# New $20 first color bill since 1905 - Why? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 13, 2003, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-first-color-bill-since-1905-why/174984 "2003-05-13T16:42:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-first-color-bill-since-1905-why/174984/41 "2003-05-14T16:24:25Z")
I imagine it would be like [United States Notes](http://www.bep.treas.gov/document.cfm/5/44/129), which were discontinued in 1971 and are still redeemable with the US Treasury. > [@](#): > > All outstanding United States Notes, which were issued in denominations of $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, $500, and $1,000, may be redeemed at face value by the U.S. Treasury Department. Payment would be made in the form of a Treasury check. ---
**Author:** ![Diceman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Diceman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diceman)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-first-color-bill-since-1905-why/174984/42 "2003-05-14T16:39:04Z")
It looks like someone spilled bleach on the $20 bill and didn’t wash it off quickly enough. I don’t like it :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![DocCathode](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/doccathode/32/18773_2.png) [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-first-color-bill-since-1905-why/174984/43 "2003-05-14T16:53:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dantheman \* > \*\*Maybe in the next version they can add texture, so visually impaired people will be able to tell how much cash they have. > > (Or can they do this now? Hm.) \*\* I don’t know if Cecil did a column on this or not.[sub]I searched and found nothing[/sub] However, the lesser Imponderables books have answered this. The blind either rely on the honesty of others, or a device called a talking wallet. Put a bill in the scanner, and an electronic voice anounces the denomination. When taking a bill out of their wallets, the blind can use the device or a filing system, IIRC-ones are not folded, fives are folded in half lengthwise, tens are folded widthwise and stored in the right side of the wallet, 20s are folded widthwise and stored in the left side. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-first-color-bill-since-1905-why/174984/44 "2003-05-14T16:56:52Z")
Very interesting. And a lot of the new self-scanners that supermarkets and other high-traffic stores use “speak” the bill being instered, too. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-first-color-bill-since-1905-why/174984/45 "2003-05-14T17:00:42Z")
I think a few more then a few eyebrows would be raised if someone was spreading around brand new crisp 10 year old twenties. Speaking of all these new countermeasures, what’s the cost to manufacture new currency? Weaving nylon threads into tens of millions of bills can’t be cheap. ---
**Author:** ![World\_Eater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/f04885/32.png) [@World\_Eater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/World_Eater)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-first-color-bill-since-1905-why/174984/46 "2003-05-14T17:02:51Z")
Still waking up, excuse the grammar. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-first-color-bill-since-1905-why/174984/47 "2003-05-14T17:06:13Z")
Well, you know what they say… It costs money to make money. ---
**Author:** ![Auntie\_Social](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d2c977/32.png) [@Auntie\_Social](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Auntie_Social)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-first-color-bill-since-1905-why/174984/48 "2003-05-14T18:42:14Z")
How are old bills taken out of circulation? You only rarely see the old 20’s at this point, but I don’t recall ever getting one so old that it fell apart in my hands. So obviously the Fed or Treasury somehow takes them out of circulation. Do they have banks sort bills into “new bills” and “old bills that look ratty enough to retire” and then have the old ones destroyed? ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-first-color-bill-since-1905-why/174984/49 "2003-05-14T19:36:46Z")
**Auntie Social** , you got it. They use the banks to take care of pulling the paper money. BTW, it’s a modest step in the direction of interesting money, BUT… the wavy “USA TWENTY USA TWENTY” in the right-hand background is just of appallingly unstylish design. ( 😃 OTOH, it _could_ have said **“EE.UU. VEINTE”** 😃 😛 ) BTW… it was mentioned in jest above, but seriously, do we want to keep the current series of faces on our currency? ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-first-color-bill-since-1905-why/174984/50 "2003-05-14T20:46:57Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Auntie Social \* > \*\*How are old bills taken out of circulation? You only rarely see the old 20’s at this point, but I don’t recall ever getting one so old that it fell apart in my hands. So obviously the Fed or Treasury somehow takes them out of circulation. Do they have banks sort bills into “new bills” and “old bills that look ratty enough to retire” and then have the old ones destroyed? \*\* I once toured the Federal Reserve Bank here in Minneapolis. We watched a large machine that sorted bills into denominations, counted & bundled them, and wrapped those little paper strips around the bundles. There was also a “reject” bin where the machine put all bills that were identified as too worn or defaced to keep in circulation. We were told that those were shredded and eventually recycled. (You could even buy little packages of “shredded money”.) So while banks will sometimes pull out worn bills, it’s the Federal Reserve Banks that do much of this culling. ---
**Author:** ![Monopoly\_Money](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Monopoly\_Money](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Monopoly_Money)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-first-color-bill-since-1905-why/174984/51 "2003-05-14T21:01:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dantheman \* > \*\*Maybe in the next version they can add texture, so visually impaired people will be able to tell how much cash they have. > > (Or can they do this now? Hm.) \*\* Yes, they can. Canadian money has Braille dots in the top right corner. ---
**Author:** ![manhattan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manhattan/32/7_2.png) [@manhattan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/manhattan)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-first-color-bill-since-1905-why/174984/52 "2003-05-14T23:10:46Z")
Does there remain a General Question here? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 2:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-first-color-bill-since-1905-why/174984/53 "2003-05-15T02:16:18Z")
