NATIONAL NEWS
September 21, 2007
High-Tech Five
The $5 bill gets a brand-new look
On Thursday, officials from the United States Treasury Department unveiled a colorful new $5 bill with advanced security features. The most noticeable difference between the new bill and the old one is a large purple "5" on the bottom right of the back of the bill and an arc of purple stars around Abraham Lincoln's image on the front. Splashes of gray and purple have also been added and the bill's security strip has been moved to the right side. Treasury officials hope the changes will make $5 bills more difficult to counterfeit.
 |  BUREAU OF ENGRAVING AND PRINTING/AP A purple "5" is just one of the security features on the new high-tech $5 bill. |
Counterfeiters had been bleaching $5 bills to create phony $100 bills because the security features on both bills were very similar. But the revamped five will look nothing like a $100 bill. "We wanted this redesign to scream, 'I'm a five. I'm a five,'" says Larry Felix, the director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. "We wanted to eliminate any similarity or confusion on the part of the public between the $5 and the $100 bill."
It's not a total makeover for the fiver, some of the old features were kept. Lincoln will remain on the front and the Lincoln Memorial will still grace the back. The new changes are similar to those that appear on redesigned $10, $20 and $50 bills. Those denominations were recently revamped with modern security features in order to curb counterfeiting. Last year, police made more than 4,000 arrests related to forged bills adding up to more than $60 million worth of fake money.
Next in Line for a MakeoverThe Treasury department will begin printing the new $5 bills in Fort Worth, Texas, next week. The currency will be in circulation next spring.
Next up for a high-tech makeover is the $100 bill. It will be embedded with a new security thread. It will feature 650,000 tiny lenses that will make images on the bill appear to move in the opposite direction of where it is moving. The new $100 bills will roll out next year.
