Greenbacks No More

Chacham writes "The Financial Times has an article about the US adding colors to some denominations of US currency. Apparently, with both size and color the same, foreigners have a hard time differenciating between the bills.I still haven't gotten used to the larger pictures. And now this? As Kermit the frog sang, It's not easy being green." The Federal Reserve has a press release. At least there's no mention of RFID tags.

Comments

Huh?

[imta11]

What the hell is paper money? Is that what my parents used to buy things?

Re:Huh?

[martyn s]

I think they just mean people who aren't too familiar with our currency. Kinda how all asians look alike to people who aren't asian. You're not good at distinguishing things you aren't familiar with.

Re:Huh?

[Fat Casper]

I guess all those misleading numbers that were inadvertantly slipped into every corner of the design are just too confusing. This is simply retarded. We aren't asking anybody to know who Grant was, or even read the "Fifty Dollars" printed on each side. Just look at the 50 prominently displayed in each corner of both sides.

If numbers are too tough, then you shouldn't be playing with that much money anyway. In 2004, we get to hear about how this system discriminates against the color blind. By 2006, John Ashcroft will assign each foreign tourist his own government "helper" to keep track of his money for him. by 2008 the system will be working so smoothly that all citizens will be "entitled" to the same help. All because of a few morons who couldn't count.

Re:Huh?

[Yunzil]

And, U.S. residents DON'T have difficulty?

Well, no, actually. But it's probably because we know what the money looks like. I've been in England a couple times, where the paper money is a different size and has a different color scheme for each denomination; and I have a MUCH harder time differentiating between a 5 and 10 pound note versus a 5 and 10 dollar bill. I always end up pulling it out of my wallet and peering closely at it before handing it over, like some kind of bloody foreigner. :)

Re:Huh?

[xonker]

I don't know anyone who has trouble with U.S. currency... that's what the nice numbers are for. How difficult is it to look at the corner of the bill and read the number?

There may be many examples of arrogance, but that's not one of them.

Re:Huh?

[Paradise Pete]

If you've ever used colored currency* long enough to become proficient with it you too will wonder why the US hasn't adopted it. It just makes things easier. As an extreme example, consider a traffic light. You could mamange if all the lights were the same color, but this way you know at a glance what the signal is.

*I see i'm setting up a joke involving the south. Have at it.

Re:Huh?

[darkonc]

Numbers are one thing, but once you get used to distinguishing by color, you stop looking at numbers.

Here in Canada, it's pretty easy" 5's are blue, 10's are purple, 20's are green and 50's are red. and 100's are brown. (this used to cause problem for some people when we still had 2's -- which were orange. Under sodium lights, you actually had to look at the numbers, or risk paying $100 for a $2 item).

It's not that I have lost the ability to read number, but why??? I look at the crumpled bill that I pull from my pocket, and I can tel by the blue bits all over it that i've got a 5. No need to unfold it to find the silly number, and no need to make sure that there isn't an extra '0' after the '5'.

If a bill falls out of my pocket in the wind, I can tell at a glance if it's worth chasing after. In a good wind, a blue $5 isn't worth trying to catch... If it's red, I'll be willing to chace that $50 for a couple of blocks.

Re:Huh?

[guttentag]

This is simply retarded... All because of a few morons who couldn't count.

No one would dare to kill a retarded idea now that the Supreme Court has barred killing retarded murderers.

Re:Huh?

[displaytest]

"If a bill falls out of my pocket in the wind, I can tell at a glance if it's worth chasing after. In a good wind, a blue $5 isn't worth trying to catch... If it's red, I'll be willing to chace that $50 for a couple of blocks."

This comment speaks volumes about the value of the northern peso- I mean Canadian dollar.

Re:Huh?

[Mr Windows]

Yeah, those numbers are so obvious. I mean, you'd have to be blind not to see them.

[ fx: whisper, stage left ]

Oh, some people are blind?

It appears that some countries [ hint: "colour", "defence" ] have bills of different sizes... That sounds suspiciously un-American...

Re:Huh?

[gad_zuki!]

If numbers are too tough, then you shouldn't be playing with that much money anyway. In 2004, we get to hear about how this system discriminates against the color blind.

Nice non-sequitur there.

Color is a huge advantage in usability. The rest of the world uses color to discern the differences and it works. People don't have to inspect the corners or whose face is in the middle. Its a simple and straightforward idea.

There are also side benefits. If you've ever worked in retail you probably have come across the common switch-aroo scam. With colored currency this will almost be impossible to pull off, or at the very least make potential criminals a little hesitant on trying to claim they gave you purple bill when they really gave you a yellow one.

This isn't really about tourists. Its about catching up with the world in currency technology. Europe was inserting the little metallic strips into their currency way before the US. This is the next step.

Re:Huh?

[tomhudson]

People don't really look at the bills properly.

Think about the hooker in nyc who got paid with Canadian Tire money (this actually happened: her client, a trucker for Cabano Transport, said he had only Canadian bucks, so she took a 50-cent Canadian Tire coupon for a bj, thinking it was $50.00)

So, just looking at the numbers wouldn't do it. You've got to be able to read.

Re:Huh?

[dcobbler]

If numbers are too tough, then you shouldn't be playing with that much money anyway. In 2004, we get to hear about how this system discriminates against the color blind.

Yeah! And next thing you know, people will be wanting colour on their computer screens! Morons! There'll be nothing but trouble when they start up with that!

Re:Huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

He says as the US dollar continues to lose ground against most of the world's currencies...that's right, chump, keep making fun of our dollar.

Of course comparing dollar values is idiotic without considering purchasing power, and on that stat the Canadian dollar is almost at par with the US $ for most goods.

Re:Huh?

[jedidiah]

This is simply untrue. You don't need to expose a large portion of a US bill in order to read the number. Perhaps European currency isn't numbered in a sensible location and thus thsoe bills need an extra visual cue. Perhaps Europeans created their own problem, one that the US didn't subject itself to.

Re:Huh?

[dadragon]

You seem to be missing my point. With Canadian notes, you don't even need to see the number. After looking, I find that the Canadian numbers are in the upper left and lower right of both sides, but it's still easier to look at its colour than its number.

And yes, it would slow me down quite a lot if I had to actually look at the numbers. You have to look at a certain portion of the note, not just at the note in general.

Have you ever had to sort money into stacks of 5s, 10s, and 20s? If you have, I'm sure you'd be all for colour coding your bills.

Re:Huh?

[jedidiah]

Except there is no "secret handshake" involved in what a number on a piece of currency might mean. Those numbers mean the same thing world over and have meant the same thing for CENTURIES. Those numbers even predate currency they get printed on.

There is no such standardization or history when it comes to coloring money.

"stupid" has nothing to do with it.

Re:Huh?

[The_Messenger]

Okay, having bills of different colors makes a bit of sense, but different sizes? That would make my wallet all imbalanced. Brits don't have to worry about such things because they don't care about personal appearance -- what? Oh, really? Well, they mustn't care much

And as for British misspelling, I think that we should say "fuck you" to those Limey bastards and start calling the language "American." We're the world's sole superpower. We can do what we want. And if the British don't like it, well, they can run off and cry to their socialist Eurotrash buddies, who I hear just this week managed to get a EuroFighter off the ground. Good job, "mates!"

The British "military" will be easy to decimate, and luckily we won't have to worry about resistance from the British populace, who are both docile (like sheep!) and unarmed. I mean, if a few shamrock-smoking IRA pussies are enough to make a Brit wet his trousers, it would probably only take a brigade of America's Slayer-fueled necro-wuss child murderers to get those pale, splay-toothed whiners under control.

And thanks to the British government's anti-privacy cryptography legislation, the takeover of Britain's business and economic communities would be simple -- that is, if said community were worth the effort.

Britain will be officially conquered within 72 hours of the declaration of war. )I would say 48 hours, except for the damn time difference. We Americans like to get a full night's sleep!) And what will become of your fucked-up little island then? It's not quite worthy of statehood, so I expect that it will become a prison colony. This option is attractive because in the event of a prison escape, the criminals would be quite far away from the law-abiding citizens of the US. Any escaped criminals will be forced to emigrate to Europe, and who knows, maybe if enough of them escape they'll have a positive influence on those neutered socialist clowns.

SO... The few British persons who recognize the truth in my words ought to start suggesting that their countrymen take the language's official name-change gracefully. You'll just have to accept that your people's version of the language is withered and dead, just like your empire and your potential influence in international politics.

I'm so glad I'm not from a lame country like yours! It must be difficult living day-to-day, knowing that you are a worthless nothing. Cheers, "mate!"

Re:Huh?

[Anonymous Coward]

What arrogance!
Let alone stupidity & ignorance.
Geez Think!

(I'll bullet these for you)
- What they are referring to mostly are foreigners abroad not in the U.S.
The most widely used currency in the world is the US Dollar and this amounts to a hefty interest free loan to the US. (how? Look it up you'll learn something else along the way).

- Most other currencies around the world vary in size and color. That means that every body else is so used to identifying notes by color that they make mistakes using US currency notes.

- To go back to the 1st point...if the Fed Reserve does not take simple steps to make sure US currency is still the most widely used in the world that interest free loan will shrink and the Euro will only be too happy to replace it.

- The Fed Reserve has always been hesistant to change currency b'se it somehow undermines the percieved stability of the currency. What actually makes money what it is, is the trust users have in that currency. ( and the inherent faith they have in whoever makes the currency).
BTW the colors on the US currency are supposed to do the same thing. (ever seen a hot-pink currency note anywhere in the world?)

