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NEW $5 Bill

USA money is boring, not ugly, just boring. So easy to counterfeit, too.

I'm in Korea and the money is really boring here, too. And the biggest bill that commonly circulates is 10,000 won, which is about $10. And few places take debit cards. So, to buy anything expensive without a credit card you have to carry a sack of money. It's kind of good. You appreciate the cost of something more when it takes you a few minutes to count out the cash.

http://xray.sai.msu.ru/~mystery/images/money/Korea/korea.10000won.jpg
 
yg17 said:
Why can't we have some cool looking colorful bills, like the Euro for example?

Euro_banknotes.png


The Canadian bills don't look too shabby either:
Canadian_bills.jpg


Why is our currency so fugly? If they can no longer make the US Dollar worth anything, can't they at least make it pretty? :p
Click to expand...

Actually, making US bills different colors was proposed (the $1 bill was going to be the same traditional green one though). I think $5 was going to be blue, $10 red, etc. The article I saw with the proposed bills looked REALLY cool. But the Treasury decided against it because that would mean they would have to keep a storehouse of many different colored inks/presses and that would be "too expensive".
 
CalBoy said:
I am a fan of this idea. I think braille is the way to go.

However, I don't like holograms as much. For some reason, watermarks are just "classier":p
Click to expand...
Canadian bills are made of paper like the US ones and they all have braille (just the denomination) on the bill.

I think the new US one might have braille already as most modern bills in most countries do. Pretty dumb if they didn't add it as it's trivial to do and it helps out a larger group of people than you would think.
 
Physical currency is only going to be used less and less as the years pass - probably not at all by the time we hit 2025 or so - why invest so much time to fight a losing battle against counterfeiting? Especially when you have currency that's worth less and less on the world market, and will probably be less desirable to try and copy, anyway?

I read through this thread without looking at the bill, and was expecting it to be radically different and totally ugly. When I actually clicked on the link describing the bill, it wasn't bad at all - it looks almost the same except for that huge 5 (which is ugly, I'll admit) but I can see it helping people who have trouble telling apart the crazy, serif numbers on the back now, and the color may be useful, as well.

Remember - Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover is the official currency of the United States.
 
freebooter said:
USA money is boring, not ugly, just boring. So easy to counterfeit, too.

I'm in Korea and the money is really boring here, too. And the biggest bill that commonly circulates is 10,000 won, which is about $10. And few places take debit cards. So, to buy anything expensive without a credit card you have to carry a sack of money. It's kind of good. You appreciate the cost of something more when it takes you a few minutes to count out the cash.

http://xray.sai.msu.ru/~mystery/images/money/Korea/korea.10000won.jpg
Click to expand...

I was there two years ago, exchanged the equivalent of $800 USD (some of it was japanese yen) and the woman fired up a counting machine. I was like..ummm..ok. Needless to say it looked like an impressive amount of money!
 
I was going to say that those of you that think the big "5" is a waste of time should totally defocus your eyes and see whether you can pick out the difference between bills, but then I realised Photoshop can do it for you. ;)

This is what it looks like from a distance without my glasses, so I'd imagine it's at least this difficult up close for partially sighted people.

notesyl7.jpg


Now do you see why a big clear number like that helps a lot of people out?
 
Lau said:
I was going to say that those of you that think the big "5" is a waste of time should totally defocus your eyes and see whether you can pick out the difference between bills, but then I realised Photoshop can do it for you. ;)

This is what it looks like from a distance without my glasses, so I'd imagine it's at least this difficult up close for partially sighted people.

[snip]

Now do you see why a big clear number like that helps a lot of people out?
Click to expand...
Yeah but I can also see Lincoln on the front.
 
wonga1127 said:
Yeah but I can also see Lincoln on the front.
Click to expand...

I can see what you mean – I'm not so familiar with US Presidents as you would be, but I know I could say the same about UK notes, that I'd recognise the shapes of the castles on the Scottish notes, for example. But if you were partially sighted, the blurry shapes of faces might be a hell of a lot harder to make out. Here's the same treatment to Euros and US dollars:

Euro_banknotes.jpg USnotes.jpg
Click for full size

Although I think the Euros could be improved by having a bit more contrast behind the large numbers to make them stand out, they have the advantage of very different colours, different sizes and large numbers to make them readable. I can see how keeping the history is important and how that large number does clash with the design, but I am inclined to say that the countries who have redesigned their notes in a more modern way have got a great new design to be proud of and have managed to incorporate ways to make them more accessible at the same time, which means everybody wins. You can't hold on to tradition forever.
 
