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Bureau of Engraving and Printing Issues New US$20
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."
In 2001 they released a new bill design, and said "we want to stay one step ahead of the counterfeiters". Before that the bill had been unchanged for, what, 30 years? And now three years later, they're releasing a new bill? Its being kept hush-hush, but this is a clear sign that our currency is being successfully counterfitted.
Sure does... a $2 bill will get you a $20 lap dance from just about any exotic dancer...
I'm British. I'm used to European money, which is all different colours and different sizes, and in a lot of cases is made out of plastic. You probably don't realise just how weird American money looks to us; it's all the same size, it's all the same colour --- even the material feels odd; thin and papery and not very robust. (Rag paper, isn't it?)
When I last visited the US, dealing with American money was a continual surprise. Normally when I visit another country it doesn't take long before I can recognise notes by colour and size, which makes it much easier to handle. With American money, I kept having to peer at it to work out what it was I was about to hand over. I got the impression that they were designed by someone who knew about ergonomics, but wanted no truck with the idea.
Of course, this is mostly just a matter of being used to a different system (I expect that with some practice you get used to looking at the picture rather than the overall design), but I do wonder how blind and partially sighted people manage.
While this isn't a complete solution, at least the high-denomination notes will look different from the low-denomination notes, which will make it much less easy to, e.g., tip someone a hundred dollars instead of one. (Although whether this is considered a benefit depends which side of the transaction you're standing.)
Euro - what a shitty name for currency!
Even more creative than "Dollar", because this name was ripped off from the Austrian currency "Taler" that was first established in the 15th century. But Euro on the other side symbolizes unity, a unity of countries with a currency stronger than the dollar (it is way stronger, even OPEC thinks about switching from Dollar to Euro as standard currency).
A monkey is doing the real work for me.
I guess I'm in the minority here, but when I'm executing financial transactions (from going to the bank to going out to lunch), I CHECK the denominations of the bills I give and those I recieve. The new-look (not the brand-new-look) currency has a high-contrast, big, blocky, really-hard-to-miss printing of the denomination in one corner, and if I'm overpaying (using a $10 for less than $5, $20 for less than $10), I hand that side to the cashier or whoever's taking my money to make sure they get it.
I have sympathy for the blind, but no color change is going to help them. Changing the size of the bills here would meet with such outrage as hasn't been seen since the Susan B. Anthony dollar. (Good thing we issued the Sacajawea dollar - everybody's using that, right?)
But hey. Something's better than nothing, right?
Dare to Hope. Prepare to be Disappointed.
All the big portrait remakes of U.S. currency neglected the one dollar bill.
From what I understand, paper money costs more to maintain relative to coin over a period of years. Wear and tear means reprinting and replacement over a shorter life cycle for paper currency.
There's been 2 or 3 attempts to get US to use one dollar coins, and the vending machine manufacturers and the casinos would welcome the move, but people keep wanting to use those $1 bills over the Ike dollars, the Susan B. dollars and I'm not sure what else.
What's weird is that coins up to $20 denomination were used in the 19th century. And that was when $20 represented something like 2/3 of a month's wages for many people.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
Made from plastic, but designed to feel like paper, they are practically unforgable. They have transparent windows, water marks, textured areas, the whole shibang. If you ever manage to get hold of one, you'll realise just how impossible a task making a replica would be.
Just from the link above, here's the security features of our notes (all of which I think are rather cool):
1. Each polymer note has two transparent windows. One of the transparent windows is oval-shaped and sloping and has the denomination numerals embossed in it. The other clear window is in the shape of a curved fern leaf.
2. There is a fern immediately above the clear fern-shaped window. When you hold the note to the light, the fern should match perfectly with another fern on the other side.
3. You should easily be able to see a shadow image of the Queen when you hold the note to the light.
4. Each note has an individual serial number printed horizontally and vertically.
5. Polymer notes have raised printing, which stands up on the surface and can be felt when you run your fingers over it.
6. Tiny micro-printed letters "RBNZ" should be visible with a magnifying glass.
7. Under an ultraviolet light, the polymer note appears dull. Most commercial papers used in forgeries will glow under an ultraviolet light. However, polymer notes contain special inks, which make particular features glow under an ultraviolet light. For example, the front of each genuine note has a fluorescent patch showing the denomination numerals, which can only be seen under an ultraviolet light.
Looks can be deceiving. Or CAN they?
One of the little hassles of life I struck when moving from New Zealand to the US is the greater effort required to empty my pocket of coins. I'd never seen those little boxes of pennies on shop counters. In NZ we gave up our 1 and 2 cent coins long ago and nobody seemed to suffer much. In the US this is the subject of a raging debate. Change (no pun intended) doesn't come easily here. In NZ we also have $1 and $2 coins and prices are usually inclusive of tax so there are fewer oddball amounts to pay.
Yes, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing has supplied test samples to the makers of recognition devices so that they can update as needed. Current models are software-updateable, but it will be a bit of a pain regardless. There are quite a few machines which accept $20s - I've seen them in Post Offices and at laundromats!
When will they get it through their heads that the construction of the bill won't every solve counterfeiting? Anything they can make, others can make too. Last time, the Russian mafia had excellent fakes out almost before most people in the US had the new bills in their pockets!
The only practical solution is to surveil the money (not the people). What do I mean by "surveil the money?". Well, each bill already has a serial number. You don't have to track every bill either, just most bills. Scanners at banks, convenience stores, and other common cash exchange points would transmit the location of the bill, as well as validate the bill.
To catch a counterfeiter, just watch for the following inconsistancies: Bills moving at hypersonic speeds accross the US, serial numbers that aren't in the database, two bills with the same number in different locations, etc.
Then, just pull up the surveilance tapes from the stores where the bills are passed. Match faces. If a suspicious bill is passed by the same person more than once, you have just cause. Get warrant. Search house. You've got them.
A few crooks would still slip through now and then, but high-volume operations would be extremely difficult because the odds would catch up with these guys. They would have to control the valid bill to prevent the dupe flag from being raised, or conspire to hack the database, or launder money through stores that didn't participate in the system--activities which are much easier to investigate and track.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Is it true that they can never change the $1 bill because there it is so easy to forge that there is a vast and unknown amount of forgeries out there, and changing the bill would risk a finacial collapse, if the american government had to 'redeem' all of the forgeries?
***You learn something Every day. And then you die.***
Someone please file an ADA suit with the fed. How much longer will blind people be stuck with shitty bills? There's plenty of blind people who are perfectly capable of shopping, but can't due to lack of proper currency. No, credit is not a viable option, as there is no way to verify your purchase amount at checkout, and braille receipt printers would be far more expensive than switching the bills to other sizes.
/. Eurotrolls:) Look, how often do you put a $100 bill into a vending machine? Make it larger. Ditto from $20 on up. The only thing that might be a minor bit of hassle is changing the size of the $5 and $10.
I mean, even those heathens in Europe have bills with different sizes. Their merchants seem to be able to handle it without trouble. Perhaps the Europeans are smarter than Americans? (Here come the
That's the difference between the blind and the deaf communities. The deaf would be marching on DC if they couldn't use currency. The blind just shut up and take it. (Before you blast me or mod me down, my wife is both deaf and blind, so I have experience with both groups.)
Jesus was all right but his disciples were thick and ordinary. -John Lennon