or deflated arbitarily. it can't be scammed or conned or disappeared or created by trickery. It's (precious metals now) also by far and away the oldest, most used and most "trusted" human currency, all the way back to pre biblical times. And you may still rest assurred, the very high level dudes on the planet still "trust" it. They just don't want you peons to use it, that's all, but they sure do. Don't believe me, go up to any big bullion holding bank and ask for a free sample of their worthless or near worthless precious metals.

They want you to keep using that counterfeit crap they print up, sweet deal for them! they can create boom/bust cycles, get you sucked in on credit, act all pious, the good times are rolling! Then WHAM, lower the boom, create a "depression", and walk away with your wealth for "pennies on the dollar". They just have to make sure they don't get too greedy, have some years in between their scam cycles,especially their larger ones, so people won't revolt against them.

How many factories or farms raptured away into the ether during the so called "great" depression? Zero, that's how many, just title in huge numbers got transferred up stream, all "legal". How convenient for them. Whoops, they also confiscated the gold back then, what a coincidence!

I would support a return to the original US monetary idea, but carry it a step further, to make the true monetary supply reflect produced wealth. I would recommend something along the lines of a monetary supply, that is not only backed and represented by precious metals at the top,those would be the representations called "money" as in coins, but by the top 100 commodities traded the previous fiscal year. These are quantifiable tangibles, produced wealth, verifiable, useful, and real. Those commodities could evolve around society's evolution and business. The supply itself could still be paper for day to day trading, or you would have the option of using the coins for the higher level currency, something durable and that can last. More than likely the coins themselves would become very valuable, with the ability to rise in value as humans work and produce wealth, sort of "interest" in a way, but not inflationary and 'borrowed into existence". The coins themselves raise in value, and the digits aren't as important, ie, example, it wouldn't matter if your 300 grand house now as represented in FRN's only "cost' 30 grand in "real" tangibles based money, or 3 grand for that matter, it really wouldn't matter, you'd still have the house,and no "new" money could be "borrowed into creation", it must represent true *produced* wealth, which is either grown, mined, or combined into a manufactured product. That's IT, that's what "wealth" is. "Money" is different, and eliminating the fraud potential with eliminating fiat currencies is a worthy goal, IMO.

I think keynesian economics and fractional reserve banking are just an absolute scam and lead to huge profits for people who have no moral claim to them other than through force of co-opted government arms and highly advanced shucksterism. It is a huge theft-by-deception,I mean really huge, it's buncoism on a grand scale. If you go back and research the passage of the federal reserve 'act' you will see how incredibly sneaky and bogus it was when it was voted on, because at the time it was reviled. If it worked in the long run we wouldn't be having governmental "debt", it would be impossible almost to even contemplate that, ie, you would find it impossible to "spend" that which you do not have. If fiat currencies had actual lasting value, then so could artificially high "stock" values, after all, it's essentially the same thing, a piece of paper or electronic entry that gets called as "worth" such and such when it is not in a

Re:you have to...

[zogger]

--the "Fed" is in an unusual situation of tgheir own making, because of the nature of using phony money. On one hand, they want a 'strong dollar", so tyhat joe sixpack can buy cheap imports. On the other hand, they want a "weak dollar" so that our exports can be sold overseas easier.

So let's look at what they are doing to go along with this dichotomy (apparent).

destroying the vertical manufacturing base, the real deal when it comes to creating wealth and not just re-arranging wealth. check, moving that stuff offshore as fast as they can.

OK, that leaves agriculture. Whoops, other nations are taking those markets, and fast.

Well, then, mining, that's it, that's the last of actual wealth producing industries. whoops again, "ponderosa mine closed due to the flying three eyed newt owl that nests in the varigated spiderwort".

Hmm, gee.... but but, stuff at the store is still cheap!

why yes, as long as you still have a job and keep using them credit cards!

HAHAHAHAH

It's just SO obvious the great rip-off is coming! It's gonna make the great depression look like a lemonade stand stickup!

I think the scam they will use to stifle dissent then and to impose drastic "police" presence and stop the riots will be biological in origin.
Cut to the US movie set --> "Que biological terrorist attack, take one!"

Telling small lies is hard, it's those really big ones that are easy it appears.

I remember my grandmothers and great aunts telling me about the great depression scam, how tons of the local real estate just shifted hands up stream.

got another one here local. civil war time, south loses, carpet baggers come down. Well, confederate money gets declared "illegal" it's made worthless, you need "union" money. Deal was, no one who lived down here had any "union" money. when the tax came due,or the farm bank note, surprise, no money to pay it. Carpetbaggers picked up entire farms around here for 50 or 60 cents. entire farms. To this day there's two families local here will not speak to each other.

True facts on what happens when your fiat money gets blown out. And lookeee just recent down in argentina, what happened there. It don't matter to US folks much because those are "foreigners on the TV",and "it can't happen here".

Uh huh, yep. It only already happened to peoples grand parents or great grandparents, but it's "impossible" to happen. "just because"

Mostly your are correct, I own "stuff", tangibles. I do business in tangibles as much as possible, sorta hard, but not impossible. I saw what was going to happen in the go-go 90's when I saw how incredibly greedy people can be, and what they think money and wealth are. It's like no one stops to think 'wealth" can't be created out of thin air, it has to be a human being doing something to create "wealth".

Ya, I'm holding out for the next two bubbles, real estate and derivatives. I should do OK then with my "loony" tangibles. I believe in metals, gold, silver, steel, brass, copper and lead. Good stuff.

The true litmus test...

[reverseengineer]

"It will still have a different watermark and security strip. You could tell the difference in about 15 seconds," Ferguson said.

