Ben's Smiling: New $100 Bills Make Their Debut

For counterfeiters, this won't be easy money.

The federal government today started circulating crisp new $100 bills that are so unusual they look like botched counterfeits themselves. But U.S. Secret Service agents are hoping that the bills' new portraits, faint watermarks and inks that change color will confound crooks for years to come.

In the first major redesign of U.S. currency in 68 years, the Treasury Department was distributing new $100 bills to banks around the world this morning.

About $85 billion worth of the new bills have been printed so far. But, "They won't be everywhere right away - it will only be a trickle at first," said Bob Moore, a Federal Reserve spokesman.

Eventually, other bills will follow - $50s, $20s, $10s, $5s and $1s - at the rate of one new denomination every year or so.

The old notes will remain legal tender as long as they remain in circulation, so of course counterfeiters can still imitate those.

"No note in the world is counterfeit-proof," says Richard Rohde, chief of the Secret Service's counterfeit division from 1993 until January. "But this note will be much more difficult to copy, and we will narrow the scope of the people with the expertise to do it."

It has taken experts nearly 13 years to create and implement the new design. The government began the overhaul with the $100 bill because the large denomination is a favorite among counterfeiters.

The new $100 bill looks like no other. Some differences are immediately noticeable. Some are subtle:

-- The most obvious change is the new portrait of Ben Franklin. He's bigger. He has a wry smile. And he has been moved, slightly, to the left side of the bill.

-- The field behind the portrait consists of tiny, concentric lines. When crooks try to reproduce the bills on copying machines, the fields blur and become blotchy.

-- By moving the portrait to the left, engravers made room for a watermark. When the note is tilted, a small version of the portrait appears as a shadow in the background of the bill.

"That will never show up on a copier or a scanner," Rohde said.

-- In microprint barely visible to naked eye, engravers have written "USA100" into Ben Franklin's collar and into the number "100" on the bill's left side.

-- On the right side is one of the fanciest new features - color-shifting ink. Viewed straight on, the number "100" looks green. Tilted, the number turns black.

Last year, $230 million in counterfeit bills was seized abroad, and $80 million was found within the country. Nearly $32 million in phony bills actually made their way into the hands of the public.

Information from Associated Press was used in this report.