The E-Sylum:  Volume 5, Number 49, December 8, 2002, Article 8

INTERVIEW: B.E.P. ENGRAVER TOM HIPSCHEN

  The popular press it starting to cover the next next change
  in U.S. paper money.  Jeannine Aversa of the Associated
  Press recently interviewed portrait engraver Thomas
  Hipschen.

  "Color is coming, and government money makers are hoping
  for a warmer reception for the changes.  The new $20, with
  its public unveiling set for the spring, is supposed to be in
  circulation as early as next fall.

  Jackson is first in line for a makeover. And after the new $20
  makes its debut, the new $50 (Ulysses Grant) and the $100
  Benjamin Franklin) will follow within 18 months."

  "Portrait engraver Thomas Hipschen is working on the current
  redesign.

  He remembers spending countless hours during the last
  makeover meticulously cutting into steel by hand the portraits
  of Jackson, Franklin and Grant for the new bills."

 "You worry about what the press is going to do," he said. "I
  have an old clipping file about all the horrible things they said
  about the portraits that I engraved.  Some fun things, too."

  "With the makeover, color tints will be added in the neutral
  areas of the note...  "

  "Money makers want the new notes to have an American look
  and feel, and not be confused with, for instance, the colorful
  euro, the paper currency of the European Union."

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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