Thieves Can’t Spend Their New $100 Bills Until 2013

We can’t wait to see the movie version of this heist: FBI officials say that thieves took a “large amount” of newly designed $100 bills that were being shipped to a Federal Reserve facility in New Jersey; the bills went missing sometime after the shipment arrived at Philadelphia International Airport, where it arrived Thursday morning on a flight from Dallas. But don’t expect to start seeing your local hoods flush with fur coats and Cadillacs, Goodfellas-style, for a few months yet: The missing bills weren’t supposed to reach circulation until 2013, and their new design—a large gold “100” graphic on the back, along with a faint image of the Liberty Bell on the front—would probably attract attention from bankers and merchants if they were to be spent now. Cool your heels, boys. [CNN Money]