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FEDERAL RESERVE BANK OF NEW YORK Circular No. 8 6 8 4 | November 16, 1979 j [ NEW D E SIG N FOR PO ST A L M ONEY O R D ERS To All Banks in the Second Federal Reserve District, and Others Concerned: The United States Postal Service has made changes in the design of domestic and military postal money orders. The changes, which are described below, have been made for security and processing reasons. Some of the newly designed military postal money orders are already in circulation. The new domestic money orders will be issued in November or December of this year. However, the existing stock of postal money orders will continue to be issued until supplies are exhausted. Therefore, through at least a part of 1980, your bank should expect to receive both the current version and the newly designed postal money orders. The United States Postal Service has provided the following description of the new design: Fron t 1. The eagle is in outline to improve the legibility of address information when photocopies are made. There is a registered tradem ark symbol to the right of the claw. 2. By encouraging the customer to provide complete information in the address area, identification of the person cashing the money order will be more positive and greater difficulties will be presented to persons contemplating an improper payment. 3. In the limitation plate area the word “dollars” has be modified so that after imprinting, it will be partially covered with the limitation plate value. This has been done to hinder changing the amounts of money orders. The words “maximum value” have been printed beneath “dollars.” 4. The color used for printing “money order” on the left and “U S A ” on the right has been changed from brown to black to reduce costs. Also, a yellow tint printed over the background design has been eliminated so that a person changing the amounts of money orders has to restore the background design rather than the yellow tint. 5. The Postal Service banking code number on the bottom left corner has been changed to 000 000 204. 1. The instructions have been simplified and placed at the serial number end in order to conform with Treasury and banking requirements. 2. The thick yellow line has been eliminated. Testing has shown that an overlap of the endorsement signature into the read band area is not a problem. 3. The paragraph “To the Cashier” has been changed so that future increases in the maximum value of any order will not present cashing problems. B ack Enclosed is a sample of the new design. If you have questions, please contact your local Postmaster. T h o m a s M. T i m l e n , F ir s t Vice President.