This video was created by a Belarus-based designer -- it does not show a new US currency

This article is more than one year old.
Published on October 7, 2020 at 10:30
2 min read
By AFP Thailand

A video has been shared repeatedly in multiple Facebook posts and on Line messaging app alongside a claim that it shows a new currency called “USN” launched by the US Department of the Treasury in September 2020. The claim is false; the US Treasury told AFP the video does not show a new US currency and that no new currency was launched in September 2020; the video was originally published in 2018 by a Belarus-based graphic artist who created the designs as a conceptual project.

The YouTube video was shared on Facebook here on October 1, 2020.

The post’s lengthy Thai-language caption translates to English is part as:

“Do you know that the world needs to remember this day?

“From today, Wednesday, September 9th, 2020, Donald J Trump, and the Department of Treasury will announce the new American currency called 'USN/USTN' and it will be gold-backed. It is now being acknowledged worldwide.

“From October 2020 to October 2021, USD will have the exchange rate of 1:1 with the new currency banknote USN

“The Banknote from the US Federal Reserve US dollar will not be usable from October 2021.”

The message was also shared on messaging app Line on October 4, 2020.

The same claim was also published on Facebook here, here and here.

The claim is false.

The YouTube video in the misleading posts was uploaded by Belarus-based designer Andrey Avgust on May 24, 2018. The video has been viewed more than 300,000 times.

Avgust told AFP the project is “not an official design,” but rather it is just a “personal vision of how the dollar might look in the future”.

“I created this project as a concept,” he told AFP by email on October 5, 2020. “My project is a sketch that gives a rough idea. If a new currency is launched in the United States, I would certainly like to take part in its creation or in the competition for a new design.”

In response to the misleading posts, a spokesperson for the US Treasury told AFP by email on October 6: “This claim is false. The United States dollar is the official currency of the United States and its territories. The U.S. Department of the Treasury has not launched a new currency.”

A keyword search on the US Treasury website’s press release archive also found no results about a new currency.

A keyword search on President Donald Trump's Twitter account also found no relevant tweets about the purported announcement.

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