Redesigned $100 Bill To Hit Circulation Oct. 8 With New Security Features

The Federal Reserve unveiled its new redesign of the $100 bill on Wednesday, featuring several new security measures designed to fight counterfeiting. The new $100 bill is set to enter circulation on Oct. 8.

The redesigned $100 bill will sport several new security features designed to thwart counterfeiters, including a blue 3-D security ribbon, according to the Federal Reserve. The security ribbon is designed to be easy for laypeople to verify but extremely hard for counterfeiters to reproduce.

The Federal Reserve initially announced that the $100 bill redesign would enter circulation back in February 2010, according to the Associated Press. However, only a few short months before the debut, the Fed announced that the redesigned bill would be placed on an indefinite hold after printing issues left numerous creases on the bill.

"We made numerous process changes to address the creasing issue and we are back in full production," Dawn Haley, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, told the Associated Press.

Other new security features on the redesigned $100 bill include a holographic image of a disappearing Liberty Bell inside an inkwell. Like the blue security strip, the disappearing image is designed to make the $100 bill much harder to counterfeit and easier for consumers to recognize as legitimate.

The redesigned $100 bill is the last in a series of currency redesigns initially rolled out in 2003. That year, the Federal Reserve introduced several new color highlights in the $20 bill. The redesign proved both popular and effective, leading to further government redesigns of the $50, $10 and $5 bills. The $1 bill has not been announced to receive a redesign.