New $20 Bills

[Avery]

As many of you know, the US Treasury has announced changes for the $20.00 bill. They will begin releasing them later this year. Peach, blue and yellow will be added to the green bill. There will also be design changes in an attempt to stay ahead of counterfeiters. The $5, 10, 50 and 100 bill will also be changed down the road. Are the CLA and change machine companies responding to this before we are all taken by surprize? I would like to know if our industry is going to be prepared or will this be like the re-design fiasco of 1998. Let's hope we are ready this time. I would appreciate input from from Brian or Mike S @ CLA. Thanks.

[mcoons]

Avery -

With the new $20 bill being introduced into circulation in September/October, we have been working to check the new design against our bill validators.

We are pleased to announce that any Standard Change-Makers changer with System 200, 500, 500E and 600 series Bill Acceptors (any Standard Change-Makers SC series machines purchased since 1988) will require only a software upgrade to accommodate the new $20. This will require a minor chip replacement on the board.

What does this mean? You will not have to purchase an new bill validator in order to accept the new $20 bill! The cost for the chip upgrade is nominal. For new machines purchased between September, 2002 and August, 2003 - the software upgrade will be NO CHARGE (any installation labor and shipping costs not included). For machines purchased prior to August, 2003 - there will be just a $30 charge for the software upgrade (installation labor and shipping not included). The new chips will be available to ship beginning in August 2003.

Standard's EC series units (EC100, EC300RL, etc.) use OEM Bill Validators like Coinco(R), CashCode(R) and Mars(R). At this time, these manufacturers have stated that their units will only require software upgrades. But they have not notified us yet, about the cost, availability or programs they have in mind for distributing these upgrade packages. They expect to announce their programs later this summer.

With the Dept. of Treasury's long-term plan of modifying currency every 5 to 7 years, it looks like this could be something that will be occurring on a regular basis. Standard Change-Makers will continue to make every effort to minimize the inconvenience to our customers for these types of upgrades.

I hope this information helps. If you have any questions - please feel free to contact your Standard Change-Makers Sales & Service Dept.