I heard that the US Treasury is recalling all of the “new” $20.00 bills because the date is wrong. Is this true?
April 25th, 2009
Sorry, but you’ve been victimized by a popular rumor. The new $20 notes are all dated 1996, even though they were not issued until 1998. This is standard procedure for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The date on a note is NOT necessarily the year of issue. Rather it is a series date, marking the beginning of a series of notes. When there’s a change in the Treasurer, or the Secretary of the Treasury, or a design change, either the series date is changed or a suffix letter is added to the series date. As but one example, the 1935 series date $1 Silver Certificates were printed into the 1950s.