Series 2017 A - Anyone Have Any Info?

This Coin World article from last March, quotes a BEP spokesperson as saying

The Department of the Treasury Bureau of Engraving and Printing Chief Financial Officer's Performance and Accountability Report defines a stakeholder as
2009


Obviously, we in the Great American Public are a stakeholder in our currency and this BEP report acknowledges that.

The BEP spokeperson's response to the Coin World inquiry is more of the same that I received from the BEP historical section. It seems without a doubt that the change is a security feature that is hard to detect without the proper equipment, most likely something in the ink.

I still haven't received a response to my FOIA request, but I suspect when/if I receive one that it will be even more of the same.

In May, the BEP finally printed the first $50 bills of the 2017A series. A total of 44.800.000 were printed. Bank letters A/B/C.

Series 2017-A $100 notes (PL-A block) are starting to appear in Central Massachusetts. Other than 2 Series 2017-A $2 notes (A-A block), the $100's are the only Series 2017-A notes I've found so far.

PE 064 00001 A thru
PE 992 00000 A were printed in Washington DC in October 2019
http://www.uspapermoney.info/serials/f2017av.html (the webmaster is a few months behind).


They are not going to become valuable, but it was puzzling since the Bureau of Engraving and Printing switched from series 2017 to series 2017A. Traditionally the letter A is added to a series if there is a new Treasurer, but the same Secretary of the Treasury. The Treasurer has been a woman since June 21, 1949 under Harry S. Truman and the last four since August 16, 2001 have been Latinas. There was no new Treasurer in 2020, and the BEP has been vague as to the reason they added the letter A.

Series $20: print dates :Signatures:
2017: December 2017 to July 2019: Carranza-Mnuchin.
2017A: April 2019 to present:Carranza-Mnuchin.

A "skid" is 640,000 banknotes and weighs over 1400 pounds. The federal reserve order for $20 banknotes was 2420 skids in fiscal year 2019 and 1940 skids in fiscal year 2020. A fiscal year ends 3 months before a calendar year ends.

Production by months of $20 banknotes, series 2017A in skids
May 19	140 skids
Jun 19	140
Jul 19	80
Aug 19	70
Sep 19	20
...
new fiscal year
...
Oct 19	280 skids
Nov 19	80
Dec 19	60
Jan 20	130
Feb 20	120
Mar 20	150
Apr 20	140
May 20	290
Jun 20	370
FY2020 (9 months) 1,620 skids

The BEP has only 320 skids of $20 bills left to meet the order, but sometimes extra banknotes are ordered because of COVID-19 which could explain the large output in May and June.

Good question. Notes listed under "quantity of sheets" are replacement sheets used to replace defective or specific sheets in the printing process. These are usually short runs and not distributed in full packs. These are the harder to find star notes which are typically found in pairs in a pack of non-star notes.
Notes listed as "quantity of notes" are large-run replacement notes distributed in packs of 100. These are much easier to find in circulation and are used to replace defective packs of non star notes.

Well, due to the pandemic it took awhile, but I received the BEP response to my FOIA request today. It's pretty heavily redacted, but it appears to me that, as was already surmised by the community, that the change is due to a change in the inks used.

For those that are interested, here's the actual response:

Yes, thank you indeed. This is great and does appear to be an ink change as you mentioned.