A newly designed $100 (U.S.) note aims to thwart counterfeiters with advanced security features, top U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve officials said on Wednesday.
The "new Benjamins" to be released in February 2011 retain the traditional look of the U.S. currency, with Benjamin Franklin's portrait.
Features to foil counterfeiters a blue three-dimensional security ribbon with alternating images of bells and the number 100 that move and change as the viewing angle is tilted.
The new notes, which cost slightly more to produce, also feature a bell image inside a picture of an inkwell that changes from copper to green when tilted, as well as a large "100" that does the same.
"As with previous U.S. currency redesigns, this note incorporates the best technology available to ensure we're staying ahead of counterfeiters," U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said at a Treasury Department unveiling ceremony. "Welcome to the new Benjamins."
The $100 note, last redesigned in 1996, is the most often counterfeited denomination of U.S. currency outside the United States due to its broad circulation overseas. It is the highest-denominated note issued by the Federal Reserve.
The approximately 6.5 billion older design $100s already in circulation will remain legal tender after the new notes are released next year.
In recent years, U.S. officials have been trying to combat the continued production of extremely high-quality counterfeit $100 notes they say are produced in North Korea, dubbed the "supernote," which are undetectable to nearly all but the most sophisticated currency experts.
The U.S. Secret Service, the agency charged with policing the cash dollar's integrity, maintains that less than 1/100th of one percent of the $890 billion in physical U.S. currency in circulation is counterfeit.
But that still adds up to tens of millions of fake dollars in circulation and Secret Service officials say they still encounter supernotes and other highly sophisticated fakes from overseas, many produced on Swiss-made intaglio presses with the raised printing that gives U.S. currency its distinctive feel.
In the United States, the $20 note is the most frequently counterfeited denomination.
The new Benjamins have been in development since 2003. The blue security ribbon is woven into the note's fabric -- not printed on. Another security strip embedded into the fabric shows "USA" and "100" to the left of Franklin's head when the notes held up to light. It glows pink when exposed to ultraviolet light.
Like the old note, the new one has a watermark of Franklin's portrait, also visible when held up to light.
The old notes will be destroyed and replaced as they pass through the Federal Reserve system.
John Large, special agent in charge of the Secret Service's criminal investigations division, said the features were designed to make it easy for merchants and consumers to verify the $100 note's authenticity with a quick examination.
"The best defense against counterfeiters we have is an educated public that can easily authenticate the new $100 note," Mr. Large said.
In the past, a common method of counterfeiting a $100 note was to bleach the ink off of the pre-2008 version of a $5 note, which had nearly identical graphics except for the denomination and a portrait of Abraham Lincoln instead of Franklin.
The note would then be reprinted with the $100 images, but the watermark showing an image of Lincoln could still be visible.
This often went undetected because a culture of checking currency for authenticity by holding bills up to light was not well developed in the United States, Mr. Large said.
Officials aim to change this by circulating instructional videos to banks and merchants to teach cash handlers how to verify the new note.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said U.S. officials also will work to educate people around the world about the new design due to the $100 note's proliferation around the world. Unlike in the past, when most cash dollars were held domestically, as many as two thirds of Federal Reserve notes now in circulation are outside the United States, he added.
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