Oct 2, 2010 | BEP, currency, Federal Reserve
On October 1, the Federal Reserve announced that they will delay the release of the redesigned $100 Federal Reserve Note because of production issues. The release was planned for February 10, 2011.
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. While the BEP is working to resolve the issue, the Federal Reserve will not have enough notes to begin worldwide distribution causing the delay. No date was announced.
Aug 23, 2010 | BEP, currency, video
Last week, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Federal Reserve Board, and the U.S. Secret Service jointly announced the next step in educating the public to protect themselves against counterfeit currency with a new video “How to Detect a Counterfeit.” The video was created to demonstrate the security features of the new $100 note.
The $100 United States Federal Reserve Note is the most counterfeited currency in the world. To stay ahead of counterfeiters, the BEP redesigned the note with security features designed to prevent digital duplication. In addition to the security thread, color shifting ink, microprinting, and portrait watermark that has appeared on other notes, the new $100 note includes a new 3-D Security Ribbon embedded in the paper and the additional use of color shifting ink by embedding a bell within the inkwell on the front of the note.
“In the video, Kelley Harris, U.S. Secret Service Supervisory Counterfeit Specialist, discusses how to identify the security features in the redesigned $100 note, including the new 3-D Security Ribbon and the Bell in the Inkwell. Viewers will also learn about common tricks counterfeiters use to fool businesses and consumers, what businesses and consumers should do if they suspect someone is trying to pass them a counterfeit note, and the U.S. Secret Service’s work to combat counterfeiting operations.”
The video is available to view on the BEP’s New Money website or for download from the multimedia page. You can find it there in case the following stops working:
Multimedia elements courtesy of the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
Aug 2, 2010 | BEP, coins, currency, Federal Reserve, fun, gold, technology, US Mint
It has been said that the dog days of summer is when it is very hot causing a period where there is a lot of inactivity or stagnation. There has been little of the dog days here in the nation’s capital. Aside from a lot of work to do, severe storms can wreak havoc with electrical lines—which causes computers not to work. July has been an interesting month and I hope August is more like the dog days without the same heat and humidity!
For something a little different we turn to the technology website CNET. CNET is a long time resource for the consumer technology community that was acquired by CBS Interactive last year. With the commitment of growth from CBS, CNET has been expanding their technology coverage in a number of interesting ways. For CNET, reporter Daniel Terdiman, writer of the Geek Gestalt blog, is taking another road trip. Road Trip 2010 brings Daniel to the east coast where he has visited a few sites of numismatic interest.
While in Washington, D.C., Daniel stopped at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing where he was given a tour Behind the scenes with the next-gen $100 bill. Daniel opens up his trip report by saying, “I’m staring at $38.4 million in cash, and it’s hard not to drool.” It is a nice look behind the scenes at the BEP from the eyes of someone who is not a collector. Do not forget to check out the stacks of money in the photo gallery.
After making other stops, Daniel was in Philadelphia and visited the US Mint. Daniel opens his article talking about the gold-colored planchets that will be struck into dollar coins. Aside from watching the minting process, he spoke with the U.S. Mint’s Chief Engraver John Mercanti about the technology used in creating coins. Daniel spoke with Engraver Joseph Menna about the digital production process—do not forget to watch the YouTube video. When you check out the pictures and when you get to picture 18 imagine the amount of money you could make on the error market if you had access to this bin!
Finally, stopping in New York City required a stop of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Located at 33 Liberty Street in lower Manhattan, it is the branch of the Federal Reserve that distributes U.S. currency worldwide. Eighty feet below the bedrock that the building is constructed on is the gold vault where 36 countries have deposited $255 billion worth of gold. More gold is stored at the New York Fed than anywhere in the world including the U.S. Bullion Depository at Fort Knox, Kentucky. Since photography is not allowed at the N.Y. Fed, they did provide pictures that Daniel used in his report.
Although Daniel did not get much of a tour through the New York Fed, the series of numismatic-related articles are still a good read from someone without a numismatic background. You may want to check out stories on some of his other stops, including the one place I want to visit!
