Washington — The U.S. is approaching the release date of its new $100 bills, but the Bureau of Engraving and Printing is facing an embarrassing problem: 30 million bills were incorrectly printed, and fixing them will cost taxpayers an estimated $3.79 million.

The new $100 bills were designed to reduce counterfeiting and were scheduled to be released in October 2013.

But printing problems could delay the release of the “Benjamins.”

Two currency factories are responsible for printing all U.S. bills.

The Washington, D.C. factory produced defective versions of the $100 bills, according to a July memo that the New Yorker obtained from the bureau. Recent batches that came from the factory were “mashed,” which means they were produced with too much ink. The New Yorker compared it to a kid trying “to carefully color inside the lines – using watercolors and a fat paintbrush.”

Once these bills were delivered to the Federal Reserve, they were rejected. Officials have sent back about 30 million of them, and refuse to accept any more bills from the D.C. factory.

The blunder is also expensive: since it costs about 12.6 cents to produce each bill, making another 30 million costs about $3.79 million.  Additionally, the cost of disposal of the defective bills could be around $12,000.