A glimpse at the Treasury Department's plans for the future of American paper money was offered July 8 at FedBizOpps.gov, the federal business opportunities website for vendors interested in doing business with the government.

An announcement there says that the Bureau of Engraving and Printing will issue a solicitation on or about July 28 "for the research and development of new conspicuous and device-assisted security features" for use in protecting the next generation of Federal Reserve notes from counterfeiting threats.

It added that the BEP also wants to provide "the general public with a user friendly feature to quickly and confidently validate notes passed in common, everyday transactions."

The BEP says it would like to develop new devices and features based on raised intaglio printing, and what it calls "optical waveguide technology." Perhaps this is a clue that finally the United States will see the windows, holograms, plastic films, and coded fiber optics becoming the standard elsewhere in the world but so far absent here.

One can look Down Under for what might be in store.

The Reserve Bank of Australia is issuing a new $5 note in September that will be the first release of the bank's "Next Generation Banknote Program."

That $5 note will include a tactile feature aimed at helping the visually impaired, as well as security enhancements that include two clear windows - a large one that runs up the middle of the note and another smaller one in the lower right corner - and Omron rings, which is a pattern of small circles, usually yellow in color. (The most recent versions of Federal Reserve notes above the $2 denomination already have the Omron rings feature.)

Other currency issuing entities, including the Bank of England recently, have also moved to polymer as the material they print their notes on.

To read the complete article, see:
Are holograms and windows to be part of future Federal Reserve note technology? (http://www.coinworld.com/news/paper-money/2016/07/bep-seeks-solicitations-on-advanced-note-technology.html)

To read the complete BEP solicitation, see:
BEP-RFP-16-0443 (www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=ee0249d77eca9cf48ee592c35709ac15
&tab=core&_cview=0)