Bureau of Engraving and Printing Issues New US$20

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Bureau of Engraving and Printing Issues New US$20

Posted by ryuzaki0 on Thursday October 9, 2003 @12:26AM from the legal-tender dept.

jea6 writes "Hot off the Western Currency Facility presses in Fort Worth! The Bureau of Engraving and Printing is issuing the new US$20 note to banks today. The newly redesigned Series 2004 $20 notes have background colors (so long, greenbacks) and improved security features. Ask your bank to send a few your way. Unlike the U.S Mint's "Golden Dollar", these notes will be issued to replace the Series 2001 note. Look for a redesigned Grant in 2004 and a new Benjamin in 2005. The US Government is spending $53,000,000 over the next 5 years to make sure everybody knows that this is a real note, so go get acquainted with one."

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Good idea by msoya · 2003-10-09 00:27 · Score: 0, Informative

So the USA is catching up with the rest of the world at last?
1. Re:Good idea by Epignosis · 2003-10-09 00:57 · Score: 1, Informative
  
  Kiwis arent the only people with plastic money, here in Northern Ireland we've had them for a while now too, plastic windows and all. (I especially like the cool "vertical" design)
  
  The funniest thing is when you try to spend them in the rest of the UK (especially England) they have no idea whats going on. (Northern Ireland produces 4 different sets of notes from 4 diff banks. Scotland also print Bank of Scotland notes. England and Wales only have Bank of England, but all of them are legal tender, go figure??)
2. Re:Good idea by Epignosis · 2003-10-09 01:08 · Score: 1, Informative
  
  Apologies to anyone offended by what I said above after checking wikipedia.org, which says:
  
  Pound sterling banknotes are issued by
  
  * the Bank of England accepted throughout the UK;
  * the Bank of Scotland (generally accepted throughout the UK);
  * the Royal Bank of Scotland (generally accepted throughout the UK);
  * the Clydesdale Bank (generally accepted throughout the UK);
  * the Bank of Ireland, First Trust Bank, Northern Bank and Ulster Bank (rarely seen outside Northern Ireland).
  
  Sterling banknotes are also issued by
  
  * the Government of the Isle of Man and
  * the States of Jersey and
  * the States of Guernsey, but their notes are not generally accepted off their own islands (although Guernsey notes can sometimes be found in Jersey and vice versa).
Think these are good? You should see the .au notes by hype7 · 2003-10-09 00:34 · Score: 5, Informative

The Aussie notes are amongst the best in the world, IMO.

Different colours for different values.

Different sizes for different values.

They're based on Polymer. Put one through the wash, it comes out looking like new. Well, almost.

Some extremely sophisticated anti-counterfeiting techniques.

Our Reserve Bank has even been thoughtful enough to worry about those with vision impairment.

And, they just look cool.
Re:I don't get it. by hype7 · 2003-10-09 00:39 · Score: 2, Informative

So, tell me, if I'm a counterfitter, why wouldn't I just copy the older bills and 'age' them in the washing machine?

The US government has promised to honour them. Not necessarily Joe Blogs on the street corner.

What normally happens is that the country's central bank draws a line underneath a certain date, and says "from this day forth, only the new currency is legal tender. If you want to exchange the old currency for new currency, bring it to us or a big private bank".

Normally, the outlets that accept the old notes have some pretty sophisticated devices for checking whether the currency is legitimate or not, regardless of how old it is. I know my bank took a very long time to check a whole lot of foreign notes I wanted exchanged when I got back. The teller had to take them out back and run them through a variety of tests. This would be no different.

-- james
Re:Anybody got... by lorax · 2003-10-09 00:43 · Score: 3, Informative

B.E.P. must have had you in mind. You can download the PDF file of the new bill here: http://www.moneyfactory.com/newmoney/files/Bill_gl ossies_white.pdf

Does anyone else think that government sites should have .gov domains? I mean, moneyfactory.com sounds like a scam site to me.

BTW, they still have green backs.
Re:pssst: the counterfeiters are winning by Anonymous Coward · 2003-10-09 00:47 · Score: 1, Informative

Actually they wanted to go to full color money over a decade ago, but the American people are so conservative about money they fought it every time the subject was brought up. The treasury admited before the 2001 redisign that it wasn't good enough, they said it was all they would be allowed to do at the time. Sort of a stop-gap measure. I'm sure they are keeping it hush-hush, so that by the time people start calling congres to complain it's already a done deal.
I thought starting with high value bills like they did last time, was a great way to train Americans that the new money wasn't fake.
If you think my version of the story is wrong, listen to the comedy and talk shows. They'll be all talking about how much they dislike the new money.
Re:Euro - when will the usa adopt? by mblase · 2003-10-09 00:51 · Score: 2, Informative

Actually, the American "dollar" borrows it's name from Spanish currency, not Austrian. Bumming from naked_ape's accurate writeup at everything2.com:
The origin of the word dollar comes from the coins that Spanish emperor Carlos I ordered to coin at the beginnings of the XVIth century. They were of silver, (read Webster's wu for more precise information) and they had the same value as the German thaler.

A century later, when the spanish thalers began to circulate in North America, they were called spanish dollars, as someone wrote "dollars" instead of "thalers".

