D.C. debut of newly redesigned $20 bill at L'Enfant Plaza Post Office - Announcements

Federal Reserve Bulletin, Nov, 2003

U.S. government officials introduced the newly redesigned $20 note into the community on October 9, 2003, at the L'Enfant Plaza Post Office in Washington, D.C., marking the first opportunity for the public to spend the new currency in the Washington area. James Brent, the chief of the office of currency production in the U.S. Treasury Department's Bureau of Engraving and Printing, joined Michael Lambert, financial services manager of the Federal Reserve Board, to mark this historic milestone.

In Washington, the first expenditure with the new $20 bill was the purchase of stamps from the stamp vending machines at the Post Office. The U.S. Postal Service has had to prepare its machines as well as its employees to ensure acceptance of the new money.

"After months of seeing them roll off of the presses, I am honored to spend the first new $20 bill in my hometown of Washington, D.C.," said Brent, who is responsible for the day-to-day operations of currency production at the Bureau's Washington, D.C., facility. "The Bureau of Engraving and Printing is tremendously proud of The New Color of Money, and I am proud to have helped in the creation of the safest, smartest, and most secure note the U.S. government has ever produced."

"Today marks the formal introduction into circulation of the most secure note the U.S. government has ever produced," said the Federal Reserve Board's Lambert. "Its enhanced security will help ensure that our currency continues to represent value, trust and confidence to people all over the world."

"The U.S. Postal Service's stamp vending machines are ready and able to accommodate the new $20 bills, and our retail associates look forward to serving customers using this new currency," explained the Postal Service's Manager of Customer Service Operations, Fred Hintenach. "We are honored that the Bureau chose the L'Enfant Plaza Post Office to be the site of Washington's first commercial transaction with the new $20 bill."

The event in D.C. was one of more than thirty that took place around the country, including an event in New York City. Tom Ferguson, director of the U.S. Treasury's Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP), and Marsha Reidhill, the Federal Reserve Board's assistant director for cash, marked today's historic issue of the new $20 bill in New York City's Times Square, where they spent the new $20 bill at a Times Square area business.