If you still use cash, you've already noticed that the government has issued new bills in every denomination except the $100 bill. The new "Benjamin" was to be introduced in February, 2011, however, we have a problem.
CNBC reports that 1.1 billion $100 pills have been printed. Roughly 30% of them are defective. Some of the new bills have a vertical crease that, when the sides of the bill are pulled, unfolds and reveals a blank space on the face of the bill. At first glance, the bills appear completely printed, but they are not.
It costs 12 cents to print a $100 bill. This means that more than $120 million has been spent. The real problem is sifting through the new bills to weed out the "bad" ones. This could take years. The government wants to create some kind of electronic system to do this.
In the meantime, new bills are needed. The old $100's are being printed until the high tech ones are ready.
They didn't as me, but another temporary remedy would be to double up on the production of $50 bills, above and beyond normal $50 bill production. You see, 2 50's make one hundred...
