[RD] US physical currency should be completely redesigned.

[Evie]

I know, but you and I know that if he's talking about a coin with a moose, he's talking about the quarter. Even though it's not a moose.

I had not read about that. Nice life hack though XD. I've been tempted to get some of their coins, but never got around to it. Although I might splurge for the colored glow in the dark 150th quarter, since I only ever got my hands on the uncolored version. Was more of a stamp collector, personally.

 

[W|M]

What's the rationale for the Euro notes all featuring one design instead of a variety?

To not favour any one country or region

 

[Hygro]

I vote we put esteemed presidents on the front and gnarly eyed pyramids on the back.

 

[Bootstoots]

A brief glance at a few Latin American countries' currencies shows that it's common for them to put their morally questionable 19th century presidents and/or generals on their currency, especially independence leaders. So putting Washington-like characters on money isn't just a US-American thing; it's common throughout the hemisphere.

It's also pretty common for the police to fill large numbers of people with large numbers of holes in the rest of the Americas as well. The rate of this happening seems to scale with something like the cube of the homicide rate, so that e.g. Mexican and Brazilian police (inc. military used as police) fill people with holes at a rate far higher than the US even adjusting for their higher homicide rates vs. the US, while the US fills people with holes at rates far higher than is common in places with lower homicide rates than we have.

In general it's useful to think of the US as not only a developed country, but also as basically what would happen if a Latin American country somehow got really rich and mostly switched to English. Our political-economic institutions have look a lot more Latin American - high inequality, high levels of elite institutional capture, low effectiveness for the price, etc - than they would have 50 years ago when we were actually were the world leaders in just about everything good.

(Of course, the appearance of Latin American immigrants here during the same timeframe was completely incidental - the US made itself more like a rich version of its southern neighbors all by itself.)

 

[W|M]

Brazilian Real notes all have this figure on one side, who apparently represents the Republic, and an animal (a turtle, a heron, a parrot, a monkey, a jaguar and a fish on the 2, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 real notes, respectively) on the other side. Newer coins all have the Southern Cross on one side, and some notable historical figures (Tiradentes, Pedro I, Deodoro da Fonseca, the Baron of Rio Branco and Ms. Republic on the 5 cents, 10 cents, 25 cents, 50 cents and 1 real, respectively) on the other side, while older coins have Ms. Republic on one side and the amount of money each coin represents printed in large digits on the other side.

 

[Bootstoots]

Yeah, I did notice that Brazil uses an abstract design and a variety of animals rather than historical figures. Definitely not every American country uses historical political/military figures, but it seems at least the majority do. Of the seven countries I had bothered to click on while searching Wikipedia, Mexico, Guatemala, Argentina, Chile, and Peru all seem to have political/military leaders for many or all banknotes, whereas Brazil does not and Colombia is apparently switching its political/military leaders for artists/authors/poets/scientists.

 

[Hrothbern]

Also, dear Netherlands and Spain, please take your monarchs off your Euro coins. It's antiquated and silly.

Apparently you do not understand our Dutch culture

Our bank notes were from 1980 onward birds and flowers reflecting our freemen dislike to praise important persons,

Our coins, the petty cash, reflect that we love in general our monarchy, as a kind of folklore, an ornament that cannot do any harm, and has since the start of the Dutch Republic, more than four centuries ago, just that small potatoes ornamental role.

If such a monarch of us would show any intent to be like the absolute monarchs, we just gave them no money, which caused the Glorious Revolution in the UK, a Prince seeking a country to pay a royal court, and if nowadays a monarch would show any tendency to be like monarchs of Spain, or some other European countries, we would not be able to stop laughing and ridiculing them.

A bit like Prince Carnaval

 

[luiz]

(Of course, the appearance of Latin American immigrants here during the same timeframe was completely incidental - the US made itself more like a rich version of its southern neighbors all by itself.)

I'm not so sure, I think a constant and huge supply of cheap labor is a big factor in the Latin-Americanization of the US. I notice the same here in France, where the endless supply of cheap immigrant labor (Africans here instead of Mexicans in the US) allow me to live a "rich Brazilian lifestyle", complete with a maid to clean my apartment and people to serve coffee at my office. This certainly would have been much harder (or more expensive) in previous decades.

 

[timtofly]

You could place a chip in everyone's finger that they could customize what they want each blank pictograph to look like in the center of up to a dozen different types of currency. The denominations would not change, just the identifying picture. Democracy in action, every time one wanted to see their current ideological stance portrayed.

IMO, currency should not be about portraying ideology, but perhaps currency could be one form of exchange that other people's ideology is not foisted on every one else.

 

[rah]

And I would bet that 99.9% of the people that look at a US 100 dollar bill are more interested in what it can buy them and have no thought at all about Ben's Ideology.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

And I would bet that 99.9% of the people that look at a US 100 dollar bill are more interested in what it can buy them and have no thought at all about Ben's Ideology.

