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They're Changing The Money Again!


JSngry

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Our tax dollars at work(?)...

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http://www.nytimes.com/2003/09/28/business.../28twen.html?th

Need Change for a $20 Bill? Call Hollywood

By BETSY STREISAND

Published: September 28, 2003

Americans aren't referred to as Homo consumens for nothing. There is very little they don't understand about the almighty dollar except, perhaps, how to hold onto one.

Even so, as the Treasury Department prepares to introduce a redesigned $20 bill on Oct. 9, it isn't taking any chances that confusion over the bill's new look will interfere with commerce. And it is not relying on the standard government approach of public service booklets and brochures to get out the word.

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing will spend $33 million on advertising, marketing and education programs to promote the new bill, and it has hired a public relations firm and, in a first, a product placement firm and one of Hollywood's top talent agencies to put the $20 bill on the publicity circuit. By the time the new bill joins the currency flow next month, it will have appeared virtually everywhere but on the ballot for California's recall election.

"We knew we couldn't rely on public service announcements and the news media alone to get the depth of information out about the bill's new design and security features," said Thomas A. Ferguson, the bureau's director. "We needed to look at different avenues. And we knew from our research that people get a lot of their information from entertainment and television."

The new $20 bill, which is shaded with peach and blue, is the first United States bill since 1905 to come in colors other than green and black. Although the additional color is subtle, it makes the bills more complex and harder to counterfeit, according to the Secret Service, whose original mission when it was set up in 1865 was to fight counterfeiting.

Andrew Jackson still graces the front of the $20 bill with his tousled hair and cape, although he appears to have had some work done around his eyes and chin. His portrait is larger than it is on the current bills, and the oval that has surrounded him for decades has been removed. In addition to the new colors, which prompted comedian David Letterman to crack that the bill had been made over by the guys from "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,'' the bill also has a large eagle to the left of Jackson and a smaller eagle to the right. For enhanced security, there is a plastic security thread embedded in the paper, ink that changes colors when it is tilted in the light (from copper to green instead of the old green to black) and more microprinting, the tiny letters that are difficult to reproduce.

That may sound like a lot of changes, but in many ways the new bill still looks like a traditional bill, which apparently is how Americans prefer it. When the bureau tested bills with more intense colors, like purple and magenta, focus groups thought they looked fake.

"Intuitively, we thought that people would have liked the brighter colors," said Richard I. Mintz, chairman of the public affairs practice of Burson-Marsteller, who is in charge of the campaign for the new currency. "We were wrong. What they wanted was a more subtle change."

Even that may require an adjustment. "People may need a little bit of a heads-up about the new bill because of the color change," said David Robertson, publisher of the Nilson Report, a trade journal for people who work with consumer payment systems. "But I think the public will readily accept the bill, and it will quickly go from ooh-ah to ho-hum."

It's the ooh-ah stage that the Treasury and its Hollywood agents are looking to exploit by lobbying the pop culture world for as much free exposure as possible.

The bill has already made appearances on the game shows "Wheel of Fortune" and "Pepsi Play for a Billion," where its new look and security features were talked up. Jay Leno, David Letterman and other late-night talk-show hosts have been poking fun at it - which is exactly what the William Morris Agency was hoping for when it discussed the new bill months ago with the shows' writers.

During the introduction week, the bill is likely to be featured on many news and entertainment programs just because it's newsworthy. But it will also have a starring role on "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire," with hundreds of new $20 bills doled out to audience members, and Meredith Vieira, the host, explaining the bills and waving them in front of the camera. The bill will get a category of questions on and will pop up on "America's Funniest Home Videos." In one of several joint marketing efforts between the Treasury and consumer goods companies, the bill's design will grace bags of Pepperidge Farm's Goldfish crackers, and the crackers themselves will be colored to match the new bills. Images of the new note will pop up on thousands of A.T.M.'s, and the bill will even be superimposed electronically on the field during college football games on ESPN and Monday Night Football on ABC.