If you can get people to trust memory chips to pay all debts public and private they will become money.
(NB: there other more important factors like the gov. paying debts on time that increase faith and trust in a currency).
That's why in 3rd world countries where every new dictator prints his own head on money people go back to battering goods & services or foreign notes (usu US dollars).

Your post implies everybody else in the world cannot count!
Loose your "trailer park" mentality.
Numbers and Arithmetic were not made in the US.
There actually is a whole other world outside your park.

Re:Huh?

[xonker]

It just makes things easier.

Easier than what? Being able to count? Sorry, but I've never felt that dealing with U.S. currency was hard enough to merit having to make it easier. We're not talking about rocket science here, we're talking about the ability to read a number that appears eight times in numeric form and is written out at least twice.

Now, I can understand it might be difficult for non-English speaking people to deal with money if we only wrote the denomination out in English, but they probably wouldn't understand the color scheme we come up with either.

I don't care if we do decide to start printing purple, green and orange money or whatever, but I really don't think that we need to color coordinate our money to make it "simpler" for anyone. If you're not bright enough to figure out 1,2,5,10,20,50,100, etc. then you have no business being out on your own in the first place.

Re:Huh?

[patchmaster]

And the colors on the new bills will help the blind... how?

Re:Huh?

[jedidiah]

As I implied earlier, the need to colorize money is merely the indication of fundemental flaws in it's original design. You need the color on the Canadian bills because the denomination isn't printed in every corner.

If the US were to color code currency, the denomination should still be printed on every corner.

Re:Huh?

[smallpaul]

I guess all those misleading numbers that were inadvertantly slipped into every corner of the design are just too confusing

What Americans don't understand is that people in other parts of the world don't look at the numbers of their money. It isn't because they are innumerate. It's because when you have a stack of ten bills in your wallet you can tell how much money you have WITHOUT looking at the faces only by looking at the colour of the edges. This is much more efficient. American money is much slower and more error prone. This is slashdot. I shouldn't have to explain the value of additional vectors for information in a user interface. Pick up a copy of Tufte.

Re:Huh?

[DarkZero]

No need to unfold it to find the silly number, and no need to make sure that there isn't an extra '0' after the '5'.

If determining whether a number is alone or beside another number is too hard for you, then you should not be handling money.

Re:Huh?

[rikkards]

It'd have to be a hell of a wind to get a Canadian Dollar to fly through the air (the Canadian Dollar is a coin for those who don't get the joke).

Re:Huh?

[red_dragon]

Eh, I never saw it that way.

Here in Canada, it's pretty easy" 5's are blue, 10's are purple, 20's are green and 50's are red.

I always thought of it as "5's have '5' printed on them, 10's have a '10'," etc. And coins are the same size and shape as US coins, except for the toonie. And, yes, I'm a 'merkin.

Re:Huh?

[rikkards]

It's hard to explain why it is easier to have colours (whoops showed my nationality). I have lived in both the US and in Canada. I spent 5 years in the states during my teens and go accustomed to working with single colour bills and at that time agreed that I couldn't see why but then when I moved back North I finally realized. It is almost like recognizing shapes takes more brain power than colours (yes I know that I may have opened myself up there for a flame) I think this is also why they have different colours for traffic lights.

Plus the fact if you threw all your money in a pocket or into your wallet haphazardly and it got bunched up, the moment you saw the colour of the bill you would know what you had without unfolding enough to get a number.

Re:Huh?

[nelsonal]

Which is why Detroit gets so mad when folks from down here go up there to buy cars. Arbitrage is cool!

Re:Huh?

[nelsonal]

This guy is exactly right, outside of the Yen in the late 80s and mostly in Asia, there has been no currency that has challenged the dollar in foreign currency holdings. If you're too lazy to look up why this is a good deal, its because the currency costs less to produce than it sells for, so we can produce extra currency sell it for goods and services and they keep it. Now that the Euro is trading and in cold currency, it represents a larger economic area, and should have similar reach, we have a competitor. Also, one other reason that 3rd world countries moeny is less trusted is the dictator's tendancy to fire up the presses when their expenses are higher than their tax recipts. That tends to upset the people currently holding its currency.

Re:Huh?

[brianber]

I for one don't have to unwad a bill far enough to see a number to tell what is is. If you're exposed to it long enough, you pretty much have the bill photograhed in your brain.

Re:Huh?

[Dun Malg]

recognizing shapes takes more brain power than colours

Aha! So that's why we 'mericans is smarter than everyone else: our money makes us think more!

Re:Huh?

[dadragon]

As I implied earlier, the need to colorize money is merely the indication of fundemental flaws in it's original design.

What? So your position is that Canadian money is flawed because it has colour? That it is somehow just as easy to look at numbers as it is to see its colour? Let's say, hypothetically I have terrible eyesight and can't read the number on the American bill, what I do? Look at it real close. In Canada, I'd just say "Hey, green!, good I needed $20"

You need the color on the Canadian bills because the denomination isn't printed in every corner.

You need the denomination printed in every corner because the Americans bills don't have colour. Your argument works both ways.

I don't need the demonination printed on the bill because it's colour coded, but you're bills do. I think that if the US colour coded its bills, they'd be the same except for the ink used.

Re:Huh?

[Enocasiones]

Have you considered the possibility that returning to what was known to you played a role when you went back to Canada? Things get in there while you grow up, and they stick.

I think the "what youve grown up with is the best" factor is what matters in the size and colour issues. Maybe the best point in the whole discussion of how cash should be is the one about the cost of coins vs bills. That can be discussed somehow objectively. But it doesnt belong in this thread... (not that it would matter much).

-hope you dont take this as a flame

Re:Huh?

[kontakt]

Off topic to grandparent, but on topic to parent:

Check out this test.

I got 5 right. Ouch!

Re:Huh?

[ncc74656]

And, U.S. residents DON'T have difficulty?

Well, no, actually. But it's probably because we know what the money looks like. I've been in England a couple times, where the paper money is a different size and has a different color scheme for each denomination; and I have a MUCH harder time differentiating between a 5 and 10 pound note versus a 5 and 10 dollar bill.

I lived in England and Germany for a couple of years each, and don't recall ever having used color or size to tell different bills apart. Hell, I'd clue in on "Zwanzig Deutsche Mark" before the color or shape would even register. I don't have a clue what color a DM 20 bill was...not that they're used anymore anyway.

Re:Huh?

[mpe]

It appears that some countries [ hint: "colour", "defence" ] have bills of different sizes...

It's more like most of the planet. Where, outside of the US, do they issue paper money printed on the same size notes using the same colour scheme? Even in the US they have coins of different shapes, sizes and colour.

Re:Huh?

[mpe]

If you've ever worked in retail you probably have come across the common switch-aroo scam. With colored currency this will almost be impossible to pull off, or at the very least make potential criminals a little hesitant on trying to claim they gave you purple bill when they really gave you a yellow one.

Even more so if the money is different sizes too.

This isn't really about tourists. Its about catching up with the world in currency technology. Europe was inserting the little metallic strips into their currency way before the US.

That's probably half the problem, the US is a strongly NIH country.

Re:Huh?

[captinpoo]

one more reason that i like having colored money is when i'm in a dodgy neighborhood. when i need to check for how much cash i've got i just glance at the top of my wallet. i don't have to open it up and read all the numbers of each bill in plain sight of everyone around me. if someone sees that i'm carrying say $400 it might put an idea in their head.

Re:Huh?

[Gordonjcp]

You make a fair point, but why should you make it hard for people to save complexity in machines? In the UK, ATMs and note counters manage just fine with several different sizes of note. Having them different colours and sizes makes it easier for visually impaired (God I hate that term) people to identify notes.

Re:Huh?

[jcostom]

Of course comparing dollar values is idiotic without considering purchasing power, and on that stat the Canadian dollar is almost at par with the US $ for most goods.

Insightful, my foot.

Last time I checked, I could get about $1.50CA for every $1US. Hmm. Where I come from, this means that the $US has 1.5x the purchasing power of the $CA.

Why on earth do you think that people from the US that live near CA go over the border to shop????

Re:Huh?

[ksheff]

Coins are different sizes and color because at one point in time they were made entirely of a precious metal. The bigger the coin, the more it was worth depending on the metal. Other than the Susan B's, I don't know of any US coin in circulation that isn't round.

Re:Huh?

[darkonc]

Last time I checked, I could get about $1.50CA for every $1US.

Exchange rate is only part of the issue. It turns out that, in Vancouver, Canada, my $1CAN will buy about the same as your $1US bill will buy in Los Angeles.

I noticed that effect when I went out to buy film (I use film like some people use toilet paper). The prices for film are the same in the States and Canada ($7 for a 36 roll)... In other words I get about a 30% discount by stocking up at home, after the exchange rate is figured in.

There are a few reasons for this .. some are market driven. Others are things like the fact that the cost of health care is handled by taxes. In the US, health care takes a big bite out of a worker's income -- thus requiring higher wages (and higher insurance payments to handle any accidental occurrence).

Re:Huh?

[jcostom]

It turns out that, in Vancouver, Canada, my $1CAN will buy about the same as your $1US bill will buy in Los Angeles.

Be that as it may, I don't see that as the spirit of the original statement, given the distance between two points of purchase. I read the original comment as if he was somehow under the (delusional) impression that my $1US was somehow worth the same as his $1CAN. Since we're talking about a comparison, it's reasonable to expect to be comparing under the same conditions. In terms of buying power the $US is still much (50%) stronger. Of course, time is the great equalizer, and could change that - hey, you never know..

Now the whole health care thing is just silly. I get to keep an enormous percentage of my salary that I'd have to give up in the land of maple leaves, and get my health care for about $50/month, and that's because I chose the better medical and dental plans. The whole notion of your government having to be your daddy is just dumb. I'd rather have my government keep its nose out of my business whenever possible.

