New $50 Bill Will Fight Counterfeiters in Color

President Ulysses S. Grant is still on the front, the U.S. Capitol is still on the back, and the ink is still black and green. But those are about the only similarities between the $50 bill currently in circulation and the redesigned currency introduced Monday by the Treasury Department.

Like the $20 bill issued last fall, the new bill has added colors, watermarks and other techniques designed to foil counterfeiters. Among the changes are a pattern of blue stars to the left of Grant’s portrait and three red stripes to the right. A purple hue tints the left and right sides of the bill, front and back, and tiny gold “50” markings are printed on the back of the bill.

Treasury Department officials said that with these and other improved security measures, it would be harder than ever to fake large-denomination U.S. bills.

The new $50 note will enter the money supply in September or October, said Genie Foster, cash product leader of the Federal Reserve System’s board of governors. That is about a year after the security-strengthened $20 bills were issued.

The redesign was unveiled Monday at two news conferences -- one with Treasury Secretary John W. Snow at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing’s facility in Fort Worth, and the other in Washington, where Deputy Treasury Secretary Samuel Bodman explained the new design to the foreign media.

“When changes are made, it is very important to get the word out to the international community,” Bodman said.

“There is more U.S. currency around the globe than any other currency,” he said, estimating that twice as much U.S. money circulates outside America than inside.

Larry Felix, assistant director of technology at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, said “the color adds a degree of complexity” for counterfeiters.

“A sound currency, which this new $50 note will foster, is a pivotal factor in the strength of our economy,” Snow said. The department estimates counterfeit bills commingle with real notes at a ratio of one fake for every 25,000 real ones.

Snow said redesigned currency would be introduced every seven to 10 years to keep ahead of counterfeiting technologies. Bodman said that most “known fake currency” was detected and seized before it reached circulation.

A new $100 note will be released later, the department said, offering no timetable for the bill. Redesigns for the $5 and $10 bills are still under consideration, but there are no plans to update $1 and $2 bills.

Individual production costs will rise from 7 cents a bill to 8 cents, said Foster, who did not specify the total cost of the makeover process.