$100 bill gets major makeover
The new C-note, which begins circulating Tuesday, is packed with security features to deter counterfeiters.
Ten years in the making, Benjamin Franklin’s facelift finally debuted Tuesday.
A redesigned $100 bill will begin circulating this week packed with new security features intended to make the C-note more difficult to counterfeit.
The U.S has already released new $5, $10 and $20 bills, but the redesign of the $100 denomination is the most visually striking.
A three-dimensional security ribbon is the most obvious difference. The blue ribbon runs through the currency, just to the right of Franklin’s face, with images of small bells and the figure “100.”
When the bill is tilted, the bells embossed in the ribbon change back and forth to “100.”
The back of the bill has a large “100” printed on the back, which should make it easier to read for those with limited vision, said Dennis Forgue, a currency expert with Harlan J. Berk Ltd., a numismatics firm in Chicago.
Another security feature not found on previous versions of the currency is an inkwell and bell to the right of Franklin’s face.
When tilted, the copper inkwell and bell turn green, making it disappear and reappear.
All the new features are expected to help limit counterfeiting, Forgue said. That’s important considering the $100 is the most counterfeited bill outside the U.S., he said.
But from a visual standpoint, is it too much?
The design is “kind of cluttered,” Forgue said. “It’s not a pretty design.”
The redesigned $100 bill was unveiled in 2010, but the Federal Reserve Board postponed its introduction because of production problems.
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing reported that sporadic creasing of the paper during printing needed to be fixed before the new notes would be distributed to banks.
The bills were originally scheduled to enter circulation in February 2011.