Re:Huh?

[dupper]

In my experience, it's more related to familiarity than genetics. I'm a Cracke^H^H^HCaucasian, and I used to not be able to tell the difference between different Asians. But, then I moved to a new school, where about 40% of the student population is Asian. Now, I have more trouble tellingthe difference between Jews, or pretty much anyone with Middle-Eastern backround, with whom I used to go to school with.

Re:Huh?

[darien]

And, yes, I'm a 'merkin.

You're one of these!?

Re:Huh?

[N Monkey]

I noticed that effect when I went out to buy film (I use film like some people use toilet paper).

I think that is one of the most frightening things I've read in a long time!!!!

Simon

Re:Huh?

[martyn s]

Well, yeah. That was my point. I obviously didn't mean "because of genetics, white people can't tell asian people apart". So in other words, the point I was trying to make was that foreigners can't recognize American Dollars because their genes are different?

So yeah, obviously I was talking about familiarity. So a white person brought up in an Asian country can probably tell the difference as good as any Asian person can.

No more green

[tomhudson]

Well, here in Canada, we've had funny-looking money for ages. It was supposed to help cut down on counterfeiters, but bubble-jets keep getting better - they're even cloning the $5 bills now!

Re:No more green

[silicon_synapse]

From the linked articles, it seems one of the major motivations for changing the color is to help tourists distinguish between denominations. Is it really that hard to read the big number on any of the corners of the bill? It's also printed out elsewhere on the bill. How are colors going to help if tourists can't make sense of the numbers?

Re:No more green

[brocheck]

Thats alright, the ink required to make a counterfeit $5 bill costs $7.95.

Re:No more green

[dcgaber]

Last time I was in Canada and changing $ at the bank, I wanted to get some $50 bills. I was told specifically not too as many stores do not take the $50 anymore due to the high counterfitting of them.

Re:No more green

[Schnapple]

But doesn't that use more than $5 Cdn worth of ink?

Probably not if you print more than 1 per sheet. Then it's more like a winning "investment".

Re:No more green

[Dimensio]

It's a well-known fact that the public at large is stupid. This is especially noticable to anyone who works retail, especially those who work in cities frequented by tourists.

Re:No more green

[jmd!]

> to help tourists distinguish between denominations

Maybe they're tourists from ancient Rome, and can't read Arabic numbers.

Re:No more green

[dadragon]

I don't know about you, but when I go to buy something, I pull out the wad of cash in my pocket, and pull out the appropriate note based on colour. Even a small fraction of the note (not enough to see the number on it) is enough to tell me its demonination.

It's easier to look for a blue note than a note with $5 written on it. I'm used to counting the colours in my wallet to figure out how much money I have in my wallet. I couldn't even tell you WHERE on the Canadian money the number is printed without looking. It's just the colour that tells me, nothing more. Blue = 5, Purple = 10, Green = 20, Red = 50, Brown = 100, 2 and less are coins.

Re:No more green

[tomhudson]

Quite a few don't take $100.00 bills, some don't take $50.00 bills, and I got stuck with a fake of the new $10.00 bills with the so-called advanced counterfeiting measures.

The new money looks too much like monopoly money (ie: fake). There's too much variance in the colors between parts of the bills, so the eye can't catch defects as easily as with the mono-toned bills.

And the braille feature - anyone can fake that with a ballpoint pen and some spit.

Re:No more green

[JoeBuck]

Well, here in Canada, we've had funny-looking money for ages. It was supposed to help cut down on counterfeiters, but bubble-jets keep getting better - they're even cloning the $5 bills now!

Given what inkjet printer cartridges cost, anyone using an inkjet to counterfeit a Canadian $5 (which is worth a hair more than $3 US) would probably lose money.

Re:No more green

[tomhudson]

Not if they're using the bogus bills to buy ink.

Besides, they're printing out more than one per sheet. Nobody bothers to check because it's such a small denomination ... but you can print up a couple of grand in an afternoon ...and that's what some kids are doing.

<sigh>So now we've got to check everything except for coins.</sigh>

Re:No more green

[AndroidCat]

At least the $20's come with the "scratch'n'win" feature.

Re:No more green

[ergo98]

In reality the rate of counterfeiting is remarkably low (indeed : Virtually every "We don't take $100s" sign in Ontario is the result of a single little Windsor counterfeiting operation getting a lot more press than actual results), however because debit card machines are so prevalent throughout Canada (bit of history: Because we have only a few big banks across the entire country, they were way ahead of the US in forming a country-wide electronic transfer system), paper money is becoming more of a hassle than its worth: Not only do those $50s put you at a maginally higher risk of having counterfeits (albeit marginal), it also means that you have to have the float to store change for that, which means that you'll be a much likelier victim of a robbery.

The condensed version of that goes as such : Debit machines are so common and so heavily used that retailers are in the process of actively discouraging the use of actual paper money, and I wouldn't be suprized to see some store actually refuse to take any money within the next couple of years (P.S. Before someone claims that that's illegal and they have to take "legal tender", blah blah: Actually they don't, and any merchant is well within their rights to refuse paper money).

Re:No more green

[ergo98]

And then what do you do with your couple of grand of bogus $5? Firstly you're under a massive risk of being caught : Every single time you pass one there's a risk, and of couse you can't walk into a bank and launder your stack of inkjet $5s (the probability of being caught is...oh...100%). Indeed, there's absolutely nowhere apart from maybe a variety store or Tim Horton's where you could spend them. Furthermore money is printed on a very unique paper in a very unique process, and being creatures of habit we THINK that we wouldn't notice, but in reality we do : Instantly any citizen would know that it just felt wrong in their hands (this is the amazing thing about becoming acquainted with your environment. I hopped on a GO train this morning and one of the fans was off, and while I couldn't place what was off I knew that something was awry : We notice small differences like that more than we think).

Re:No more green

[DarkZero]

Maybe they're tourists from ancient Rome, and can't read Arabic numbers.

I actually thought of that, too, because the same would apply to people from Japan, China, North or South Korea, Taiwan, etc. However, if someone can't remember which distinct set of squiggly lines is what number, then I doubt that colors would help them.

Re:No more green

[pod]

Counterfitting is not the problem per se, rather, not too many people get to handle $50 bills. Most purchases of that size are made with debit or credit cards. Most people have seen 5s and 10s lots of times, and at the very least can compare a suspect bill to something they probably have in their wallet (unlike, say a $50 or $100). Hence, to avoid loss to counterfits, cashiers are instructed not to take high value bills.

Re:No more green

[Citizen of Earth]

Canadian $5 (which is worth a hair more than $3 US)

Yawn. A Canadian fiver is equivalent to US$3.95 when spent in Canada (purchasing power parity). The moral of the story is to avoid buying things from America.

Re:No more green

[Sentry21]

I learned while in Montreal that the latest trick is to take a bunch of fives, bleach the colour off, and print tens onto them. The holographic stuff is still there, but bill readers see a ten and not a five, and change machines double your money. Some guys apparantly got rich in the south shore doing this.

Talk about paying good odds. That's even better than the change machine I found in Amsterdam that was paying out 5:8.

--Dan

Re:No more green

[Jonathan]

What's worse is that while many stores don't take $50's, the ATMs (at least TD Bank's) still give them out if you take more than $100 (which in Canadian dollars isn't that much) out.

Re:No more green

[jag164]

What the heck?!?! I guess the south koreans I work with are wrong. I can't speak for the chinese or nipponese, but from what nortul tells me, south koreans read/use arabic numbers. I guess I'm just confused by your claim.

Re:No more green

[ncc74656]

What's worse is that while many stores don't take $50's, the ATMs (at least TD Bank's) still give them out if you take more than $100 (which in Canadian dollars isn't that much) out.

That's different...here in the States, it's rare to find an ATM that dispenses anything other than $20s. (The two ATMs in front of the student union at UNLV dispense $5s last time I checked...those are the only ATMs I've ever run across that hand out something other than $20s.) If you withdraw $300 (which I've done maybe once or twice ever...I don't like to carry more than $20 or so), you get a stack of fifteen bills.

Re:No more green

[pnutjam]

When I lived in Indianapolis afew years ago, I found a Huntington Bank ATM that would actually dispense $1 bills, kinda cool, but seems pretty useless.

Re:No more green

[Genyin]

I know in the case of japanese, arabic numerals are used very commonly; having studied the language for three years, I'd say its because arabic numerals are better for the most part... fewer characters to type/write.

Re:No more green

[tomhudson]

As far as laundering their stack, kids can just sell it to their schoolmates for a loonie a pop.

People don't notice. If the paper's even half-way decent, it passes. That's why it's a multi-million dollar problem. Besides, the kids who are printing up the bogus $5.00 bills are mostly passing them off at the local convenience store, where there's a more than 50% chance it's another kid working behind the counter ... this is how they get their (underage) beer, etc.

So this is how fake $5.00 and $10.00 bills get into circulation in the first place - they're passed off at convenience stores, donut shops, and gas stations. When's the last time you checked to see if the change you received was real? Most people in a hurry just check the amount.

<grin>Remember, when P.T. Barnum said there was a sucker born every minute? P.T. Barnum was an optimist.</grin>

Re:No more green

[tomhudson]

Wow. How about 10:1. Just file off part of a penny, and it'll be accepted as a dime in some machines.

Mind you, you've got to be a real lamer to waste your time doing this.

<grin>And doing it can still get you 2 to 5.Would this be petty larceny, or penny larceny?<grin>

Sight impaired

[Anonymous Coward]

Different sizes helps the sight impaired.

