The Color Of Money

The color of money is getting more varied. A newly designed $10 bill was unveiled Wednesday featuring splashes of orange, yellow and red to go with the traditional green.

The $10 bill note became the third bill denomination to be jazzed up with colors as part of the government's effort to thwart counterfeiters and the ever-more sophisticated devices at their disposal.

"Thanks to the changes we've made in currency design, thanks to aggressive law enforcement led by the U.S. Secret Service and thanks to an informed public, we've been able to stay ahead of the counterfeiters," Treasury Secretary John Snow said during the unveiling ceremony on Ellis Island in New York harbor.

The location was selected to highlight one of the new features of the bill - a red image of the Statue of Liberty's torch on the left side of the portrait of Alexander Hamilton, the first secretary of the Treasury.

The $10 makeover followed changes to the $20 bill in 2003 and the $50 bill last year.

Don't look for the more colorful $10 to show up at your local ATM machine right away. The bills will not actually go into circulation until early next year. But the government was eager to publicize the new design so that people can prepare for the changes.

The $10 redesign was similar to the changes made to the $20 and the $50 but the colors were different because each denomination is being given its own set of colors to make finding the right bill in your wallet easier.

The orange, yellow and red colors for the $10 bill included the red torch on Hamilton's left and the phrase "We the people" in red on Hamilton's right. The background is a subtle shade of orange and there are small yellow 10s surrounding the torch.

Other security features that are included, some of which were first introduced in the 1990s during an earlier makeover, include a plastic security thread woven into the note that repeats "USA Ten" in tiny print. There is also a watermark that can be seen when the bill is held up to the light and color-shifting ink that makes the numeral "10" in the lower right-hand corner on the face of the bill change color from copper to green when the bill is tilted.

For the $20, the additional colors were blue, peach and a different shade of green while the $50 bill featured the added colors of blue and red.

Alexander Hamilton, the nation's first Treasury secretary, remains on the face of the bill but he is now outside of his old portrait frame with more of his shoulders showing. The other side of the bill still features the U.S. Treasury building in Washington.

Officials promised that America's currency will undergo makeovers every seven to 10 years to keep ahead of counterfeiters armed with the latest advances in computer technology that make digital counterfeiting easier.

"The ability to reproduce photographic images at work or at home on computers has really raised the bar as far as our challenges," said Thomas A. Ferguson, director of the engraving bureau.

The next bill to get the color treatment will be the $100 bill, which is expected to be redesigned in 2007.

At present, there are no plans to add color to the $1, the $2 or the $5 bills.

http://www.forbes.com/home/feeds/ap/...ap2249189.html

Anyone able to find an image of the new $10 bill? All i can find are flash animations :(

It actually looks quite good.

Regards,

Lee