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New colorful jackson note { May 14 2003 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52250-2003May13.htmlhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A52250-2003May13.html
Another Day, Another Dollar
Wednesday, May 14, 2003; Page C16
The United States yesterday introduced a new $20 bill that put Andrew Jackson in color for the first time.
The bill has light shades of blue, peach and green that are not only pretty to look at, but also a lot harder for criminals to counterfeit. Counterfeiting is making fake money and then using it as if it were real.
The new note still looks like a $20 bill, but many things are different, especially the colors that are spread across the front and the back of the bill.
"I like to think it's more attractive," said Thomas Ferguson, director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, which prints all U.S. paper money.
The Bureau has taken Jackson's picture out of the oval frame on current $20 bills, added the blue image of an eagle to the left and added the words TWENTY USA, USA TWENTY near the U.S. Treasury emblem on the right. The back of the bill is imprinted with dozens of tiny yellow "20s."
Earlier security features continue. Hold one of today's $20 bills up to the light. You can see a "watermark" of Jackson's face to the right of the portrait. You also see an embedded "security thread" on the left, bearing the inscription USA TWENTY.
The changes were made partly because home computers have made counterfeiting much easier and cheaper, Ferguson said. In the past, criminals needed about $10,000 for printing presses and photographic equipment.
The twenty is the most frequently counterfeited bill. A new $50 bill will come out next year and a new $100 bill will be printed in 2005, Ferguson said. Bad guys usually don't bother counterfeiting bills smaller than twenties.
The new $20 bills won't be in banks and ATMs until the fall.
U.S. money used to be a lot more colorful. But ever since the "1928 series" that first put Jackson on the twenty, bills have been mostly green. No changes were made to U.S. bills until 1996, when the government started using bigger pictures and added some security measures. The change announced yesterday probably will last a few years.
Currency is made in Washington, D.C., and Fort Worth, Texas, and shipped to federal banks around the country: "Some moves by air, like from Fort Worth to San Francisco, and some by armored trucks," said Marsha Reidhill, assistant director of cash and fiscal agency for the Federal Reserve System. "A significant amount -- especially ones -- travels in tractor-trailers."
In all, about 22 billion pieces of U.S. currency worth $650 billion are in circulation at any one time. Most of the value -- $466 billion -- is in hundreds. More than one-third of the volume -- 7.5 billion bills -- is in ones. Twenties rank second in both categories, with 4.9 billion bills worth $98 billion.
-- Guy Gugliotta
© 2003 The Washington Post Company
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