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Treasury Goes High-Tech With Redesigned $100 Bills
Hugh Pickens writes "AP reports that as part of an effort to stay ahead of counterfeiters, the Department of the Treasury has designed a high-tech makeover of the $100 bill with a disappearing Liberty Bell in an inkwell and a bright blue security ribbon composed of thousands of tiny lenses that magnify objects in mysterious ways. The new blue security ribbon will give a 3-D effect to the micro-images that the thousands of lenses will be magnifying. Tilt the note back and forth and you will see tiny bells on the ribbon change to 100s as they move. Tilt the note side to side and the images will move up and down."
The idea behind making it hard to reproduce federal reserve notes is to keep counterfeiters from robbing us by expanding the money supply, but the Fed does exactly that on a scale that no independent counterfeiter could even imagine.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Where can I get free samples of this new product?
Presumably to amplify the smoke and mirrors used by the Fed to make it appear the bills are actually worth anything.
The Free Competition in Currency Act and Federal Reserve Transparency Act are good places to start. Talk to your congressman today and ask them to sober up.
Peter
Downsize DC Today!
...that mimics the virtue it symbolises.
There's really no excuse for this. The bills should have different color and size to help the visually impaired. There's no good reason not to. Sure, don't change the $1 due to bill readers. I suppose there are $5/$10/$20 readers, though usually at the post office (and hence easy to change from the government's perspective). But really -- why not mix up the $50 and $100 so that they're easier for those with disabilities to use. It'd at least be a step in the right direction.
Support a few technologists in Washington.
We already have plastic money. We call them credit cards.
Probably not. In quantities large enough to be worth the risk of Hard Federal Time(tm) coins are heavy and bulky. Plus, fabricating metal objects on any substantial scale is generally more of a pain in the ass, and is rather more visible, than printing paper.
My(admittedly layman's) understanding, is that hundreds, to the degree they are counterfeited at all, are mostly the domain of Real Serious Actors(North Korea always seems to be on the list of suspects). Most domestic and/or fairly small-time operators are banging out twenties or smaller; because those are much easier to disseminate without attracting suspicion(counterfeit currency is worse than useless if you can't find a good way to spend it, or sell it to someobody who can, since merely producing or knowingly possessing is illegal; but it is only valuable if spent). Even if they are 100% authentic, most places will give you a seriously suspicious look if you show up with a brick of hundreds. No bored retail drone is even going to bother with a second glance if you pay your tab in a busy, dimly-lit bar with a reasonably plausible twenty or two.
I'll make me some money the old fashion way.
Ways to spot the bills printed by AC in his Mom's basement:
1. One Hundred Dollars reads One Hunnert Dollars
B. The United States of America reads The Untied State of America
Third. The phrase "Haulin' Ass and Gettin' Paid" does not actually appear on legitimate US currency.
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
You're joking right? While not pocket change, it's also not a terribly large amount of money either. I guess it depends on location, but in my neck of the woods it's not uncommon at all. I have never come across a place that refused a hundred dollar bill (or fifties).
"This calls for a very special blend of psychology and extreme violence" - Vyvyan "The Young Ones"
So you do not have to have your own credit card swiping machine and an account with a processor to sell something on craigslist.
Go green: turn off your refrigerator.
The US Treasury Department is testing polymer bank notes, but there are concerns that the American public will reject a plastic Greenback.
Are they serious? Americans wouldn't like more durable plastic money because it's not American paper money? I've never lived in a world with paper money, and whenever I go overseas I always notice that paper money is flimsy and often torn, not to mention in the tropics it's sweaty. Plastic money is the way to go.
All older bills are valid until they wear out. In other words; this is a pointless exercise unless they set an expiry date for older bills.
Most US $100 notes are circulated outside of the US. I don't know the percentage, but it's very high. Aside from legal users, there is a lot of people with large caches of $100 notes that our government doesn't like.
In non-US countries the the phrase "legal tender for all debts public and private" carries no weight. They can be picky about what notes they accept. Every time that new US notes are issued, people with large hoards of US cash find that their old notes are no longer accepted and they have to scramble to get new notes. They get noticed.
The US "rejects" changes to its currency because it never pushes changes properly. The dollar coin being one example. How do you get people to switch from dollar bills to dollar coins? By not printing dollar bills any more and taking them out of circulation when they go through clearing. Eventually everyone switches whether they want to or not. As a further incentive you pass legislation that makes old currency non-legal tender after some reasonable point, after which people must exchange it at a central bank.
If the situation with dollars sounds pathetic, that's because it is. European countries are far more adept at switching notes than the US, so adept in fact that most of Europe switched entirely from one entire currency to another in the space of a few months. Not only does it mean currency can more readily introduce anti counterfeiting measures but can also include more features for blind & sight impaired people too such as coloured notes & size differences in coinage.
That weird smile was more likely a knowing "guess who's gettin' mugged later" look.
For large sets, this will be our guide even unto death, for the LORD will work for each type of data it is applied to...
Maybe you don't carry hundreds... But I do as well as most people I know.
I don't have any problem spending them. In fact I have yet to find a place that will not accept a hundred as payment. Unless I'm being a prick and buying a pack of gum and paying with it.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Personally I care less about what they're made of and more about the sizes and colours. I know dollars are tinted now, but they're still basically green, and all the same size. Not a major issue, I know, but it's just that little bit less convenient when you're thumbing through your wallet.
Or, if you happen to be blind, more than "a little less convenient". US paper currency has been ruled to be discriminatory to the blind. Unfortunately, this redesign does not address the issue.
The biggest reason I've seen for not changing the size or adding raised/textured numbers that can be felt by hand, is that it would screw up vending machines. But there are a couple of points of counterargument. For one, can you say that older vending machines will be able to read this new redesigned bill either? It seems so totally different that it's unlikely.
But even if it can, there's the second point; most of the many, many vending machines in the US accept $1 and $5 bills, selling $1.50 cans of coke or $1 bags of candy. Yes, there are a small number of machines selling higher priced items such as electronics, but these are much less common (and have higher profits as well). So, the solution is to start changing size from the top down, keeping the $1 bill the same. Only the relatively rare, high-profit machines need to be changed over to accept the new bills. The machines found in every school, shopping center, and transportation hub selling Coke and M&Ms don't have to be touched.
You can't tip strippers with dollar coins.
Yeah, that pesky thong is in the way of the coin slot.
i'd hit it so hard, if you pulled me out you'd be the king of britain [bash.org]