Those are just the appearances that the Treasury knows about. Hollywood representatives for the bill have been meeting for months with television writers to try to land it a meaty role on a series like "CSI: Miami," "The West Wing" or "Law & Order." The government won't know how much face time the bill will get until the shows are broadcast.

Whatever the amount, it is the kind of publicity the Treasury couldn't buy if it were simply using the advertising route. That's why it broke the government mold and hired William Morris and the product placement firm Davie-Brown Entertainment to make the bill a celebrity through public relations instead of paid advertisements.

"We can get the equivalent of millions of dollars in advertising for the price of a flat fee to William Morris or Davie-Brown," Mr. Mintz said.

For the $12 million the government is spending on print and television advertising for the bill, it shopped around among America's largest media companies, including Viacom, Walt Disney and Time Warner, to see which would give the bill the most exposure on their entertainment shows in return for the advertising dollars. Disney, which owns ABC and ESPN among other cable networks, made the best offer, Mr. Mintz said.

The goal of all this is relatively simple. "We want to build awareness - then we can begin to change behavior," he said. The behavior that he wants to change includes stuffing the $20 bill, the most frequently counterfeited in the United States, into a pocket or cash register before checking its authenticity by, say, holding it up to a light or feeling for the security thread.

The entertainment and advertising blitz is part of a five-year campaign meant to introduce the world to the $20 bill, and later to color versions of the $50 and $100 bills. Campaigns for those bills will be less elaborate and focus more on foreign countries, where those bills are the most popular. (Foreigners need to be reassured, for example, that their old bills have not been devalued.)

In the United States, a half-million businesses and organizations have received elaborate information and training kits that will be used to bring employees up to speed. The Treasury has also sent information to schools and retail outlets.

"This is a product that everyone uses every day," said James Lake, client managing partner for Burson-Marsteller. "When you change it and you don't explain it, the lessons you learn are pretty clear."

The Treasury itself learned some of those lessons in 1996, the last time it changed the look of the currency. Tens of thousands of vending machines in post offices and train and subway stations hadn't been set up to accept the revised version, Mr. Lake said, and cashiers and other money handlers didn't always know what to make of the new money. Overseas, some consumers panicked, thinking that their old dollars would be worthless. Such confusion not only hurts sales for retailers, but can also give counterfeiters a wider berth to exploit the chaos.

ONLY one in every 10,000 bills of all denominations is a fake, according to the Secret Service. But the criminals are gaining. "The old traditional methods required a high degree of skill," said Jean Mitchell, a spokeswoman for the Secret Service. "We see that diminishing."

As technology becomes more sophisticated, counterfeiters now have easy access to fast and inexpensive digital printers and scanners. In 1995, digitally produced bills accounted for only 1 percent of counterfeit bills; last year, that share was nearly 40 percent, including some dashed off with printers in college dorms to pay pizza delivery men.

To stay ahead of counterfeiters, the Treasury plans to make changes to the currency every 7 to 10 years. That may seem like a lot of effort to guard something that most Americans use less and less each year.

Last year, Americans used cash for just 19 percent of their $5.4 trillion in purchases, versus 25 percent in 1990, according to the Nilson Report. By 2020, as little as 10 percent of payments will be in cash, Mr. Robertson said.

There is still plenty of cash around, of course: $2,178 for every man, woman and child, according to the Federal Reserve. And the number could get a little bump once the new colorful money appears. The Fed says it will print millions of new bills for the holiday season, in anticipation of a peach-and-blue Christmas.

We are not amused, if only because of the missed opportunity for a "peach and Blue Note" campaign...

Edited by JSngry
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The weak link in the chain is that, unlike other countries, America still honors the older bills. It has to, as there are millions in circulation all over the world.