Re:Sight impaired

[or_smth]

Just FYI, up here in Canada they decided to put brail on the money itself. It's pretty neat stuff, shows that they are really thinking.

The money isn't different sizes, but it is different colours and to tell you the truth, it just feels a lot better. Add that to the fact that we have $1 and $2 coins, and we have a new-age money system.

And it just feels cooler :)

Re:Sight impaired

[silicon_synapse]

Wouldn't it make more sense to use different materials to print each denomination? Not only would that make it easier to differentiate between denominations by touch and make counterfitting more difficult, it wouldn't screw up my wallet. =) I don't think most Americans would go for different size denominations. We don't like anyone to ripple the waters too much.

Re:Sight impaired

[Bob McCown]

Just FYI, up here in Canada they decided to put brail on the money itself. .

Cool, so I can counterfeit canadian money with a paper cutter and a hole punch now, as long as I only pass money to blind people. WOO HOO!

Re:Sight impaired

[totallygeek]

Supposedly the large number on the back of the bill with no decoration surrounding it was for the sight impaired. I read somewhere that color would not work that well because of fading, color blending and people with color blindedness.

Does anyone remember seeing some bills a long time ago printed with red ink? Am I dreaming?

Re:Sight impaired

[ahaning]

Yeah, Looney(CDN$1, there's a Loon on the back) and Tooter(CDN$2, it's a $2 coin) also sounds better.

Colorful money is nicer-looking, as well. I have an old 25 Guilder from an old friend in Holland. Those are really nifty looking.

For more pictures of money, try http://aes.iupui.edu/rwise/notedir/mappage.html. Mr. Wise has an awesome collection online.

Re:Sight impaired

[dcavens]

It's actually commonly known as a "toonie".

Never heard of a "tooter".

Re:Sight impaired

[dadragon]

It's actually commonly known as a "toonie".

I think that's stupid, but then again, I'm not the majority. The loonie is called the loonie because there's a loon on the tail. Following that logic, the $2 should be called the bearie or something similar, due to its bear on the tail. The toonie is the toonie because it rhymes with loonie, but worth two of them.

My personal favourite name for the $2 coin is the moon, because it's the "Queen with a bear behind!" :)

Re:Sight impaired

[Sunda666]

here (brazil) we have some bills that are made of plastic, not paper.

try to make fakes with an inkjet... hehe.

expensive shit, tough.

Re:Sight impaired

[generic-man]

Does anyone remember seeing some bills a long time ago printed with red ink? Am I dreaming?

No, you're just filthy stinking rich. :)

Re:Sight impaired

[dadragon]

What's cool is Canada's 1935 $20 note. It's got "Princess Elizabeth" on it, who is now the Queen.

Another cool one is the $50 from 1973, the back has the Mountie's Musical ride. Very cool.

The new ones kinda suck, I liked the belted kingfisher :) That hockey scene kinda sucks.

Re:Sight impaired

[scrytch]

Don't know about red bills, but I remember being handed some US Silver Certificates once, which look just like $1 bills, but have little blue banners on them. Legal tender nonetheless. Guy paid for a sandwich with 'em. Those things are worth, like $50 a pop to coin collectors.

And I didn't have any money on me to exchange the damn things in the register with. Fooey.

Re:Sight impaired

[Garion911]

Just hope there's no hanging chads.

Re:Sight impaired

[jcsehak]

up here in Canada they decided to put brail on the money itself.

That's a really great idea. Not only is it good for blind people, but it would be great for checking how much money you have without taking your hands out of your pockets. I wish they'd do that here in the US.

Re:Sight impaired

[prnz]

Don't know about red bills, but I remember being handed some US Silver Certificates once, which look just like $1 bills, but have little blue banners on them. Legal tender nonetheless. Guy paid for a sandwich with 'em. Those things are worth, like $50 a pop to coin collectors.

The bills with a red seal are US Notes, the original national currency and last put into circulation by JFK. US Notes and Silver Certificates have been completely replaced by Federal Reserve notes (green seal) and are no longer printed.

However, they are still legal tender and should be accepted for face value. In most cases, the entertainment value of trying to spend one at a sandwich shop is worth more than the 10% over face value that you'd get from a collector. The only $1 silver certificates that are worth $50 to a collector are rare dates with a small printing run or in exceptionally good condition (Brilliant Uncirculated).

Paul

Re:Sight impaired

[ahaning]

Pardon the Americans, we're pretty dumb :-/

Re:Sight impaired

[Dun Malg]

My god in heaven! Bears? Loons? Freekin' hockey? What's next, every fiver will have a different cartoon strip on it? Is this what you people want our dignified US currency to become?

Re:Sight impaired

[ncc74656]

Does anyone remember seeing some bills a long time ago printed with red ink? Am I dreaming?

I have a $2 bill somewhere that has the Treasury seal in red instead of green. It doesn't identify itself as a Federal Reserve Note; it's labeled as a United States Note.

Re:Sight impaired

[darien]

What I'd really like is Bluetooth banknotes, so I could see how much money I had without even having to put my hands in my pockets.

Vending Machines

[Dystopium]

Damn, I just go my vending machines to accept the new bills. Now I have to do it all again.

Re:Vending Machines

[qurob]

Who sticks a $20 in a vending machine?

Re:Vending Machines

[The Turd Report]

Programmers who forgot to bring in their daily case of Coke.

Re:Vending Machines

[Bob McCown]

Who sticks a $20 in a vending machine?

You obviously have never taken a 9 year old and a couple of his friends to a video arcade...

Re:Vending Machines

[Jhon]

Smokers? People buying stamps? "Vending machine" does not equal "Candy machine".

Re:Vending Machines

[ebh]

People express-paying for their long-term airport parking...

Re:Vending Machines

[AugustFalcon]

The slot machines at the Casino's here will accept $100 bills.

Re:Vending Machines

[generic-man]

Vending machines which sell train tickets often accept $20 bills, as do postage stamp vending machines which sell large coils of stamps and Express Mail stamps. Instant scratch-off ticket vending machines take $20 bills -- in Pennsylvania, I've seen scratch tickets that cost $5 each! And let's not forget slot machines, which will handily store lots and lots of money in "credits" for your gaming pleasure.

Re:Vending Machines

[kwishot]

In which country have you been living? There are new $10's.....AND $5's.

Re:Vending Machines

[scott1853]

Or a single 4 year old that isn't any good at the games but want to play them anyways.

Re:Vending Machines

[Spud the Ninja]

Damn, I just go[sic] my vending machines to accept the new bills. Now I have to do it all again.

Another good reason to switch to $1 coins, maybe even $5 coins.

Re:Vending Machines

[Mark of THE CITY]

Who sticks a $20 in a vending machine?

Buyers of postage stamps and BART cards, for two.

Foreigners?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, cause those Europeans spell "20" as... umm... "20".

Re:Foreigners?

[kafka93]

It's interesting that most of the Americans posting seem to find it incredible that anyone might find their currency even a little confusing -- whilst many of the non-Americans have agreed that the money could be improved.

I suppose this suggests two alternative interpretations: first, that Americans are more intelligent and sophisticated than the rest of the world. Second, that Americans have become so accustomed to the process of having to look closely at their bills that they have come to believe that there is no alternative, and that no other circumstance could *possibly* be more convenient, more useful to those less fortunate (such as the sight-impaired) - in short, that America leads the world and that everyone else in the world is doing things wrongly.

Which view is accurate? I suppose that depends upon the country you're living in. (Yes, there *are* other countries..)

Re:Foreigners?

[Mr. Sketch]

Actually it's because they don't think "50" they think two twenties and a ten so just seeing "50" kinda confuses them.

Anyone who knows French knows what I'm talking about.

Re:Foreigners?

[Spacelord]

Just a little anecdote:
When I was visiting my girlfriend in the US we took a horse carriage ride through Charleston and she accidentally tipped the driver with a 50 dollar bill ... She only found out later when checking her money.

No need to say she was a bit pissed over that (mostly at herself for being so stupid), though I think the driver didn't mind ;)

But my point is ... I don't think she would have made that mistake if you had bills in different sizes and colors.

Re:Foreigners?

[leucadiadude]

You forgot the third view:

Americans posting to an American website about American currency not giving a rip about what individuals like youself (who are on hair trigger alert to be offended by anything said or done by any American) think.

Re:Foreigners?

[naoiseo]

"foreigners have a hard time differenciating between the bills"

ya you wish it was the foreigners problem.

Last time I was in the states (Vegas of all places, where you'd think they value the money) I got change for a $100 when I actually paid with a $20 ...

but you guys do love to bash everyone else huh.. seriously, none of you have ever screwed up on your currency? no mix up at the corner store with red eyes and hands full of chips and pop? sorry, don't believe you... not for a second. and in a dark bar? fugetaboutit.

Re:Foreigners?

[jaymz666]

Actually, this thing we're on is called the WORLD wide web, and most of the WORLD has access to most servers. There really are very few AMERICAN web sites.

Re:Foreigners?

[ShinGouki]

i think we're just objecting to changing our money because tourists complain that they're either a) too dumb to actually read the bigass number printed in the corners, b) in too much of a rush to read the bigass number printed in the corners, c) from a country somewhere that does not use the same numbering system and can't understand the meaning of the bigass number printed in the corner (maybe there's some ancient romans out there that were preserved in ice or somethin....) and finally d) blind and unable to see the bigass number printed in the corner.

now. in the case of the blind i agree with what canada has done, put the denomination on the note in braille...it's not exactly a huge modification and would certainly help the blind and vision impaired immensely. in the case of C i don't think there's a whole lot of these happening...how many people visiting the US can't comprehend the numerals we use? in the case of B: suck it up, you can deal with the .4 miliseconds you lose having to actually look at and process the number in the corner. in the case of A: you are absolutely beyond help, please remove yourself from the gene pool immediately.

it's not as if this is hard people. i've never been to england in my life but i'm fairly sure i wouldn't ask someone what effin color a 10 pound note is, i'd just look for the _bigass_ "10" printed in the corner and get on with my day

furthermore, the standard anti-american stereotypes make you sound dumber than you probably are. we're not objecting to the way the rest of the world works, we're objecting to changing the way we run our country to suit the rest of the world when it's absolutely un-fucking-necessary. there's nothing wrong with the way everyone else prints their money, we just don't feel the need to do it that way. no americans have problems telling the money apart at home and i've never heard of any having problems telling money apart abroad even in countries where the denominations are *gasp* _all_ the same color.

