NEW CASH WOULD GIVE BAD GUYS A HARD TIME

Europol, the European police office, has put a new wrinkle on an old
mission: flushing out criminal syndicates that stash large amounts of cash.
A similar plan aimed at narco-crooks could work on this side of the
Atlantic, too. Come Jan. 1, the European Union will adopt a common
currency. Over the next two months, 15 billion bank notes worth about $580
billion will be pumped into circulation in 12 of the union's 15 member
nations. After a 60-day grace period, all these nations' current bills will
be worthless. To deter counterfeiters, the European Central Bank has held
off making public details of the new bank notes' features. But it's known
that euros will be color-coded by denomination.

Obliging everyone to turn in their cash or lose out affects the bad guys,
too. "It's a chance to catch these people, but also to learn something
about their organizations," said Winfried Preuss, director of the
counterfeiting and financial crimes division of Germany's federal police.

As Americans are aware, the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing has also
recently swapped new notes for old. A redesigned $100 bill was released in
1996, followed by new $50s in 1997 and a new $20 in 1998. Last year brought
fresh $5s and $10s with revised portraits of Abraham Lincoln and Alexander
Hamilton.

The traditional $1 and $2 bills (George Washington and Thomas Jefferson)
have remained in circulation. The Treasury assumes that the cost of
illegally duplicating these bills on $100,000 top-quality laser printers
would offer criminal enterprises a poor return on investment.

Newly issued U.S. bills include a host of high-tech security-minded
changes. There's a watermark, based on the same artwork as the portraits,
that's visible when held up to a light. Color-shifting ink makes the
numbers in the lower-right corner on the front of the notes look green when
viewed straight on, but black when viewed at an angle.

But the powers that be in Washington have decreed that there'll be no
recall or devaluation of any bygone bills. "Old or new, all U.S. currency
always will be honored at full face value," the Treasury declares.

That notion may be comforting to overseas drug merchants who, working
through bankers willing to turn a blind eye, strive to convert their
ill-gotten European currencies into dollars before the euro whistle blows
their cash dead. But is it good public policy?

Nowadays, most large U.S. enterprises deal in electronic fund transfers,
making all but obsolete traditional-style corporate paychecks, let alone
pay packets stuffed with cash. Even mom-and-pop outfits increasingly sense
the benefits of electronic banking.

It's therefore reasonable to assume that the big loser in a phased-in
mandatory swap to color-coded U.S. dollars would be people who would have a
hard time explaining how they happened to come by their current hoards of
green money.