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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted on: Friday, June 21, 2002

New color of cash to be 'subtle'

By Barbara Hagenbaugh
USA Today

Coming to an ATM near you: colorful cash.

As early as fall 2003, the $20 bill will have a new color, as the United States launches a major revamping of its currency that will feature multicolor bills, government officials said yesterday.

The twenty is the most counterfeited bill and the favorite of automatic teller machines.

The biggest difference from the greenback is that each denomination will feature a combination of "subtle" colors in areas that are now neutral. Not wanting to give counterfeiters a head start, officials declined to discuss which colors will be used.

The color will allow the government to add yet-to-be-announced security features and will also give consumers an easy way to check for fakes.

Officials promise the design, to be unveiled next year, won't be too crazy.

"We're maintaining the traditions of American currency," Bureau of Engraving and Printing Director Tom Ferguson says.

New $50 and $100 bills will be issued up to a year and a half after the $20.

Subway systems, vending-machine firms and others that use machines to scan $20 bills must redesign equipment to recognize the new bills. That will cost time and money. Firms spent $350 million to retrofit machines in the last change in 1996, according to the National Automatic Merchandising Association.

Metro, Washington, D.C.'s subway system, spent $2.5 million to retrofit its fare-card machines six years ago.

Although the 1996 redesign was the first change in the greenback in 70 years, the government now plans an update every seven to 10 years. That's partly because computers have made counterfeiting easier. Last fiscal year, one-third of the $47.5 million in circulated counterfeit cash was computer-generated, up from 0.5 percent in 1995, the Secret Service says.