As Associated Press indicated the Honest Abe will become Colorful Abe with splashes of purple and gray livening up the $5 bill. Today government showed off the new design of $5 bill fearuing Civil War president—Abraham Lincoln.Starting in 2003, the $10, $20 and $50 bills are already colorful today. The primary reason for the redesigns is to stay ahead of counterfeiters and their ever-more-sophisticated copying machines. Pastel colors were added in those bills. According to the report, the government will start printing the new notes next week at its facility in Fort Worth, Texas. The goal is to have 1.5 billion $5 bills ready to be put into circulation, at a date still to be determined.

There will be a new large-size 5 printed in the lower right-hand corner of the backside of the bill in high-contrast purple ink which was added to help the visually impaired.

Our government hopes those changes will make it harder for conterfeiters to pass fake bills. As the report sated, there were 3,945 arrests related to counterfeit bills with about 62 million loss.

The next bill to get a makeover will be the $100. However, according to the report, the government is only about one-third of the way through the redesign of the $100 and hopes to have that process completed by this time next year.

Will we be safer to use bills in the near future?