July 1998
The Newest Weapon Against Counterfeiting
The U.S. Treasury Department prints $20 bills in numbers second only to the one dollar bill. The $20 bill is the most used and circulated for the higher denomination notes, used the most by consumers every day to pay for groceries, gasoline, restaurant meals and a wide variety of purchases. The use of the $20 bill is also the favorite of counterfeiters, the most frequently counterfeited note in the United States.
In the war against counterfeiting, the U.S. Treasury Department has issued the new $100 and the new $50 bill with elements designed to combat our new age of technology in counterfeiting. Numbers indicate that between October of 1997 and February of 1998, bogus new $100 bills accounted for just 36% and bogus new $50 bills just 15% of the counterfeits being passed. Coming this fall, the new $20 bill will be issued with these same security elements. The new $10 and $5 bills may be issued at the same time, probably debuting in the summer of 1999, while the $1 bill, with a more modest design, will follow.
The new $20 bills will retain the familiar American look and feel, the same paper, the same buildings and statesmen represented respectively, and will have the same color scheme as do the old. The new $20 bills will have, as do the new $100 and the new $50 bills, the oversized portrait in an offset oval frame, with added detail and fine line patterns behind it. When you tilt the bill back and forth, you will see the color-shifting ink change from green to black and back again. By holding the bill up to the light, you will see the watermark on the right and the security thread on the far left with its own tiny lettering and graphics.
With more than $450 billion worth of U.S. currency in circulation around the world, these features are not the final solution to the problem of counterfeiting, but they do offer retailers and consumers a better method of identifying bogus money. We are thus still presented with the challenge of educating ourselves and our employees to these security features - education that plays an important role in the security of our nation's currency. Unless everyone who uses U.S. currency assumes the responsibility to examine it, the identification methods the U.S. Treasury has provided will not stop counterfeiters from passing bogus money. An informed public is the first line of defense.
The U.S. Department of Treasury and Federal Reserve System have developed a comprehensive currency awareness and authentication program to help business and trade associations to reach as many retailers as possible. Their education efforts will provide organizations, such as your Plymouth Area Chamber of Commerce and their members with information materials (such as tent cards, brochures, posters and training videos) needed to train cash-handling employees prior to the introduction of the $20 note.
Please call the Plymouth Chamber at 936-2323 and let us know your needs.
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