New $100 Bill Debuts Today, Features Super High-Tech Design

Today marks the launch of a new $100 bill. The new money features a super high-tech design that is meant to stop counterfeiters.

The C-Note has already been transported to regional banks, savings and loans, and other financial institutions throughout the United States.

Researchers attempting to create an impossible to counterfeit piece of currency spent the last 10 years developing the new $100 bill. Officials had hoped to roll out the new bills 2½ years ago but were delayed by various production problems. In 2010 the US government printed 1 billion $100 bills only to discover unwanted creases. Later there was a problem with ink smearing.

Depending on how close their bank is to the regional Federal Bank facility some customers could start seeing the bills as early at Tuesday.

According to Sonja Danburg, program manager for U.S. currency education at the Fed:

“We have 3.5 billion of these notes which we think will be more than ample to meet domestic and international demands.”

The C-Note hasn’t been redesigned since March 1996. The new $100 bill still features a picture of Benjamin Franklin and Philadelphia’s Independence Hall on the back.

The bills new features may shock some customers. For example, there is a disappearing Liberty Bell in an ink well and a bright blue-three dimensional security ribbon with images that move in the opposite direction than the way the bill is being tilted.

The 3-D ribbon is composed of hundreds of thousands of micro-lenses in each note, making it the most complex US currency ever manufactured.

In 2003 researchers began developing new bills that would provide for better counterfeiting security. The $100 bill is the most counterfeited bill outside the United States which explains why they spent more time and added more security measures to the bill compared to any other bills that have already been redesigned and released to the general public.

With $900 billion worth of $100 bills now making their way to market officials are confident they have a winner on their hands. Officials better hope no problems are discovered, the new $100 bill is estimated to have a shelf life of 15 years.

You can learn more about the new $100 bill at www.newmoney.gov. That website provides information about the C-Notes in 23 different languages.