$20 bill gets a facelift

cnn.com ^ | 05/13/2003 | cnn

[Monty22]

Wow that's a bad design..

[b4its2late]

The "badder" it is, the harder to duplicate......

[jgrubbs]

[el_chupacabra]

I didn't know Beethoven was on the $20?

[VRWCmember]

At least it doesn't have the burning WTC and Pentagon when you fold it anymore.

[dead]

I thought it was Lynne Cheney.

[Blood of Tyrants]

Jackson fought the establishment of the Federal Reserve tooth and nail. They put his face on the $20 not to honor him but more of a way to rub it in.

[annyokie]

Really? Or are you just joking?

[Monty22]

It does look way more fake-proof..

But what's with the fruity globe and wavy text in the background?

I don't mind the color so much..

And anyone notice how the symbol of the Fed really looks like the NSDAP symbol now? It's almost the same as the one stamped on my early 1945 Walther P38.

[newgeezer]

Why send hits to the enemy sites?

$20 bill gets a facelift
The new banknote, unveiled Tuesday, has different number arrangement and background.
May 13, 2003: 10:59 AM EDT
By Mark Gongloff, CNN/Money staff writer


WASHINGTON (CNN/Money) - The $20 bill got a facelift Tuesday, complete with a new number arrangement and a new background.

The new multicolored bill was introduced at the Treasury Department in Washington.

The department's Bureau of Engraving and Printing showed the bill, which still bears a portrait of Andrew Jackson on the front -- without the old circle -- and has a cluster of small 20s on the lower right-hand corner on the back. The front depicts a faded bald eagle as a background with subtle pink and light blue hues.

The redesigned bill is intended to thwart counterfeiters. The Treasury Department intends to redesign bills every seven to 10 years to keep up with technological advances in counterfeiting.

"The soundness of a nation's currency is essential to the soundness of its economy. And to uphold our currency's soundness, it must be recognized and honored as legal tender and counterfeiting must be effectively thwarted,'' Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said in a ceremony at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

The last redesign of American currency was in 1996, when a new $100 bill was introduced with anti-counterfeiting features such as ink that appeared black from one angle and green from another; a watermark visible only when holding the bill up to the light; and a security strip running vertically through the bill -- features that will remain in the newest currency.

Other currencies with similar features followed -- a new $50 bill in 1997, a new $20 bill in 1998 and new $5 and $10 notes in 2000.

The bill will go into circulation in the fall, and others will be redesigned in the next few years. One- and two-dollar bills will not be redesigned.

In the meantime, the Treasury Department is working with companies in the vending, gaming and public transportation industries to help them adjust their currency-reading devices to accept the new bills.

Treasury has given these companies material they can use to update bill-acceptance devices, but nothing they can spend or use to make counterfeit bills.

But some currency experts warned that the new features likely will do little to discourage counterfeiters.

"Everything they've done before has been superseded by better counterfeiters," said Dennis Forgue, an anti-counterfeiting expert at Harlan J. Berk Ltd., a numismatic firm in Chicago. "With the effectiveness of computer-generated images these days, they can make some pretty nice counterfeits pretty quickly."

Of all the counterfeit bills in circulation, about 40 percent are produced digitally, according to the Secret Service, which was established in 1865 to fight counterfeiting.

Forgue said some counterfeiters are able to bleach the ink out of newer bills of smaller denominations, leaving just the unique currency paper and the watermark, and then print the features of a higher-denominated bill on the blank paper.

"The ones I've seen have been not that great in quality, but can pass in a lot of places," said Forgue, who doubted the features of the new bill would do anything to discourage people from this process, called "leaching."  

[b4its2late]

Front:

[CougarGA7]

ROFLMAO!

[BrooklynGOP]

[The Old Hoosier]

It sucks. I want my greenbacks back.

[Monty22]

Holy cow, that's an eagle.. In the smaller picture I swore the blue shape in the background was a globe!

[hobbes1]

Now, like you said, we just need to replace Andy J with Ronald Reagan.

Everytime a lib uses a cash machine...

[prairiebreeze]

I suppose it's good that it's harder to copy.

Still...I'll sell you Boardwalk and Park Place....

Prairie

[Xenalyte]

Andrew Jackson still looks hagged out.

[PBRSTREETGANG]

I don't think that the red printing which reads "specimen" adds very much.

