Bureau Director Larry Felix said his agency will for the first time conduct a digital presentation of the banknote with an improved design. The new five-dollar bill, featuring the 16th U.S. president, will be shown to the world on September 20. 'We want to make maximum use of digital capabilities so that U.S. citizens who use cash anywhere in the world have access to the full range of information we can provide them,' Larry Felix told the Associated Press. He explained that the Bureau's website will feature detailed information about the distinctive features of the new five-dollar bill, including a description of the improved design to be unveiled on September 20. In addition, an online conference is planned, during which journalists will be able to ask questions to official representatives of the Bureau and other U.S. government agencies involved in the project.
Although the design of the new five-dollar bill will be unveiled on September 20, the bill itself will only enter circulation next year. This is done to give time to companies that manufacture vending machines to reconfigure the machines so that they can accept the new bills. According to Felix, this is especially important when it comes to five-dollar bills because they are often used in vending machine payments.
Initially, the government did not plan to include five-dollar bills in the list of banknotes whose design was to be modernized. That list included $50, $20, and $10 bills. However, officials' opinion changed after counterfeiters began bleaching the ink off five-dollar bills and printing fake $100 bills on the bleached paper: security features, including watermarks, were located in the same places on both bills.
The new five-dollar bill will feature the same design changes as those made to other banknotes. This is done to thwart counterfeiters armed with more sophisticated computers and printers.
The improved design bills will feature new colors – just as on the $20 bill the American eagle turned blue, and on the $10 bill the torch representing the Statue of Liberty turned red. The five-dollar bill will still have Lincoln's portrait and an image of the Lincoln Memorial, but it is expected that the images themselves will be somewhat altered.
The Bureau notes that no changes are still planned for $1 bills, but work continues on improving the $100 bill.
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