Re:Foreigners?

[leucadiadude]

Duh.

It was founded by Americans. It has an American flavor and slant.

You want a Slashdot more to your local cultural flavor? Start one.

Re:Foreigners?

[martyn s]

Actually, I don't know what you're talking about, and I'm familiar with french numbers. The only thing I can think of is that 70 is called "sixty-ten" and 71 is "sixty-eleven" etc. And 80 is "four-twenties" and 90 is "four-twenties-ten", but for numbers 50 and below, I have no idea what you're talking about.

Re:Foreigners?

[big_hairy_mama]

I can't tell you how many times I went to pull out a $1 and got a $10, only to realize at the last minute before the cashier took it. Once I even almost gave a $50 instead of a $5. It *is* a problem, even to us Americans. Plus, having colorized bills would make organizing my wallet easier.

Re:Foreigners?

[chris_mahan]

She wouldn't have made the mistake if the bill was 30 cm X 30 cm and made of aluminum and bright orange either.

So, now our government has to spend more of our tax money (oh, how a-propos) just because foreigners can't count/don't pay attention/are stupid?

Re:Foreigners?

[jaymz666]

Looks like someone has a hair trigger for anything said and done that goes against your opinion then, eh.

Re:Foreigners?

[SpryGuy]

It's interesting that most of the Americans posting seem to find it incredible that anyone might find their currency even a little confusing -- whilst many of the non-Americans have agreed that the money could be improved.

You've created a false dichotomy. I do find it incredible that anyone could find our money all that confusing. But I don't disagree that it could be improved.

I think adding color is a great idea. Adding braille or a different feel to part or all of each denomination of bill is cool too.

I will fight any attempt to make different denominations be different sizes with my very last dying breath. That is the MOST annoying feature of other currency, and it would ruin all that is good about our currency. A nice standard size, easy automated handling in tellers and vending machines, easy handling in my wallet, easy to fan out and deal with. Someone will institude multi-sized bills over my dead body. I cannot imagine anything more annoying or pointless.

Re:Foreigners?

[chris_mahan]

Dang, in that case, there are many countries that we can officially call "America", since their culture, flavor, and slant ...

well, you get the point...

Re:Foreigners?

[Yunzil]

if i hand you a stack of bills can you tell me how much it's worth? not a chance.

with other countries you have an idea by the number of each colour. its a convience thing.

Er, if it's in a stack, how do you check the color? Or yeah, by looking at each one. I can do that just as easily with money that's all the same.

personally I hate american money, it does look all the same to me.

Personally, I think you're blind.

Re:Foreigners?

[dadragon]

Again, if I want a $5 note, I look for blue, I don't look for the "big fucking number". That's just a waste of time, because then I'd actually have to move it out of my wallet. This way I just open it an look, see a blue piece of paper, pull it out, and give it to the teller. Much simpler than looking for numbers.

Re:Foreigners?

[doooras]

i agree with everything you just said, but i think it would be funny if we did print new colored and sized money, except have it exactly the opposite of european money. i bet that would fuck them up even more, and they wouldn't bitch so much about the stuff we have now.

Re:Foreigners?

[PW2]

kind of like the World Series maybe??

Re:Foreigners?

[dadragon]

To pull it out you have to put your fingers in an seperate it from it's fellows. To see the number you do the same thing.

But you don't need to seperate if from its fellows to see its colour. You do need to seperate it from its fellows to see the number on it.

Re:Foreigners?

[RubberDuckie]

I can see different colors being useful once you learn which color is which. However, if you don't know a countries bill colors, you'll still have to look to see what value a 'red bill' has. How is this easier that looking for a 10, 20, or whatever number?

Re:Foreigners?

[flatt]

Hey, we let some Canadians play. ;)

Re:Foreigners?

[Mr Windows]

Er, if it's in a stack, how do you check the color?

Lots of countries have different sized notes too. That makes it easy to separate bills in a stack.

Personally, I think you're blind.

You use that as an insult? That says a lot about you!

Re:Foreigners?

[Mr. Sketch]

Okay, I guess it's obvious that I don't really know french, but I just know that they have a messed up number system as you pointed out.

Re:Foreigners?

[Pretzalzz]

Someone standing ten feet from you in a store when you pull out your wad to pay for something can also tell how much it is worth whereas if they are all the same color and shape than the bystander can't tell that it isn't a wad composed of all ones instead of one one on the outside covering a wad of hundreds. You have failed to explain why this is a good thing.

Re:Foreigners?

[Stephan Schulz]

I will fight any attempt to make different denominations be different sizes with my very last dying breath. That is the MOST annoying feature of other currency, and it would ruin all that is good about our currency. A nice standard size, easy automated handling in tellers and vending machines, easy handling in my wallet, easy to fan out and deal with. Someone will institude multi-sized bills over my dead body. I cannot imagine anything more annoying or pointless.

This is (at least) the second time somebody mentioned "fanning the money out". I have no idea what the purpose of this should be, but I suspect that this is only necessary because the US bills look and feel all the same.

I've traveled all over Europe, and I've been in the US about 10 times by now. I never understood the common warning against "counting your money in public places" -- while I see that this may draw pickpockets or worse, I never ever have the desire to count my money at all. A quick look into the wallet is fully sufficient to see approximately were I am in Europe - both with German Marks and now with Euros. Then I went to the US. Yes, I can read the numbers, but you still need to go through all your bills to get an idea of how much money you have in your wallet.

As to teller machines and vending machines: They work fine with different sized bills. I don't know if it's any harder to make a vending machine for Euros than for Dollars, but both are possible.

Re:Foreigners?

[bigbadwlf]

It was founded by Americans. It has an American flavor and slant.

So explain the msgs I get on IRC saying "HAI!"

Re:Foreigners?

[SoupIsGoodFood_42]

Er, if it's in a stack, how do you check the color? Or yeah, by looking at each one. I can do that just as easily with money that's all the same.

Yes, but in reality. Notes aren't usaly stacked exactly on top of each other, with no gaps in between. All you need is 1mm of the note showing to tell you exactly what it is.

Even so. It's still just plain easier to flick though notes and recognize colours that it is to read numbers (not just because numbers are symbols--more complex than recognizing a colour, but because they are only in certain places on the note).

Re:Foreigners?

[Gaijinator]

If memory serves, the French used to use a base-20 number system, which is still sort of in place with numbers like 80 and 90. Then the Romans took Gaul, and they converted to base-10. (Roman numerals are sort of like base-10...) There may have been influence from Arabic numerals, as well.

Re:Foreigners?

[critter_hunter]

Is the Time Magazine printed in Braille? Cause else I don't see what a blind person would do with it...

And many people 'round here seem unaware that there are visually impaired people who aren't totally blind. If you have to take every fucking bill two inch from your face to see the number on it, then it's not exactly practical, IS IT?

Re:Foreigners?

[Eil]

Please enlighten us, sir, on how you'd improve our money instead of merely bitching about it.

Re:Foreigners?

[Citizen of Earth]

Actually, I don't know what you're talking about, and I'm familiar with french numbers. The only thing I can think of is that 70 is called "sixty-ten" and 71 is "sixty-eleven" etc. And 80 is "four-twenties" and 90 is "four-twenties-ten", but for numbers 50 and below, I have no idea what you're talking about.

Given that there were so many French mathematicians, the French numbering system should have been based on the summation of primes rather than the above ad-hockery.

Re:Foreigners?

[bobgoatcheese]

Actually what you're talking about doesn't start until seventy in french, which when spoken aloud literaly translates as "sixty ten." However, in french the number seventy is still written as 70, not 60-10.

Re:Foreigners?

[dadragon]

If it wasn't a note, it wouldn't be in my wallet. And money feels different from normal paper, it is made of cotton or something like that.

Re:Foreigners?

[jag164]

Actually it's not interesting. We're talking about green backs here and why they should or should not change becuase some dipshit doesn't know what they are looking at. I say fuck 'em. If you come to the States and can't learn the money you deserve to lose it. No I'm not a prick b/c it works the other way too. If some dumb ass american travels overseas and is too damn ignorant to learn the monetary system they deserve to be ripped off left and right.

When in Rome does as the Romans do.

Re:Foreigners?

[Mr Windows]

I can tell a E5 note from an E10 note just from a glance at part of it, by colour and size. I don't have to even see the numbers. Is there a particular objection to making life easier? It seems that most of the messages in this thread are doing just that!

Re:Foreigners?

[commodoresloat]

personally I hate american money, it does look all the same to me. but then again I am canadian.

Personally, I hate Canadian food. But then again... oh, wait..... nevermind.

Re:Foreigners?

[SoupIsGoodFood_42]

On US dollars, the numbers on an all the corners. All the bill's are the same size, too, so just square the stack of bills, and riffle the corner.

Try THAT with 4 different sized bills!!

But you still have to take them out of you wallet at least partly to riffle though them. I can't do that in my wallet anyway.

Trouble?