Jul 7, 2010 | coins, currency, Euro, foreign, gold, RCM, video
Not all coin news comes from the United States. Here are three interesting non-U.S. stories from the last few weeks:
Foggia, Italy—A truck in southern Italy carrying €2 million in one and two euro coins crashed and spilled its load on the highway. Feeling they hit the jackpot, drivers stopped and started to scoop up the coins. On the scene, it was estimated that €10,000 was taken. A later count upped that estimate to €50,000. No arrests were reported.
Driver of the truck and the two cars in the accident were not seriously injured, but they were not the focus of many of the stories. With coins strewn on the roadway and the median, the company responsible for the transport of the coins will be spending the next few days trying to sweep up the coins that motorists did not take.
Zimbabwe—In a country where runaway inflation caused their currency to become worthless and the government made U.S. currency legal tender, Zimbabweans are washing their U.S. dollars so that they can be used.
In this poor country, low-denomination U.S notes are used until they fall apart. But in order to protect currency in crime-ridden areas, notes are carried in shoes or underwear. The obvious sanitary and malodorous issues has made it a problem causing banks and many merchants to refuse to take currency that is dirty and smelly. Some people gently hand-wash their notes and some laundry services have discovered that they can wash notes in the gentle cycle then hang the notes to dry.
Apparently this works for the poor in Zimbabwe since the notes outlive the Bureau of Engraving and Printing’s estimated life span of a $1 Federal Reserve Note of 20-months.
Vienna—Spanish gold dealer Oro Direct S.L.U. bought the world’s largest gold coin at auction for &euro3.27 million (approximately $4.02 million). The 100 kilogram coin with a face value of C$1 million was made by the Royal Canadian Mint in 2007. This coin currently holds the world’s record for being the largest coin ever made.
Gold was trading at $1,253.55 per troy ounce in London at the time of the auction.
“We believe that this is a way to demonstrate our opinion that gold is the ultimate store of wealth,” Oro Direct spokesman Michael Berger was reported as saying. “As long as central banks continue to print enormous amounts of paper money, we believe physical gold will be a fantastic investment.”
The following news video is from Reuters:
About the coin in a video by the Royal Canadian Mint:
Images from Italy and Zimbabwe are courtesy of the AP.
Image of the C$1 Million Maple Leaf courtesy of Reuters.
Jun 28, 2010 | BEP, counterfeit, currency, legal
When the British first founded colonies in North America, currency was limited to coins whose value was based on their metal content. When the King taxed his colonies to pay for wars in Europe, the colonies looked for ways of financing their own governments to provide services.
Since it was illegal for the colonies to coin money, they issued paper notes. These notes functioned as currency but actually were bills of credit, short-term public loans to the government. For the first time, the money had no intrinsic value but was valued at the rate issued by the government of the colony in payment of debt. Every time the colonial government needed money to pay creditors, they authorized the printing of a specified quantity and denomination of notes. Laws authorizing the issuance of notes were called emissions. The emission laws also included a tax that was used to repay the bills of credit with interest.
As taxes were paid using the paper currency, the paper was retired. As the notes were removed from circulation, that meant less payments the government had to make. On the maturity date, people brought their notes to authorized agents who paid off the loan. Agents then turned the notes over to the colonial government for reimbursement plus a com- mission. Sometimes, colonies could not pay back the loan. They instead passed another emission law to cover the debt owed from the previous emission plus further operating expenses, buying back mature notes with new notes. The colonists accepted this system since it was easier than barter and there were never enough coins to meet commercial needs.
Counterfeiting was rampant by the mid-18th century. In order to combat the problem, Benjamin Franklin devised the nature print, an imprint of a leaf or other natural item with its unpredictable patterns, fine lines, and complex details made it more difficult to copy.
To create a nature print, Franklin placed a leaf on a damp cloth. The cloth was placed on top of a bed of soft plaster that pressed the leaf into the plaster. Once the plaster hardened, it had a negative impression of the leaf. Molten copper was then poured over the plaster to make the printing plate. Franklin first used nature prints for the 1737 New Jersey emission. He also used different leaves for different denominations and elaborately engraved borders to further thwart the efforts of potential counterfeiters.
Franklin partnered with David Hall printing notes for New Jersey and Pennsylvania colonies. Along with his nature print, Franklin also included the phrase “Tis Death to Counterfeit.” Aside from trying to scare away potential counterfeiters, the penalty for counterfeiting in the 18th century was death. No convictions for counterfeiting colonial currency or death sentences have been recorded.
