New color of money coming soon

What’s in your wallet? Starting in late 2003, the bills won’t all be green.

To protect your hard-earned money from increasingly tech-savvy counterfeiters, the U.S. will issue new currency designs––with color.

The $20 note will be the first to get new colors, and you’ll start seeing the new $20s in circulation in the fall. New designs for the $50 and $100 notes will follow in 2004 and 2005.

The new color of money will be safer, smarter and more secure. As technology advances, currency counterfeiters are turning increasingly to digital methods, and the new designs include improved security features to stay ahead of counterfeiters’ technology curve and protect your hard-earned money.

The new bills will remain the same size and feature the same historical figures and images.

The color makes it more burdensome for potential currency counterfeiters to try and simulate the bills because it adds complexity to the design.

Color also will help people to distinguish one denomination from another-particularly those who are visually impaired-with different colors used for different denominations.

Subtle green, peach and blue colors will appear in the background on both sides of the new $20 notes.

Treasury officials haven’t yet finalized the colors for the $50 and $100 notes. The redesign also features symbols of freedom-a blue eagle to the left of the portrait and a smaller, metallic-green eagle and a ribbon of words saying "TWENTY USA" to the right of the portrait in the case of the $20 note.

The new $20 note retains three important security features that were first introduced in the 1990s and are easy for consumers and merchants alike to check:

Watermark––A faint image similar to the portrait, which is part of the paper itself and is visible from both sides when held up to the light.

Security thread––Also visible from both sides when held up to the light, this vertical strip of plastic is embedded in the paper and spells out the denomination in tiny print.

Color-shifting ink––The numeral in the lower right corner on the face of the note, indicating its denomination, changes color when the note is tilted. (The color shift is more dramatic on the new $20 notes, making it even easier for people to check their money.)

All U.S. currency will maintain its full face value––you won’t have to exchange older design notes for new ones.

This story was provided by the North American Precis Syndicate.