[geekd]

Apparently, with both size and color the same, foreigners have a hard time differenciating between the bills.

One would think the big number in each corner would be a pretty big giveaway as to the bill's value.

:-)

I'm all for color on our bills. Our money is pretty boring compared to "exciting" foreign money.

But then, when it come to money, I'll all for boring. When "exciting" and "money" are used in the same sentence, it usually means I'm losing my ass.

Re:Trouble?

[Slycee]

It seems to me that the main reason for this is to deter counterfeiting, not saving foreigners from needing to squint to buy a pack of chewing gum.

Re:Trouble?

[Cally]

Oddly enough, the headline on this article is strangely apt.

Re:Trouble?

[Jason Earl]

I lived in Peru for a couple of years, and the folks down there knew more about U.S. dollars than anyone I have ever seen. It probably stemmed from the fact that the first thing they did after cashing their paychecks was to change their money into dollars so that it would still be worth something the next day. Inflation is a harsh mistress.

There is no way that I am going to believe that idiotic "foreigners" had anything to do with the switch.

Re:Trouble?

[sleepingsquirrel]

One would think the big number in each corner would be a pretty big giveaway as to the bill's value.

But would it be too much to ask for them to change the font? Something basic like Courier, without all of the curlicues would go a long way towards increasing quick recognition.

Re:Trouble?

[Lord_Slepnir]

One would think the big number in each corner would be a pretty big giveaway as to the bill's value.

I'll give you three Japaneese bills, and you tell me what values they are based on the numbers.

Re:Trouble?

[ChaosDiscordSimple]

Our money is pretty boring compared to "exciting" foreign money.

That's a feature, darnit! Even with our new, more open, cleaner looking bills, US greenbacks are still the most evil looking money in the world. Black and green with dense and archaic patterns. Thanks to the slightly colored cloth stock they print on, our money starts out looking slightly grimy (crisp, but grimy). Can you picture a suitcase of Euros looking as menacing as a suitcase of US dollars? US bills demand respect. Our money reminds viewers that it is the root of all evil.

Re:Trouble?

[leucadiadude]

Who cares?

This story was about changes to U.S. currency. Not Japanese.

Re:Trouble?

[cpt kangarooski]

I've never heard of U.S. currency being called monopoly money. That's what we call foreign money, _because_ it's often vividly colored. (and silly, because it's foreign ;)

Perhaps everyone calls foreign currency monopoly money -- that's the best explanation I can come up with.

I would point out though, that the portraits and pictures on the backs are quite distinguishable. There are other things to look at than the color.

Re:Trouble?

[scott1853]

Don't forget the eye in the pyramid reminding us that they're watching us!

Re:Trouble?

[The Turd Report]

I couldn't tell you based on the color either, what is your point?

Re:Trouble?

[Fat Casper]

Our money is pretty boring compared to "exciting" foreign money.

I'm with you- money is supposed to be boring. Nothing beats stable currency. Maybe the problem is that a lot of foreigners simply cannot accept prices that don't have a ton of zeroes tacked on? If we go to color coding in order to fit in, we might only be making the problem worse. Now I just need to land a job at a duty-free store, heh heh heh.

Re:Trouble?

[iabervon]

How often do you hand a $20 to a cashier and get change for a $5 or a $10 until you complain? I know it's happened to me pretty often (especially right after they changed the $5 and $10 to look like the $20). It would be nice if the different denominations all looked entirely different (although stylistically similar, so that they look like US money).

Re:Trouble?

[Storm Damage]

Umm, exactly what's difficult about that? Every japanese bill has it's yen value legibly printed in arabic numerals on the upper corners of the bill's face.

Here's photos of the 1000, 5000 and 10,000 yen bills, and here's photos and information about the 2000 yen bill.

or HIBT?

Re:Trouble?

[Rogerborg]

• One would think the big number in each corner would be a pretty big giveaway

A couple of things to bear in mind:

• If you make the bills different sizes, people with serious visual impairment can still work out how much cash they're handing over.
• If you don't have serious visual disablement, you probably know someone who does. Or you might have it tomorrow, or next week, or next year.

Re:Trouble?

[bastion_xx]

It would be nice if the different denominations all looked entirely different

Red hearts! Green clovers! Blue diamonds!!!

Re:Trouble?

[Yunzil]

Taking a quick peek in your wallet to see roughly how much cash you have is not so quick when:

a) all notes are the same size
b) all notes are the same colour


Myself: $14
Total time: ~1 sec.

Get a pair of glasses. ;)

US money is often referred to as monopoly money because of its uniformity - only, even monopoly money recognizes the value of colour coding.

No, it didn't start looking like Monopoly money until they put those stupid huge portraits on.

Re:Trouble?

[elmegil]

Find someplace to shop that isn't full of morons. I rarely if ever have this happen.

Re:Trouble?

[micromoog]

How often do you hand a $20 to a cashier and get change for a $5 or a $10 until you complain?

Never. And I use $20 bills pretty much every day.

Re:Trouble?

[micromoog]

I'll give you three Japaneese bills, and you tell me what values they are based on the numbers.

um, OK . . . I'll do it based on the BIG FUCKING NUMBERS in the corners.

Man, you're stupid.

Re:Trouble?

[ocie]

Hear hear. I think they are barking up the wrong tree. The bigger problem I'd see for foreigners is that none of our coins have a value in arabic numerals. Some don't even spell out the value.

Re:Trouble?

[icemind]

Yep, that always gets me. Nickel, Dime, Quarter? Huh? :) (OK, Quarter is obvious, but other than that).

Re:Trouble?

[mosch]

yes, avoid department stores that hire idiots such as:

• bloomingdale's
• the bon marche
• burdine's
• dillard's
• famous-barr
• filene's
• foley's
• goldsmith's
• harrod's
• hecht's
• jc penney
• the jones store
• kaufmann's
• lazarus
• lord & taylor
• l.s. ayres
• macy's
• mark's & spencer
• meier & frank
• neimann marcus
• nordstrom's
• robinson's-may
• rich's
• saks fifth avenue
• strawbridge's

oh wait, i forgot, smart people generally don't aspire to working in retail, thus making every store chock full o retards.

Re:Trouble?

[mosch]

no problem, i'll read the clearly printed numerals that are located somewhere on the notes. same as i'd do in thailand, taiwan, china, israel, vietnam, phillipines, russia, uganda, saudi arabia, india, sri lanka, afghanistan, iran, iraq.... actually i don't know of any country that doesn't print arabic numerals on their paper money.

coins on the other hand are a whole different story...

Re:Trouble?

[jedidiah]

One has to wonder if the saying "Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery" originated with the Japenese... '-)

Re:Trouble?

[jedidiah]

I have no confidence in attempts to idiot-proof our currency. There will always be a "better idiot". This is especially true for vocations that typically pay minimum wage.

Blinking holographic banners won't prevent clerks giving you change for the wrong denomination.

Re:Trouble?

[elmegil]

So I take it each of these places has fucked up your change? My supreme pity for you. I have to say I've shopped in a few of them, and never had that problem.

Re:Trouble?

[Citizen of Earth]

The style of the US currency makes me wonder how bills printed in the early 1800s could still be in such good shape today.

Re:Trouble?

[Eil]

Our money is pretty boring compared to "exciting" foreign money.

That is until these new-fangled bill come out and all the non-Americans remark about how frilly and showy-off our currency is. Those pompous American are at it again, this time with their dollar bills!

Re:Trouble?

[Mandelbrute]

Our money is pretty boring

That's a feature, darnit!

Yes, it makes it nice and easy to copy. A couple of years ago there was an estimate printed in New Scientist that around one fifth of the US dollars floating around Europe were not printed at the US mint. That's a serious amount of cash, there's almost as much money in US dollars outside of the USA than inside (hence the currency fluctuations since last year).

US bills demand respect

Yes, they look just like the money out of monopoly only all the same colour and printed on toilet paper! They are respected for the value they represent, not for what they look like. There are certainly advantages to polymer money, like durability, being able to go for a swim with a wallet full of cash and the unexpected one of being able to scratch off the hologram of your ruler with a coin.

Re:Trouble?

[macom]

One would think the big number in each corner would be a pretty big giveaway as to the bill's value.

As a foreigner who had to learn all US money which is all the same color and all green, from brightly coloured Australian money, it is confusing at first. You have to organize your wallet different for starters. When I first starting using US dollars I would pull out a bunch of green notes and flick through them individually, looking at the numbers to determine their worth. Coins are all different sizes too and have different names.

It takes a while to get used to, but isnt an issue after about 6 months. That is about when the culture shock passes anyway. Things that were so obviously different cease to be after about 6 months.

mocom--

Re:Trouble?

[brandorf]

To quote a friend of mine, after showing him the article "By the time I get used to it, they will have changed it again, and I won't know if I'm holding 20 dollars or green toilet paper."

Re:Trouble?

[ColaMan]

Maybe the problem is that a lot of foreigners simply cannot accept prices that don't have a ton of zeroes tacked on?

I live in australia and recently went to indonesia on business.
Presently , you get around 5,000 rupiah for an australian dollar... which makes it more than a little mind-bending :

They have 100,000 rupiah notes, and it seems everyone has a handful of them!

Calculators have 13 digit displays!

I read the paper and they're casually mentioning 40 billion rupiah figures, and they're only talking about a block of flats!

Thing is , they still use the lower end of the scale. Petrol costs around 800 rupiah per litre,
a few vege's will cost 500 etc. It really freaked out our accountant - he kept saying "What!? 20,000 for pizza!? Let's get something else!" I'd have to remind him that it was only four bucks ....

Re:Trouble?

[commodoresloat]

around one fifth of the US dollars floating around Europe were not printed at the US mint.

