European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 23, 1986, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes saturday August 23,198g columns William Safire Colling in $ too Bills would crimp drug Trade do of want to snatch huge profits oui of the hands of the big time drug dealers without putting honest americans through the indignity and loss of personal Liberty inherent in drug test ing there is a Yurck dramatic and effective Fis available. The answer is to have Congress part a currency recall act enabling the scm1 Lary of ihu1 Treasury id go on television with the following announcement my fellow americans we All know Hiji the j100 Hill i he one Wanh Benja min Franklin s picture on it is the currency of Choice of inc International narcotics producers smugglers and Deal cars we know also that billions of Dol Lars in $100 Bills currently in their hands is used 10 finance drug traffic to corrupt officials to subvert Legal enter Prises to enslave and kill our children. To strike Al this pernicious Trade the us government is today calling in All 1100 Bills for full and prompt redemption. Every Hundred Dollar Bill you have today is Worth one Hundred dollars. But to Days from today those old Greenback hundreds will not be Worth a plug Nickel if you have any of those Bills in your pocket your Safe Deposit Box your mattress wherever go to your local Hank or Post office. Exchange your old Green Hundred Dollar Bills which arc in Gay tender for Only 30 More Days forthe new Blueback Hundred Dollar Bill that you Sec on the screen right now. You won t lose a cent the Exchange is free. The Only losers in this changeover of part of our currency Are the racketeers. Your Money is As Safe As Ever and unless you bring in sums Over $5,000. You won t have to explain a thing. If you do have suitcases full of 1100 Oills you la have plenty to explain that s inc Rea son for All this. I know this is an inconvenience butt s a Small Price to pay in your time not in your Money to cripple he big drug calling in currency is not a new idea. I heard it discussed last week by Jerry Fink Slein publisher of the new Yorklan journal an sex Dewey hand Long interested in combating the drug Trade. And when 1 mentioned in to my colleague James Kilpatrick Richard Halloran who Usi d to be new York times Bureau chief in Tokyo he remembered How the . Military in Japan and South Korea periodically upset he Black Market by suddenly Call ing in military scrip. Our Treasury fiddles with our currency from time to time. Back Inich 30s, we reduced the size of Bills. With the Large old Bills in circulation alongside he new smaller ones. We re doing the same now with a Security thread on our newest Bills to thwart counterfeiters who have Access to the lat est color copying machines. Each year 6.6 billion Bills of All denominations arc printed replacing a third of the 16.5 Bil Hon Bills floating around. Only 840 Mil lion of those Are hundreds. What would happen if we recalled our a notes Paul Batman Deputy treasurer of the United states says thai Treasury is not proposing recall and is Loath to discuss the subject Mccase it s unsettling to some people. They worry Abu devaluation or having to reveal their wealth or the government pulling one Over on but when pressed his first thought is he production problem re placing 840 million a notes would be a is percent increase on the production line. That s no big Deal. We would surely find out a lot about where the Money is. The Federal Reserve estimates that two thirds of . Cash Al denominations amounting to s1b3 Bil lion is overseas or in the underground Economy Here. More than 40 percent of that is in a Solcs. I m More than most but it docs not offend me to require people to Tess up to posses Sion of bundles of Cash in sacks. If it legit it should be in a Bank or in Bonds earning merest but would t the Crook Rush off to use their old Grec backed Cen Tury notes quickly to buy Gold yes but the big operators Deal in ens of millions of dollars and Only s150,000 in Gold weighs 27 pounds and pulls your suit out of shape. Buy other currencies and the buy Back sure but patterns of Many big transactions would be traceable Ana the reinvestment much harder buy real estate that Market can use a lift. And if they pay a Sambuck to Button sorry they re All in the bathroom men to Exchange each Yard of Cash the police can match photos and prints of the Cash runners and follow the paper Trail. Recall of a notes would complicate the criminal life enormously and sharply reduce the capital available to run drugs. Congressional movement on this would cause great queasiness today in the big time underworld. Sorry i Don t have change for a Hun dred
