Among other obscure and unrelated interests I am an avid coin collector when my finances permit. As such I'm inherently interested in the aesthetic qualities of money. Although it reeks mildly of jingoism, I happen to think that the U.S. has the most attractive banknotes on the planet. I'll concede how badly we're outclassed, particularly by the Chinese and Australians, in terms of coinage. But American money, if you'll overlook a tautology for a moment, just looks like money should look. There's something classic and timeless about those bland green bills.
Sadly the challenges of modern technology necessitate that we make our money progressively uglier in the name of security and anti-counterfeiting measures. The $50 and $10 successfully incorporate red and blue without looking too ridiculous, but the new $20 and $5 bills bow to the global trend of plastering purple and other garish colors on currency. Soon I am afraid the "greenback" is going to end up looking like the monstrosities becoming regrettably common around the world these days:
To me, this does not look like money. The first ($50 Australian) looks like a Disney gift certificate. The second (Lebanese) looks like an IHOP place mat. Nevertheless the sad reality is that banks are hard pressed to stay a step ahead of the technology available to counterfeiters. Some countries, Australia included, have abandoned paper and are using plastic polymer banknotes. I've had my hands on a few and it's…different. Weird. But given its advantages in durability and security I expect that they'll be replacing most paper currency in the next decade or two.
Another vaguely creepy invention slowly working its way into banknotes is a nanotechnology called Motion which implants a ribbon with 650,000 tiny lenses that create the impression of movement. Sweden's 1000 Kronor is the first to use it and it is reportedly being adopted in the upcoming revision of the $100 Ben Franklin. It sounds like a plain old hologram, but I've held one of these and it's mind-blowing.
It is costly technology but has to be goddamn close to impossible to copy. Then again we've said that about a lot of security features – embedded threads, for example – yet the world is flooded with $100 "supernote" counterfeits so flawless that even the Secret Service can't reliably detect them. Because the Treasury argues that it would take nation-sized resources to produce counterfeits this good, the government has long accused North Korea of being the source of Supernotes. There's quite a bit of evidence to support that, although it is questionable that a technologically backward sinkhole like that could produce such good work.
For all the bells, whistles, and Sesame Street colors we're adding to money, though, the hardest parts of American currency to replicate rely on technology that is over 200 years old. The paper, produced exclusively for the Treasury Department since 1805 by Crane & Co. of Massachusetts, is made of linen and cotton (no wood pulp involved) and is very tough to replicate. Second, the bills are printed with an ancient printing technique called intaglio. It leaves raised ink on the bills, making bills produced with common printing techniques smooth and easy to spot. But as hard as these features are to replicate, someone out there is doing it. North Korea? Russian mafia? Iran? It doesn't matter. Whoever it is, we'll keep making changes and hope they can't keep up.
I'll console myself by stockpiling a few greenbacks before we go all plastic and day-glo, and I'll try not to prejudge the concessions to new technology. I'll find a way to love the next generation of banknotes – as long as Rep. Patrick McHenry doesn't get his way and bump Grant from the $50 in favor of…oh, go ahead and guess.
Desargues says:
I knew it was gonna be the goddamn corpse. I just knew it. And if they can't get their way with this one, they'll wait until inflation calls for a $200 bill, and put the old woman's face on it. It'll top even that old lecherous wit Benjy.
ts46064 says:
Other than the colors my other issue with the new(er) bills is that the portraits are off center.
In my opinion the best looking US bill is the 1928 Silver Certificate (Funny Back)
Reverse:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:US_$1_1928_Silver_Certificate_reverse.jpg
jon says:
If our treasury was smart, they'd do a special series of five-dollar bills to commemorate our cultural icons. A Buck Owens and a Johnny Cash, a Mister Rodgers, an Einstein, a Dizzy, an Ella, a Satchmo, a Monk, a Booker T, and a Dusenberg should all be commemorated. I'd like to spend a Marlon Brando, two Lee Marvins, a Wayne, a Hendrix, and a Holly on some music or a case of beer. Elvis and Jackson (M.) should be currency, as should a Marilyn and some Audreys. I don't care if these people are copyrighted or whatever: they belong to us as much as Whatshisname de Whatever belongs to France and once graced the fifty franc note with Le Petite Prince.
Dead Presidents are boring. Bring on the dead celebrities!
Susanne says:
As an expat living in Asia I've been really enjoying the colorful money from other countries. The colors, plus the variation in size depending on denomination, make it alot easier to pick out the right bill. Have you ever meant to give someone a USD $10 and accidentally forked over a USD $20? Wouldn't happen in Singapore.
ts46064 says:
"Have you ever meant to give someone a USD $10 and accidentally forked over a USD $20?"
No
Zebbidie says:
Australia actually developed the polymer bank note, and I will tell a wallet full of yellow 50s is a vEry pleasant experience indeed. From my POV US money doesn't even look real so it must be psychological association of value w desirability
Crazy for Urban Planning says:
I second what Suzanne just said. Living in Europe most countries had smaller bills for smaller denomination. I heard some time ago that a blind person was going to sue the U.S. Government for discriminating against the blind with the size of money! Its just one of the changes in life that would be superior if you gave it a chance. I miss looking at a bill and knowing what it is by its size.