Interestingly though a good portion of real US currency is out of circulation (being horded somewhere, under a mattress, or in a hardened bunker on a desert islant). So perhaps this evens out in some way...

Re:Trouble?

[Corgha]

There are certainly advantages to polymer money, like durability, being able to go for a swim with a wallet full of cash

It's not as if bills are printed on "normal" paper.

I haven't done so recently, but when I was younger, I went swimming with U.S. currency in my pocket (later in a wallet in my pocket) all the time. That cash got seriously drenched for hours at a time, and the bills still separated cleanly and did not fall apart when I went to go buy a hot dog and a Coke. Every now and then I send a bill through the wash, and it comes out OK (and a bit cleaner, usually -- reminds me of that scene in "Bound").

Obviously, the bills probably get slightly weaker, and they probably would start to rot if left wet for too long, but for those of us who don't use underwater ATMs, it's never been an issue.

Re:Trouble?

[ksheff]

US currency can go through a washing machine and a clothes dryer just fine, so it should be ok after your swim. It's not regular paper. It's cloth.

Re:Trouble?

[Storm Damage]

I can't speak for other countries' money, but in Japan, at least, all coins except the 5-yen have arabic numerals.

Congress

[Wyatt Earp]

Congress will raise a terrible stink about this.

They went around and around with Tres over the last modification of the bills.

I doubt it will happen.

Re:Congress

[DEBEDb]

They went around and around with Tres over the last modification of the bills.

So there are people who really care about this?

Re:Congress

[RunzWithScissors]

Congress has already approved the changes. The changes relate to a bill that passed several years ago when the Treasury department wanted to change the faces, add color changing ink, watermarks, etc. to our "new" bills. The legislature that was passed used very open language that allows the Treasury department to modify the look of US money in an attempt to foil counterfieters. However, the changes to money must be consistant with that goal. For example, we can't just start putting out quarters with holes in them just because its "exotic".

In an article on the front page of the USA Today, "...each denomination will feature a combination of 'subtle' [exact word from Treasury representatives] colors in areas that are now neutral." The first bill to be updated? The venerable $20, with $50s and $100s to follow no more than a year and a half later.

The other interesting thing that the USA Today article points out: "Companies spent $350 million to retrofit [vending] machines in the last change in 1996, according to the National Automatic Merchandising Association. Metro, Washington D.C.'s subway system, spent $2.5 million to retrofit it's fare card machines six years ago." I remember that. It totally sucked to ride the Metro for about 6 months unless you had an old style $20. Maybe this time it'll go a bit smoother since companies had to do it in recent memory.

-Runz

You've got to be kidding me

[Clue4All]

"International visitors complain 'We can't tell your denominations apart,'" said the Bureau of Engraving and Printing which will release new versions of the $20, $50 and $100 bills next year.

What you mean besides having different pictures and a HUGE FUCKING NUMBER on them? This just seems silly to me.

Re:You've got to be kidding me

[tomhudson]

Well, it's harder at night, in a club, when you've had a few too many ...

Re:You've got to be kidding me

[Saige]

Remember, most people from other countries can tell the denominations of bills apart by just a quick glance at their color.

Imagine growing up, always having color as an identifying mark for currency. Suddenly, you're somewhere else, you pull out your money, and it's all the same color! Sure, they can look at it, but it's more effort than they're used to. Sure, not that much effort overall, but when you're used to one thing, and you have to do a little more, that can really throw you off.

Go try dialing a rotary phone, and see if you don't find it annoying just because of the time difference.

Re:You've got to be kidding me

[SteelX]

So we should all switch to rotary phones because some tourists might use them in the homeland? Screw that

I think the difference here is that it's not just "some tourists" who're affected by this. AFAIK almost all countries in the world have different colored currency notes.

Re:You've got to be kidding me

[ebh]

Imagine growing up, always having color as an identifying mark for currency. Suddenly, you're somewhere else, you pull out your money, and it's all the same color!

When I was in Costa Rica, One of the locals made the same complaint about US buses. In CR, the buses on different routes are different colors (often because they're run by different companies).

Re:You've got to be kidding me

[Wraithlyn]

What is with all the posts saying "The number is good enough"? Just sounds like stubborn anti-change sentiment to me. Should all traffic signs and signals be the same colour, because the wording and/or shapes should be good enough? Colour association is an important visual cue, it WILL make the bills easier to differentiate. Period.

Re:You've got to be kidding me

[Just Some Guy]

If I can tell at a glance how much money I'm carrying, then so can the guy next to me. I really don't want to be using a vending machine in a bad part of town and have some thug see that I have some blue (one dollar), green (five dollar), and neon yellow with orange trim (100 dollar) bills. I'd prefer that said thug only see the $1 bill on the top of the stack and leave me alone.

Re:You've got to be kidding me

[Wraithlyn]

Boy is your post confused. First of all, nobody said anything about 'changing for the sake of change'. I said change because it will aid in differentiating them, and that is a very useful property for pieces of paper with radically different valuations, don't you think?

Second, what does your Chinese/English example have to do with 'changing for the sake of change'? Here you're talking about changing to conform with the majority, which is something else entirely.

Re:You've got to be kidding me

[JonWan]

Go try dialing a rotary phone, and see if you don't find it annoying just because of the time difference.

Dude, my main phone is a 40+ year old rotary and I like it just fine, besides it looks cool!

Re:You've got to be kidding me

[rsidd]

Point. New York is the only city I've seen where the pedestrian signs say "Don't walk" in a whitish yellow or "Walk" in a yellowish white. If that's good enough for Americans, greenbacks are good enough too...

Re:You've got to be kidding me

[Carbonite]

Should all traffic signs and signals be the same colour, because the wording and/or shapes should be good enough?

Well, all speed limit signs are the same shape and color because they all serve the same purpose. All bills are the same shape and color because they are designed to show their value.

Re:You've got to be kidding me

[krogoth]

Yeah, now you try that on some foreign currency.

Re:You've got to be kidding me

[Skidge]

Different sizes/colors help immensely when handling US coins. Can you imagine what a PitA it would be if all of our coins were the same size, shape and color, with just the values printed on them?

Differentiating the paper bills will help in the same way.

Re:You've got to be kidding me

[Saige]

But if you CAN'T tell at a glance how much money you have, then you need to pull it all out and count it. Which means it's out and available to grab for much more time, giving others more opportunity to see it.

The monochrome is useful if you know how much you have - if you need to count it, at least to a general idea, then colors would be many times more useful for that purpose.

If you're in line at a concert, and want to find out if you have enough for a couple t-shirts, would you rather pull out a wad of bills and carefully count them, or pull them out, glance at them, and put them back? Or even better, not take them out of your purse/wallet, and just glance at the edges? I sure would find that easier.

Re:You've got to be kidding me

[SimplyCosmic]

Wraithlyn said:

"Just sounds like stubborn anti-change sentiment to me."

Wait ... so what you're saying is that the population of a country is bad for being "anti-change", when the reason given for the change is to stop inconvieniencing a smaller number of tourists who are complaining about the change from the color system of currency of their home country?

Should we also adopt the currency systems (euros, marks, etc) because of the inconvienience to foreign visitors?

Re:You've got to be kidding me

[SpryGuy]

Well, the new bills looks different under black light. Each has a "security stripe" in it, and each glows a different color under black light. So our money is already color coded. You just can't tell unless you're looking at it under a black light! :-)

Re:You've got to be kidding me

[scrytch]

Erm ... maybe you shouldn't be pulling out a thick wad of cash in a bad part of town, no matter what the denominations? Just a suggestion...

Re:You've got to be kidding me

[Fat Casper]

AFAIK almost all countries in the world have different colored currency notes.

Um... So?

We don't have a lot of things here in the US that are pretty standard everywhere else, and vice versa. I see those people on CNN all the time, and you want us to imitate them? What concrete advantage will US citizens derive from another money change? For tourists who want the US and monopoly money, all I can say is Euro Disney, boys.

Re:You've got to be kidding me

[Wraithlyn]

I agree. I don't think the "all other countries do it" in itself is a compelling reason whatsoever.

I just think multi colour money is helpful. Which is why all the other countries have adopted it. They're a proof-of-concept indicator, not a reason.

Re:You've got to be kidding me

[Mr Windows]

If I can tell at a glance how much money I'm carrying, then so can the guy next to me.

Good point, there: Muggers always take the trouble to count your stash before they grab it, don't they...

Re:You've got to be kidding me

[Glytch]

I wish that US coins had the denominations printed on them. Here in Canada the coins are the same size for the same US denominations, but for non-North Americans it's immensely confusing.

Re:You've got to be kidding me

[Wraithlyn]

I never breathed a word about tourists. Colour coding would be helpful to everyone.

Re:You've got to be kidding me

[brank]

I'm not anti-change. America should use the metric system. But changing the dollar (my dollar) to suit visitors?

The key is that I don't like the metric system just because everybody else is using it, but because it's easier. Who cares what everbody else is doing? I want what's best, not what's popular.

That said, I'm against colored money because the green bills are an American symbol just as important as any big building in Washington or a dynamited mountain. We even have a word for it: "greenbacks". There's no real reason to sacrifice this beloved symbol. The article even alludes to this.

Maybe so few Americans favor colored money because they feel the same way. After all, we don't go mocking your national treasures or symbols do we? (Well, yes, but....)

As for the advantages of varying sizes or color, I don't really think so. I can tell the difference between Andrew Jackson's face and Washington's face almost as easily as between, say, green and red. I bet for a color-blind person the difference is even bigger. A stack of uniform bills just looks better in my wallet or sitting on a table.

Different colors or sizes would probably gain only a few milliseconds at the expense of ascetics and one of the most distinctive American symbols.

