Sunday, December 12, 2010

New $100 Bills delayed due to Treasury error

The US Treasury has unveiled an error that will cost US Taxpayers $137.5 million and delay the new bills by months.
The new hundred dollar bill design, which was released in April and scheduled to go into circulation in February, is fancy indeed. It includes a disappearing Liberty Bell and a bright blue security strip composed of hundreds of tiny lenses. Unfortunately, the US Treasury might have bitten off a little more than they could chew with this design. As the new bills were being printed, all these intricacies caused the paper to wrinkle, so when the bills were printed, there were blank spots where the wrinkles were.
This is turning out to be a major problem, as it costs 12.5 cents to produce each $100 bill, which means that if all 1.1 billion of the bills that have been printed so far have to be destroyed, the Treasury will lose $137.5 million. Not only that, but retailers will also lose money. $100 bills are the most frequently counterfeited. I would recommend trying it at home, but all counterfeiters need is to bleach a bunch of $1 bills and print a $100 image on top of them with a laser to printer to get past most watchful eyes.
This fiasco brings a whole new meaning to the phrase “printer error”. Let’s hope the government gets this figured out ASAP.