Representatives from the US Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, and the Secret Service, led by Timothy Geithner and Ben Bernanke, have presented the new design of the 100 dollar bill, which, while maintaining its traditional appearance, incorporates the most advanced technology against counterfeiting.
According to the Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, "just like in previous redesigns of US currency, this bill incorporates the best available technology to ensure that we are one step ahead of counterfeiters."
Bernanke added that "users of the US currency should know that it will not be necessary to exchange old design bills when the new ones begin to circulate."
Advanced techniques
The new design incorporates two advanced antifraud security techniques.
They are easy to detect and quickly guarantee authenticity.
- The first is a 3-D blue strip located on the front that contains images of bells and 100 numbers that move when tilting the bill.
- The second is a bell in the inkwell also on the front of the bill, which changes color from copper to green when tilting the bill.
On April 21, the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve, and the United States Secret Service introduced a new 100 dollar bill with new security features. The new version is the most sophisticated attempt so far to combat counterfeit currency, but the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal raises the question of how long it will take criminals to decipher its secrets.
Recently, at a ceremony attended by the Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, and the Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, the United States Government introduced a high-tech 100 dollar bill designed to thwart 21st century counterfeiters. It includes the pleasant pastel colors that have already been seen in lower value specimens and a 'ghost' image of a quill and inkwell containing a bell that is visible depending on the angle it is viewed from.
The most striking aspect of the new design is that the front of the bill includes a vertical purple bar that reflects bright images with the number "100" and the Liberty Bell (a symbol of US independence), which appear to change position when the bill is tilted, the report indicates.
The current version has attracted the attention of numerous counterfeiters, heirs of those who for several centuries have tried to find the most effective and accurate way to duplicate the banknote.
Since the colonial era, the dollar has endured numerous counterfeits. The first national banknotes, designed by Benjamin Franklin, whose face appears on the current 100 dollar bills, were counterfeited by the British, who wanted to undermine the American Revolution. After intense counterfeiting activity during the first decades of the 19th century, some of the security barriers that persist today, such as watermarks, were designed.
After the Second World War, there were few successful forgery attempts and the appearance of the 100 dollar bill hardly changed. At the end of the eighties, the so-called 'Super Dollar' appeared, a high-precision forgery that baffled investigators and whose origin pointed to North Korea. These 'super bills' motivated the first major reform of paper money in decades.
The first major change came with the introduction of the new 100 dollar bill in 1996, which included the 'big head' design that has since become the standard, along with watermarks and color-changing ink. But the most recent version of the 100 dollar bill introduced last month represents another level of sophistication.
The central point of the new design is based on optical effects, thousands of lenses that combine to create a single larger image. When the banknote is tilted at one angle or another, the strip 'comes to life' and makes it seem as if the images could move.
The technology is called Motion. Crane, the company that owns the rights to the technology, claims that it "represents the next generation of counterfeit deterrence". Unlike some of the first-generation measures - color-changing ink, for example - the 'magic' of Motion works even in places with low lighting, like nightclubs.
The new bill is a technological marvel. It seems 'secure', but that same abundance of security blocks suggests that counterfeiters have had considerable success in bypassing them on previous occasions.
Crane promises that Motion technology will impose "tremendous barriers against quality counterfeiting". But it's a safe bet that somewhere in the world, counterfeiters are studying the new bill, trying to decipher its secrets. It's possible that someday they might succeed.
