The Newest Member of the Money Family

The most colorful currency we have!

     United States currency is an amazing thing. The first coin was actually developed by a relative of mine, David Rittenhouse. Since then, our currency has evolved a lot. There are a lot of security features embedded in each coin and bill. Some of these features aren't known by many and create some good party tricks.

     Let's look at the newest bill. The $100 bill that was released in early October of this year:

• Watermark portrait of Benjamin Franklin in the blank space to the right of the visible portrait. The image can be seen in the light from the front and the back
• Blue security thread runs to the left of the visible portrait that says "USA" and "100." The thread also turns pink with ultraviolet light
• Tilt the front of the bill to see the gold "100" in the right bottom corner turn to green
• Benjamin Franklin's clothes have raised texture on his right shoulder
• The bank of the bill has "100" printed very largely to help the visually impaired
• Benjamin Franklin's jacket collar, watermark area, and along the golden quill have micro-printing. With a magnified glass, you can see small words and numbers
• The golden quill is marked with phrases from the Declaration of Independence 
• The bills are printed in Washington D.C. and Fort Worth in Texas. Bills printed in Fort Worth have a small "FW" on the front top left corner