News Release

SF Fed Awards First Two New $20 Bills to Fourth Grade Student and His Teacher

September 24, 1998--Nine-year-old Bryan Logarta benefitted from the national rollout of the nation's newly designed $20 bill this morning, when President Robert T. Parry of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco (FRBSF) presented him with the first new $20 bill to go into circulation in the Bay Area. Logarta, a fourth-grade student at Glen Park Elementary School, drew the winning design in a classroom exercise created to teach students about money.

Parry presented the first official new $20 bill to the young winner and the second new $20 to Logarta's teacher, Ronald Pereira, for use in purchasing classroom supplies. The awards, given at an informal gathering at the Federal Reserve Bank in downtown San Francisco mark today's official release of the newly designed $20 note. Consumers can expect to see the new notes being dispensed from their ATMs and crossing the counter at their banks any time from today forward, as they are phased into circulation.

The drawings created by the Glen Park fourth graders were reviewed by a panel of FRBSF staffers, who chose a winner based on artistry, anti-counterfeiting features, originality, and functionality. Using the occasion as a field trip, Pereira brought along all 32 of his students, who learned the winner's name at the gathering.

Today's rollout of the new $20 bill was marked by a variety of events throughout the country. The events are designed to heighten the public's awareness of the bill's new look and security features to deter counterfeiting, including color-shifting ink, a polymer security thread that glows under ultraviolet light, and microprinting. The Treasury and the Federal Reserve emphasized that there will be no recall of the older-series notes, which will be removed from circulation as they wear out and are replaced with new bills.

Through Junior Achievement's "Adopt a School Program," trained consultant-volunteers from the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco work with students at Glen Park Elementary School in the classroom. They teach activities that help elementary students understand basic business concepts, so they can relate their education to the world of work. This is the third year of the FRBSF's participation in the JA program.

Background information on the new $20 note is available at the website: www.moneyfactory.com.