Is the US planning to reject bills printed before January 2021?

Claim: A blog post suggesting that the United States plans to reject dollar bills printed before January 2021 has gone viral.

The post has also been shared on social media platforms including Whatsapp.

According to the post, dollar bills printed before January 2021 will no longer be accepted as legal tender worldwide by January 2023. The policy was implemented to curb billions of illegal dollar bills in African countries.

The author mentioned Reuters News as the source of their information.

The post further noted that the agreement was reached at a meeting held on November 2, 2022, between the United States Federal Reserve Bank, The Office of the Comptroller of Currency, The International Monetary Fund, The World Bank and Governors of Africa’s Central Banks.

It also claimed that US President Joe Biden wrote to the British Government and European

Union to consider redesigning their currencies accordingly to frustrate those with illegal funds in US dollar, British Pound Sterling, and Euros.

Verification

In a bid to validate the claim, fact-checkers at Daily Trust did a keyword search on the Reuters official website but there was no information in that regard.

Further checks showed there was no meeting between officials of the United States Federal Reserve Bank, Office of the Comptroller of Currency, IMF, World Bank and Governors of Africa’s Central Banks on November 2, 2022, as claimed.

A manual search on the official Twitter page of the United States Federal Reserve revealed that they only had a press briefing by Jerome Powell, Chair of the Federal Reserve of the United States on a different matter.

Brief history of the US Dollars

The United States Dollar (USD) is the official currency of the United States of America and is used in most parts of the world.

According to the United States government website, paper currency comes in $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100 denominations.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) is responsible for redesigning and printing money with new appearances and enhanced security features and no recent announcement on the Bureau’s website of any currency redesign exists.

Also, the Secretary of the Treasury makes the final decision on currency design as specified by the Second Legal Tender Act of July 11, 1862, and 12 USC 418.

Similarly, it is the duty of the Advanced Counterfeit Deterrence (ACD) Steering Committee to recommend a note for a redesign.

The ACD conducts due diligence for security features that can be used to prevent counterfeiting.

The ACD Committee consists of representatives from the Department of the Treasury, the Board of Governors of the Federal

Reserve System, and the United States Secret Service.

However, the United States dollar was first established as a world currency in the Bretton Woods Agreement of 1944.

Gold was the basis for the US dollar, and other currencies were pegged to the US dollar’s value. Hence, linking the naira redesign to the supposed policy is baseless.

Interestingly, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has the following responsibilities: It charters, regulates and supervises all national banks, federal savings associations, federal branches, and foreign banks agencies.

It is also an independent bureau of the US Department of the Treasury, and the unit does not deal with the redesign and printing of currency.

Conclusion: Daily Trust can confirm that the claim suggesting the United States plans to reject dollar notes printed before January 2021 is false.