After many delays, the upgraded $100 bill was finally released Tuesday The Wall Street Journal reported.
"We do those things to make it a little harder for counterfeiters to replicate," Sophia Danburg, director of the Federal Reserve System's currency education program told The Journal. "It's just about raising the bar and making it that much more complicated to reliably replicate the note's design."
In its third remake and first improvement since 1996, the bill has new security features to prevent counterfeiting and a revised portrait of Benjamin Franklin. Financial institutions can also order the new money and begin the process of distributing it to customers.
The changes include a three-dimensional blue ribbon to the right of Franklin's portrait. This contains images of the number 100 and bells which change position when the bill is moved. The new $100 bill also has a copper-hued inkwell and bell which change to green when they are put at a certain angle. This makes it seem like the bell disappears into the ink.
Other changes to the bill include a bigger picture of Franklin, without an oval around his face; the rear of Independence Hall, previously on the front of the bill, has been moved to the back.
The new features are now printed on all 3.5 billion copies of the new money printed by the United States Department of the Treasury Bureau of Engraving and Printing The Journal reported. While the new bills have reached the market, people can still use the older versions since they average a 15-year lifespan.
It was a long process for the bill's introduction because of a printing error called "mashing" or an over use of ink that caused a delay in the Federal Reserve's introduction in August. This marked the money's third setback since it was initially released in 2011. The first two issues involved stolen bills and bills printed with blank spots.
