Recently, the “most secure U.S. currency ever” was released into the economy through banks across the country. In DeKalb, the first of these new $20 notes have started to arrive.

The primary difference between Andrew Jackson’s facelift in 1998 and the one this year is the addition of background colors to the bill – a first on a U.S. bill.

This, combined with a new watermark, security thread and color-shifting ink on the “20” in the lower right hand corner, constitutes the new security features.

Threats to the security of U.S. money have grown significantly with the prevalence of digital technology. In 1995, it was reported that only 1 percent of all counterfeit money on the market was produced digitally. By 2002, that number had grown to nearly 40 percent, according to the U.S. Secret Service.

Another difficulty may be that most retailers and people on the street do not check money closely enough to notice if security measures are in place. Most of the new measures require the person checking to hold the bill up to a light to determine if the security measures are present.

Mitch Kielb, a manager at University Bookstore, said security measures primarily depend on the time of year and events that are happening, and said it is rare to have problems with counterfeit bills.

The official numbers worldwide state that one to two notes of every 10,000 genuine notes is counterfeit.

DeKalb police Lt. Jim Kayes said there occasionally are problems with counterfeit money, which usually are caught by a bank.

“Every couple of weeks we run into something, but it’s usually not much of a problem,” he said.

As far as whether the bill will have an impact on the local security, Kayes said, “From what I’ve read it should. That’s really what deters, if the cost of copying is too high.”

Jennifer Webster, a senior music education major, said she disliked several aspects of the new design and voiced frustration about the government spending money when the redesign was not needed.

“The original money looked official, and money should look official, not like Monopoly money,” Webster said.

Not all students think the new bill is bad. Kevin Haseman, a senior drawing major, related it to the metric system, in the sense that the U.S. seems to resist change that other countries already have implemented.

“Why does the U.S. have to be the only country with non-colored money?” he said. “[Color] does make sense and it’s not as easy to counterfeit.”