Just in time for payday…
The new sleek $100 bills were released by the U.S. Federal Reserve on October 8, 2013. The design was the creation of 43-year-old African American artist, Brian Thompson. Thompson walks in his father’s footsteps, who served as a cylinder maker at the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing in D.C. His father saw a call for artists and knew his son would fit the bill. The artist has been working at the bureau for 24 years and he can finally call the newly release $100 bill his own design.
Thompson started as an apprentice at the Bureau when he was19 years old.
The new bills included new security features to stump counterfeiters and help people tell whether a note is genuine. Thompson’s design includes a blue 3-D security ribbon with images of bells and 100’s, a watermark and a color-changing bell in an inkwell. The number 100 appears to be orange with a border of white and blue, but if you look closer, there’s another color striped inside to prevent theft.
Little Known Black History Fact: Brian Thompson was originally published on blackamericaweb.com
