New money

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Can you tell me if the redesigning of our currency has anything to do w/ the ensuing problems w/ y2k?

-- Beth Barnhill (bethie1479@aol.com), November 08, 1998

Answers

No, but I wouldn't be surprised if they are printing up $1000 bills so that we can all get our "money" when the bank runs start! Hey, no more problems with the fiat fractional reserve banking system!!

-- Andy (andy_rowland@msn.com), November 08, 1998.

I have read in several places that the extra currency being printed (100 billion?) will be mostly in large denominations, because there isn't enough of that special paper for smaller bills, and the Crane company (government-granted monopoly on making that paper) can't gear up to produce enough in time.

If we do experience serious deflation (Yourdon considers this more likely than anything else) those large bills might be so hard to break as to destroy their usefulness as negotiable currency. I don't intend to stash anything larger than a $20, and a *whole lot* of ones and fives, and a few hundred in coins.

Even today, try walking into a 7-11 with a $1,000 bill and buying a soft drink. Good luck.

-- Flint (flintc@mindspring.com), November 08, 1998.


look at the new 20.00 dollar bills.. the print date is 1996..not 1998

-- rooster (logcabin@erinet.com), November 08, 1998.

Everytime I cash a paycheck, I deposit just enough to cover my mortgage and I get the rest back in cash. The bank is always trying to pawn off on me those $100 bills. They get ticked at me when I tell them I want the money in $1, $5, $10, and $20 bills. It's easy to mistake those new $100 bills for the new $20's. I have found since I don't use my ATM card any more or write checks except for my mortgage payment, it means less trips to the bank, I'm totally anonymous and there's no paper trail at the places I shop.

-- Bardou (Bardou@baloney.com), November 08, 1998.

Beth,

>Can you tell me if the redesigning of our currency has anything to do w/ the ensuing problems w/ y2k?

Yes -- It doesn't.

Redesigning of U.S. currency has been in the works a lot longer than Y2K awareness. If the government had begun Y2K remediation when it began planning to redesign currency, we'd be in a lot better shape now. The primary motivation for currency redesign was to make counterfeiting more difficult.

- - - - - - - - - -

Andy,

Bills of denomination higher than $100 haven't been printed for more than 30 years, and they aren't going to be printed now. Higher denominations would not be of any help with problems in the fiat fractional reserve banking system, anyway.

- - - - - - - - - -

Flint,

The extra currency the Federal Reserve is stockpiling will not come from printing extra new bills. It will come from reducing the amount of worn currency that is normally taken out of circulation each year. So you won't see more new bills -- you'll see more old slightly-ragged ones.

- - - - - - - - - -

Rooster,

The 1996 date is the "Series" year, not the year in which the bill is printed. The first of the Series 1996 bills was the redesigned $100 bill that was distributed in 1996. The new $10 bills that will be distributed next year will also belong to the 1996 Series, as will the $5 bills distributed in 2000, the $2 bills in 2001, and the $1 bills in 2002 (according to planned schedule).

Check it out at www.ustreas.gov

-- No Spam Please (anon@ymous.com), November 08, 1998.



All you Americans should be thrilled to know that come the Invasion, we will allow you to use our $. We have made it easy to distinguish between denominations by colour coding (note the *new* spelling) our bills. Just one of the many improvements coming your way - and NO complaints about the $C value will be permitted!

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), November 08, 1998.

Tricia, when Canada invades the U.S. we won't have to run the world any more. This will save us a lot of money, headaches and PMS.

When will y'all come?

I guess you could practice first on Quebec, just to get the hang of it.

-- Tom Carey (tomcarey@mindspring.com), November 09, 1998.


"I guess you could practice first on Quebec, just to get the hang of it. "

HUGE ROFLMAO!

Rick

-- Rick Tansun (ricktansun@hotmail.com), November 09, 1998.


Tom, we're already there, just ask anyone from the southern states any time after October ;) As for Quebec, they'll come along for the ride when they see how swiftly you've been underwhelmed. BTW, for a good dose of Canuck humour, see www.22online.com/index.html and hit the one liner.

-- Tricia the Canuck (jayles@telusplanet.net), November 09, 1998.

Flint:

Apparently I was wrong about the extra currency coming only from the retention of old bills. Contrary to what I had seen back then, I now read that there _will_ also be more new currency printed than usual, just as you wrote. So there'll be more of both old and new bills "in circulation" (not counting the hoarding factor, that is).

-- No Spam Please (anon@ymous.com), November 21, 1998.



phHhhHhttt!! :-P Silly Canadians and Americans, don't you know Quebec already took over Florida?

Repetez apres moi: Vive le Quebec! C'est notre redempteur!

If you're nice Tricia, we'll let you visit Florida. So be good and go tend to your geese.

La Grenouille.

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), November 21, 1998.


