New $50 Note More Secure

The new $50 note has color as well as security features similar to the new $20 note.

In a sign of togetherness, the Department of the Treasury, the Federal Reserve and the U.S. Secret Service unveiled the new $50 note design with enhanced security features, and subtle background colors of blue and red, and images of a waving American flag and a small metallic silver-blue star.

The new design is part of the government’s ongoing efforts to stay ahead of counterfeiting and protect the integrity of U.S. currency. The new $50 note, which will be issued this fall, is the second denomination in the Series 2004 currency. The first was the $20 note, which began circulating last October.

The new $50 notes will be safer, smarter and more secure currency: Safer because they will be harder to fake and easier to check; smarter to stay ahead of tech-savvy counterfeiters; more secure to protect the integrity of U.S. currency.

Current estimates put the rate of counterfeit $50 notes in circulation worldwide at less than 1 note for every 25,000 genuine $50 notes in circulation.

The $50 note will be followed later by a new $100 note. Decisions on new designs for the $5 and $10 notes are still under consideration, but a redesign of the $1 and $2 notes is not planned. Even after the new money is issued, older-design notes will remain legal tender.

Among $50 note security features:

Watermark: a faint image, similar to the portrait, which is part of the paper itself and is visible from both sides when held up to the light.

Security thread: also visible from both sides when held up to the light, this vertical strip of plastic is embedded in the paper and spells out the denomination in tiny print.

Color-shifting ink: the numeral in the lower right corner on the face of the note, indicating its denomination, changes color when the note is tilted.