Following up on something reported here in October, mainstream media has caught up with the news that the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the Federal Reserve will delay the release of the redesigned $100 Federal Reserve Note because of production issues. The announcement said that the BEP has identified a problem with sporadic creasing of the paper during printing of the new $100 note that did not appear during pre-production testing.
What added to the urgency was the report that the BEP said that about one-third of the 1.1 billion notes produced for the formal release may be creased and otherwise not usable. BEP is attempting to salvage what it can from the previous production run.
Sources confirm that these new notes are the most expensive to produce at 12-cents per note. Production costs using the older paper was 7-cents per note.
The BEP is working with Crane & Co., the exclusive currency paper supplier since 1879, to resolve the issue.