Pan Sapiens says:
Inevitably, and unfortunately, money is going to become what it always was – information.
But before we get to that point a lot of things have to happen, like getting everyone up to "developed world" speed, and doing a far future fuck of a better job on security.
Fear not, it will be some time before your monies are naught but electron spin potentials and radio waves.
RosaLux says:
Great post. Two thoughts:
1. I wonder what percentage of Americans – or what percentage of those supporting putting Reagan on the 50 note – know who Ulysses Grant was. Or, for that matter, Hamilton. Or more about Ben Franklin than that he put a key on a kite and conducted electricity. Which brings me to something that irks me to know end. All these crazy right-wing tea partiers: you hear them screeching on and on about our "founders" and the "constitution" but you don't get the sense that they actually know very much about either. All these crazy claims that so-and-so patently constitutional thing is unconstitutional really make you think that none of these people have read the constitution or attempted to understand it. And it's a short document!
2. I love Ulysses S. Grant more than one should love a historical figure. Hard to say why. He was a brilliant genera of course,l and, arguably, the single person most responsible for defeating the confederacy. Went on to be a fine president, a champion of post-war civil rights reform. But on top of this he just seemed like a hell of a character: a bit of a drunk, a rake. Many New Yorkers don't even realize that he's buried right here in NYC, in Riverside Park. May Grant's handsomely hirsute face emblazon the 50 dollar note for many years to come.
choada777 says:
My father brought back a $10 note from Honk Kong and gave it to me last year. It was bright blue, purple and plastic (polymer actually). It was clear in some parts. I thought it was pretty cool. For some reason it looked like futuristic money you'd see in the movie 'Back to the Future II' (Remember when Doc Brown takes out a suitcase full of money from different eras?).
More info on it here:
http://www.info.gov.hk/hkma/eng/classroom/page/notescoins/security_10.htm
OneMadClown says:
This "paper money" you speak of is silly indeed, and possibly a little bit gay. I've always favored a pocket full of gold bricks and some extra heavy-duty suspenders. Accepted everywhere in the late 19th century Yukon. Ahh, gold. Sweet, heavy, unwieldy gold…a *real* man's currency. HIGH FIVE GLENN BECK!!!!
Andrew says:
I must confess I don't agree. I think American banknotes are some of the ugliest in the world. The paper, however, can't be beat. Euros and Canadian dollars are more colorful.
moonbat says:
Agree with Andrew, US notes are classic maybe, but really dull, and becoming dull + weird with all the new crypto features they're baking into them. I like colored money done well.
The "redback", the new $10 makes me want to flush it out of my wallet asap. It looks like a blood-soaked bill from hell. Which was probably the intent.
George says:
I never really appreciated British banknotes until I went to America, US currency is so confusing because every damn bill looks the same. How am I supposed to know how much money I have if I have to remember which dead white guy is which in order to do so? British notes are much more awesome, £5 is the small green one, £10 is the larger orange one, £20 is the even bigger purple one and £50 is the giant red one that no shop will accept. Simple, effective.
Also, we have Elizabeth Fry, Charles Darwin and Adam Smith on our notes, a better lineup you will not find on any other national currency.
ladiesbane says:
Ah, George; our currency has denominations. It's not the size or color, it's the number. I don't know of any mnemonic device that would help, other than a note to read the note.
I love British money, and it's certainly useful for the blind and illiterate (no sarcasm here; everyone should be able to pay for things without being ripped off) but I like our old-fashioned US greenbacks. They are pretty, in an austere way, and remind me of how excited I was to have folding money as a child. I have some Confederate money, silver certificates, and old coins, too. I don't know why it makes me so happy to have wheat pennies, steel pennies, buffalo nickels and mercury dimes — but it does.
Angie says:
Australian notes were colourful when they were made of paper. The colours pretty much stayed the same with new designs when they started using polymer notes, and they looked brighter because of this. They are also different sizes for the visually-impaired.
My American friends loved using them when they visited here, they said it was so much easier to use and loved how durable they were. (They also liked the metric system, but let's not go there…)
To me, US bank notes/bills look like kid's play money, as do most foreign currency notes. It's just a matter of what you're used to.
I still have a US $2 note that I received as change in Indiana in 1984…I think it was the only one I saw all year.
beau says:
I love US bills except when drunk in a dimly lit bar (often). As a couple of people have mentioned, they just FEEL right. Hoever, a childhood saturated in US media (I was in primary school when Wall St. came out) may have contributed to this feeling.
But, in defence of Australian notes, they can survive pretty much anything – ocean, washing, (moderate) exposure to flame. AND some have pictures of ridiculously awesome cultural/political figures on them. David Unaipon, from the example above, is perhaps the best example. I can't embed links, but wiki the man if you've got twenty seconds to spare.
Prudence says:
Sniff all you want, Ed, but when I lived in Oz I discovered the big upside to the ugly yet functional A$– they are plastic and happily survive a turn thru the washing machine and swim in the sea or swimming pool. Singapore $ have gone the same way, colourful, plastic and hard to forge. And when I moved to the States, I spent the first few months trying to pay for everything with a $1 bill because all the fucking greenbacks look the bloody same!
Also, it's good the US$'s security is being beefed up– 3/4 of all US$100 notes circulate outside the US (they are the favoured currency denom of all the bad guys) and the N Koreans do a rather good job of counterfeiting them.
So yes, I love living in America, but I really love the various sterling notes because, as George has mentioned above, we have cool people on them– Elizabeth Fry and Charles Darwin amongst them– and our 2 pound coin is both beautiful and useful and has part of Isaac Newton's quote engraved on the side– (if I have seen farther it is because I was) standing on the shoulders of giants.
Take that, god-bothering Reagan necrophiliacs!
Hazy Davy says:
http://www.moviewavs.com/php/sounds/?id=gog&media=MP3S&type=Movies&movie=Wedding_Singer"e=money.txt&file=money.mp3
Crazy for Urban Planning says:
Here is a summary: Notes are better when they have different sizes. Plastic notes may suck, but they can hold up under adverse circumstances, like laundry. America needs dollar coins.
Cheers
Ed says:
America has dollar coins. And nobody uses them. Because carrying around a pocket of change is less convenient than having a few bills in your wallet.
I understand the dozens of practical advantages of dollar coins, but we have tried on two separate occasions to introduce them without success, and no politician is willing to lose votes trying to force them on the public.
Angie says:
I don't remember how Australia introduced dollar coins as they did it while I was in the US for a year. We had a $1 note when I left home and a $1 coin when I returned! I felt slightly swindled. And I don't remember the introduction of the $2 coin because my memory sucks.
We also got rid of 1c and 2c coins a long time ago.
JohnR says:
just a note: I don't think that can be a Strine bill. where's the beer can? or the roo?
George says:
Also, American coins are terrible. My reaction on discovering that the 5c is smaller than the 1c: WHAT!? THIS DOESNT MAKE ANY SENSE I WANT TO GO HOME YOU PEOPLE ARE SICK
The Mad Dreamer says:
@Ed
We loved us our dollar coins until we decided they needed to be smaller. Ike dollars, Peace and Morgan dollars – very popular in their day and used often enough. Once we decided to go small and put Susan B. Anthony on it, roughly the same size as our Washington quarters, people confused them and said "screw it" to the idea of dollar coins.
@George
It's the 10c that's smaller. And it's been that size since the day it was introduced because it was originally made with about 10c worth of silver, I believe. The 1c and 5c were never made of silver, so their size was to do with the value of copper and nickel.
anon amous says:
indeed, i do appreciate gin and tacos.
and as far as anti-counterfeiting measures go , it looks like if Rainbow Brite took a shit on Lincoln's face.
Graham says:
Different coloured notes are great for accuracy – very difficult to give the wrong note here in Australia.
But polymer I don't like: doesn't fold well, kinks up and catches any draught, gets caught up in other notes, new notes have a tendency to stick together. I loved our old paper money.
Ed says:
I would just like to point out that Americans generally do not find it very difficult to hand someone the correct bill. Despite the identical coloration and size, I think some non-Americans are under the misimpression that there is an epidemic of incorrect bill giving in this country.
Sator Arepo says:
The last round of dollar coins (the Sacagaweas) needed some PR help. I had tons of trouble getting merchants to accept them, which is freaking ludicrous.
Prudence says:
@ Sator
I got a couple of the Sacagawea dollars as change from a vending machine and not only would retailers not accept them, the DC Metro (machine nor personnel) wouldn't either, which seems really weird.
Nancy Irving says:
"Rep. Patrick McHenry" –
Am I the only one who always, seeing this guy's name, immediately thinks, "Give me McLiberty, or give me McDeath!"?
Twisted_Colour says:
I don't remember how Australia introduced dollar coins as they did it while I was in the US for a year.
The mint stopped making notes and told the banks that any notes that come in were to be kept out of circulation (ie sent to the mint and destroyed) The notes went out of circulation quite rapidly.
It was a sunny autumn, tuesday morn in '84 when the Commonwealth Bank got the first lot of coins, I was 12 and skipped school so I could wait in line and get one of the shiny, new coins. I've still got it.
barry says:
worth noting that the different sizes are for the convenience of the blind – and that the USA is one of the few countries who don't have different size notes…
as for the polymer bills, when the australian notes came out we had the amusing issue of crumpled bills leaping out of your wallet when you opened it…
Rob says:
I prefer older US currency that doesn't have real people on it. While you may or may not like, say, Hamilton, no one can hate Lady Liberty.
tailender says:
It seems like every now and then the US mint tries to introduce dollar coins and goes half way. The newer ones are pretty cool but still about the same size as a quarter. Meanwhile we have to stuff our pockets full of quarters to pay for parking, laundry, snacks, bus fare, or any place where one pays a machine. If the US mint wants people to use dollar coins, they will need to do something more than put up ads saying "dollar coins are actually money – use them".
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