Obama on the dollar bill?

Originally posted by Alxandro
Why do we need a new form of currency to begin with? What we have now is perfectly fine.
Unless of course Obama knows for sure the dollar as we know it is not coming back because he is intentionally killing the economy yet continues to blame Bush.

This new bill may be a test, but it's more of a symbol than anything else.

The main reason they keep redesigning our currency is to fight counterfeiters. As technology improves, so does the counterfeiters ability to clone the current designs. Increasingly complex designs are needed to slow the fake bills.

The chance they would remove Washington from the dollar bill is zero. They are simply trying to get more people interested in the design choices as others have pointed out.

The top group if bills looks like a freaking bus pass!

Lame!

I'm not from the US so won't comment on what I think should actually be on the notes, however, as someone who has travelled extensively throughout the world for work reasons, three simple things about your currency always struck me as rather odd when using it:

* Notes have the same dimensions

* Material used is rough and doesn't "slide" easily

* Notes are all the same colour

All fairly small things but add up to quite a hindrance when you aren't used to the notes. Different sizing and colouration of the notes (as with the mocked up series in the links) is de rigeur pretty much worldwide. Much easier in everyday use as you make an instant distinction between notes of different values. If it wasn't for an extremely honest barrista I would have mistakenly paid over $50 for a cup of coffee in Oahu airport. Was sandwiched between a couple of dollar bills.

The distinct colours and sizes are also a massive help for people who are partially sighted and many countries use features such as raised watermarks to allow blind people to count money by feel.

The coarseness of the material is probably just a personal preference, but US currency is extremely abrasive compared to most others and notes don't slide across each other easily. Makes counting large amounts a little cumbersome.

On the subject of materials, you should take a look at Australian currency. It is made from a kind of paper/plastic compund that is completely waterproof and very, very difficult to tear by hand. Definitely a favourite of mine.

reply to post by elfulanozutan0


that is true, when he was running for office and giving his speeches all he ever talked about were tax breaks for the poor, creating jobs, and how big business and big money need to pay more taxes. what happened as soon as he got elected? multi billion dollar bailouts of big business and the government takeover of health care. i remember when we almost had clinton impeached over telling one lie to the public, then when bush was elected he told us thousands and thousands and no one really cared.. now with the new administration... even more lies? you tell me.

reply to post by cheesyleps


I went to Australia a couple of years ago and I was impressed with the design of their currency. It was very colorful and artistic, unlike it's American counterpart that is bland and boring. Yet, money shouldn't be a fo
of entertainment or art, so it doesn't really matter what the design is, but putting a president who hasn't historically changed our country significantly is a little uncalled for in my opinion.

Yeah he's the first half black (remeber he's half white too), but being elected isn't a justifiable reason to be put on the currency. What if we elected Ozzy Osbourne, would he put him on the currency because he was the first heavy metal musician to be president? I don't think so.

reply to post by elfulanozutan0


I like the idea of changing it..

I despise the idea of putting Obama on it. In a few decades, preferably once he's left this world on his own terms, we can add him simply because he was the first kind-of-black president.

reply to post by Xiamara


Canada is a Monarchy, Queen Elizabeth II is your Queen. Technically she is your official Head of State.

PS: Anyone else think we should get rid of all change currency .. or at the very minimum Pennies, Nickles and Dimes?

Originally posted by elfulanozutan0
reply to post by cheesyleps

 

I went to Australia a couple of years ago and I was impressed with the design of their currency. It was very colorful and artistic, unlike it's American counterpart that is bland and boring. Yet, money shouldn't be a fo
of entertainment or art, so it doesn't really matter what the design is, but putting a president who hasn't historically changed our country significantly is a little uncalled for in my opinion.

Yeah he's the first half black (remeber he's half white too), but being elected isn't a justifiable reason to be put on the currency. What if we elected Ozzy Osbourne, would he put him on the currency because he was the first heavy metal musician to be president? I don't think so.

My personal views regarding Obama appearing on currency are similar to yours. Having an elected head of state on currency during his term just doesn't seem right. Too much of the "cult of personality" about it. On a merit argument I also don't believe he would qualify. His only real achievement in office seems to be his skin colour.

Regarding currency as "art" the main issue I was raising was allowing different values of bills to be quickly and easily identifiable and distinguishable for those who aren't blessed with sight good enough to read the small numbers in the corners.

However, why not use currency as "art." Surely it is a chance to represent everything great about your country in an artistic medium that will be used worldwide (the US dollar is still king worldwide and for merchant seamen such as myself is always the currency given when taking cash advances on board a vessel).

we should wait till he deserves it, think?

washington on a one? franklin on a 50?

nothing wrong with that since $1 bill are so common.

but why is jfk on a $50,000.00?

A sitting president featured on US Currency?? If I were him I would be creeped out by this proposal. Although, maybe this will give us reason to name our dollar the "Looney"


Obama and FDR would make fine bed fellows. We just need Woodrow Wilson to complete the trifecta.

I say Ronald Reagan on the $1 or the $10.