The E-Sylum:  Volume 10, Number 38, September 23, 2007, Article 25

BEP UNVEILS NEW FIVE DOLLAR BILL DESIGN

"Honest Abe will become Colorful Abe with splashes of purple and
gray livening up the $5 bill.

"The government showed off the new bill Thursday in an Internet
news conference — a high-tech unveiling that officials say is
entirely appropriate for a 21st century redesign of the bill
featuring the Civil War president, Abraham Lincoln.

"Originally, the five wasn't going to be redesigned. But that
decision was reversed once counterfeiters began bleaching $5 notes
and printing fake $100 bills with the bleached paper to take advantage
of the fact that some of the security features were in the same
locations on both notes.

"We wanted this redesigned bill to scream, 'I am a five. I am a
five,'" Larry Felix, director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing
said in an interview with The Associated Press. "We wanted to eliminate
any similarity or confusion on the part of the public between the $5
bill and the $100 bill."

"The bureau will start printing the new notes next week at its
facility in Fort Worth, Texas. The goal is to have 1.5 billion $5
bills ready to be put into circulation, at a date still to be
determined.

"Perhaps the most striking change is a new large-size 5 printed in
the lower right-hand corner of the backside of the bill in high-
contrast purple ink. That feature was added to help the visually
impaired.

"The next bill to get a makeover will be the $100. It will feature
the most advanced safeguard yet, a new security thread composed of
650,000 tiny lenses that will magnify micro-printing on the bills
to give the effect of having the images move in the opposite
direction than the bill is being moved."

To read the complete article, see: Full Story

  Wayne Homren, Editor

	coinbooks.org Web

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