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Ben Franklin is getting a high-tech makeover.
The Federal Reserve unveiled its redesigned $100 bill yesterday, complete with several new security features.
For example, it can do color tricks. Tilt the bill, and an image of a Liberty Bell inside an inkwell to the right of Ben’s portrait will change from copper to green.
The “100” on the bill’s lower right corner makes the same change when the note is tilted.
But the coolest part of the new bill is the 3-D vertical ribbon just to the right of Ben.
You’ll see little bells inside it — but if you tilt the note up and down, they change to “100” images. You can get the bells and $100s to move side by side or up and down.
The $100 has been the highest-denomination US bill in circulation since 1969, and, to no one’s surprise, that makes it the one most often targeted by counterfeiters.
Although few Americans keep a $100 bill in their wallets, it is very popular abroad.
Two out of every three $100s is believed to be held overseas — many of them being used as a hedge against inflation or for black-market sales.
Foreign counterfeiting of $100s is a major concern, American officials said. In 2004-05, for example, several million dollars worth of bogus “Benjamins” were smuggled into the United States — all allegedly counterfeited by our good friends, the government of North Korea.