Changing greenbacks for bluebacks

GREENBACKS have always been a currency you could bank on. Now the familiar green and black US dollar is soon to turn a subtle shade of blue and violet.

It will be the first time America has changed the colour of its notes in 73 years. The US Treasury hopes the change will foil forgers who have been using scanners and printers to produce fakes.

The Secret Service had found that even children were chancing their luck with fake dollars printed off home computers. In 1995, less than 1% of counterfeit US currency was computer-generated, but by last year that figure had ballooned to 39%.

The US Treasury seizes about $56m (£40m) in counterfeit notes each year. The new colours will be mixed to a secret formula and used in such a way that even the most advanced computer printers will not be able to reproduce them. 'We're trying to stay a step ahead of the counterfeiters,' said Jim Hagedorn, of the US Bureau of Engraving and Printing.

The decision was made last month after a group of schoolchildren in Virginia aged 12 to 14 began printing $10 and $100 bills on a home computer. They found exact reproductions for the front and back of the bills on an Internet site. 'These kids printed themselves a pocketful of money and took it to school,' said an official from the Secret Service, which investigated the incident. 'They were spending the $10 bills in the school cafeteria and they were close enough to the real thing that the attendants accepted them.'

The school discovered the notes were fake only when they deposited them at the local bank. Juveniles responsible for the counterfeiting are likely to be charged next week.

'We realised that if teenagers could reproduce the currency with a home computer and printer, we had to do something,' said the Secret Service official. The new dollars are still being designed and will be released for public inspection later this year.

The traditional greenbacks will be phased out early next year. Dollars will remain predominantly green and black but areas that are now neutral will become blue and violet.

A US Treasury source said that other changes may have to be made to the notes every seven to ten years to stay ahead of forgers as computers and printers become more advanced.