News Release

Retailers and Bankers Preview Anti-Counterfeit Features
of Treasury's New $20 Note at Federal Reserve Event

SAN FRANCISCO, May 20, 1998--The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco teamed up with the U.S. Secret Service and the Rose Resnick Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired to present the newly designed $20 note, containing the latest anti-counterfeit and low-vision features, to a group of local retailers, bankers and credit union representatives here today.

Merchants from the Embarcadero Center, One Market, and Rincon Annex joined a group of bankers and credit union representatives at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco at a special briefing co-hosted by the FRBSF and the U.S. Secret Service. After a welcome by FRBSF Vice President Sallie Weissinger, they viewed the design of the new $20 bill that will go into circulation later this year as part of the U.S. Treasury's 1996 currency series. Attendees then heard Dan Snow of the Secret Service explain how counterfeiters have gotten very adept at using color ink-jet printers to create fake bills, and why retailers and consumers need to learn how to authenticate currency as they receive it. They also got an advance look at a CD-ROM that demonstrates how to authenticate currency. In addition, Cheryl Bartley, manager of Adaptations, a retail store that operates at the Rose Resnick Lighthouse, shared her observations about features of the new currency that help the visually impaired meet everyday challenges of differentiating currency.

"The Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco is delighted to seize the opportunity to educate merchants, financial institutions, and the general public on the features of the new $20 bill. Of all our notes, this is the bill most counterfeited in the U.S. We want to make sure that consumers can tell the authentic notes from false ones," Ms. Weissinger said. She also emphasized that, when the new notes go into circulation in the Fall, consumers will see both old and new $20s circulating, until the older notes wear out and are replaced by new ones.

The briefing in San Francisco coincided with the official unveiling of the design for the new $20 note by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin, and U.S. Treasurer Mary Ellen Withrow, in Washington, D.C., at 11 a.m. EDT.

Fact sheets on the new note and the history of U.S. currency are available on the World Wide Web at http://moneyfactory.com.