Addressing a 'Banknote 2003 Conference' in Washington, Fisher said that ''continuous improvement'' in design features coupled with strong law enforcement is the most effective defence against counterfeit dollars.
''The overarching goal for US currency design is to maintain confidence in our notes, both at home and abroad," he said.
The dollar is widely used around the globe, with 60 per cent of circulating Federal Reserve notes held outside the US, according to Fisher.
He said new technology has also made it easier for counterfeiters around the world to make quality copies of US notes.
According to the Bush administration's budget proposal for 2004, US law enforcement officials discovered $47.5 million in counterfeit money in 2002.
Of the total, 39 per cent was computer generated, up from only 0.5 per cent in 1995.
To combat the increasing sophistication of the tools available to counterfeiters, the treasury department has initiated ''a process of continuous cycles of design change'' and will in 2003 unveil a new design for the dollar that will, for the first time, include the use of a colour other than green, Fisher said.
The new design will be accompanied by an extensive public education campaign both domestically and overseas, said Fisher, who noted that security features work ''only if the public knows about and uses them to authenticate currency.''
He said the education campaign would likely face a special challenge in the US, where the currency design introduced in 1928 lasted nearly 70 years and where residents have only recently had to adapt to relatively minor changes in the physical appearance of the dollar.
The more dramatic redesign to be introduced in 2003 ''will require extensive foreign and domestic marketing campaigns to educate consumers, banks and law enforcement officials,'' Fisher said.
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