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WASHINGTON,
D.C.—The first new $5 bill was issued by the Federal
Reserve during a commemorative transaction at President
Lincoln’s Cottage at the Soldiers’ Home in
Washington,
D.C., a historic site used by the former president as a
White House summer retreat.
Officials from the Federal Reserve Board, US Treasury,
Bureau of Engraving and Printing and US Secret Service
ushered the new $5 bill into circulation at the Lincoln
Cottage gift shop.
Michael
Lambert, assistant director, Division of Reserve Bank
Operations and Payment Systems at the Federal Reserve
Board, spent the first new $5 bill on a book of
President Lincoln’s speeches. President Lincoln’s
portrait continues to be featured on this redesign of
the $5 bill.
“The
redesigned $5 bill’s enhanced security features help
ensure we stay ahead of counterfeiters and protect your
hard-earned money,” Lambert said. “It only takes a few
seconds to check the new $5 bill to make sure it’s
genuine. If you know how to check its security features,
you can easily be confident it’s real.”
Federal
Reserve banks will begin distributing the redesigned $5
bills to customer banks, which will then distribute them
to businesses and consumers.
The new
$5-bill designs will circulate first in the US and
gradually spread to other countries as international
banks place orders for them from the Federal Reserve.
People don’t have to trade in their old bills for new
ones. Both the new $5 bills and the older-design $5
bills will continue to maintain their full face
value.
The new
$5 bill incorporates state-of-the-art security features
that are easy to use by cash handlers and consumers
alike. Hold the bill to the light to check for these
features:
•
Watermarks: There are now two watermarks on the
redesigned $5 bill. A large number “5” watermark is
located in a blank space to the right of the portrait
replacing the previous watermark portrait of President
Lincoln found on the older-design $5 bills.
A second
watermark—a column of three smaller “5”s—has been added
to the new $5-bill design and is positioned to the left
of the portrait.
•
Security Thread: The embedded security thread runs
vertically and is now located to the right of the
portrait on the redesigned $5 bill. The letters “USA”
followed by the number “5” in an alternating pattern are
visible along the thread from both sides of the bill.
The thread glows blue when held under ultraviolet light.
President Lincoln’s Cottage at the Soldiers’ Home in
Washington, D.C. (www.lincolncottage,org),
which has recently been restored and is now open to the
public, was chosen as the location to spend the first
new $5 bill because of its historic significance to
President Lincoln, the subject of the bill’s portrait.
President Lincoln established the United States Secret
Service the same evening he was assassinated and made
safeguarding the nation’s currency from counterfeiters
the agency’s primary mission.
Every
person or business that gets a counterfeit bill
experiences a real economic loss, and in 2007, $61.4
million in counterfeit money was passed in the United
States.
“Everyone who uses
US
currency is on the front line of defense against
counterfeiters,” said Michael Merritt, Deputy Assistant
Director, US Secret Service. “The best way to protect
yourself is to learn the security features. It’s simple,
it’s quick, and it can save you from accepting a fake.”
Treasurer of the United States Anna Escobedo Cabral
encouraged businesses and individuals to visit
www.moneyfactor.gov/newmoney to order or download
educational materials about the new $5 bill and other
recently redesigned currency, including the $10, $20 and
$50 bills.
“Each
time we introduce a new bill, we provide the information
businesses and individuals need to empower themselves—to
learn how to use the security features and verify that a
bill is genuine.”
Free
educational materials are available to businesses,
financial institutions, trade and professional
associations, citizen groups and individuals to prepare
cash handlers and consumers to recognize the new design
and protect themselves against counterfeits.
Since
2003, the
US
government has distributed about 80 million pieces of
public education and training materials about the new
$5, $10, $20 and $50 bill redesigns. Materials are
available to order or download in multiple languages at
www.moneyfactory.gov/newmoney.
Manufacturers and users of cash-handling equipment are
also an important audience for education about new
currency designs. \“Because the $5 bill is used so
heavily in vending, self-service and transit farecard
machines, we began working with the manufacturers of
those and other cash-oriented machines in 2006 to make
sure they had enough time to make the necessary
adjustments that would allow for their machines to
accept the new $5 bill,” said Pamela Gardiner, deputy
director of the Treasury’s Bureau of Engraving and
Printing.
As with
the redesigned $10, $20 and $50 bills that preceded it,
the new $5 bill features an American symbol of freedom
printed in the background. The Great Seal of the United
States, featuring an eagle and shield, is printed in
purple on the front of the bill.
Additional design elements include:
• The
large, easy-to-read number “5” in the lower right corner
on the back of the bill, which helps those with visual
impairments distinguish the denomination, has been
enlarged in the new $5 bill design and is printed in
high-contrast purple ink.
• The
oval borders around President Lincoln’s portrait on the
front and the Lincoln Memorial vignette on the back have
been removed. Both engravings have been enhanced.
• Small
yellow “05”s are printed to the left of the portrait on
the front of the bill and to the right of the Lincoln
Memorial vignette on the back.
The new
$5 bill’s most noticeable design difference is the
addition of light purple in the center of the bill,
which blends into gray near the edges. Because color can
be duplicated, consumers and cash-handlers should use
the key security features—on the new $5 bill, the
watermarks and security thread—not color, to check the
authenticity of paper money. |
