New 100 dollar bill circulates

Officials from the United States Department of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve Board and the United States Secret Service unveiled the new design for the $100 note on Apr 21, and will release the new currency on 10 Feb 2011. Complete with advanced technology to stay ahead of counterfeiters, the new design retains the look of traditional US currency, newsahead.com reports.

The redesigned note includes two new advanced counterfeit-deterrent security features that are easy for consumers and merchants to check when verifying authenticity. The Treasury Department urges merchants and customers to help in the effort to stymie counterfeiters by familiarizing themselves with the new features and examine notes as they receive them.

A blue 3-D security ribbon on the front of the new $100 note contains images of bells and 100s that move and change from one to the other as the note is tilted. The Bell in the Inkwell on the front of the note is another new security feature. The bell changes color from copper to green when the note is tilted, an effect that makes it seem to appear and disappear within the copper inkwell.

The new design for the note retains three effective security features from the previous design: the portrait watermark of Benjamin Franklin, the security thread, and the color-shifting numeral 100.

Some 6.5 billion $100 notes are in circulation. The Treasury Department says that the $100 note, the highest denomination issued, is the most widely circulated and most often counterfeited denomination outside the country. Inside the country, the $20 bill is the main choice of counterfeiters.

It won't be necessary to trade in the old-design notes for new ones as all US currency remains legal tender, regardless of when it was issued, according to the department.