20 Dollars Federal Reserve Note, large portrait

The 1996 series was the first major U.S. currency redesign since the 1920s, pushed forward after the Secret Service and Treasury estimated that roughly $70 million in counterfeit U.S. notes were in circulation globally by the early 1990s — a significant share of it produced with commercial offset and laser printing technology that had simply outpaced the old design's security features. The enlarged off-center portrait, color-shifting ink in the numeral, and embedded polyester thread printed with "USA TWENTY" were all introduced together in this series.

The color-shifting ink shifts from green to black when tilted — a feature deliberately chosen because it cannot be reproduced by photocopiers or scanners available at the time of introduction.