$100 bills destroyed: Billions worth of new $100 bills destroyed due to printing error. It's a common complaint of critics of Washington that the federal government just seems to be throwing money away. But it's never been quite like this.
The Bureau of Printing and Engraving must destroy $3billion worth of the new $100bills because the printers 'mashed' them and smeared the line.
The blunder could result result he new $100 bill, originally slated for release in 2011, being delayed even further.
The new note features a Liberty Bell that changes colors, hidden writing on Benjamin Franklin's collar, and tiny 3-D images that move in the light - all complex new security measures designed to make the note hard to counterfeit.
The New Yorker reports that these measures also, apparently, make the bill hard to print.
Of the initial run of 30million $100 bills, countless came off the presses with blurry lines. It's a problem called 'mashing' and the New Yorker likens it to 'when a kid tries to carefully color inside the lines - using watercolors and a fat paintbrush.'
As a result, the Federal Reserve, which certifies and puts into circulation all money that is printed, rejected the notes and sent them back to the Bureau of Printing and Engraving.
Larry Felix, the director of the bureau, circulated a memo chastising his employees for 'delivering defective work' that was 'clearly unacceptable.'
Those notes - must now be destroyed and new bills must be printed before the $100 bill can be launched. The deadline to deliver the bank notes to the Federal Reserve is October 8.
An additional 300million bills - worth $30billion - await inspection by the Federal Reserve.
The bill was supposed to launch in early 2011, but was delayed more than two years by a different printing error, one that left some bills with a large blank spot.
The cost of this blunder is not known, though the Atlantic Wire reports that the new $100 bills cost about 12 cents each.
At that rate, the mis-printing of 30million bills cost about $3.78million.
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