The new $20 bill will debut today as the U.S. government begins issuing redesigned notes that feature improved security features.

The $20 bill's facelift — a measure taken by the government to discourage counterfeiters — is a fresh spin on the old design, which was last updated in 1998. The most significant change is the addition of light blue and peach tints to the note's traditional green backdrop.

"It's a complete departure from what we've done for (almost) 100 years, which was the last time we printed in color," said Dennis Forgue, head of the currency department at Harlan J. Berk, Ltd., a numismatic firm in Chicago.

The new bill still retains the portrait of Andrew Jackson, but the image has been enlarged sans the old oval frame. Jackson's face now dominates the front of the bill, standing over a background that fades from blue to peach. Continuous lines of the number 20 are also inscribed on the back of the note in peach. A blue eagle and a green shield appear on the bill's face.

The redesign of the bill was part of the U.S. Treasury Department's continuing effort to deter counterfeiting. The introduction of color adds complexity to the note, making it more difficult for counterfeiters to reproduce, according to Doug Tillet, a spokesman for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago.

"As technology improves, we have to go back and try to stay one step ahead of the counterfeiters," Tillet said.

Some old security features will still remain on the bill. It will still carry a watermark integrated into the paper — when held to the light, a faint image similar to Jackson's portrait will be visible from both sides of the bill. The new note will also have a security strip that stretches across the bill, spelling out the bill's denomination and color-shifting ink.

"Counterfeiters prey on the fact that you don't pay attention to your money," said Steve Bobbitt, a public relations director for the American Numismatic Association, a nonprofit organization chartered by Congress for the study of currency. "With the addition to color, the Treasury Department wants you to pay more attention (to currency), whether you are receiving the bill or using the bill."

Counterfeiters have been able to produce fraudulent currency through the use of the latest computer technology and digital imaging, Forgue said. But some have even gone to the extent of using their own printing plates — in both Colombia and the Philippines, counterfeiters were known to bleach bills of low denominations and print images of higher denominations in a process called leaching, he said.

"You go into the grocery store, and they see the thread and the watermark and thinks it's good," Forgue said.

Counterfeiting in the United States has grown tremendously in recent years — especially through digital imaging. According to a Sept. 9 press release from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing — the government department that prints currency — less than 1 percent of counterfeit bills were digitally produced in 1995. But that number had risen to nearly 40 percent by 2002, the press release stated. From now on, the bills will be updated every 7 to ten years, it said.

The adverse effects of counterfeiting go beyond unfair wealth transfer, said George Pennacchi, a professor of finance at the University. Because of the possibility of counterfeiting, merchants waste time and resources by monitoring the money offered to them, he said.

"By reducing the costs of honest people using currency, this would increase the demand for currency and increase the government's seigniorage (the revenue the government obtains by issuing currency)," Pennacchi said.