Later, Hall partnered with William Sellers to print Pennsylvania currency when Franklin was sent to England by the Pennsylvania assembly as their colonial agent.
Other printers tried different methods to thwart counterfeiters. James Parker of Woodbridge, New Jersey printed notes in two colors. With printing a labor intensive process, it was thought the process to cumbersome for counterfeiters to go through the process of the second printing. Also, Parker used red ink as the second color. Red was more expensive than black ink in the 18th century.
In Maryland, William Green of Annapolis used other anti-counterfeiting measures included using random wavy (indented) borders that had to match the original stub book, elaborate engravings, random punctuation, and superfluous characters. The example to the right is a “Half of a Dollar” from the Maryland emission of March 1, 1770. On this example, the engraver’s initials “TS” (Thomas Sparrow) appear at to the top, a small “a” was inserted between “half” and “dollar” while there is an accent mark over the “a” in “Exchange.”
Anti-counterfeiting technology has become very advanced since the colonial days. When the Bureau of Engraving and Printing introduced the new $100 Federal Reserve Note, its anti-counterfeiting technology included a watermark, a security thread, color-shifting ink, micro-printing and a new security ribbon that appears to animate as the note is tilted.
Rather than threatening death on today’s notes, our currency is protected under laws enforced by the U.S. Secret Service. The U.S. Secret Service was formed in 1865 as part of the Department of the Treasury following the Civil War to stop counterfeit currency that was printed in an to attempt to wreck the union economy. It was estimated that up to one-half of the currency in circulation was counterfeit.
The responsibility to protect the president, vice president, their families, and other national officials was added to their responsibilities in 1901 following the assassination of President William McKinley.
Today, the U.S. Secret Service is part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security with the same mission to protect U.S. money from counterfeiting. They reported that during fiscal year 2009, there were 2,506 domestic arrests for counterfeiting as well as assisting with 360 foreign arrests. This helped remove $182 million in counterfeit currency from circulation proving they are one of the world’s premiere law enforcement organization.
Maryland Currency image courtesy of the Coins and Currency Collection at the University of Notre Dame.
Image of the new $100 FRN complements of the United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
May 9, 2010 | BEP, currency
There seems to be a case of reinventing history not only in our education system but it appears to have come to the redesign of U.S. currency. After the Bureau of Engraving and Printing announced the release of the new $100 Federal Reserve Note, Newsweek performed a study on the evolution of the images that have appeared on US currency.
“Over time, America’s iconic forefathers come off looking good, even better than they used to—and it’s not just some airbrushing and smoothing out,” the article stated. “Put simply, if the Founders and their notable descendants lived in modern times, they might find themselves on magazine covers beside words like ‘nip and tuck.’”
Newsweek asked Dr. David Hidalgo, a New York-based plastic surgeon, to analyze pictures of the changes as if these were the images of patients. In his analysis, Dr. Hidalgo noted changes to the images as they the notes have been redesigned. The most dramatic may be the image of Alexander Hamilton, the nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury, that might have taken ten years off his look.
Unlike changes to US coinage, the BEP is not required to have their designs approved by the Commission of Fine Arts. The CFA is supposed to maintain the artistic integrity of the projects they examine but they are also supposed to consider the historical significance of the images. Although it is fair to question whether the CFA would make the same mistakes as the BEP, it can be safe to say that an external review may have been a good idea.
Apr 21, 2010 | BEP, currency, Federal Reserve, video
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing unveiled the new $100 Federal Reserve Note earlier today in Washington, DC. Along with the watermark, security thread, and color-shifting ink, the new note now includes enhanced micro printing, a new application for color-shifting ink, and a security ribbon that appears to animate as the note is tilted. Since the $100 note is the most circulated and most counterfeited note in the world, the BEP has been working with the U.S. Secret Service and the Federal Reserve Board to stay ahead of the counterfeiters.
“The $100 is the highest value denomination that we issue, and it circulates broadly around the world,” said Michael Lambert, Assistant Director for Cash at the Federal Reserve Board. “Therefore, we took the necessary time to develop advanced security features that are easy for the public to use in everyday transactions, but difficult for counterfeiters to replicate.”
