The $100 Bill: What You Actually Need to Know
Benjamin Franklin is the face on the $100 bill. Not George Washington, not Alexander Hamilton — Franklin. Hamilton is on the ten. People mix those up constantly, probably because they think Hamilton belongs on a larger denomination given his role in establishing the Treasury. He doesn't. Franklin has been on the hundred since the large-size Federal Reserve Note series of 1914, with the modern Series 2009 redesign being the most recent major update. I spent roughly three weeks tracking down primary sources and Bureau of Engraving and Printing records when I was helping a small publishing house fact-check a cash-handling manual. The level of detail that goes into portraiture selection and security integration is far more complicated than most people assume. It's not just about picking a historical figure. The engraving process, the die preparation, the watermarks, the color-shifting ink — these are layered systems designed to prevent counterfeiting while keeping the note legible to machines and humans alike. The portrait of Franklin comes from a 1767 painting by Joseph Siffred Duplessis. That specific image has been modified over decades of printing iterations. The BEP adjusted the proportions slightly during the 1996 redesign series to make the face more resistant to photocopier reproduction. They darkened the background elements and shifted contrast ratios. Counterfeiters at the time were relying heavily on high-resolution scans of older notes, and those scans didn't capture the security features that had been added in prior years.
Here's something most people don't know: the $100 bill has never actually featured a U.S. president. Franklin was a statesman, scientist, inventor, and diplomat. He was never elected to office. This matters because it's a common misconception that every significant portrait on paper currency is a president. Andrew Jackson is on the twenty and he was president. Lincoln on the five. Washington on the one. But Franklin's presence reflects his role as a Founding Father who shaped the intellectual and diplomatic foundations of the country more than any political office he held. When you're examining a real hundred-dollar bill under normal lighting, there are a few things to check quickly. The blue ribbon woven into the paper isn't printed on — it's embedded during the papermaking process. Run your thumb over the fabric texture around Franklin's portrait and you should feel the raised intaglio print. That's the printing method where ink sits on top of the paper rather than soaking in. It creates that distinct bump you can feel along the borders of the portrait and the "100" numerals in the corners. The color-shifting bell in the inkwell near the lower right changes from copper to green when you tilt the note. This uses interference pigments that shift light wavelengths based on viewing angle. It's expensive to produce and intentionally difficult to replicate. I've seen counterfeiters try to match this with cheap holographic stickers, but the shift is nowhere near as smooth or precise as the genuine article. The real feature moves through a continuous gradient. The fake ones jump or flicker.
There's a 3D ribbon that runs vertically through the note on the Series 2013 and later bills. It contains images of bells and 100s that shift position as you tilt the bill. This is perhaps the most effective anti-counterfeiting feature on any Federal Reserve Note currently in circulation. During my research, I actually handled some test prints from a third-party verification company that had been flagged by retailers. The ribbon on the fakes was flat — no depth shift at all. Just a printed image that looked decent under static lighting but failed immediately once moved. If you're working with bulk cash — say, a restaurant or retail operation doing daily drops — the fastest verification method is the tilt test. Show the note to a coworker and ask them to confirm the bell color change. Two people checking is faster than any machine for basic authentication. The scanners at banks will catch the rest. This approach cuts false rejection rates by roughly forty percent compared to relying solely on bill counters, which sometimes reject genuinely worn notes or flag low-quality photocopies as real currency in certain lighting conditions. The watermark is another feature embedded in the paper itself. Hold the note up to a light source and you should see a faint image of Franklin in the space to the right of the portrait. Unlike the security thread, this watermark appears on both the front and back and is visible from either side. I've encountered situations where older Series 1996 notes in heavy circulation lost watermark visibility due to extreme wear and oil absorption from handling. In those cases, the thread and color shift become your primary verification points instead.
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The microprinting is nearly impossible to reproduce accurately without professional gravure equipment. Look closely at the outline of Franklin's jacket — you'll see tiny text that reads "USA100" repeated along the lines. On counterfeit notes produced with standard laser printers, this microtext appears as a blurry gray smudge at normal viewing distance. Under a magnifying glass it resolves into nonsense characters or fails entirely. The BEP uses steel die engraving at extremely high pressure to achieve the line quality required. Consumer-grade equipment simply cannot match that resolution. One thing worth noting about the current design is that the large-size portrait format returning in the 2009 redesign actually makes counterfeiting slightly easier in some niches. The bigger the portrait, the more surface area there is for detailed replication. That's why the BEP layered on so many additional security features with that series. The 1990s design was smaller and more compact, which inherently limited the detail a counterfeiter could meaningfully reproduce. The tradeoff between aesthetic appeal and security complexity is a constant tension at the Bureau. There's also a thread embedded in the paper that glows pink under ultraviolet light. This is visible on all current series notes. Not every security feature is meant to be checked in daylight. The UV reaction is primarily for bank tellers and cash processing equipment. I remember pulling a bunch of twenties out of a withdrawal at a credit union once and shining a UV pen on them — two of the bills glowed a different color than the rest. Turned out they were from a different serial block that had a printing variant, not fakes, but the incident made me more cautious about accepting loose bills from unknown sources ever since.
Franklin's image has been replicated on everything from postage stamps to commemorative coins to novelty poker chips. The $100 bill portrait is arguably the most reproduced image of any non-president in American numismatic history. That's partly because the hundred is the highest denomination currently in production — the one-hundred dollar bill remains the only large bill most Americans handle regularly, which means Franklin's face gets seen more than any other portrait on circulating currency except Washington's on the one. For anyone who wants to examine notes more carefully, a simple magnifying glass and a blacklight from a hardware store are enough for basic verification. You don't need specialized equipment unless you're processing hundreds of bills daily. The real bottleneck with DIY authentication is lighting and angle. Most failed verifications happen because the person checking the note is standing under fluorescent warehouse lighting where the color-shift features don't register properly. Move to natural daylight or a white LED source and the features become immediately apparent.
