Color $20 Bill to Help Put Counterfeiters in Stripes

WASHINGTON -- Andrew Jackson is in line for a makeover, and we’re not talking wrinkle removal.

The $20 bill, which carries Jackson’s image, will get color and possibly other new features as part of an effort to foil high-tech counterfeiters. The new 20 could be put into circulation as early as the fall of 2003, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing said Thursday.

The $20 bill is the most counterfeited note in the United States and the second-most commonly used bill behind the $1 bill. Jackson’s last makeover was in 1998.

“Redesigning notes is going to become a way of life for modern currencies around the world to stay ahead of technology, which is just exploding and providing increased threats to security,” bureau Director Thomas Ferguson said.

After the new 20 debuts, redesigned $100 bills--which are the most knocked off outside the country--and $50 bills will follow in 12 to 18 months, the bureau said. But the bureau hasn’t decided which of those notes will roll out first.

The nation’s money makers are still deciding whether $5s and $10s--which were last redesigned in 2000--will get face lifts this time around.