[VRWCmember]

But folded, it probably won't look like this anymore:

[dead]

The wavy text looks like something you'd see on sign for a old-timey dinner/show at Dollywood.

[jriemer]

Now President Jackson on the $20 bill looks even more like Keith Richards...

[NeoCaveman]

FUGLY coloring isn't it.

[TonyRo76]

Looking more and more like freakin' tooty-fruity Euro money!

[hobbes1]

Yes, indeed.

[RonF]

Reagan's not dead yet; the law says that no one can be put on money until they've been dead for a certain period of time (I don't know how long).

[TonyRo76]

FUGLY

Exactly the word I was looking for, thanks!

[VRWCmember]

Really? Or are you just joking?

I was making a joking reference to the conspiracy theorists who found the ominous pictures in the $20 bill when it is folded a certain way. For more details, check out http://www.snopes.com/rumors/20bill.htm.

[freedomson]

Jackson fought the establishment of the Federal Reserve tooth and nail. They put his face on the $20 not to honor him but more of a way to rub it in.

Good one, brilliant observation.

[VRWCmember]

the law says that no one can be put on money until they've been dead for a certain period of time (I don't know how long).

Well, JFK was killed 11/22/63 and his portrait appeared on the half dollar beginning in 1964.

[Monty22]

Hope ours doesn't have that at least..

[TonyRo76]

Jackson fought the establishment of the Federal Reserve tooth and nail...

You may be right that it's a way of dissing him. Of course, A.J. being one of my favorite presidents, I'm glad to see him on a bill today—especially considering how much the loudmouth left would despise Old Hickory if they knew more about him.

Jackson's abolition of the central bank was wise and prescient. Too bad the "Progressives" (damn Woodpecker Wilson) had to go screw it up by saddling us with the Fed!

[EggsAckley]

Please......don't insult Beethoven.

[pbear8]

I think they should have asked Registered to redesign the $20, he would have done a great job.

[VRWCmember]

I think that will be on the clinton $3 bill.

[fish hawk]

They should put the $10 on the twenty dollar bill. That would be the true value after taxes.

[EggsAckley]

Hey! It's Bruce Dern!

[Cyber Liberty]

It looks...."third-world" to me.

[Conservative til I die]

Funny, considering it's the exact same portrait of Andrew Jackson that's been on the $20 for about 7 years now.

Been in a coma long?

[aruanan]

Didn't they make him look a little less like a pooftah?

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Clinton is on the 3 Peso Cuban. I also hear the Red chinese are naming a missile after him.

[aruanan]

The front depicts a faded bald eagle as a background with subtle pink and light blue hues.

This pretty much says it all.

[July 4th]

I remember seeing that...it put me on the floor!

[Hatteras]

Nah, I say more color! Give me some rolling amber waves of grain, purple mountains majesty and quaint seaside landscapes with flowers, live animals and fish! Da heck with dead people, I'M FOR LIFE! I WANT TO LIIIIIIIIIVE!!!

Ahem,.... sorry, got a little carried away...

[Conservative til I die]

It's either that or every other $20 bill winds up being counterfeit, or at least having no security checks so that your average cashier can't tell the difference.

I know my paper money, being a collector, unlike some here, and I got a 1963 $20 from the ATM machine a year back, and while I'd ordinarily put it in my collection, it was a little beaten up and had some writing on it so I spent it. The cashier just stood staring at it trying to figure out if it was real or not because those bills have absolutely no security measures on them. No hologram number 20 on the front, no strip running through the left of the bill, no watermark, nothing. She only took it because my girlfriend sternly told her "It's real." That, and the cashier obviously didn't care, since "It's real" was good enough for her. The point is, while they may not be the most aesthetically pleasing things to add, all these watermarks and different colors serve a functional purpose.

[cgk]

It's just a matter of time before there is a move to remove Jackson from the face of the $20 bill by the bullies who don't want us to remember our own history. After all, he was a slave owner, and the 16th President of the "Confederacy of the United States." No matter that he formed the group that later became the Democratic Party.

[Monty22]

I think money designed peaked with the Indian Head penny..

The new stuff has no class.

[presidio9]

Fine. Put Ronnie on it right now.

[CygnusXI]

.
.
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Any pics of the BACK of the bill??
..
.

[Monty22]

The back is ok.. Wait, what are those yellow dots?