I played poker in a couple of Los Angeles area casinos over the past few weeks and I made it a point to ask casino personnel if there has been any training for the release of the new $100. The responses from the casino workers have ranged from "no" to "what new $100 bill?"

The new $100 bill was supposed to have been released in February of 2011 and that is almost two years ago. A printing error ruined many of the bills. And for months the government has been trying to sort out the bad bills from the good.

I haven't heard anything about the resumption of printing.

The government announced in October of 2010 that the release would be postponed and that is more than two years ago. And you have to think that even our slow moving government should be able to sort through the new $100s by now. And that's why I think a release is coming in 2013.

But, we know from the Federal Reserve that they will announce the release six months in advance so that everyone has a chance to familiarize themselves with the new currency. And there's an important reason for this:

1. If the images of the new currency are not known, people might reject them as counterfeits.

3. If the images of the new currency are not known, counterfeits could be passed because people won't know what the real ones look like.

Casinos in the United States are probably the #1 consumers of $100 bills in this country. So casino personnel will probably get the early and most intense training.

Washington will be pretty much shut tight for the holidays, but early January would be a great time to announce a release date for the new Benjamins. And since the Treasury wants us to have 6 months advance notice, I think a release date of July 4, 2013 is very possible.

That will mean some intense training at casinos and some verification that bill acceptors and cashing machines, and ATMs are all primed to accept and dispense the new $100s.

There is more about the new $100 bill here: http://www.alanbestbuys.com/id239.html