The issuance of series-1996 $100 Federal Reserve notes: goals, strategy, and likely results.

Abstract

In March 1996, the Federal Reserve began issuing series-1996 $100 Federal Reserve notes. Culminating a cooperative effort by the U.S. Department of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve System that dated from the 1980s, the series-1996 note was the first major design change in U.S. currency in sixty-six years. The new note was developed to provide better protection for users of U.S. currency against the growing threat of counterfeiting, especially that posed by increasingly affordable and capable color scanning and printing systems. This article discusses the Federal Reserve's strategy for issuing newly designed$100 notes and says that it appears likely to achieve its objectives: a replacement of pre-series-1996 $100 notes that is timely in relation to the developing threat of counterfeiting, with a minimum impact on holders and users of those notes throughout the world.Money