Open up your wallet. Go on. See that green papery stuff in there called money? Well, if you have a five dollar bill handy, take a good look at it, because it’s about to change and get slightly… weirder. With every redesign, the familiar greenback becomes something less familiar, but I suppose as long as it spends, nobody will shed many tears.

In the never-ending war against counterfeit currency, the United States Mint is redesigning Honest Abe’s paper memorial yet again. There’s a ton of new stuff on the upcoming bill, including some splashes of purple, pink, and gray, some ultraviolet markings, microprinted borders, two watermarks, security printing, anti-copying numbers arranged to prevent digital copying, and all kinds of fancy new things to keep the currency honest.

While the new note information is interesting, the best part is the look at the history of the $5 since its inception in 1861, through various redesigns, and to the current day. The early dollar looks difficult enough on its own to counterfeit, but it’s nothing compared to the incredible undertaking that counterfeiting a modern five dollar bill would be. I guess as printing methods have become more advanced and mass production has become the mode of the day, the ability to copy has gotten more sophisticated as well.

The comparison between the five dollar bill and the five Euro note is pretty interesting as well, if only because it compares the world’s most widely counterfeited currency with the world’s toughest to counterfeit currency. I can see why the Euro isn’t copied very much, it’s quite the colorful piece of Monopoly money and it’s got more security measures than my house. Call me old-fashioned, but I prefer my money to be green.

Tags: money, new money, currency, anti-counterfeiting measures, US Mint

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