“As with previous U.S. currency redesigns, this note incorporates the best technology available to ensure we’re staying ahead of counterfeiters,” said Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner.
The redesigned $100 note includes a new security ribbon. The 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 you tilt the note as if it was animated. Next to the ribbon at the bottom of the front of the new note is the Bell in the Inkwell. 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.
In addition to the new security features, the BEP also retained three security features from the old $100 note design including:
- Portrait Watermark: Hold the note to light to see a faint image of Benjamin Franklin in the blank space to the right of the large portrait. It is visible from either side of the note.
- Security Thread: Hold the note to light to see an embedded thread that runs vertically to the left of the portrait. The letters USA and the numeral 100 appear in an alternating pattern and can be seen from both sides of the note. The thread glows pink when illuminated by ultraviolet light.
- Color-Shifting 100: Tilt the note to see the numeral 100 in the lower right corner of the front of the note change from copper to green.
“The advanced security features we’ve included in the new $100 note will thwart potential counterfeiters from producing high-quality fakes that can fool consumers and merchants,” said Larry R. Felix, Director of the Treasury’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing. “Protect yourself—it only takes a few seconds to check the new $100 note and know it’s real.”
The new $100 note also displays American symbols of freedom including phrases from the Declaration of Independence and the quill the Founding Fathers used to sign this historic document. Both are located to the right of the portrait on the front of the note.
The back of the note has a new vignette of Independence Hall featuring the rear, rather than the front, of the building. Both the vignette on the back of the note and the portrait on the front have been enlarged, and the oval that previously appeared around both images has been removed. Also on the right of the reverse is a large “100” printed in gold ink. It is expected that this feature will help those with visual impairments distinguish the denomination.
Review
After the animation stopped on the front page of newmoney.gov the first thing I noticed is that Ben looks a little green. With a better use of color that does not make the note look close to the money seen in common board games, the portrait of Benjamin Franklin retains that green tint from the previous note while every other aspect of the note has changed. Since the BEP chose to use a portrait of an elderly Franklin, he looks like he could be ill.
As opposed to other notes, the there are no splashes of color that makes it look like a mistake. The design is better balanced and using the inkwell as a design element and part of the security features works well. If the BEP wanted to do better with color, it would have worked better by making the portrait of Franklin in color. That would have given the note a nice look and even seemed progressive in currency design.
The back of the note is still green. I guess if US currency will continue to be nicknamed the greenback, the BEP must keep the back of the note green. It is interesting that as part of the redesign, the BEP enlarged the “100” on the back of the note to take up almost the entire height of the area. It is being printed in gold. The size should help the visual impaired but it is unclear if the gold color will help those with visual impairments.
The most interesting change to the note is the 3-D security ribbon. It appears that the BEP has adapted holographic technology in a manner to embed into the fibers of the note to make it more difficult to counterfeit. It will be interesting to see how this looks with the note in hand since it looks very interesting in the videos distributed by the BEP.
It is a better redesign than their other efforts, but I would still like to see a better use of color.
Here is the Unveiling Video and B-roll videos produced for the BEP:
All images and video complements of the United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
Apr 18, 2010 | BEP, coins, currency, Federal Reserve, national park quarters, US Mint
In what has the potential to be an exciting week in numismatics, the US Mint and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing will be introducing newly designed money to the public.
As part of the 2010 National Coin Week, on April 20, the U.S. Mint will launch the America the Beautiful Quarters™ Program with the release of the Hot Springs National Park Quarter. The ceremony will take place on the park’s 178th anniversary in front of the Administration Building at 10 A.M. Central Time (CT). A coin exchange will follow the event. The ceremony will be broadcast live on the web at americathebeautifulquarters.gov beginning at 9:55 A.M. (CT).
The United States Mint will hold a Coin Forum on Monday evening, April 19, at 5 P.M. (CT) at the Quapaw Bath House. The Coin Forum is an opportunity for the public to express their views about future coinage, and to learn about upcoming United States Mint coin programs and initiatives.
As part of the promotion for the launch, the US Mint has released B-Roll with images of the site, design footage showing the computer design of the coin, production footage including creating of the dies, and striking of the quarters.
