New $100 Bill Launches Today

$3.5B worth of the redesigned $100 bill is being distributed to banks today.

The bill redesign, the first for the $100 bill since March 1996, will still have Benjamin Franklin on the front and Philadelphia's Independence Hall on the back. It will also have a number of new features that will definitely turn heads. There is a disappearing Liberty Bell in an ink well and a bright blue three-dimensional security ribbon with images that move in the opposite direction from the way the bill is being tilted. "The 3-D security ribbon is magic. It is made up of hundreds of thousands of micro-lenses in each note," said Larry Felix, the director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. "This is the most complex note the United States has ever produced." The $100 bill is the last bill to get a make-over in a process that began in 2003 with the $20 bill. The government redesigned the greenbacks with subtle colors and other security features to make it harder for counterfeiters. The $100 bill, which is the most commonly counterfeited note outside of the United States, was redesigned with even more complex security features.

Feds Unveil New $100 Bill

It goes into circulation in October.

"We made numerous process changes to address the creasing issue and we are back in full production," said Dawn Haley, a spokeswoman for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Haley said those changes include modifying the paper feeder on printing presses to accommodate variations in the paper associated with the 3-D security ribbon. The blue security ribbon is composed of thousands of tiny lenses. Those lenses magnify the objects underneath them to make them appear to be moving in the opposite direction from the way the bill is being moved. Benjamin Franklin's portrait will remain on the $100 bill, the highest value denomination in general circulation and the most frequent target of counterfeiters.

NYPD Confiscates City's Rotexes

If haven't gotten your dad that holiday Rotex yet, it might be too late. Local news is reporting that the NYPD has shut down a large swath of Chinatown today in a massive crackdown on counterfeit luxury handbags, watches, fragrances, etc.

A strip of stalls selling counterfeit goods in Chinatown were raided Tuesday morning, shutting down the notorious shops just in time for the holiday shopping season. Police say 10 buildings, housing about 30 stalls, were raided on a block of Canal Street off Broadway. A large number of counterfeit goods was reportedly seized, including knock off bags, watches and wallets purporting to be brands such as Chanel, Gucci and Tiffany. Police used bolt-cutters to burst into the shops where counterfeiting was suspected. The raids allegedly revealed secret rooms inside the buildings where dealers did their business. The crackdown was the latest strike by Mayor Bloomberg's Office of Special Enforcement on stores notorious for the wide array of knockoffs for sale on the street.

They never seem to bother the fake handbag vendors that litter the corners of the Upper East Side. I could walk 200 feet from my apartment and have my pick from hundreds of counterfeit items.

Cops Sweep Fake Goods From Chinatown

In one of the largest raids in NYC history, today the NYPD conducted a massive sweep of Chinatown's bustling counterfeit designer goods shops, clearing Canal Street of knockoff watches and handbags. Police padlocked 32 businesses whose owners now face stiff fines or imprisonment.

Mayor Bloomberg: "It is organized crime, frequently accompanied by bloody turf wars, stickups and armed assaults. Counterfeiters rob legitimate businesses of their customers and employees of their paychecks. It defrauds the purchasers of shoddy goods and it cheats the people of New York City of an estimated $1 billion a year in sales tax revenue."

Of course, you can still find street vendors hawking fake handbags on every block elsewhere in Manhattan, not to mention the East African men that work the subway stations with briefcases full of fake watches. I once tried to take a photo of the watch peddlers to use here as a "Morning View" and I nearly got my throat slit. Stupid. I'll confess that I've bought a couple of fake handbags on the request of my sister in Orlando. I am a tool of organized crime.