$20 bill gets a facelift

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

[b4its2late]

[Conservative til I die]

I think they're small "$20", the yellow dots. Probably have some sort of holographic property to them as well.

Let me tell you folks, we have to have security checks. You may think that counterfeiting is not widespread, nor does it create real problems. It does, folks. My on-again, off-again ladyfriend is from Ecuador. She is planning to go to Ecuador sometime soon for a week, and she has to make sure she has brand new, crisp $20 bills, because they literally will not accept anything else, because in their view, it's all fake unless it's new. If the many countries that either use our currency as theirs, or accept American currency lose confidence in that currency, then the economy gets hurt and hurt bad.

[annyokie]

The pictures are interesting, aren't they? Too weird.

[Conservative til I die]

As a paper money collector, there are litteraly many dozens, if not hundreds of designs to collect just from the years 1861-1928. Money design changed in some cases, every 5 years, and drastically so. We're not talking adding a watermark or making the eagle a millimeter larger. I'm talking complete redesign.

The arrogance of modern people who think the world started in 1996 (the year of the new $20 design) is really astounding, IMO.

[presidio9]

No, the White House is being menaced by a swarm of killer bees. AAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!

[Monty22]

I do understand that anti-counterfeiting is required. I'm just sad it takes this. Can't a small hologram or something work?

[Centurion2000]

I think the new design SUCKS ..... of course it almost looks like the powers that be are going to keep re-engineering the images until people lose faith in what a $20.00 bill looks like.

It LOOKS fake, so people won't have faith in it.

[Conservative til I die]

Not sure about paper money, but with coinage, the way it works is that designs can only be changed every x years (I think it's 25) without legislation. However, you could change the design of coinage every six months theoretically (ignoring the pointlessness of it) as long as you took a vote to change it. Living people have occasionally appeared on US coinage, albeit only commemorative coinage. One of the Shrivers was on some sort of Special Olympics commemorative coinage. PT Barnum was ona commemorative coin too, but I'm not totally sure if he was dead or alive at the time the coin came out.

[Timesink]

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).

That's for stamps: Dead ten years minimum, except presidents automatically get a stamp on their first birthday after death. The only rule for currency is that you be dead, period. Other than that, the Secretary of the Treasury could replace Ben Franklin with his own grandmother on the $100 bill if he wanted to.

[Conservative til I die]

I too wish it would be more aesthetically pleasing or at least worked more into the design. But I think the philosophy the BEP (Beaureau of Engraving and Printing, not the US Mint) has is "the more the merrier." The idea being that while counterfeiters will eventually catch up with all the security measures, and the best counterfeiters can duplicate anything, the sheer number of security measures will stop most amateurs and slow down the best.

It's kinda like putting security on your car. An alarm is OK, but an alarm and wheel locks is better. And an alarm, wheel locks, and the club is even better than that. But an alarm, wheel locks, the club, an anti-theft radio, a kill switch, and one of those club-like devices that goes from your steering wheel to the floor behind the brake pedal is the best. Given enough time and cover, a good thief can break through them all, but because they're businessmen, in some sick way, they'd rather pick off the guys who have less security. Less riska nd a abetter opportunity for profit. The amateurs wouldn't even dare try it.

[Conservative til I die]

Yes, it's all a giant conspiracy.

[Conservative til I die]

I think Congress has to vote on design changes. The Treasury doesn't have that much autonomy.

[Doctor Stochastic]

The War On Drugs has put paid to the idea of $500 or %1000 currency.

[Timesink]

We've still got the most boring money in the world.

That's intentional. It's a psychological thing to keep the greenback accepted as the de facto "standard currency" in the rest of the world. Dull = staid = dependable = solid = the US dollar. You're never going to see garish, blinding, color-cause-it's-pretty, ultra-modern US currency that looks like this:

10


20


50


100


photos not actual size

[Timesink]

I think Congress has to vote on design changes. The Treasury doesn't have that much autonomy.

Congress can meddle and order a redesign, but generally it's up to Treasury:

Why were certain individuals chosen to be pictured on our paper currency?

The Secretary of the Treasury selects the designs shown on United States currency and coinage. Unless specified by an Act of Congress, the Secretary generally has the final approval. This is done with the advice of Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) officials for currency or the United States Mint officials for coins. In addition, the Commission on Fine Arts reviews all of the designs.

The law prohibits portraits of living persons from appearing on Government Securities. Therefore, the portraits on our currency notes and coins are of deceased persons whose places in history the American people know well. The designs shown on our coins have changed at different times for different denominations.

The basic face and back designs of all denominations of our paper currency in circulation today were selected in 1928. A committee appointed to study such matters made those choices. The only exception is the reverse design of the one-dollar bill. Unfortunately, however, our records do not suggest why certain Presidents and statesmen were chosen for specific denominations.

[presidio9]

It's also put paid to a lot less drug dealers wandering around with impunity. Take it it somewhere else or keep it to yourself.

[tje]

Some of those are gorgeous! I guess that back then a dollar was really worth something...

[Conservative til I die]

Additionally, the idea to stop counterfeiters was that familiarity, while also breeding contempt, would act as a way to fight counterfeits, since presumably, people would be able to spot something fishy on a bill. And like you said, overseas it helps because people feel comfortable about a US bill knowing that this is what it has and always looks like.

In the past, we did change our currency designs in some cases, every 5 years, depending on the bill. And we did have various designs with various colors, mostly greens, some reds, even some gold and orange and blue and brown. Of course, the neons you showed in your post just didn't exist then. But the overall idea is the same.

Of course in today's world of high-resolution scanners and printers, familiarity doesn't help anymore, since counterfeiters can make excellent fascimiles. So we have to swing back to the other side of the spectrum with lots of different colors thrown in and new pieces of design that have a security purpose as well. The negative consequence of this is that it can confuse and make people in other countries wary, but I think we're countering that by not making the design changes drastic. Just adding subtle color and some extra watermarks and stuff.

[Conservative til I die]

Well, most of those bills, outside of the 1928 $1 silver certificate, and the $5000 and $10000 bills are worth at least $100 and in most cases well over it. I believe the Bison note can go for up to about $1000 in the crispest and cleanest conditions.

I'm a little shakey on the prices because I frankly, haven't been able to collect the upper crust notes like these.

[No Truce With Kings]

"No, the White House is being menaced by a swarm of killer bees. AAAAAAAAAAHHHH!!!!"

Texas Democrats are trying to hang out at the White House now? Can we get W to round 'em all up and send 'em back to Austin, so we can finish the legislative session?