New design for US currency to deter counterfeiters

New design for US currency to deter counterfeiters

WASHINGTON (AFP): The Treasury is redesigning the U.S. currency to deter rampant counterfeiting worldwide of the greenback, The Washington Post said yesterday.

Officials of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing said that among changes being considered are moving the portraits to the side, implanting holograms, printing on watermarked paper, and using multi-colored patterns.

The purpose is to counter a flood of counterfeit US$100 bills unleashed on the world market, believed to have been produced chiefly by Middle East terrorist groups linked to Iran and Syria.

Congressional sources told the daily that the Treasury hopes to announce the proposed changes later this month.

Terrorist expert Robert Kupperman told the daily that a group of counterfeiters in Lebanon, directed by Lebanon and Syrian intelligence agencies, are believed to have printed $1 billion worth of "the most nearly perfect $100 bills that the Secret Service has ever detected."

Kupperman has proposed making new greenbacks for the United States, and new "redbacks" for overseas use.

The Treasury's reluctance in the past to change the design of the dollar, a Secret Service spokeswoman said, has left the United States with "the most stable currency in the world and the easiest to counterfeit."

The increase of counterfeit dollars on the world market could cause serious economic problems for developing nations that rely on the U.S. currency.