WASHINGTON (AP) -- Abraham Lincoln and Alexander Hamilton are getting high-tech makeovers, an effort to foil computer-savvy counterfeiters trying to pass off phony $5 and $10 bills.
Both bills will have several new features, but it's the super-size portraits that most folks will notice first.The bigger and slightly off-center portraits of President Lincoln on the $5 bill and Hamilton, the nation's first Treasury secretary, on the $10 bill are similar to what was done to President Andrew Jackson on last year's new $20 bill.
The redesigned $5 and $10 bills were unveiled Tuesday by Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers but won't go into circulation until the middle of next year. An exact date hasn't been set. This will give vendors time to retool their machines to accept the new bills.
"The public is our first line of defense against counterfeiting," Summers said. "If everyone checks the money that passes through their hands, it will put counterfeiters out of business. And, that is the goal of redesigning our currency."
Old $5 and 10 bills will continue to be recirculated until they wear out, which on average takes two years.
The new currency is designed to make it harder for people to make bogus bills. Over the years, counterfeiters have graduated from offset printing to sophisticated color copiers, computer scanners, color ink jet printers and publishing-grade software -- technologies readily available.
The bigger portraits are easier to recognize and their added detail harder to duplicate, officials said. Moving them off center, makes room for a watermark and reduces wear on the portraits, they said.