$100 bill gets added security
The wait for a new $100 Federal Reserve Note just got longer.
At a ceremony where the new design was unveiled by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Treasurer of the U.S. Rosie Rios and Federal Reserve Board Chairman Ben Bernanke on April 21, it was announced that the new designs would be placed in circulation Feb. 11, 2011.
The Treasury will use the time to get the word out to paper money users around the world as to what the new note looks like and to reassure everyone that the old notes won’t be recalled.
Collectors have been waiting for the new $100 note since the $50 was redesigned in 2004.
The Treasury has spent the time incorporating more security features into the new note to combat ever more sophisticated counterfeiters.
Collectors will immediately see that the facsimile signatures of the Treasury secretary and the U.S. Treasurer have been stacked on the left side of the note’s face while the Series 2009 date has migrated to the right side of the portrait of Benjamin Franklin.
The back features a new view of Independence Hall as seen from the rear. The oval border that once surrounded the old view of Independence Hall has been removed from the new design as well as from the portrait of Franklin on the face.
One of two new security devices is a blue 3-D security ribbon that contains images of bells and 100s that move and change from one to the other as you tilt the note, according to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
The bell in the inkwell on the face of the note is the second new security feature. The bell changes color from copper to green when the note is tilted, an effect that makes it seem to appear and disappear within the copper inkwell.
Three security features from the previous design have been retained: the portrait watermark of Franklin, the security thread and the color-shifting numeral 100, the BEP explained.
Also on the face of the new $100 are phrases from the Declaration of Independence and the quill the Founding Fathers used to sign it. Both are located to the right of the portrait.
Visit the website at www.newmoney.gov for more information.
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