There remains a General Comment. The idea that there hasn’t been color, other than green and black, since 1905 is just so much crap. The seal on all silver certificates until they were discontinued in the 1950’s was BLUE. The seal on GOLD CERTIFICATES ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 2:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-first-color-bill-since-1905-why/174984/54 "2003-05-15T02:32:54Z")
Sorry about that. Got too excited. GOLD CERTIFICATES which were issued with dates of 1922(Large size) and 1928(current size) had gold seals. All U.S. NOTES(and LEGAL TENDER NOTES), which were issued up until the 1960’s, had RED seals and numbers. The NORTH AFRICAN SERIES, as mentioned, had the yellow seals. The HAWAII overprints during WWII had brown seals. > [@](#): > > would their be a cut off date in which they could not exchanged? Everything the BEP has printed since 1862 is currenty spendable/exchangeable. I don’t think there is another country which honors their money that far back. Hell, most don’t more than 10-50 years. ---
**Author:** ![Dogface](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9d8465/32.png) [@Dogface](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dogface)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-first-color-bill-since-1905-why/174984/55 "2003-05-15T02:41:33Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Alereon \* > \*\*Is it just me, or does Andrew Jackson look all hunched up and imp-like? \*\* Yup, that’s Andrew Jackson. ---
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-first-color-bill-since-1905-why/174984/56 "2003-05-15T03:41:51Z")
Another reason, now that I think about it, that the Treasury might not want to pull the old bills out of use before they’re ready to expire is what happened in places like Russia when the new US bills began showing up there. Folks saw the new bills and thought that _they_ were counterfeit! Since the US dollar is the preferred currency for many folks in various parts of the world, the US probably doesn’t want to give them a shock by yanking all the old bills out of circulation all at once. ---
**Author:** ![Conflict\_of\_Interest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/57b2e6/32.png) [@Conflict\_of\_Interest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Conflict_of_Interest)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-first-color-bill-since-1905-why/174984/57 "2003-05-15T03:45:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Keeve \* > \*\*Any cites available for these alleged “attempts”? > > If they really wanted to get rid of the dollar bill, all they’d have to do is stop printing them, just like they’re gonna stop printing the plain black-and-green twenties. > > And I wish they would. Save the gummint a whole buncha bucks, it would! \*\* I know that when I was stationed in Germany from 78 - 81 the US did not use any $1 bills or pennies. They used the SBA dollar coins and the $2 bills. It was actually easy getting used to this. It seemed really funny to me when I rotated back to the US and saw pennies and $1 bills again ---
**Author:** ![RobuSensei](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/919ad9/32.png) [@RobuSensei](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RobuSensei)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2003, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-first-color-bill-since-1905-why/174984/58 "2003-05-19T08:21:05Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Popup \* > **Yup, they’re not bad. Especially the 5 Swiss franc coin. This is a real coin that is actually worth something! (At todays exchange rate, USD3.80). As far as I know it’s the most valuable coin that is actually used normally (as opposed to coins created for a special occasion, or in limited circulation.)** Well, the Japanese 500 yen coin is worth about $4.30 USD right now… The banknotes here start at 1000 yen, followed by 2000, 5000, and 10000. Each note is predominantly one color, and each denomination is a different color and size. The students here were surprised to see U.S. money – “It all looks the same!” Oddly, the 2000 yen bill, which would be roughly the equivalent of the U.S. $20, is the least used denomination here. They’re about as hard to find as $2.00 bills used to be… ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2003, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-first-color-bill-since-1905-why/174984/59 "2003-05-19T10:04:23Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by RobuSensei \* > **Oddly, the [Japanese] 2000 yen bill, which would be roughly the equivalent of the U.S. $20, is the least used denomination here.** I believe the 2000 yen bill was introduced to commemorate the 2000 G8 Summit in Okinawa. I guess it commemorates the year 2000 itself too. It’s only been in circulation for 3 years and fascing the same problems as the Sackies: people aren’t used to it, people keep it for novelty value rather than spend it, and cash registers don’t have a separate place for it. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2003, 10:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-first-color-bill-since-1905-why/174984/60 "2003-05-19T10:05:41Z")
fascing -\> facing (How did I even make that typo?) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-first-color-bill-since-1905-why/174984.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-first-color-bill-since-1905-why/174984.md?page=4)