$100 bill getting a high-tech face lift

While that is a fraction of the currency in circulation, the Secret Service is concerned with the threat, especially the challenge posed by new digital technology. Digital copies account for about half of all counterfeit notes passed in the U.S., compared with less than 1 percent of all counterfeit bills detected in 1995.

"The quality of the counterfeit currency has gone down, but the ease by which people can make this currency and the access to the computer equipment has had an impact on the rising numbers," Secret Service spokesman Eric Zahren said.

To stay ahead of the counterfeiters, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing plans to redesign U.S. currency every seven years to 10 years. That is a far cry from the practice for most of the 20th century — from 1929 to the 1990s — when the currency stayed the same without any major changes.

"We had three generations of engravers who spent their entire careers at the bureau and never saw their designs hit the streets," Felix said. "Now since 1996, we have all of these changes."

All the new security devices have added to the complexity of making money. The government churns out 38 million notes each business day with a face value of $750 million at two facilities — one in Washington, D.C., and the newest one in Fort Worth, Texas.

By order of Congress, the $1 bill, which accounts for 45 percent of the notes printed each year, will not be redesigned. Lawmakers were concerned about the cost to business if low-end vending machines that only take coins and $1 bills had to be upgraded.

In addition to redesigning the money, the bureau is putting in new printing presses with more capabilities to handle the increasingly sophisticated security features.

The new presses can vary the size of the bills being printed. That is something the American Council for the Blind is urging the government to consider as a way of helping the visually impaired distinguish between different denominations of currency.

Felix says no decision has been made on such a change. The government is appealing a federal court ruling that could force such a redesign.

In its continuing effort to stay ahead of counterfeiters, the bureau is reviewing a wide range of new ideas such as adding a sense of depth to the designs.

"Currency is essentially a confidence situation," Felix said. "You have to always stay ahead in changes."

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