Then, on April 21 in the Treasury Cash Room, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing will unveil a newly designed $100 Note. The U.S. government redesigns currency in order to stay ahead of counterfeiters and protect the public. The BEP has not previewed the new design.
The unveiling of the $100 note is the first step in a global multi-government agency public education program implemented by the Department of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve Board and the U.S. Secret Service, to educate those who use the $100 note about its changes before it begins circulating. The $100 note is the highest value denomination of U.S. currency in general circulation, and it circulates broadly around the world.
Program will begin at 10 A.M. Eastern Time (ET) and will include Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner, Chairman of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System Ben Bernanke, Treasurer of the United States Rosie Rios, Director of the United States Secret Service Mark Sullivan. Education and media materials, including the B-roll, will be available at www.newmoney.gov.
Hot Springs Quarter courtesy of the US Mint
Cash Room images courtesy of the US Department of the Treasury
Feb 13, 2010 | currency, history
I am writing an article for the Maryland State Numismatic Association about Maryland colonial currency. After writing the introduction, I thought it would be of interest to my readers. I made a slight modification to neatly end this as a single article. The rest will appear in a future MSNA Journal.
Prior to the Great Depression, paper currency was backed with specie, gold or silver mined in the United States. During the founding of the country currency had been limited to coins with an intrinsic value based on their gold, silver or copper content. As the King of England tried to tax the colonies to pay for the wars in Europe, the colonies looked for ways of financing their own governments to provide services.
Since the colonies did not have the ability to coin money, they issued paper notes. These notes functioned as currency but actually were bills of credit, short-term public loans to the government. For the first time, the money had no intrinsic value but was valued at the rate issued by the government of the colony in payment of debt. Every time the colonial government would need money, they would authorize the printing of a specified quantity and denomination of notes that it would use to pay creditors. The emission laws also included a tax that would used to repay the bill of credit and the promised interest.
As taxes were paid using the paper currency, the paper was retired. As the notes were removed from circulation, that was less payments the government had to make. On the maturity date, people brought their notes to authorized agents who paid off the loan. Agents then turned the notes over to the colonial government to be reimbursed and collect a commission for acting as an agent.
Sometimes, colonies could not pay back the loan. In those cases, the colonies passed another emission law to cover the debt owed from the previous emission plus further operating expenses. In this case, mature notes were traded for new notes. The colonists accepted this system since there were shortages of coins as well as there being an inability to convert the value of foreign coins into colonial shillings by farmers and other unskilled in such matters.
Maryland was one of the more successful colonies. Maryland benefited from its ownership of the Chesapeake Bay and ran a robust economy as a trading post for Maryland and Virginia goods. Maryland merchants were able to make a sizable living trading tobacco and other crops to Europe for Virginia farmers.
Starting in 1733, there were eight emissions from the Maryland colony with four during the Revolutionary War. The last emission was in 1780 with a successful payment of obligations in 1782, prior to its 1784 maturity date. In 1784, Maryland was able to pay its debts in specie, mostly Spanish Milled Dollars, and outlawed any future release of currency.
Dec 10, 2009 | BEP, currency, history, legal
As the hostilities began to build between the Union and Confederacy that lead to the Civil War, the US Mint began to lose control of branch mints in the areas that seceded from the union. When Louisiana voted to secede from the union on January 26, 1891, the prolific New Orleans Mint was taken over by the Confederate government. The New Orleans Mint had working dies, presses, and metals to coin their own money. With New Orleans being at the mouth of the Mississippi River, a major trading route, the Confederacy could use this to import metals from other parts of the world to fund their war effort.
Since the San Francisco Mint was too far away to be effective in helping fund the war effort, the Philadelphia Mint was secured to protect it from a possible takeover but did not have the capacity to produce as much coinage as necessary. In fact, the war caused a threat of metal shortages that lead to hoarding of all types of US coins.
With the need to fund the war effort and to prevent the counterfeiting of US coins, congress voted to allow the federal government to print paper currency for circulation. The authorization to print paper money was passed on July 17, 1861 and promptly signed by President Abraham Lincoln. On August 29, 1862, the Printing Bureau was started in the basement of the Treasury Building. When congress authorized the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in 1863, the Printing Bureau was transferred to OCC and became known as the “Currency Department” or the “National Currency Bureau.” In 1875, legislation was passed to change the name to the current “Bureau of Engraving and Printing” with its own budget and appointed director.
