Color-dappled $20 bills debut in October

By Jeannine Aversa
Associated Press

The redesigned $20 bill, with its splashes of peach, blue and yellow, is the United States' "most secure note." Associated Press

Banks will be able to start stocking up on the new twenties beginning Oct. 9, said Marsha Reidhill, the Federal Reserve's cash maven.

On that date, banks can send armored trucks to a Federal Reserve bank to get a stash of the new notes, she said.

The Federal Reserve has been stocking up the new bills for four months, she said.

About 915 million of the twenties have been printed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, maker of the nation's paper currency, and will be available to banks in October, officials from the Fed and the bureau said.

"This is the most secure note the United States has ever issued, and we want to get it out in circulation as quickly as we can," Reidhill said.

The $20 bill is the most-counterfeited note in the United States.

In May, the government took the wrappers off a revamped $20 aimed at foiling counterfeiters. The new $20 is the same size and still features the image of Andrew Jackson, the seventh president, on the front and the White House on the back.

But along with the traditional green and black colors, the new notes also include faint touches of peach and blue in certain spots on the bills. Tiny number 20s are printed on the back of the notes in yellow.

Besides color, the new notes include new features aimed making the bills harder to knock off. For instance, there's a faint blue eagle in the background on the front of the bill to the left of Jackson's image and a metallic green eagle and shield to the right of Old Hickory.

Old $20 bills will continue to be accepted and recirculated until they wear out.

New, more colorful $50 and $100 bills are expected in 2004 and 2005, respectively.