At least it is much better than the Europeans losing all their currencies (and autonomy) to the blasted euro. I was delighted to see that the Swedes, and, earlier, the Danes, had the wisdom to say a clear NO to the euro. But we all know that the politicians will keep coming back at them until they are badgered into saying yes. This happened with the Irish, who said NO to further expansion of the European Union. This answer was not acceptable to the powers, who made them vote again. Real democracy, eh what?

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At least it is much better than the Europeans losing all their currencies (and autonomy) to the blasted euro. I was delighted to see that the Swedes, and, earlier, the Danes, had the wisdom to say a clear NO to the euro. But we all know that the politicians will keep coming back at them until they are badgered into saying yes. This happened with the Irish, who said NO to further expansion of the European Union. This answer was not acceptable to the powers, who made them vote again. Real democracy, eh what?

Shrdlu, I thought this was a non-political forum, so why are you bringing politics into it??

By the way, as you know I am one of those Europeans who's extremely happy with the euro B)

As for the Irish, they could have said no again the second time but didn't, and I didn't see or hear any evidence that the second referendum was less democratic than the first one. Oh, and the Danes voted yes the second time as well, didn't they (I'm referring to their second referendum on the expansion of the EU), and we all know no one tells the Danes what to do or how to vote.

I'll stop now, the political discussions on this and other boards are not good for my health...

Edited by J.A.W.
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I can't wait for the Euro. I travelled to Italy last year through four other mainland countries and never had to change money once...they even took Euros in the Swiss motorway service stations (though you got your change in Swiss Francs). By contrast when I drove up to Scandanavia this year I had to get Euros for Germany/Belgium/Holland/Germany, Danish krona for the bridge tolls, Swedish krona for my stay there and Norwegian krona for the few days I spent there. Mad!

Anyway it will be worth going Euro in the UK just to watch the apoplexy at the Daily Telegraph and amongst the other Blimps.

Bring it on, Tone (some hope!).

I hope I live long enough for the day when we join the rest of the world in driving on the right! The weeping and gnashing will be glorious.

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I can't wait to see what the new twenty looks like in the real world. I think they should change the look of our paper currency every couple of years, or even every year--"The new Fall money" would be more interesting than the new Fall fashions, at least for straight men. Eventually they could replace the Presidents with jazz figures. Clifford Brown for the $20 bill, because his non-use of drugs would please the politicians. Monk on the 50, Parker or Benny Carter on the 5, Dizzy on the 10, Armstrong on the 100. Either Goodman, Art Pepper, Ellington, or Mingus on the 1. Just don't let Ken Burns decide; he'll piss everybody off.

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America has had remarkable consistency of design and format in their paper money by international standards. Now advanced technology in the hands of potential counterfeiters will force the Treasury to reissue new bills every 7 to 10 years. This will be a numismatist's dream!

I have collected old paper money in the past (sold off my collections,) and it wouldn't hurt to tuck away one of the "old" $20 bills for 20-30 years. You (or your progeny) will probably be able to sell it for a nice profit. Now whether the sum you sell it for would beat out inflation is another question. All investments have to beat out inflation of course in order for us to profit from them.

I specialized in Asian paper currency. That region was highly unstable throughout the 60s and 70s as a result of the Vietnam war and the loss of colonial status. As a result, new editions of paper currency were issued and reissued constantly. It made it interesting for the collector. With American bills, there really wasn't anything to collect over the last few decades unless you specialized in collecting different signatures. Seems like this will change as we update our bills.

I don't plan to return to paper money collecting, but I'll probably hang on to a new $20 whenever they come out and put it in plastic and hand it to my kid. I'll tell him to put it under his mattress for 30 years or something. ;)

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Clifford Brown for the $20 bill, because his non-use of drugs would please the politicians. Monk on the 50, Parker or Benny Carter on the 5, Dizzy on the 10, Armstrong on the 100. Either Goodman, Art Pepper, Ellington, or Mingus on the 1.

I pretty much stand by this. Maybe Hank Mobley on the quarter.

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