As the government moved to standardize the look and issuance of banknotes, the BEP grew to be the largest printer of security documents in the United States. Originally, original large notes (189 × 79 mm or approximately 7.421 × 3.125 in.) were works of art that continue to be appreciated today. However, when the BEP went to the small sized currency we use today (155 × 66 mm. or approximately 6.14 × 2.61 in.) starting in 1928, the design settled into the one that would not be changed until the 1996.
Frankly, the design of small currency notes have been less than inspiring. In the book, 100 Greatest American Currency Notes by Q. David Bowers and David M. Sundman, the only small notes recognized are large denomination issues (such as the 1928 $1,000 Gold Certificate [#76]) or notes of historical importance (like the $1 Silver Certificate with the “HAWAII” over print [#65]). None were recognized for their designs. When the notes were redesigned in starting in 1996, the notes were given “modern” interpretations of their 1928 uninspired designs.
While each design change since 1996 was made to be able to incorporate new anti-counterfeiting features. But when the BEP make minor updates to the design of the Series 2004 $20 Federal Reserve Note, they entered a new era of adding color to US currency. The addition of color has little artistic meaning to the notes. In fact, it is as if the BEP is dabbling in color rather than adding color to enhance the notes’ look. The design of US currency is less than inspiring.
In an article in The Washington Post discussing a bureaucratic issue with the BEP they note that the bureau is planning to offer buyouts to 227 workers because orders for currency has dropped by 2 billion notes. The reduction is attributed to the economy and the increased use of credit cards. With the slowdown in currency production, now is the time to make make changes to the way the BEP works.
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing is run solely by the Department of the Treasury with no rules other than what Treasury deems as appropriate. While nearly everything the US Mint does is prescribed by law, the law governing what the BEP can do, 31 U.S.C. §5115 is 62 words long. Thus, this gives the Director of the BEP (currently Larry Felix) more autonomy of the BEP than the Director of the US Mint has over his bureau. According to the 2008 Plum Book [PDF], the Director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing is a career government professional—which might explain why it is so well run in comparison to the US Mint which is run by a politician.
First change would be to change the law to make the lowest denomination of currency five dollars. It require congress to make a two word change to 31 U.S.C. §5115(a)(2). This will make the dollar coins more useful and cut production at the BEP by 45-percent.
Previously in this series, I proposed an organizational change for the US Mint that would create a board to oversee the Mint’s operations and subsequent changes to the management of the US Mint Public Enterprise Fund. This should be the same structure used for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing with the exception of bullion issues (obviously). As part of the reorganization, the same rules for coinage design should apply to the design of US currency with the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts and the final arbitrator of artistic design.
The BEP should be able to issue commemorative currency. Currently, the BEP uses “tricks” to manufacture collectible issues whether it is special packaging or using serial numbers to tie the notes to special events. In this plan, commemorative currency can be created by changing the reverse of our current designs or special issues in the same manner that the US Mint produces coins. One idea was The Liberty Bill Act promoted by the Liberty Middle School of Ashland, Virginia.
As part of the reorganization of the BEP, they must address the meaningful access to US currency. This is the study ordered [PDF] by the court in the suit filed by the American Council of the Blind to force the BEP print US currency more easily accessible by the blind and visually impaired. This report was published in July 2009 and there has been no comment from the BEP. It is time for the BEP to publish their recommendations.
Finally, the future is today. With production falling because of the use of credit cards and the declining economy, it is time to consider the era of the cotton-linen paper notes. The BEP should not only consider using polymer-based notes, but done so in a way to allow the BEP become a printer for the rest of the world. Polymer notes allows for the government to add new security features to the notes, but could be the basis to satisfy the court order regarding meaningful access. If the BEP embraces polymer notes, they can use the capacity not being used to print US currency to print currency for the rest of the world. While it may put the US in competition with Australia for polymer note printing, the BEP has two facilities that can out produce almost any other currency printer in the world. A little competition is good for everyone!
The last entry of the series will wrap up my thoughts on the reformation of America’s currency.
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