Federal Reserve Note
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Various Federal Reserve Notes
Notes are missing serial number imprints.
Federal Reserve Notes (FRNs, "ferns") is the official name for the type of banknote used in the United States, more commonly known as a bill (as in "twenty-dollar bill").
Federal Reserve Notes are currency, with the words "this note is legal tender for all debts, public and private" printed on each bill. (See generally Template:Usc). They are issued by the Federal Reserve Banks and have replaced United States Notes which were once issued by the Treasury Department.
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Value
The authority of the Federal Reserve Banks to issue notes comes from the Federal Reserve Act of 1913. Legally, they are liabilities of the Federal Reserve Banks and obligations of the United States Government. Although no longer issued by the Treasury Department, Federal Reserve Notes carry the (engraved) signature of the Treasurer of the United States and the United States Secretary of the Treasury.
Congress has specified that a Federal Reserve Bank must hold collateral equal in value to the Federal Reserve Notes that the Bank receives. This collateral is chiefly gold certificates and United States government securities. This provides backing for the note issue. The idea was that if the Congress dissolved the Federal Reserve System, the United States would take over the notes (liabilities). This would meet the requirements of Section 411, but the government would also take over the assets, which would be of equal value. Federal Reserve Notes represent a first lien on all the assets of the Federal Reserve Banks, and on the collateral specifically held against them.
Federal Reserve Notes are fiat currency, which means that they are not redeemable in gold, silver or any other commodity. This has been the case since 1968. The notes have no value for themselves, but for what they will buy. They have no backing other than the "full faith and credit of the U.S. government" (i.e., the government's ability to levy taxes to pay its debts). In another sense, because they are legal tender, Federal Reserve Notes are "backed" by all the goods and services in the economy. (i.e., a currency is worth only what it can buy, but keep in mind that the U.S. economy is worth nearly $12 trillion.)
How a federal reserve note enters the money system
U.S. Federal Reserve Notes are printed by the United States Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) and, like coins minted by the United States Mint, are provided to the U.S. Federal Reserve at nominal cost.
A commercial bank belonging to the Federal Reserve System can obtain the notes from the Federal Reserve Bank in its district whenever it wishes. It must pay for them in full, dollar for dollar, by drawing down its account with its district Federal Reserve Bank.
Nicknames
U.S. paper currency has had many nicknames and slang terms, some of which ("sawbuck" and "double-sawbuck") are now obsolete. The notes themselves are generally referred to as bills (as in "five-dollar bill") and any combination of U.S. notes and coins as bucks (as in "fifty bucks").
- Single, a $1
- Fiver, a $5
- Ten-spot, a $10
- Sawbuck, a $10
- Double-sawbuck, a $20
- C-note, a $100 (from the Roman numeral C, for 100)
- Benjamin, a $100 (from the portrait of Benjamin Franklin on the front)
- Greenbacks, any amount in any denomination of Federal Reserve Note (from the green ink used on the back)
- Dead presidents, any amount in any denomination of Federal Reserve Note (from the portrait of a U.S. president on most denominations)
Many more slang terms refer to money in general (cabbage, lettuce, smackers, simoleons, clams, bread, etc.).
Criticisms
Security
Despite the relatively late addition of color and other anti-counterfeiting features to U.S. currency, critics hold that it is still a straightforward matter to counterfeit the bills. They point out that the ability to reproduce color images is well within the capabilities of modern color printers, most of which are affordable to many consumers. These critics suggest that the Federal Reserve should incorporate holographic features, as are used in most other major currencies, such as the British pound, Canadian dollar and euro banknotes, which are much more difficult and expensive to forge. Another robust technology, developed for the Australian dollar and adopted for the New Zealand dollar, Romanian leu, and a few other currencies, produces polymer banknotes.
However, U.S. currency may not be as vulnerable as it is said to be. Two of the most critical anti-counterfeiting features of U.S. currency are the paper and the ink. The exact composition of the paper is confidential, as is the formula for the ink. The ink and paper combine to create a distinct texture, particularly as the currency is circulated. These characteristics can be hard to duplicate without the proper equipment and materials. U.S. notes, however, remain less secure than most other notes, and while a bank might be able to detect fine differences in paper and ink technology, counterfeit notes generally receive far less scrutiny at a point of sale.
The differing sizes of other nations' banknotes are a security feature that eliminates one form of counterfeiting to which U.S. currency is prone: Counterfeiters can simply bleach the ink off a low-denomination note, typically a single dollar, and reprint it as a higher-value note, such as a $100 bill. To counter this, the U.S. government has considered making lower-denomination notes slightly smaller than those of higher denomination. Current proposals suggest making the $1 and $5 bills an inch shorter in length and a half-inch shorter in height; however, having two sizes of banknotes but seven denominations, rather than incrementally increased sizes, would not eliminate the problem of their usability for the blind.
Differentiation
Critics also note that U.S. bills are often hard to tell apart: they use very similar designs, are printed in the same colors, and are the same size. Advocates for the blind have argued that they should be printed in increasing sizes according to value and employ Braille codes to make the currency more usable by the vision-impaired, since the denominations cannot easily be distinguished from one another non-visually. Though some vision-impaired or blind individuals say that they have learned to determine the different denominations by feel, many others rely on currency readers; still others have their bills each folded differently to quickly identify the denomination. For the blind, this initially requires the assistance of a mechanical device or a sighted person.
By contrast, other major currencies, such as the euro and pound sterling, feature notes of differing sizes: the size of the note increases with the denomination and are printed in different colors. This is useful not only for the vision-impaired; they nearly eliminate the risk that, for example, someone might fail to notice a high-value note among low-value ones, a common problem in the United States. Tourists also frequently encounter difficulties with U.S. money, as they are less familiar with the design cues that distinguish the various denominations.
Multiple currency sizes were considered for U.S. currency, but makers of vending machines and change machines successfully argued that implementing such a wide range of sizes would greatly increase the cost and complexity of such machines. Similar arguments were made in Europe prior to the introduction of multiple note sizes, but these arguments were obviously not successful.
Alongside the contrasting colors and increasing sizes, many other countries' currencies contain tactile features missing from U.S. banknotes to assist the blind. For example, Canadian banknotes have a series of raised dots (though not standard Braille) in the upper right corner to indicate denomination.
| United States currency and coinage |
| Topics: Federal Reserve Note | United States Note | United States coinage | United States dollar |
| Currency: $1 | $2 | $5 | $10 | $20 | $50 | $100 | Larger denominations |
| Coinage: Cent | Nickel | Dime | Quarter | Half Dollar | Dollar |
This article incorporates text from the website of the US Treasury, which is in the public domain.