More than a billion new $100 bills were printed incorrectly by the federal government and are now unusable, a CNBC report has said.
The printing error, which was disclosed to the cable financial news network by an official close to the situation, comes just months after its official launch in April by the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve.
The error occurred when paper used during printed creased improperly, causing parts of the bill to be left blank, the official told CNBC.
“There is something drastically wrong here,” the unnamed source told CNBC. “The frustration level is off the charts.”
About 1.1 billion of the bills, which bear the image of Benjamin Franklin, have been printed and cannot be entered into circulation.
The new $100 bill, which has undergone a facelift as well as the integration of new security features, has a 3-D security ribbon that runs down the middle of the bill as well as raised ink, a watermark of Benjamin Franklin, and a color-shifting “100” that changes between copper and green.
At the peak of printing, nearly 30 percent of all bills had the creasing defect, a separate source told CNBC.
The bills are being held in large vaults in Fort Worth, Texas and Washington, D.C. The report did not say what would be done to the faulty bills.
The printing error, which was disclosed to the cable financial news network by an official close to the situation, comes just months after its official launch in April by the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve.
The error occurred when paper used during printed creased improperly, causing parts of the bill to be left blank, the official told CNBC.
“There is something drastically wrong here,” the unnamed source told CNBC. “The frustration level is off the charts.”
About 1.1 billion of the bills, which bear the image of Benjamin Franklin, have been printed and cannot be entered into circulation.
The new $100 bill, which has undergone a facelift as well as the integration of new security features, has a 3-D security ribbon that runs down the middle of the bill as well as raised ink, a watermark of Benjamin Franklin, and a color-shifting “100” that changes between copper and green.
At the peak of printing, nearly 30 percent of all bills had the creasing defect, a separate source told CNBC.
The bills are being held in large vaults in Fort Worth, Texas and Washington, D.C. The report did not say what would be done to the faulty bills.
