>
> WASHINGTON (AP) -- The new $20 bill the Treasury Department is
>introducing will include an invisible feature officials hope will lead to the
>development of inexpensive, pocket-size, money-reading machines for
>the blind.
>
> Such talking machines exist now, but they're expensive, retailing for
>nearly $400 -- a lot of money to a blind person living on Supplemental
>Security Income.
>
> The current generation of bill readers essentially are minicomputers.
>They identify bills by recognizing light and dark patterns. Each time the
>government redesigns a bill, as it began doing in 1996 with the $100 note,
>the machines must be reprogrammed to recognize both the old and new
>designs.
>
> The challenge to researchers at the Treasury Department's Bureau of
>Engraving and Printing was to come up with a feature that could be read
>by a less expensive machine, wouldn't cost the government a lot to add
>to currency, and wouldn't be affected by future redesigns.
>
> "Once someone had this detector, they wouldn't have to constantly have
>them reprogrammed or replaced," said a department official, who spoke
>on condition of anonymity.
>
> He and other officials declined to reveal details of the feature, citing
>security concerns. Although it's primarily aimed at bill readers for the
>blind, it also could be used by future automatic teller machines and
>vending machines.
>
> A source familiar with the new $20s said a finger-width strip on the back
>of the bill will be printed with an ink that seems to disappear when
>exposed to infrared light. The strip will be in a different position on each
>denomination. Under natural light, it will be impossible to tell the bills
are
>printed with two green inks.
>
> "This adds virtually nothing to the cost of currency. It doesn't add
>manufacturing steps. It didn't cost money to develop," the Treasury
>official said.
>
> Another advantage is the infrared-sensitive strip won't interfere with
>vending and ATM machines relying on existing bill-identification
>techniques.
>
> "We have a huge deployed base of equipment," said Kawika Daguio of
>the American Bankers Association. "As long as they don't do anything to
>invalidate that base of equipment, we don't mind."
>
> Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin and Federal Reserve Chairman Alan
>Greenspan plan to unveil the design of the new $20 at a news
>conference on Wednesday. Like the new $100 and $50 before it, the $20
>also will be updated with a variety of anti-counterfeiting features.
>
> Among them: an enlarged, off-center portrait, a watermark in the shape
>of the portrait, an embedded polymer security thread that glows under
>ultraviolet light and a numeral printed in color-shifting ink.
>
> Treasury officials plan to include the infrared strip in redesigns planned
>for bills with smaller denominations and in subsequent issues of the
>redesigned $50 and $100.
>
> This is the first feature added to American money specifically to help the
>nation's 200,000 blind people. Just as the redesigned $50 did, the new
>$20 will include an enlarged numeral surrounded by blank space. That's
>to assist the 3.5 million Americans with impaired vision.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>--=_07535ED6.2544283A--
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