The Creation
A year and a half of intensive work by Tari, designing the M$B, documenting proof of its legality and securing start-up funding, culminated in the single M$Bs and the M$B Uncut Sheets being printed by the ABNC in December of 1988. Within the following year, the complete Limited Edition of M$Bs and Uncut Sheets had been issued into circulation to the I.A.M. for marketing and sales.

During Tari's initial design research and development, hundreds of influential people were surveyed to find their answer to the question, "If there was to be a real million dollar bill in US currency, what would it look like?" Everyone surveyed agreed that a US $1,000,000 Bill must look much better than a $20, $50 or $100 bill, and it should be beautiful and impressive in every way. It was also a common response that a million dollar bill should visually stand above and apart from the regular currency in circulation today. Thus, the idea of incorporating additional pastel background colors was a popular concept, but still have the traditional black ink on the front and green ink on the back like real US Federal Reserve Notes.

In his research, Tari also discovered that the US $10,000 bills of long ago (the largest denomination ever circulated in this country) were not only very beautiful but they had intense gold and yellow colors on them. Based on these responses, and keeping in mind the legal requirements to create such a realistic looking Bill, Tari and the ABNC design team created the very popular I.A.M. Million Dollar Bill, which has come to be considered an artistic masterpiece in the sophisticated world of bank note printers.

After seven months of intense creative work by Tari and the design team at ABNC, the Engraved Steel Printing Plates for both sides of this Bill were completed. The I.A.M. Million Dollar Bill was then printed in Banknote Multi Colors using the largest most sophisticated banknote printing presses in the world, located at the ABNC facility in Chicago, Illinois USA. Each Bill is Individually Serial Numbered and was created with High-Tech Security Features to prevent counterfeiting, including Micro-Printed Patriotic Inscriptions (eight years before the US Treasury began using micro-printing on the new $100, $50 and $20 Dollar bills), Invisible Florescent Ink Messages and Special Security Paper (that glow under ultra-violet light).

In it's 200+ year history, the World Renowned ABNC had never created anything like the I.A.M. Million Dollar Bill, and never will again, because all printing plates have been destroyed by the ABNC to prevent any future printing of this popular Limited Edition Collectible.