A new design for the $5 bill will be revealed on September 20th. Counterfeiters have been bleaching $5 bills and turning them into $100 bills, retaining several security features such as the ink test that is commonly used at retail cash registers. A new $100 bill is also in the works, with a high-tech security thread that “combines micro-printing with tiny lenses — 650,000 for a single $100 bill.” Crane & Co, supplier of paper for U.S. currency since 1879, has a $46 million contract to produce the new security thread. Sweden’s 1,000 kroner utilizes the same thread. In 2002, Crane purchased the currency paper mill and printer AB Tumba Bruk, which was associated with the Swedish mint. Now known as Crane AB, the firm was founded in 1755, giving it a longer history in currency manufacturing than its parent company. Crane AB’s website has an animation showing this security thread on the kroner. The technology is called Motion. Here is a Riksbank page illustrating it along with other Swedish currency features. The redesigned $5 will be in circulation early next year, the $100 towards the end of 2008.