New 5 Dollar Bill Debuts

Filed in archive General on March 13, 2008

In the never-ending quest to stay ahead of counterfeiters, there's a new five-dollar bill hitting the streets here in the U.S. They've added, shifted, removed, rearranged all sorts of things to make it harder to copy, including new watermarks, shifting of Abe's shoulders, more purple in the middle, a lot of microprinting that is difficult to copy well, more. To see all the new features, go to this page at the Bureau of Engraving & Printing.

Flip it over and you'll see my favorite new feature:


Gotta love that big purple five!

I'm in the midst of reading The Biography of a Dollar, which just so happens to have a big section dedicated to the Bureau of Engraving & Printing and its efforts to counteract counterfeiters through the use of all these new watermarks and such. One of the interesting things mentioned is that north korea is suspected of printing its own counterfeit U.S. dollars that are so close to real dollars in terms of paper composition, inks, etc. that many experts in the U.S. are even fooled by them. The reason for the counterfeiting by North Korea (or any other government that might counterfeit the money of another country) is less about using the counterfeit money and more about trying to destabilize the currency and hurt its value in the world marketplace. The book mentions that counterfeiting money has been a war strategy many times in the past.

One other interesting note: For reasons I don't completely understand, some countries devalue the United States' old money once the currency changes designs, i.e., the new $5 bill will be seen as more legitimate by some other countries than the previous $5 bill. Some might even refuse to take the old $5 bill, although I wouldn't consider this a huge call for alarm.

Anyway, welcome the new fiver!