FROM THE OFFICE OF PUBLIC AFFAIRS

Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin and Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan announced today the UnitedStates will issue a redesigned $50 note that includes a featuremaking the note more accessible to all users of U.S. currency,especially the aging population and low-vision community. The newnote will be issued in the fall of 1997, and is the second in theU.S. currency series to include new and modified securityfeatures to stay ahead of advances in reprographic technology.

The redesigned $50 note and consequentdenominations will include a large dark numeral on a lightbackground on the back of the note that will make it easier forthe more than 3.7 million Americans with low vision to denominatethe note. The feature will also be useful to the 10 millionAmericans with milder forms of visual impairment and other usersof U.S. currency in low-light situations. In a January 1995 studysolicited by the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Engravingand Printing, the National Academy of Sciences recommendedincorporation of the feature.

Last year’s introduction of a new design was a critical and effective step in an ongoing process to maintainthe security of the nation's currency as technologies such ascolor copiers, scanners and printers become more sophisticatedand accessible. In the new note’s first year, the U.S.Secret Service identified counterfeit Series 1996 $100 notes only1/18 as often as older series $100s. By the end of the firstyear, however, new series notes represented over a third of all$100s in circulation.

The addition of a feature for those with lowvision to identify readily the note’s denomination isequally significant. All consequent denominations ($20, $10,etc.) will include this low-vision feature, as will futureredesigns of the $100 note. The redesigned $20 will be issuednext year.

"With this redesign, government demonstratesits ability to stay ahead of the technology curve and meet theneeds of all those people around the world who use and trust ourcurrency," Secretary Rubin said. "At the same time, thenew notes retain their basic American look and feel."

The new series $100 bill was issued in March1996. Like the $100, the new $50 will replace the older seriesnotes gradually in circulation; as older notes reach the FederalReserve from depository institutions, they will be replaced bythe newer notes. About $46.5 billion in $50 notes is currently incirculation. Secretary Rubin and Chairman Greenspan stressed theUnited States will not recall or devalue any of the existingcurrency.

"We expect as smooth an introduction processas we experienced last year, when millions of users of U.S.currency embraced the new $100 notes," Chairman Greenspansaid. "As with the $100 note, older notes will not berecalled or devalued."

In order to make room for the new features, theoverall architecture of the note has been changed somewhat andthe borders simplified. Microprinting and security threads, whichfirst appeared in the 1991 series currency, have been effectivedeterrents and will appear in the new notes. The new and modified$50 note features include:

• A large numeral "50" on the back of the note.

• A larger portrait, moved off-center to create more space for a watermark.

• The watermark to the right of the portrait depicting the same historical figure as the portrait. The watermark can be seen only when held up to the light.

• A security thread to the right of the portrait that glows yellow when exposed to ultraviolet light in a dark environment. "USA 50" and a flag, which itself contains microprinting, are printed on the thread. (In the $100, the thread is to the left of the portrait and glows red, and is printed with the words "USA 100.")

• Color-shifting ink in the numeral on the lower right-hand corner of the bill front that changes from green to black when viewed from different angles.

• Microprinting in the border and in Ulysses Grant’s shirt collar in the $50 note. (In the $100 note, microprinting is found in the numeral in the note's lower left-hand corner and on Benjamin Franklin's lapel.)

• Concentric fine-line printing in the background of the portrait and on the back of the note. This type of printing is difficult to copy well.

• Other features for machine authentication and processing of the currency.

In addition to the low-vision feature on the noteback, the $50 looks different in several other ways. Theengraving of the Capitol has been enlarged to include moredetail, and reflects an accurate contemporary view of the westfront of the Capitol. The security thread images and charactersare also printed in two different heights.

Over $400 billion in U.S. currency is incirculation, two-thirds of it overseas. The U.S. InformationAgency and U.S. consular posts around the world will help educateforeign users of U.S. currency about the redesign program.

Fact sheets on the new note, the history of U.S.currency and related agencies are available on Treasury'sinteractive fax at (202) 622-2040 (for an index, request document# 1745) and on the Treasury’s website:www.treas.gov/treas/whatsnew/.

THE LOW-VISION FEATURE ON THE$50 BILL

There are approximately 3.7 million Americanswith visual disabilities, and as many as 10 million Americanswith milder forms of visual impairment. The Series 1996 $50 billcontains an important new universal design feature that will makeUnited States currency more accessible to all Americans,especially the aging population and the low-vision community.

The $50 bill has been redesigned to improve itssecurity against counterfeiting and shares the overallarchitecture of the Series 1996 $100 bill released in March 1996-- an off-center portrait, watermark, security thread andfine-line concentric printing and microprinting. It alsoincorporates a large dark numeral "50" on a lightbackground in the lower right hand corner of the back of the notethat will make the note’s denomination easier to identify.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP), whichmanufactures the nation’s currency, contracted with theNational Academy of Sciences for a study of currency features toassist the visually impaired. One of the January 1995report’s principal recommendations was to incorporate alarger dark-colored numeral on a light background to currencydesigns. A new design task force representing Treasury, theBureau of Engraving and Printing, the U.S. Secret Service and theFederal Reserve agreed that a high-resolution feature would beuseful to those with low vision, and could be easily incorporatedinto the new series design without compromising the improvedsecurity of the new notes. The task force concluded that otherrecommended changes, including variations in size and shape,holes and other tactile features, were not sufficiently durableto be practicable for U.S. currency at this time. Asked by BEP toassess the feature, the University of Minnesota’s Laboratoryfor Low-Vision Research has concluded that the substantiallylarger size and higher contrast of the numeral, as well as theuniformity of background, will be of substantial functionalbenefit to people with low vision and to anyone in dim lightingor other poor-visibility conditions. The nearly uniform strokewidth in the new feature is also easier to read. The numeral is14 millimeters (a little over one half inch) in height, comparedwith 7.8 millimeters on older series notes.

The Treasury Department and the numerous groupsrepresenting Americans with low vision who reviewed the featurebelieve it is an important step in making currency moreaccessible to everyone. The feature has been included in theSeries 1996 $50 note design at no cost and will appear onsubsequent redesigned notes in the series. The Bureau ofEngraving and Printing continues to evaluate the NASrecommendations to determine whether other changes in currencydesign could make the note even more accessible, especially toblind people.