New $100 Bills May Have Flaws

The government said Monday it will need to check more than 1 billion new $100 bills because of production problems that have left unwanted creases in many of the notes.

Officials of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing said Monday that they are examining 1.1 billion of the new bills to determine how much of the currency will have to be destroyed.

The currency had originally been scheduled to go into circulation on Feb. 10.  A new date will not be set until the production problems are resolved.

The government had announced on Oct. 1 that the currency was being delayed but it had not given an estimate of how many bills might have been affected by the production problems.

The bills have been redesigned with sophisticated elements aimed at thwarting counterfeiters. Those include a disappearing Liberty Bell in an inkwell and a bright blue security ribbon that is composed of thousands of tiny lenses.

Those lenses magnify the objects underneath them to make them appear to be moving in the opposite direction from the way the bill is being moved.

The redesigned $100 bill was unveiled by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke during ceremonies at the Treasury Department last April.

Benjamin Franklin will remain on the C-note, which is the highest value denomination in general circulation. It is also the most frequent target of counterfeiters.