The New US $100 bill

Unveiled today by the US Treasury, the new bill is expected to be released into circulation in February 2011. This bill is the favorite counterfeiters. New features on this bill, discussed in the video, make it tougher to fake.

The announcement today dispel the rumors that Benjamin Franklin, a founding father, was being replaced on the new $100 bill by our new "dear leader" President Barack Obama. That is probably something he will save for his second term!

This report from Russia Today is of particular interest to Russians who hold large amounts of US $100 bills in cash. Russians hold US currency for the same reasons that many once held gold coins and based upon the recent implosion of the US dollar, likely wish they still did.

According to a US Treasury report (don't laugh at their last paragraph!):

Dollars are a secure store of value when the purchasing power of the domestic currency is uncertain or when other assets lack sufficient anonymity, portability, divisibility, liquidity, or security. As a safe asset in an unpredictable world, dollars often flow into a country to displace part of the domestic currency during periods of economic and political upheaval and then remain there long after the crisis has subsided.

Estimates by the Federal Reserve suggest that at the end of 1998, 50 percent to 70 percent of the $500 billion in U.S. currency outstanding, or $250 billion to $350 billion, was held outside the United States.

Because currency can quickly move throughout the world, often without being detected, the determination of its location on any occasion is extraordinarily difficult.

Nonetheless, it is clear that the lion’s share of overseas currency is in developing countries. We estimate that about 60 percent of U.S. currency held abroad is distributed about equally among three regions of the world: the Western Hemisphere, Africa and the Middle East, and Asia. The remaining 40 percent is held in Europe and in the countries of the former Soviet Union and their neighboring trading partners, such as Turkey.

The circulation of U.S. currency overseas provides benefits to both the United States and the foreign users: U.S. taxpayers gain by effectively receiving an interest-free loan in the amount of currency held overseas. Foreign dollar holders benefit by acquiring an asset that is liquid, secure, and stable in value, characteristics that are often unavailable in their own country’s currency during and after periods of turmoil.

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