Not sure if you’re aware, but there’s a brand spanking new $100 bill that hits the streets of the United States (of America) today. Why did they do it and what does it look like? Here you go..

According to NPR:

After production problems and delays, the Federal Reserve will finally circulate a new $100 bill on Tuesday. The aim of the redesigned bank note is to make it harder to fake: For example, when you tilt the note, the bells and numbers inside a 3-D security stripe will move, and a bell hidden inside the gold inkwell will change color.

Although the proportion of fake money in circulation is minuscule, the Federal Reserve needs to do whatever it can to make the job hard for counterfeiters, says Ed Nosal, who studied counterfeiting using economic models and is now the vice president and senior research advisor at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. He points out that without constant improvement on banknote designs, there would be a lot more fake money being made and there wouldn’t be any point to having real money.

According to figures from Brian Leary, a U.S. Secret Service spokesman, less than 0.01 percent of all the U.S. dollars in circulation are fake. The Secret Service seized around $66 million in fake money last year, and Leary says around $95 million was circulated.

That’s because U.S. bank notes aren’t that easy to forge. However, the game changes when a government becomes involved in counterfeiting. Most countries print their money on special presses made in Switzerland that are only sold to governments, says Dick Nanto, a now-retired specialist in industry and trade at the Congressional Research Service.

Nanto pointed to North Korea as a source of fake $100 U.S. dollar bills known as Super-notes, which are great forgeries because they’re printed on Swiss presses.

[more here]

Of course – North Korea, up to its old tricks again.

Good luck with this one, Kim..