Purple: The New Green? – National Consumers League

Today we learned that the 5 dollar bill is the first to get a makeover by the Federal Reserve in attempts to thwart counterfeiters. Honest Abe is still the bill’s main attraction, but he’s surrounded by some new security features that will make faking it more difficult, including new watermarks and changes to that little security “thread” that’s woven into the bill.

More obvious than these differences, perhaps, are the numerous splashes of purple across the bill. But the color changes aren’t for security reasons – they’re meant to help people with visual impairments have an easier time using the money.

According to an LA Times article, we should start seeing these new bills pretty quickly, as more than 200 million of them will be released in the next three weeks!