When the U.S.A. became a nation, the dollar acquired the category of national currency. In those coins were engraved the Columns of Hercules, the symbol for the Spanish Empire, that ultimately were converted into the sign that epitomizes dollars and money everywhere: $
Re:I don't get it. by dschuetz · 2003-10-09 01:05 · Score: 2, Informative

And to top that off, I have a bicentenial $2 bill that looks nothing like the other $2 bills out there.

Huh? They redesigned the $2 bill in 1976, with the "bicentennial reverse" (the painting of the Signing of the Declaration of Independence), but it's been the same ever since. They don't print many (they printed a bunch in the mid 70's and a bunch more in the 90's). The only other reverse I've seen was Monticello, and that was last printed in the 60's (and might have been a US note, not a Federal Reserve note, I think).

Then there are those mysterious bills that say "sliver certificate". How the hell are we ever supposed to know what is money and what isn't?

You know by how good they look, how real they feel, how well done the printing is, etc.

The fun part -- those "Silver Certificates" are still real money. You can buy stuff with them, just as easily as with today's money. But you'd be a fool to do so, and you'd probably have a LOT of trouble getting someone to take it.
The Euro is worth more than the US Dollar. by Xenex · 2003-10-09 01:23 · Score: 3, Informative

Clicky clicky.

Right now, 1 EUR = 1.17USD.
Similar website for euro notes by forged · 2003-10-09 01:32 · Score: 2, Informative

Very cool notes indeedd. A somewhat similar page exists for the Euro at eurotracer.net. The web site even allows you to enter the serial number of the notes you have in your possession, and will tell you if that note was already recorded at a prior date and give you its location back then, showing how money travels !
The site is loaded with information on not just notes but coins as well, just browse around.
Re:Think these are good? You should see the .au no by Anonymous Coward · 2003-10-09 02:32 · Score: 1, Informative

Not actually. Hold up a bill so that the portrait is upright and call the vertical size Y and the horizontal size X. All Australian bills have the same Y. They're all the same "width," if you will. They're just all different "lengths." So bill handling machines that take and dispense bills "lengthwise" have no problem.
Re:Next step: Get rid of the US penny by RevMike · 2003-10-09 02:55 · Score: 2, Informative

... prices are usually inclusive of tax so there are fewer oddball amounts to pay.
Oddball amounts in the US are not the result of taxes being added to the total. Shopkeepers could easily work backwards to price things such that the taxes rounded off the total.
Our non-round prices were intentionally set to force cashiers to use the cash register. If prices were nice and easy to calculate in one's head and were likely to come to some round number, a cashier might never key the sale into the register. Since the number was round, the customer might hand over the exact amount. The cashier could pocket the amount of the entire sale.
By forcing the cashier to key the sale into the cash register, and forcing the cashier to make change, the opportunities to steal are reduced.
Re:I don't get it. by Zachary+Kessin · 2003-10-09 03:11 · Score: 2, Informative

Not in the US. All money ever issued by the US goverment back to the first coins in the 1790's are still legal tender. In theory if you had a quarter dated 1800 you could spend it.

This is not true of many countries, When I lived in England they changed the money around from time to time. (And ofcourse they changed it in a major way in the 1960's). Here in Israel we are on our 3rd money unit in 50 some years. We had the Israeli Pound, then the Shekel, now the NEW Shekel. Other countries do other things.

--
Erlang Developer and podcaster
Re:I don't get it. by Phleg · 2003-10-09 03:37 · Score: 2, Informative

The US government has promised to honour them. Not necessarily Joe Blogs on the street corner.

I suggest you take a closer look at your bills. "This note is legal tender for all debts, public and private." The bills must be accepted for the payment of debts, services, etc., by U.S. law. You cannot pick which bills you will or will not accept, under U.S. law.

--
No comment.
Re:How this happened by Anonymous Coward · 2003-10-09 04:51 · Score: 1, Informative

letterman already beat you to that joke
Re:I don't get it. by DietFluffy · 2003-10-09 08:13 · Score: 3, Informative

Wrong.

Source: United States Department of the Treasury

Question: I thought that United States currency was legal tender for all debts. Some businesses or governmental agencies say that they will only accept checks, money orders or credit cards as payment, and others will only accept currency notes in denominations of $20 or smaller. Isn't this illegal?

Answer: The pertinent portion of law that applies to your question is the Coinage Act of 1965, specifically Section 102. This is now found in section 392 of Title 31 of the United States Code. The law says that: "All coins and currencies of the United States, regardless of when coined or issued, shall be legal-tender for all debts, public and private, public charges, taxes, duties and dues."

This statute means that all United States money as identified above are a valid and legal offer of payment for debts when tendered to a creditor. There is, however, no Federal statute mandating that a private business, a person or an organization must accept currency or coins as for payment for goods and/or services. Private businesses are free to develop their own policies on whether or not to accept cash unless there is a State law which says otherwise. For example, a bus line may prohibit payment of fares in pennies or dollar bills. In addition, movie theaters, convenience stores and gas stations may refuse to accept large denomination currency (usually notes above $20) as a matter of policy.