The problem is that 15 seconds is about 14 more seconds than your average counter jockey is going to spend looking at the twenty you just handed over. I can see taking that sort of time to verify a bill if it's a 100, but so many "yuppie food stamps" (crisp 20s, fresh from the ATM) get spent that it wouldn't be difficult to pass off a decent fake. It wouldn't pass muster with a Secret Service agent, of course, but if it can pass a cursory glance by the clerk, it'll go right in the drawer with its legitimate siblings from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

Re:The Treasury Dept. is the Chief Counterfeiter!

[sebmol]

Federal Reserve Notes and Treasury Notes are produced by divisions of the federal government. Hence, the provision of the consitution is fulfilled.

Um...OK.

[waldoj]

If they'd just take Jackson off the twenty, I'd be happy. If you're not aware, this is the guy that was responsible for deporting many of the native americans to Oklahoma.

OK, we'll do that. Just name a president that is without flaw or a disputed reputation, and we'll use him.

-Waldo Jaquith

Re:Um...OK.

[hackstraw]

I don't know how you define "flaw", but Jimmy Carter's reputation is fine.

Re:Becoming more and more like Europe

[Capt. DrunkenBum]

I know I am going to get modded down, but:

I just had to say. The European countrys don't want you, the Third world countrys don't want you. The middle east countrys want you dead..

Did you ever think maybe something is wrong with you?

No?

Perhaps you should.

It figures...

[Trolling4Dollars]

What a dull design. I don't understand why America never tries something a little more radical with their money. Australian money has a much better design overall. Their bills appear to be made of a plastic or paper/plastic hybrid. They also have a clear portion which would be much harder to counterfeit. But I think the best feature of Australian bills is that the actual physical width of the bill increases with the value of the denomination by about 5 mm per bill. That makes it so much easier to tell ata glance what value your bill has without needing to actually read the numbers. I, for one, would love to see the old fashioned greenback go the way of the T-rex.

Currency changes

[labradore]

I, for one, am very sick of all this changing currency. I run a laundromat and depend on a bill changer. If the currency changes then I must pay almost $1000 for a new bill reader to accept the new 20s. The bill reader does not make me money, it is just the cost of doing business. Every time our stupid government decides to change the currency, that's more out of my pocket and into the pockets of the damnable changer manufacturers.

Re:Now if they'd only take Jackson off the twenty.

[Zathrus]

He's also responsible for setting up the Federal Banking system, which is a large reason for why the dollar has become a stable and respected form of currency.

So maybe it does make sense to have him on the currency after all.

Yeah, he was hardly the finest president. He was also hardly the worst... as with many great leaders he was very controversial.

Stupid copy protection

[elmo13]

First they try to stop us making 'back ups' of our music and videos (for personal use of course), then they make it even harder for us to make 'back ups' of our money.

Thats just stupid

-- http://www.spran.co.uk (America doesnt exist)

Re:2 bucks?

[innate]

When's the last time they actually printed a $2 bill?

1996 (series 1995)

Re:If dollar bills were like computer software..

[blibbleblobble]

"If dollar bills were like computer software..."

Please type the 30-digit registration number which came on the disposable plastic wrapper of these dollars... Do you accept the license agreement?

US Currency: Evil (and Good)

[ChaosDiscord]

We have some of the most distinctive currency on the planet. The green and black bills we print are recognized everywhere, in part because no one else is willing to print currency quite that ugly. If you quickly flash a mess of bills from most countries in front of someone, they would be unable to identify the source country. It's just a patchwork of bright colors without any key identifying characteristic. Flash some US dollars and the heavy green markings instantly identifies it.

By being (basically) one color and using the needlessly closed and old fashioned design, we end up with currency that just looks evil. When you look at a good ol' US greenback, you know you're looking at the root of all evil. You have to respect it, in much the same way you might respect a court summons. It's dark and gritty, suitable for underhanded bribes and black market deals. When you frame the first dollar your business earns it remains an ugly green mark on your wall, no one will confuse it for some piece of nice art, it evokes the blood sweat and tears that went into starting the company.

Adding more colors is a mistake. So is opening up the design (Jackson is no longer imprisoned in a bubble). Our currency is starting to look open, friendly. This is an insult to our bill's heritage as something that looks evil and is widely identifiable.

Keep our money evil!

Re:There's nothing appealing about Denise Richarar

[guacamolefoo]

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.

Why not do the job properly ?

[ukoda]

I recently travelled to the US from New Zealand and found the money a real pain. Kiwi money is plastic and all different colours and sizes. Over here you simply look at the edge of the notes in your wallet to see the correct colour and fish out that one. While in the US I had to remove the notes from my wallet first so I could read the numbers. As a tourist this made me feel uncomfortable about doing public transactions, not being one who likes to 'flash the cash'.
I worked on note vending machines at the time of our change from paper to plastic money so I was one of the people invited to the Reserve Bank to see the features of the new money. We where given real and counterfeit US money and asked to tell which was which, it was impossible to tell to the untrained eye. Then we where shown some of the methods used to try and counterfeit the Australian currency, which uses the same technology as ours. At was funny to see bits of paper with holes cut in them for the clear window etc. They also showed off some ideas they haven't used yet. One was a clear window at each end with printed lines that create an interference pattern when the note is folded in half. I also saw what happens if you over heat the plastic notes, they shrink ! But don't worry you have to get them real hot to do that. On a practical note (no pun intended) you need to look at static handling for new plastic notes in note handling machines or else the stick together.

Er, what?

[zipwow]

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

hang on

[RMH101]

shouldn't that be pictures of presidents dead from the neck up?