The government revealed its new high-tech $100 bills today, NPR’s Planet Money Blog reports.
To be honest, I haven’t seen many $100 bills lately, but the new bills do look different than the cloudy memories that live in my brain.
The Associated Press tells me that the new bills are part of an effort to stay ahead of counterfeiters. Ben Franklin’s mug is joined by a disappearing Liberty Bell in an inkwell and a blue security ribbon composed of thousands of tiny lenses that magnify objects in different ways.
The new bills will go into circulation in February.
Since the $100 bill is the circulated widely around the world, and the government has prepared educational materials in many, many languages to teach people how to identify the new money (and to tell them that, yes, it’s real).
However, the government’s New Money website appears to be broken at the moment, as I can’t get to the actual press release about the new bills or to the educational materials, which are supposed to be there to download.
For now, here’s the unveiling video: