My idea for US currency reform

[formulanone]

To me, the biggest visual cue about the old-style money was that different bills had different numbers on them indicating their value. 

Heh, I also thought about saying that but, for once in my life, I decided it was more snarky than I felt like being at the moment.

Also, the various bills contained the presence of varying Presidata.

[mgk920]

The green is used because it is the toughest color match in printing, it is an anti-counterfeiting thing.

Mike

[kalvado]

The green is used because it is the toughest color match in printing, it is an anti-counterfeiting thing.

Mike

It makes some sense, but technology moved a bit further since then. On one hand, colorimetry has improved. On the other hand things like plastic notes with transparent windows and longer service life, multicolor high resolution features, metal encrusting  - that all makes bills harder to reproduce. Keeping traditional look is fully understandable, but not the only way to go.
Not that US doesn't use those - $10 and 20 have some metallic-looking print in the corner (sorry, no larger bills on me right now). But they don't catch the eye at a first glance.

[GaryV]

Who really wants their currency to look like Monopoly money?

[Scott5114]

To me, the biggest visual cue about the old-style money was that different bills had different numbers on them indicating their value. 

Doesn't really help much when you've got a strap of 99 $20s with one $5 stuck in it somewhere.

Who really wants their currency to look like Monopoly money?

What, you mean having the same design on all of the denominations, with the only change being the numbers printed on it? To me that's the hallmark of Monopoly money, rather than the colors—just about every currency has colors these days.

The currency trend that I don't like is printing the designs in portrait orientation. I get that the idea is that most of the time when you hand money over to someone, you do it in portrait orientation...but I don't care, money is landscape, dang it.

[CtrlAltDel]

To me, the biggest visual cue about the old-style money was that different bills had different numbers on them indicating their value. 

A bit of redundancy can be good, though, especially with respect to something as easy and inexpensive to implement as color.

The currency trend that I don't like is printing the designs in portrait orientation. I get that the idea is that most of the time when you hand money over to someone, you do it in portrait orientation...but I don't care, money is landscape, dang it.

Following those lines, a currency trend that I would like would be if the bills were different sizes. Back in the day, increasing denominations of French francs had longer bills but with the same width, which I would prefer over the current euros, which get longer and wider since the 5 euro bill is too small and the 200 is too big.

[Scott5114]

Following those lines, a currency trend that I would like would be if the bills were different sizes. Back in the day, increasing denominations of French francs had longer bills but with the same width, which I would prefer over the current euros, which get longer and wider since the 5 euro bill is too small and the 200 is too big.

Yes, the US is basically the only major currency that has all the bills the same size. And the main reason for that is MEI (the subsidiary of Mars—yeah, the candy bar company—that makes bill acceptors) has good lobbyists. They don't want to have to reflash their devices with new software that can handle bills of different sizes.

Advocates for the blind took the US government to court saying that US currency discriminates against the blind by not including any sort of tactile means of differentiating bills. They won and the court ordered the government to address the issue. That was in 2008, which gives you a pretty good idea of exactly what a circuit court of appeals ruling is actually worth in this country.

[1995hoo]

...
Not that US doesn't use those - $10 and 20 have some metallic-looking print in the corner (sorry, no larger bills on me right now). But they don't catch the eye at a first glance.

I just took a look in my wallet. The $100 has a sort of copper- or brass-like finish on the "100" in the lower right corner and on the Liberty Bell that appears to Franklin's right. (The color changes as I tilt the bill and the light hits it in different ways.) The big "100" on the back side has a less metallic look, and the blue thread on the front has a 3-D visual effect with small "100" figures throughout.

I don't have any current-style $50s, $10s, or $5s at the moment, so I can't comment on those because I've never paid much attention to that particular aspect.

[Scott5114]

The blue star and red torch on the $50 and $10 respectively both use the metallic ink, and the number in the lower-right corner of the obverse changes from copper to green when tilted, as the numbers on the lower-right of the $100 and $20 do. (On the 1996-style N-type bills, this was green to black. However, the maker of this ink limits sells each color pair to only one country at a time, and the one North Korea got was similar enough to the green-black that it is theorized they were using it to counterfeit US notes. So we changed to green-copper with the 2004 series.)

The $5 has no color-changing or metallic ink because it's such a low denomination. And the ink on the back of the $100 isn't metallic; that's just plain mustard-yellow ink that's printed in a pattern that suggests a metallic appearance.

[Scott5114]

Some fun anti-counterfeiting features of the current series you may not know about: the portraits of Franklin and Grant on the $100 and $50 incorporate tiny writing in them (look at their shirt collars).

Also, the vertical strip that appears when you hold the bill up to the light glows under a blacklight, with different colors for different denominations (pink for $100s, yellow for $50s, green for $20s, orange for $10s, blue for $5s). The blacklight was my go-to counterfeit detection method when I worked the cash cage; most counterfeiters don't even know that strip changes colors, much less are able to replicate it.

[Road Hog]

To me, the biggest visual cue about the old-style money was that different bills had different numbers on them indicating their value. 

Doesn't really help much when you've got a strap of 99 $20s with one $5 stuck in it somewhere.

So you got 99 $20s but a $20 ain't one?

[bmorrill]

Who really wants their currency to look like Monopoly money?

When we were stationed in Germany in the mid-60s, I read an article in Stars and Stripes one morning about a bank in Sweden that had exchanged Monopoly Money for Swedish Krona!

[mgk920]

The blue star and red torch on the $50 and $10 respectively both use the metallic ink, and the number in the lower-right corner of the obverse changes from copper to green when tilted, as the numbers on the lower-right of the $100 and $20 do. (On the 1996-style N-type bills, this was green to black. However, the maker of this ink limits sells each color pair to only one country at a time, and the one North Korea got was similar enough to the green-black that it is theorized they were using it to counterfeit US notes. So we changed to green-copper with the 2004 series.)

The $5 has no color-changing or metallic ink because it's such a low denomination. And the ink on the back of the $100 isn't metallic; that's just plain mustard-yellow ink that's printed in a pattern that suggests a metallic appearance.

In fact, the latest redesign of the $5 was mainly to increase the security of the previous design $100, this do to bad guys 'bleaching' the paper from previous design $5s to print up fake C-notes, the watermarks were so similar.

Mike

[RobbieL2415]

My thoughts:

- Eliminate all coins. Prices are rounded up or down to the nearest dollar

- Transition the Federal Reserve Notes to colored plastic with Braille for denominations

- Increase production of the $2 bill to match that of the $1 bill.

- Remove "In God We Trust" from all bills and replace it with, "Liberty and Justice for All."

- Have the following denominations:
  1, 2, 5, 10, 15, 20, 50, 100,

- Feature different portraits on the obverse side of each bill, including historical and modern Americans:

  - 1, George Washington, Martin Luther King, Jr., Orville and Wilbur Wright
  - 2, Thomas Jefferson, Barack Obama, Sitting Bull
  - 5, Abraham Lincoln, Sandra Day O'Connor, Muhammad Ali
  - 10, Alexander Hamilton, Harriett Tubman, Jackie Robinson
  - 20, Andrew Jackson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Susan B. Anthony
  - 50, Ulysses S. Grant, Mark Twain, Sojourner Truth
  - 100, Benjamin Franklin, Elvis Presley, Henry David Thoreau

- And, on the reverse side, the same idea for monuments and historic/famous landmarks. The $1 will no longer have the Great Seal and the Illuminati pyramid.

  - 1, Washington Monument, The 1903 Flight at Kitty Hawk, Yellowstone National Park
  - 2, Signing of the Declaration of Independence, Gettysburg Address, Jefferson Memorial
  - 5, Lincoln Memorial, Supreme Court, Niagra Falls,
  - 10, The Treasury, Statue of Liberty, Gateway Arch, Signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act
  - 20, The White House, Pike's Peak, Golden Gate Bridge, One World Trade Center
  - 50, US Capitol, The Grand Canyon, Completion of the Transcontinental Railroad
  - 100, Independence Hall, the HOLLYWOOD Sign, Denali, Seattle Space Needle

[kalvado]

My thoughts:

- Eliminate all coins. Prices are rounded up or down to the nearest dollar

- Transition the Federal Reserve Notes to colored plastic with Braille for denominations

- Increase production of the $2 bill to match that of the $1 bill.

- Remove "In God We Trust" from all bills and replace it with, "Liberty and Justice for All."

- Have the following denominations:
  1, 2, 5, 10, 15, 20, 50, 100,

- Feature different portraits on the obverse side of each bill, including historical and modern Americans:

  - 1, George Washington, Martin Luther King, Jr., Orville and Wilbur Wright
  - 2, Thomas Jefferson, Barack Obama, Sitting Bull
  - 5, Abraham Lincoln, Sandra Day O'Connor, Muhammad Ali
  - 10, Alexander Hamilton, Harriett Tubman, Jackie Robinson
  - 20, Andrew Jackson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Susan B. Anthony
  - 50, Ulysses S. Grant, Mark Twain, Sojourner Truth
  - 100, Benjamin Franklin, Elvis Presley, Henry David Thoreau

- And, on the reverse side, the same idea for monuments and historic/famous landmarks. The $1 will no longer have the Great Seal and the Illuminati pyramid.

  - 1, Washington Monument, The 1903 Flight at Kitty Hawk, Yellowstone National Park
  - 2, Signing of the Declaration of Independence, Gettysburg Address, Jefferson Memorial
  - 5, Lincoln Memorial, Supreme Court, Niagra Falls,
  - 10, The Treasury, Statue of Liberty, Gateway Arch, Signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act
  - 20, The White House, Pike's Peak, Golden Gate Bridge, One World Trade Center
  - 50, US Capitol, The Grand Canyon, Completion of the Transcontinental Railroad
  - 100, Independence Hall, the HOLLYWOOD Sign, Denali, Seattle Space Needle

You are stopping half way
- Eliminate all coins and bills smaller than $100. Transactions are rounded up to the nearest $100 if done in cash
- No more change needed!

[formulanone]

My thoughts:

- Eliminate all coins. Prices are rounded up or down to the nearest dollar

- Transition the Federal Reserve Notes to colored plastic with Braille for denominations

- Increase production of the $2 bill to match that of the $1 bill.

- Remove "In God We Trust" from all bills and replace it with, "Liberty and Justice for All."

- Have the following denominations:
  1, 2, 5, 10, 15, 20, 50, 100,

- Feature different portraits on the obverse side of each bill, including historical and modern Americans:

  - 1, George Washington, Martin Luther King, Jr., Orville and Wilbur Wright
  - 2, Thomas Jefferson, Barack Obama, Sitting Bull
  - 5, Abraham Lincoln, Sandra Day O'Connor, Muhammad Ali
  - 10, Alexander Hamilton, Harriett Tubman, Jackie Robinson
  - 20, Andrew Jackson, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Susan B. Anthony
  - 50, Ulysses S. Grant, Mark Twain, Sojourner Truth
  - 100, Benjamin Franklin, Elvis Presley, Henry David Thoreau

- And, on the reverse side, the same idea for monuments and historic/famous landmarks. The $1 will no longer have the Great Seal and the Illuminati pyramid.

  - 1, Washington Monument, The 1903 Flight at Kitty Hawk, Yellowstone National Park
  - 2, Signing of the Declaration of Independence, Gettysburg Address, Jefferson Memorial
  - 5, Lincoln Memorial, Supreme Court, Niagra Falls,
  - 10, The Treasury, Statue of Liberty, Gateway Arch, Signing of the 1964 Civil Rights Act
  - 20, The White House, Pike's Peak, Golden Gate Bridge, One World Trade Center
  - 50, US Capitol, The Grand Canyon, Completion of the Transcontinental Railroad
  - 100, Independence Hall, the HOLLYWOOD Sign, Denali, Seattle Space Needle

You are stopping half way
- Eliminate all coins and bills smaller than $100. Transactions are rounded up to the nearest $100 if done in cash
- No more change needed!

$100 bills
3 cent pieces
(that's it)

Disadvantages:
Can never make perfect change will frustrate perfectionists and the poor
Nobody will be happy, we're all in this misery forever

Advantages:
No ability to make perfect change is a barometer of how nice/mean of a transaction's participants
Three is the Magic Number
Simplicity in tills
People can go around with money bags and feel rich
Nobody will be happy, we're all in this misery forever