<Li> 1966: The first and only small - sized $100 United States Note was issued with a red seal and serial numbers . It was the first of all United States currency to use the new U.S. treasury seal with wording in English instead of Latin . Like the Series 1963 $2 and $5 United States Notes, it lacked WILL PAY TO THE BEARER ON DEMAND on the obverse and featured the motto IN GOD WE TRUST on the reverse . The $100 United States Note was issued due to legislation that specified a certain dollar amount of United States Notes that were to remain in circulation . Because the $2 and $5 United States Notes were soon to be discontinued, the dollar amount of United States Notes would drop, thus warranting the issuing of this note . </Li> <Li> 1990: The first new - age anti-counterfeiting measures were introduced under Series 1990 with microscopic printing around Franklin's portrait and a metallic security strip on the left side of the bill . </Li> <Li> March 25, 1996: The first major design change since 1929 took place with the adoption of a contemporary style layout . The main intent of the new design was to deter counterfeiting . New security features included a watermark of Franklin to the right side of the bill, optically variable ink (OVI) that changed from green to black when viewed at different angles, a higher quality and enlarged portrait of Franklin, and hard - to - reproduce fine line printing around Franklin's portrait and Independence Hall . Older security features such as interwoven red and blue silk fibers, microprinting, and a plastic security thread (which now glows pink (nominally red) under a black light) were kept . The individual Federal Reserve Bank Seal was changed to a unified Federal Reserve Seal along with an additional prefix letter being added to the serial number, w . The first of the Series 1996 bills were produced in October 1995 . </Li> <Li> February 2007: The first $100 bills (a shipment of 128,000 star notes from the San Francisco FRB) from the Western Currency Facility in Fort Worth, Texas are produced, almost 16 years after the first notes from the facility were produced . The shipment makes the $100 bill the most recently added production to the facility's lineup . 4.6 billion notes were produced at the facility with series 2006 and Cabral and Paulson signatures, including about 4.15 million star notes . </Li>

When did they start putting watermarks on 100 dollar bills