The Week: Most Recent U.S. Economy:New $100 Bill

The government's $110 billion currency goof

By The Week Staff — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 15:02:00 -0500

The new $100 bill, set to debut in February, was designed to foil counterfeiters with high-tech touches, such as a 3D strip and a color-changing Liberty Bell. But the complex design has led to an embarrassing snafu. On Monday, CNBC reported that a printing error rendered more than one billion of the new notes defective, leaving the government scrambling to separate good bills from bad ones, and make sure enough currency is in circulation. How did a much-hyped "Benjamin" fix turn into such an embarrassment? (Watch Jon Stewart slam the Fed on "The Daily Show.") Here's a guide to what went wrong:...

The big business of fake money

By The Week Staff — Fri, 21 May 2010 09:52:00 -0400

How widespread is counterfeiting?
At any given time, some $200 million in bogus U.S. bills is in circulation worldwide, authorities say. About $60 million of those fakes circulates through the U.S. each year. Counterfeiting represents only a tiny fraction of the $800 billion in circulation, but it can be a nightmare for merchants or consumers who end up with the phony bills, because counterfeits can’t be exchanged for the genuine article. “It’s like a hot potato,” says Secret Service agent Bill Leege. “Whoever’s stuck with it is stuck with it.” In 2005,...

$100 bill redesign: By the numbers

By The Week Staff — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 11:51:00 -0400

The elaborately redesigned $100 bill won't hit the streets until February 2011, but it's already got people talking, both here and abroad. As the most-widely circulated bill in the world, the Benjamin is also the most counterfeited — thus the colorful and technically complex new bells and whistles. Here are some numerical facts and figures about the C-note:

11.8
The cost, in cents, to make each new $100 bill, up from 8 cents currently

650,000
Number of light-shifting "micro lenses" in the new 3-D security thread on each bill

$46 million
Estimated value of the government's contract with Crane...

The latest Tweets on the 'New $100 bill'

By The Week Staff — Tue, 27 Apr 2010 11:18:00 -0400

What's your opinion on the new $100 bill?

By The Week Staff — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 14:55:00 -0400

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New $100 bill: Too sci-fi?

By The Week Staff — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 18:38:00 -0400

The U.S. Treasury has released images of a redesigned $100 bill with new, Bladerunner-esque security features. Benjamin Franklin now consorts with a blue 3D security ribbon and a "bell in the inkwell" security stamp whose color fluctuates from copper to green (watch a video preview below). While Gawker's Hamilton Nolan damned the futuristic new look as "embarrassingly colorful" — "it looks like a god damn child's crayon scratch pad" — other critics embraced the redesign, which will enter circulation next February: "This is money that tells you it is coming from the future," says...