Lets see now:

1. Secret Service says that counterfeiting currency is a $100 million/yr problem.

2. They also say that 80% are caught before they get into circulation so not a problem.

3. You have $400 billions out there.

4. You're worried about color copiers that are on the market which make a dandy little paper copy.

5. You go through all kinds of gyrations to fashion up a new and improved type of currency.

6. You take special care to make them uglier than a mud fence in design.

Now you put them out there on the streets, BUT, you don't call in the other old easy to duplicate currency?

7. Were you of a mind to do such things as copying currency don't you really think maybe you would go ahead and crank out a few zillion more copies of the old stuff before they went away?

8. Even I, in my reduced mental state, can figure this one out.

Plus, as an added on, no extra cost feature, you tell me that I can continue to use the old stuff and that it is still legal tender - So why did you bother with the new stuff anyway?

Comments??

S.O.B.

-- sweetolebob (La) (buffgun@hotmail.com), November 21, 1998.


Mayhaps we have a slight currency shortage here in the land of "Milk & Honey".

Yes/No/Maybe So?

Pucker Factor climbing up?

curiouser & curiouser

S.O.B.

-- sweetolebob (La) (buffgun@hotmail.com), November 21, 1998.


* Plus, as an added on, no extra cost feature, you tell me that I can continue to use the old stuff and that it is still legal tender - So why did you bother with the new stuff anyway?

Comments?? *

SOB, remember Susan B. Anthony?

-- . (.@...), November 22, 1998.


.@..

Yeah. I got a handful of those things stuck back myself just to remind me that there are indeed no limits to our national will to really screw things up.

Wonder just who is in charge of the asylum and which side of the door is the lock really on.

I understand that our new $1 coin will be another real winner just like ole Sue.

I can hardly wait.

S.O.B.

-- sweetolebob (La) (buffgun@hotmail.com), November 22, 1998.



If the Quebecanadianains already are taking over Florida, how's come dem folks down dere speakin' all that Mesican?

This why we good US-speakin' regular people got to put with that d**m fur'n language extra labels on everyt'n !!! It's a cry'in shame, I tell ya.

How's come everybody don't talk like we do? If I still wanted to talk a foreign language I wouldn't have come over here from Germany like my great-great-grandfather did. Foreigners? Might as well be Yankees.

-- Robert A. Cook, P.E. (Kennesaw, GA) (cook.r@csaatl.com), November 22, 1998.


sweetolebob,

Oh, come on, now -- think clearly about the currency situation -- there are logistical considerations.

It's going to take a while to print enough of the new designs to match the amount of the old designs now in circulation. If the feds bought enough new currency-printing capacity to print all $400-500 billion in just a short time, there'd be an uproar about the wasteful spending.

This isn't some emergency situation caused by hyperinflation and the need to drop three or more zeros off all the denominations.

>1. Secret Service says that counterfeiting currency is a $100 million/yr problem.

Domestic or global?

And ... there are other reasons to change the designs besides counterfeiting -- more readable for the vision-impaired, less wear-and-tear on the portrait so currency lifetime is improved, and so forth. Sure, none of these by itself would have motivated the change, but the point is that the changes satisfy multiple purposes. Read about it at the Treasury link.

>2. They also say that 80% are caught before they get into circulation so not a problem.

Domestic or global?

>4. You're worried about color copiers that are on the market which make a dandy little paper copy.

So what's your point? Those copies can be good enough to fool some folks.

>5. You go through all kinds of gyrations to fashion up a new and improved type of currency.

So?

>6. You take special care to make them uglier than a mud fence in design.

" ... in the eye of the beholder."

>Now you put them out there on the streets, BUT, you don't call in the other old easy to duplicate currency?

Logistical and budgetary considerations; nonemergency situation. The old currency wears out in a few years. Ten years from now, the new design will be the majority in circulation, through the long-established process of removal of worn currency from circulation. (As I noted earlier, this removal will be slowed for a while to help build up the supply for 2000.)

>7. Were you of a mind to do such things as copying currency don't you really think maybe you would go ahead and crank out a few zillion more copies of the old stuff before they went away?

That's exactly what counterfeiters do for a living ... what's your point?

>8. Even I, in my reduced mental state, can figure this one out.

Will you please more plainly explain to us just what it is that you figured out?

>Plus, as an added on, no extra cost feature, you tell me that I can continue to use the old stuff and that it is still legal tender - So why did you bother with the new stuff anyway?

(answered previously)

I see no good reason (other than entertainment) to suppose that there are dastardly wicked motives for the design changes.

-- No Spam Please (anon@ymous.com), November 22, 1998.


I can't see any reason to re-design the currency.

That is the point.

S.O.B.

-- sweetolebob (buffgun@hotmail.com), November 22, 1998.


"I can't see any reason to re-design the currency. "

How about, "New and improved"? Isn't that the American way? ;)

-- Chris (catsy@pond.com), November 22, 1998.


Chris:

Yes Ma'am, it is the American way. So was the two digit computer date field.

It doesn't need changing just for changes' sake.

S.O.B.

-- sweetolebob (buffgun@hotmail.com), November 22, 1998.


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