A printing error called "mashing," or an over use of ink has caused a delay in the Federal Reserve's introduction of the new $100 bill according to The New Yorker.
"This time, recent batches of cash from the Washington, D.C., plant contained 'clearly unacceptable' bills intermixed with passable ones," Bureau of Engraving Director Larry Felix said in a July memo to employees, and picked up by The New Yorker. "So the Fed is returning more than thirty million hundred-dollar notes and demanding its money back.
"Another thirty billion dollars' worth of paper sits in limbo awaiting examination, and Fed officials have informed the bureau that they will not accept any hundred-dollar notes made at the Washington, D.C., facility until further notice," he said.
The latest setback has prevented the new $100 bill from leaving the shelf for a third time since it original 2011 release date, The New Yorker reported.
The first printing errors put a blank spot on the money. This was followed by a large portion of the money being stolen last year The New Yorker reported. A Bureau spokesman told The New Yorker only a small number of bills were affected by the error among a lot of bills in normal condition.
"It's expected only a marginal fraction of the notes will be unacceptable," the spokesperson said.
According to the New Yorker, the bill has a picture of a color changing Liberty Bell, a new hidden message on Ben Franklin's collar, tiny 3-D images that move when the bill is put at an angle, and a 3-D anti-counterfeit strip which will be hidden on the inside.
The Bureau has until Oct. 8 to have the bills printed the correct way and into citizens' hands, The New Yorker reported.
