Alexander Hamilton Gets a Major Facelift

Following up on its redesigned $20 bill and $50 bill, the Treasury Department and its Bureau of Engraving and Printing have unveiled the new $10 bill.

The new $10 bill features a revised portrait of Alexander Hamilton. Like previous currency presidents before him, his portrait has been enlarged and modified to remove the large oval around his picture. His shoulders also extend into the background of the note.

The new note is expected to make its way into general circulation beginning in early 2006. Between now and then, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing will print roughly 800 million of the new bills, featuring a long list of new features designed to thwart counterfeiting.

For starters, the background of the new bill features a slight orange tint. To the right of Hamilton's portrait is the phrase "We the People" in red behind the U.S. Treasury seal. To the left of Hamilton's portrait, you'll find a red image of the Statue of Liberty's torch. And dotted around the torch are small 10s in yellow, which are difficult for counterfeiters to reproduce digitally.

The increase in digital counterfeiting has been dramatic. In 1995, digitally produced counterfeit notes accounts for less than 1 percent of all detected fakes. Today, that number has jumped to about 54 percent of all counterfeit notes.

The bill also features color-shifting ink. When you tilt the $10 bill up and down, the number "10" to the right of Hamilton will shift from copper to green.

Other anti-counterfeiting measures include a watermark, similar to the portrait, which is part of the paper itself and harder to counterfeit. The new ten also includes a special security thread that repeats "USA TEN". This thread glows orange when the $10 bill is held underneath an ultraviolet lamp.

Microprinting has also been incorporated into the bill. The words "USA" and "10" can be found repeated beneath the large printed torch, and the words "THE UNITED STATE OS AMERICA" and "TEN DOLLARS" can be found below the portrait, as well as vertically inside the left and right borders of the note.

On the back of the bill, the numbers "10" are represented in the four corners of the bill in some new fonts, with a large "10" in the lower right corner. The large "10" is designed to help make the note easier to see for the sight-impaired.

You'll start seeing the new $10 notes in early 2006. And don't worry if you still have older $10 bills, since any old tens are still legal tender.

The U.S. Treasury plans to redesign bills every 7-10 years to keep pace with counterfeiters. Next up will be a revamp of the venerable $100 bill. Originally, the $100 bill was going to revamped sooner. However, the Treasury Department is taking longer to redesign the $100 to add more anti-counterfeiting features, since it is the most popular note of counterfeiters outside the U.S.

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