Getting high-tech makeovers

Abraham Lincoln and Alexander Hamilton are getting high-tech makeovers, an effort to foil computer-savvy counterfeiters trying to pass off phony $5 and $10 bills. Both bills will have several new features, but it_s the supersize portraits that most people will notice first. The bigger and slightly off-center portraits of President Lincoln on the $5 bill and Hamilton, the U.S. first Treasury secretary, on the $10 bill are similar to what was done to President Andrew Jackson on last year_s new $20 bill. The redesigned $5 and $10 bills were being unveiled Tuesday by Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers but won_t go into circulation until the middle of next year. An exact date hasn_t been set. This will give vendors time to retool their machines to accept the new bills. Old $5 and $10 bills will continue to be recirculated until they wear out, which on average takes two years.