Yes, I definitely see the point the gigantic "5" on the back, but then shouldn't all of our bills have a number that large?

...I guess blind people will only pay with fives. :rolleyes:
 
Chundles said:
Still basically green, still the same size as all the other notes. Meh.

I love our brightly coloured, different sized notes.
Click to expand...
Wait i thought they were all the same size?
I lvoe the new canadian money it's awesome.
 
Unspeaked said:
Physical currency is only going to be used less and less as the years pass - probably not at all by the time we hit 2025 or so - why invest so much time to fight a losing battle against counterfeiting? Especially when you have currency that's worth less and less on the world market, and will probably be less desirable to try and copy, anyway?

I read through this thread without looking at the bill, and was expecting it to be radically different and totally ugly. When I actually clicked on the link describing the bill, it wasn't bad at all - it looks almost the same except for that huge 5 (which is ugly, I'll admit) but I can see it helping people who have trouble telling apart the crazy, serif numbers on the back now, and the color may be useful, as well.

Remember - Visa, Mastercard, American Express and Discover is the official currency of the United States.
Click to expand...

I really do not think cash is going to go any where in our life time. Yeah it will get used less and less but never go away. There are just way to many things that cash can not replace by.

For example paying back or loaning a friend some money. Also a great way to budget for some stuff. When the cash is gone it is gone and paying for mall items. I tend to like to carry about 20 bucks on me so I have it when I need it.

As for the new bill I fine with it and I see logic in not doing them all at one time. It makes them harder to confitefit because one can not use what they learn on one bill to work on another and doing this every few years is the way to go. I also think that the 1 dollar bill needs to be done away with and replaced with a coin. Our wallets would just need a minor redesign in them to hold a few 1 dollar coins along with the cash.
 
Rodimus Prime said:
I really do not think cash is going to go any where in our life time. Yeah it will get used less and less but never go away. There are just way to many things that cash can not replace by.

For example paying back or loaning a friend some money. Also a great way to budget for some stuff. When the cash is gone it is gone and paying for mall items. I tend to like to carry about 20 bucks on me so I have it when I need it.
Click to expand...

I agree that paper currency isn't going to disappear completely, but it isn't going to be nearly as important as it was twenty+ years ago. When dealing with your friends and family, cash is the way to go. Not to mention the fact that drug lords will still want it around (which might be a better reason to eliminate paper currency to an even greater degree).

On a side note, cash isn't just paper currency, it is any money that is liquid and ready to be transfered. A checking account with a debit card or checks is an example of money that can be used as "cash."
 
Rodimus Prime said:
For example paying back or loaning a friend some money. Also a great way to budget for some stuff. When the cash is gone it is gone and paying for mall items. I tend to like to carry about 20 bucks on me so I have it when I need it.
Click to expand...

Ever heard of Revolution Money Exchange? https://www.revolutionmoneyexchange.com/

I do believe that two societal standbys, the United States Postal Service and physical currency, will become extinct within the next 25-75 years.
 
freebooter said:
I'm in Korea and the money is really boring here, too. And few places take debit cards.
Click to expand...

Funny. A friend of mine got his credit card hacked/copied (probably while he was in Bali) and a few months later, he got a phone call from his banker asking if he was actually buying $10000 worth of jewels or if he could cancel the operation! Maybe that's why few places take credit cards! :p
 
benlangdon said:
seriously?
those look like monopoly money
Click to expand...


Amongst other reasons, they're designed for easier visibility for partially-sighted people and just checking now, I note that this 'monopoly' money is worth about 50% more than the US dollar. ;)
 
Blue Velvet said:
Amongst other reasons, they're designed for easier visibility for partially-sighted people and just checking now, I note that this 'monopoly' money is worth about 50% more than the US dollar. ;)
Click to expand...

no its not.
what the hell are you talking about?
its monopoly money are you freaking kidding me?
















its 75%
 
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