Digital Watermark with Dave Kranz - "I'm a $5, I'm a $5"

"I'm a $5, I'm a $5. You need to pay attention, I'm a $5." That's what Bureau of Engraving and Printing Director Larry Felix says the newly unveiled $5 bill design screams.

And he's quite right. Its new design makes it distinctively a $5 note. From the new light purple coloring to the large purple 5 on the back, the little yellow 05s on front and back and the four new watermarks of 5 numerals, this is clearly a $5 bill. You can see images at www.banknotereporter.com.

The colorized $5 design debuted online at 9 a.m. Eastern today. I'm in the Central time zone, so I logged in at about 7:50 my time and went to www.moneyfactory.gov/newmoney.

I was concerned about technical glitches, so I was viewing the site on two computers, one a Mac and one a PC, on separate high-speed Internet lines. On two screens I watched a clock count down to the big moment, and ... voila! Right on time, streaming video began playing. Music played, graphics moved. There were images of notes being produced. A voice-over started.

Then it froze. And jumped. On both computers.

Oh great. It wasn't loading fast enough for the players. My guess is that there were a lot of people trying to view it at that time. Or maybe it was my Internet speed. I wonder how it worked for others — did you view it? If so, I hope you'll post a comment about your experience.

Eventually I got through all of the video, but first I wanted to break away and take part in the press Q&A that was made available at 9:30 Eastern. I had preregistered, so I figured this should work smoothly.

Alas, when I tried to type my questions, nothing happened. I tried several times with no luck. I decided I'd e-mail my questions and follow up on the phone, similar to what I'd do if the unveiling event had been a live ceremony that I wasn't able to attend in person.

While I let the video continue to load on one computer, I used the other to download images of the new design. I read information about the $5 online and typed up my initial report. It was posted at NumisMaster.com, www.banknotereporter.com and www.numismaticnews.net by about 10:15 a.m. Central, thanks to quick work by Dave Harper, Lisa Bellavin and Maggie Pahl. You can see images of the new note at those sites.

Even though I experienced some technical glitches, I think this digital debut was a solid success. It brought everyone interested in the information directly to the source. It eliminated any chance of terrorist interference — which may sound odd to most of us but is a real consideration when staging a live event.

I just hope my Internet is upgraded by the time the $100 is unveiled.

9/20/2007 11:01:51 AM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [2]

9/20/2007 1:03:56 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)

Hi David, I’m Julie from the BEP’s public education program. Thank you for writing about the digital unveiling of the new $5 bill this morning. We apologize for any inconvenience that technical glitches may have caused you. As you can imagine, due to overwhelming demand for access to the Web site, there were some intermittent delays in content delivery. While we are disappointed that some had difficulty getting all of the content, we are very excited by the strong interest in the new $5 bill. Again, thanks.

Julie Borchard |julie dot borchardAT NOSPAMbep dot treas dot gov

9/20/2007 9:52:26 PM (Central Daylight Time, UTC-05:00)

I was keeping an eye on the Wi-5 site at work this morning. The countdown was working fine, and the video started fine as well. Froze after about 5 seconds, though. Not a big deal to me - I ended up poking around the BEP website and getting all I wanted in about half an hour anyway. Connection and download times were quite slow, however. I wasn't suprised - I figured a good chunk of the world was trying to get a look at the new $5 as well. I ended up reading the transcript of the video originally, and downloaded it when I got home. I am curious to know how much traffic the BEP site recived (and is probably still recieving). I do appreciate the decision to unveil the design online, and the amount of work that must have gone into such preparations. I hope they do the same for the new $100 - and add a few more servers.

As for the design of the bill itself, I was pleased. Fits in with the rest of the new style bills well. I like the denomination watermark - very logical and helpful. Perhaps the rest might benefit from such an addition the next time around? I'd hate to see criminals resort to just bleaching tens instead. The larger purple 5 on the back is laudable as well. This seems to be closer to the size initially recommended by the NMAB (Currency Features for Visually Impaired People, 1995, National Materials Advisory Board). It is also likely influenced by the current court case (American Council of the Blind et al v. Paulson, 2002). The overall color scheme is tasteful and eye-pleasing. The 'camouflaged' EURion constellations seem a bit more suspicious now, as there is no apparent reason for the 'zero' in the "05." I'm impressed with the amount of skill and capability shown by the postitive and negative(!) microtext.

I eagerly await it's release - and the new $100.

Mike Jenkins |imhomesAT NOSPAMtampabay dot rr dot com

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