If you could pick the people on our currency, how would you arrange it?

[KyuzoGator]

Me, I think that this notion of putting mostly presidents on our money is for the birds, particularly when there are greater Americans who deserve the honor much more.

In honor of the newly-redesigned $10 bill being released today, here's how I'd break it down. I'd put presidents and other historically-significant government leaders on the bills and non-government people on the coins.

$100 bill: Benjamin Franklin
$50 bill: James Madison
$20 bill: Franklin Delano Roosevelt
$10 bill: Theodore Roosevelt
$5 bill: Abraham Lincoln
$2 bill (bring it back!): Thomas Jefferson
$1 bill: George Washington

$2 coin (Canada has the right idea): Martin Luther King, Jr.
dollar coin: Albert Einstein
half dollar: Susan B. Anthony
quarter: Thomas Edison
dime: Neil Armstrong
nickel: Jesse Owens
penny: Mark Twain

My justification for the coins is that I wanted to represent what I feel the best America has ever offered in terms of literature, innovation, social justice, science and athletics.

I think I covered a pretty decent spectrum here. What are your picks?

[BuyingThyme]

1. Welch's Grape Juice kids by age.

[derby378]

2. FDR was the patron of the March of Dimes

I'm afraid the 10-cent coin is forever out of bounds for that one reason.

[northzax]

3. can't do Armstrong

you have to be dead for 25 years. and last time I checked, he's still alive...

[derby378]

5. That didn't stop JFK from gracing the 50-cent piece...

...or Eisenhower from appearing on the dollar coin.

We need dollar coins that actually look like dollar coins, not quarters. Bring back "big Ike."

[northzax]

27. yeah, but they were actually dead at the time

unlike our boy neil.

[TexasProgresive]

4. I'd put this whole administration

on the money- they love money so much and it would be interesting to see how far they would go to get the honor since a prerequisite is that you're dead.

[derby378]

7. I'd only put Cheney on the $13 bill (n/t)

[Sammy Pepys]

6. I don't know if I'd make that many changes

Maybe put guys like James Madison, Patrick Henry, George Mason, and John Adams on the coins.

[monktonman]

8. reagan

how about ronnie for the hundred dollar bill since most of us havent seen one in a long time.

[newyawker99]

28. Hi monktonman!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Warpy]

9. I'd go back to using concepts

Liberty (Miss Liberty from the old quarters)
Justice (blindfolded, scale in hand)
Freedom (The Liberty Bell)

Roosevelt could keep the dime, though, as commemoration for his work for Charity.

Bills would be places

Yellowstone
Golden Gate
New York skyline
Old Ironsides museum
Painted Desert


You get the idea. The hubris of putting male politicians on this stuff is staggering, and memorializing politicians shouldn't be what we're about. We should be a country of laws, of liberty, of justice, of freedom. The male politicians are temporary. The concepts are permanent.

[KyuzoGator]

11. I really like that idea a lot.

And I'm with you on minimizing the politicians. They are the means, not the end.

And there are a lot more deserving historical Americans, too. There have been very few truly great political leaders in our history. But lots of "common" people who did uncommon things.

[CrispyQ]

21. Places on our bills -- what a great idea!

purple mountains majesty, amber waves of grain . . .




They could be beautiful colored bills with variety, not the stodgey same 'ole green for every bill. And ditto on the memorializing male politicians! Holy shit.


Great thread! Nominated. :eyes:

[Taverner]

10. Bill Clinton on the $1 bill!

Kind of as a nod to the fact that he's one of the few who could make capitalism work for the masses.

[BushOut06]

18. I was expecting some sort of stripper joke there

Hey, the man did love women ;)

[Taverner]

22. Hahaha that would work too!

Thing about Bill Clinton is...he had his sleazy side, and he definitely was a DLC Dem. He was way more conservative than I like, but that's OK because his goals were all in the right place. He truly wanted a rising tide to lift all ships, and he made sure it happened. Sure, businesses posted record profits, but because he didn't forget the guys on the bottom, we all benefitted too.

And the man was smooth.

[stevietheman]

12. $3 bill: George W.Bush

The picture would be his head, on the end of a pole.

[KyuzoGator]

14. Wouldn't you want Rove, Mehlman and Gannon on the $3 bill?

nt

[f-bush]

16. how about shrub for the half-pence?

[TahitiNut]

It'd be a 'special' currency - worth $3 when you get it ...

... but only worth $1 when you spend it. :evilgrin:

[Benhurst]

13. George W. Bush

on the wooden nickle

[f-bush]

15. I'd get Niel Armstrong out of there

he's a Republican and replace him with Paul Wellstone!

[raccoon]

17. Here's how I'd do it.

$100 bill: Sam Cooke
$50 bill: Pete Townshend
$20 bill: Brian Wilson
$10 bill: Chuck Berry
$5 bill: John Lennon
$2 bill Bob Dylan
$1 bill: Elvis

[derby378]

19. While we're at it, let's go wild

Who says our coins just have to be round? I've got a collection of coins from around the world. Four-sided, five-sided, eight-sided, 12-sided, scalloped, round holes in the middle, square holes in the middle, two-tone, you name it.

Put George Washington on a square $1 coin. And make it as big as the UK's old Churchill crown.

[Jack Rabbit]

20. I'd eliminate Teddy Roosevelt

He was really the godfather of American imperialism. The more I think of him, the less I like him.

How about A. Philip Randolph on the $10 bill?

[KyuzoGator]

23. Indeed, but Teddy was also the father of modern nature conservation.

Give-and-take.

[Crankie Avalon]

24. Maybe we could print up bill-sized "debt certificates"...

...and give one to every American to represent their share of the national debt. The "Americans" on the face of the bill would be a three-headed image of Reagan and the two Bushes pointing and laughing with the caption, "So long, suckers!!!," underneath.

[BushOut06]

25. I have the perfect currency to put Bush on ====> pic

[expatriot]

26. Somewhat on topic: Americans celebrated on the I and EE Bonds

I like the diversity represented on the I Bonds (the newer series). I think those honored on the EE bonds who already have their mug on a bill should be replaced with some other great American.



* $50 - Helen Keller - Noted author and advocate for people with disabilities; responsible for Braille becoming the standard for printed communications with the blind.
* $75 - Dr. Hector P. Garcia - Physician; leading advocate for Mexican-American veterans' rights; activist in Latino civil rights movement and founder of the American G.I. Forum.
* $100 - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. - Prominent civil rights leader; minister; Nobel Peace Prize recipient.
* $200 - Chief Joseph - Nez Perce Chief; a great Native American leader.
* $500 - General George C. Marshall - U.S. Army Chief of Staff during World War II; Secretary of State; Secretary of Defense; Nobel Peace Prize recipient.
* $1,000 - Albert Einstein - Physicist; author of the Theory of Relativity; Nobel Prize recipient for Physics.
* $5,000 - Marian Anderson - World-renowned vocalist (contralto); first African-American to sing with the Metropolitan Opera.
* $10,000 - Spark Matsunaga - U.S. Senator and Congressman; World War II hero; obtained redress for survivors of World War II internment camps.

$50 - George Washington
$75 - John Adams
$100 - Thomas Jefferson
$200 - James Madison
$500 - Alexander Hamilton
$1,000 - Benjamin Franklin
$5,000 - Paul Revere
$10,000 - James Wilson

[rpgamerd00d]

29. John, Paul, George, Ringo, Mo, Larry, Curley