$5 Bill Gets Face-Lift to Ward Off Counterfeiters
Redesign comes after officials found $5 bills being made into fake $100 bills.
Feb. 13, 2008— -- The new $5 bill has been spruced up with a dash of yellow and bright purple and will be issued to banks today in an effort to crack down on counterfeiters.
Originally the five spot was not going to be redone, but law enforcement agents discovered that counterfeiters could bleach the bills and remake them as $100 bills.
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing worked with the Federal Reserve, the Department of Treasury and the Secret Service to redesign the notes.
"The new $5 bills will be safer, smarter and more secure: safer because they're harder to fake and easier to check; smarter to stay ahead of savvy counterfeiters; and more secure to protect the integrity of U.S. currency," according to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
The $100 bill is the next denomination slated for a new design after the $5 bill. An official introduction date has not been set.
The most noticeable difference in the redesigned $5 bill is the addition of light purple in the center of the bill. Small yellow "05"s are printed to the left of Abraham Lincoln's portrait on the front of the bill and to the right of the Lincoln Memorial vignette on the back. The bill is the same size as the old design.
The redesigned note retains two of the most important security features that were first introduced in the 1990s and are easy to check: watermarks and security threads.
A large number "5" watermark and a column of three smaller "5"s have been added to the new note's design.
The embedded security thread has moved to the right of the portrait on the redesigned note. The letters "USA" followed by the number "5" in an alternating pattern are visible along the thread from both sides of the bill. The embedded security thread glows blue when held under ultraviolet light.
Federal Reserve banks will begin distributing redesigned $5 bills to customer banks today, which will then distribute currency to businesses and consumers. The new bills will first begin circulating in the U.S. and gradually in other countries as international banks place orders for $5 bills from the Federal Reserve. Older-design $5 bills will maintain their full face value.