NEWS : U.S. Government Misprints $110B USD in "High Tech" Currency

Science
Jason Mick (Blog) - December 7, 2010 1:00 PM

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The new U.S. $100 bill is so complex apparently even the government can't print it! (Source: NewMoney.gov)

Announced in April, the bills have been delayed indefinitely after $110B USD worth of notes were misprinted. (Source: NewMoney.gov)

Printing process was so complex apparently even the government couldn't figure it out

It was the "bill of the future". The new American $100 bill had 3D security ribbons and threads. Microprint text and watermark images were disguised across its surface. And the numbers changed color depending on the light and viewing angle. Lauded to the press in April, the bill was so sophisticated that no counterfeiter could hope to reliably print it.

The only problem, though, was that apparently the U.S. government couldn't reliably print it either. During the initial printing run, a flaw in the printing process was encountered, which led to a layer of the paper folding over after inking, revealing an uninked portion.

Approximately 30 percent of the the approximately $366B USD printed, or roughly $110B USD worth of bills, carry the flaw. That's a whopping 1.1 billion botched bills.

An official close to the process confided with CNBC, "There is something drastically wrong here. The frustration level is off the charts."

The new bill is badly needed. The $100 bill is the most frequently counterfeited bill and modern printing technologies have helped give would-be counterfeiters a fighting chance. The most sophisticated of these counterfeits, dubbed the "supernote", is rumored to come from America's adversary North Korea. That counterfeit model is virtually indistinguishable from the real thing, without expert analysis.

While the current generation currency was expected to stay in circulation for a little while after the new run, it would help reduce the number of older style bills available. In April, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner promised to launch the bill in February 2011, stating, "As with previous U.S. currency redesigns, this note incorporates the best technology available to ensure we're staying ahead of counterfeiters."

Now that release has been pushed back to an indefinite date.

News of the delay first broke in early October when the Treasury Department revealed that a printing error had held up the process. A statement read that the problem involved a "a problem with sporadic creasing of the paper."

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