Representatives of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing at the US Department of the Treasury reported that the new 20-dollar bill will be unveiled in Washington on May 13. Initially, the new bill was planned to be presented at the end of March, but the war in Iraq prevented this event.
As ITAR-TASS was told at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, a distinctive feature of the new 20-dollar bills is that the design is applied to colored paper in neutral tones. So they can no longer be called 'greenbacks.' Rumors that the predominant color of the bill would be pink have not been confirmed. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing is not disclosing other details. It is only known that the images of the seventh US President Andrew Jackson and the panorama of the White House will look somewhat different.
The new bills will go into circulation around October-November 2003. And in a year to a year and a half, new $100 and $50 bills should be expected. A decision on whether the five- and ten-dollar bills will have an updated design has not yet been made. However, it is known for certain that $1 and $2 bills will not be changed. Low-denomination money is rarely counterfeited, and frequently revising their design is impractical.
Actually, to combat counterfeiters, US Treasury notes are updated every seven to ten years. The last time their design was changed was in 1996, but it did not help much. For example, last year, counterfeit banknotes totaling $47 million were withdrawn from circulation in America alone, and more than a third of them were made using office equipment.
This time, according to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, to counteract criminals, three-dimensional threads that glow under ultraviolet rays, as well as microprinting and color-changing ink, have been added to the dollar paper. That is, it will no longer be possible to counterfeit American money well with a printer.
As usual, Gazeta.Ru reports, the 'colored' dollars will circulate on par with current bills - after all, the US has never devalued or recalled its banknotes from circulation. The issuance and presentation of the new dollar bills will take place simultaneously around the world.