Some Canadian politicians are on a massive guilt trip nowadays over the Truth and Reconciliation Commission's long list of requirements to make things up to the aboriginal people for the things done to them over the centuries and decades.

A group of Ontario teachers freaked out when they realized that Sir John A. Macdonald (our first Prime Minister, back in 1867) was one of the people who figured that assimilating the natives into European/white Canadian culture would be a good thing, and so he and other politicians figured the residential schools would be a great way to do it (take native kids from their parents, stick them in a school in the middle of nowhere that was run either by the Catholic or Protestant church, and assimilate them by literally beating their culture out of them). Of course the residential schools were a bad thing, but now these teachers decided it was shameful to have any schools in Ontario named after Sir John A. Macdonald, and those schools should be renamed.

So apparently, taken to its logical conclusion, we need to rename absolutely EVERYTHING that has Macdonald's name on it, and get his picture off the $10 bill.

I really don't think that's going to happen. I could see replacing King on the $50 or Borden on the $100, or even Laurier on the $5 since they were PMs a long time ago and nobody really remembers them (okay, Laurier, but there's nobody alive now who remembers him). But our first Prime Minister? No. As for the $20, the Queen (and by definition any of the monarchs) is on that one, and that will not change.


This whole reconciliation thing is getting ridiculous. Yes, they deserve compensation for the residential schools. Some buildings have been renamed, and a plaque has been removed. Erasing our first PM is going too far, and RENAMING CALGARY is definitely going too far.

 

[metatron]

Apparently you do not understand our Dutch culture

I do appreciate that.

And i do get that monarchies differ. And the pre-euro Dutch banknotes are dear to my heart (very much part of my gripe about the damn bridges), and i appreciate the sentiment.
But...still...with the coins...really?
As i said, we have to change ours too. Because stupid.

And I would bet that 99.9% of the people that look at a US 100 dollar bill are more interested in what it can buy them and have no thought at all about Ben's Ideology.

Well, maybe that is so.
I suspect thought that more than 0.1% would rather not have Jefferson on their money.
But that's neither here nor there.

The point is kinda the same i was making to @hobbsyoyo regarding Moore in the other thread:
What would be not ok with you? Would you be fine with say President Wilson on a bill that is actually circulated?
Would you be fine with Bedford Forrest on a coin?
No?
Then how are Jefferson and Washington ok? And what exactly does the percentage of objectors matter?

The point here is simple: The iconography of US currency was (mostly) put in place before WW2.
Back then it did what this sort of thing is actually supposed to do. It was inspirational, to some degree anyway.
The people who did this weren't the Founders.
You are as entitled to this as they were.

 

[Paul in Saudi]

The United States should completely redesign their bank notes and coins. We ought to do this for reason that are both practical and recreational. We ought to do this via a contest.

 

[Lexicus]

Why would we waste time redesigning our money when physical money is on the way out anyway?

 

[Commodore]

If I was blind I would use a debit card....

Kind of like how I do now.

Exactly. In this day and age, only the old-fashioned, criminals, and paranoid conspiracy theorists still use cash. Personal checks are pretty out-dated as well with the advent of online bill pay and money transfers. In fact, I can't even remember the last time I even had cash in my wallet or a checkbook.

(Of course, the appearance of Latin American immigrants here during the same timeframe was completely incidental - the US made itself more like a rich version of its southern neighbors all by itself.)

I like how you threw this little bit in there so as to avoid being accused of anti-Latin American sentiment by some of the more...aggressive leftists here. Which surely would have happened had you not thrown this little caveat in, which also shows what a sorry state OT is in.

 

[Arwon]

Y'all oughta get yourselves some plastic bank notes

 

[metatron]

Y'all oughta get yourselves some plastic bank notes

No we shouldn't.
Actually we should stay far away from this terrible non-invention.

Polymer money is absurdly non-durable.
It quickly tears even if one doesn't fold it.
If one actually uses it as "money", which includes folding it, it will tear.
Like, immediately.

For both Americans and central Europeans (the latter being frequently accused of running feces in the Euro Zone) that's an absolute no go.

And then there's also the tiny problem that your "money" may be haram, may be... whatever hindus are upset about, or may be both.
I myself wouldn't particularly want to touch it either, except for the purpose of demonstrating to the nearest Empire Dweller that it's really suck craftsmanship and doesn't work as money.

(For the uninitiated:
Yes the useless non-bills contain tallow.
All of them; Australia, Canada, UK, the whole lot.)​

So, yeah, polymer bills are terrible, unless you plan - reflecting Commodore's sentiment - not to use them anyway, which i suppose is what you people do.

 

[Synobun]

I've never had one of the new Canadian bills rip on me or ever been given a ripped or compromised bill. It is wholly nonsensical to claim their integrity is worse than that of paper bills.

 

[Camikaze]

I'm pretty sure I've ripped more Euro notes in my life that Aussie dollars, and that's probably like 1. Polymer notes do not tear (much less from folding!?). Durability is kinda their thing.

 

[Lexicus]

Harriet Tubman should be on the 20