Re:You've got to be kidding me

[stew-a-cide]

It's easy to tell when you look at the side of the coin - it seems the US Mint "paints" their coins with shiny metal (looks very cheap, at least for someone used to Canadian coinage), while Canadian coins are the same colour all over.

Re:You've got to be kidding me

[ubernostrum]

Imagine growing up, always having your language as a means of communication. Suddenly you're somewhere else, you speak your language, and nobody understands you!

That's the novelty of going somewhere foreign, IMO; they do things differently there. When I travel abroad, I will not complain about how I'm not used to color-coded money and ask the governmnent there to please change it for my convenience; I'll adapt to it as I would to any local peculiarity. When foreigners come here, I expect them to return the favor. Preserve diversity. Let the U.S. do what it likes (oh, the irnoy of those two statements actually working together).

About goddamn time

[James_G]

I've lived in the US for 3 years now, and I'm still incredulous as to how backward the US paper currency is compared to other countries. The anti-counterfeit measures are basically non-existant, and the notes all look absolutely identical. Digging through your wallet it's impossible to know if something is a 5 or a 10 just by glancing at it, so to see how much cash you have is a long winded counting process.

In the UK, paper notes all have a brightly coloured square/triangle/circle etc. which help people who are partially sighted identify them. They're also slightly different sizes to help completely blind people identify the differences.

Apparently, up until now people in the US are patriotic to the extreme and can't stand to see their precious 'greenbacks' changed.. so it's about time this happened.. Let's hope they don't encounter too much resistance eh?

Re:About goddamn time

[elmegil]

it's impossible to know if something is a 5 or a 10 just by glancing at it, so to see how much cash you have is a long winded counting process.

Yah, 'cos you know colors add in your head so much easier than numbers.

Re:About goddamn time

[Neil Watson]

They still have to switch to metric first. Apparently crashing a multi-million dollar space probe due to a feet to meters conversion is not incentive enough.

Re:About goddamn time

[doooras]

i've never had any trouble knowing how much money i have in my wallet, even without playstation symbols on it.

Re:About goddamn time

[leucadiadude]

"The anti-counterfeit measures are basically non-existant"

Wrong.

Just because you personally can't see or detect the methods of protection, doesn't mean they aren't there. It's actually EXTREMELY hard to copy $10 and up denonmination bills reliably.

Re:About goddamn time

[Anonymous Coward]

I've lived in the US for 3 years now, and I'm still incredulous as to how backward the US paper currency is compared to other countries. The anti-counterfeit measures are basically non-existant, and the notes all look absolutely identical. Digging through your wallet it's impossible to know if something is a 5 or a 10 just by glancing at it, so to see how much cash you have is a long winded counting process.

Anti-counterfeit nonexistent? I don't really know what means, the bills have lots of features microprinting, some have watermarks, infrared lines, etc. Not to mention that any cashier in the nation can just run a pen down them to see if they're real or not..happens all the time if you use 20's or 100's at stores like Walmart.

As for hard to use? I imagine your money would be hard to use for me. The different faces (which are QUITE big) not to mention the LARGE demonination symbols printed not once..not twice..but *8* times on each bill kinda give it away.

Apparently, up until now people in the US are patriotic to the extreme and can't stand to see their precious 'greenbacks' changed.. so it's about time this happened.. Let's hope they don't encounter too much resistance eh?

Ahah! The "eh" gave it away...a Canadian in disguise. Your smoothing talk about "in the UK" can't fool us ;)

Re:About goddamn time

[cr@ckwhore]

"The anti-counterfeit measures are basically non-existant"...

... except for the watermarks, microprint, iridescent markings, micro engraved printing process, blue and red fibers embedded in the linen paper, and the micro-thin plastic strip embedded in each bill.

Re:About goddamn time

[Saige]

Apparently, up until now people in the US are patriotic to the extreme and can't stand to see their precious 'greenbacks' changed.. so it's about time this happened.. Let's hope they don't encounter too much resistance eh?

They are going to encounter a ton of resitance from US citizens. Heck, just read the messages in this disussion so far, and you'll see that even geeks, the ones you think would be more interested in new things and change, are freaking out, and attacking the idea even though there's not a single valid complaint that I've seen so far.

It's all been "I don't want a rainbow in my wallet" or accusing non-Americans of being unable to read numbers (though they don't realize most non-Americans don't read the numbers on their currency because they use different colors, so they're not used to it).

I suspect the public outcry against this will be huge, and people might even try and find some way to work 9/11 and "not surrendering to terrorists" into this.

It's no wonder that Europe and Japan create fancy new technology and implement it left and right (maglev trains, alternative fuel cars, etc), while America sticks to inventing weapons of war, new food additives, and new ways to patent/copyright information so that nobody can use it - cause new technology requires new ideas and change, and if even the geeks can't accept the color of their money changing, imagine something that could actually be disruptive.

Re:About goddamn time

[jmv]

Just because you personally can't see or detect the methods of protection, doesn't mean they aren't there.

What's the use of having a great copy-protection method when people can't tell the difference just by looking at it. In many places, new bills have a hologram printed on them, so you can see easily if it's been copied (with a color copier or something simple). With US bills, I doubt you can tell quite easily... and how many people/stores check all bills very carefully?

Re:About goddamn time

[southpolesammy]

This is probably a troll, but what the heck...

The anti-counterfeit measures are basically non-existant

Not true. Go to the Secret Service's webpage based on the measures they've taken. Just because you can't see them, doesn't mean they're not there.

it's impossible to know if something is a 5 or a 10 just by glancing at it

You mean, like looking at the big number in each corner of the paper? Different question: Are you telling me that you need a color-based mnemonic to remember a numeric-based mnemonic as to the representation of the value of the currency? IOW, Red=5 is easier to remember than 5=5?

Re:About goddamn time

[Jobe_br]

Absolutely. First you'll need the ink that is detectable by UV light, you'll need something that can ultra-finely print for the text that goes around the image (most printers don't have that kind of resolution), then there's the strip through the bill (w/o which the bill is useless - if you want to try, just take it out and take it to a bank), the watermarked image you can see if you hold it up to the light (just like all european currency), then there's something special about the weaving on some portions of the pictures that's apparently very difficult to duplicate, the paper has strands of different materials infused in it (so it doesn't look like homogenous paper), even matching the (one) color of green on the bills is apparently very difficult.

Plenty of security protections there ... what did you think, that the worlds most used currency *wouldn't* have some top-of-the-line security protections?

Re:About goddamn time

[Fyndo]

Not to mention that any cashier in the nation can just run a pen down them to see if they're real or not..

Of course, the pens don't work. Most just consist of an iodine solution, that turns black when it comes into contact with the starch in the cheap paper the counterfters supposedly use. (Or the starch in the flour from the pizza store it was in, or the spary starch James Randi uses on $50's just to trip up the pens and make a point).

Re:About goddamn time

[killmenow]

Me niether.

It's always $0.

Re:About goddamn time

[nostriluu]

Heck, just read the messages in this disussion so far, and you'll see that even geeks, the ones you think would be more interested in new things and change, are freaking out, and attacking the idea even though there's not a single valid complaint that I've seen so far.

I don't know where you get this impression. Geeks can be just as conservative as any other group. It may be a stereotype that geeks are more "progressive," just like it's a stereotype that older people are more conservative, but in reality I've seen plenty of older, life-long, progressive people, and it's very common to see conservative geeks clinging to their beliefs for the sake of feeling they are on top of things, just like any other redneck. In fact, many geeks get by (and perhaps even build up their skills) by sticking to a set of beliefs, stereotypes, prejudgements, when in reality, except for a few examples, life is really much more open to other realities.

Re:About goddamn time

[EvlG]

...what did you think, that the worlds most used currency *wouldn't* have some top-of-the-line security protections?

Well naturally he would think that. After all, the world's most used operating system doesn't have "top-of-the-line security protections"...

Re:About goddamn time

[meknapp]

I think your dancing around something but not seeing it:

They are going to encounter a ton of resitance from US citizens. Heck, just read the messages in this disussion so far, and you'll see that even geeks, the ones you think would be more interested in new things and change, are freaking out, and attacking the idea even though there's not a single valid complaint that I've seen so far.

Think about that: people not normally resistant to change are resistant to this. Maybe there's something to that!
The point is to US Citizens Greenbacks are as important a symbol of our country as the Flag, the Statue of Liberty, or the Liberty Bell. Imagine how the French would feel if someone suggested painting the Eiffel tower in all different neons to make it stand out more.

P.S. We should go metric, though. ;)

Re:About goddamn time

[Tsugumi]

Just because you can't see them, doesn't mean they're not there.

I dunno - they may be good enough for the Fed to remove them from circulation, but they do little to protect consumers and businesses. Here in the UK, you can pretty much tell if a note is genuine by running your fingers across the embossed writing, checking the foil strip, and then the watermarks. The new fivers have UV stuff too. When I was in the US, if it was green and had numbers on it, it was good enough for me...

Re:About goddamn time

[krogoth]

You're right, it is a troll. When you read 5, you know what it means - but first you have to take the time to find it on the bill, read it, and understand that. With a color, you just need to see the bill. And besides, you probably have good eyesight, at least compared to some people.

Re:About goddamn time

[EvanED]

And because everyone carries all the equipment (UV lights with generator, etc.) to check bills everywhere, you never have to be swindled.

It would make more sense if they had security devices that are both extremely hard to copy AND easy to spot at a glance...

Re:About goddamn time

[James_G]

You mean, like looking at the big number in each corner of the paper?

My point being, for partially sighted people.. The addition of colours makes it far easier for them to identify notes.

Re:About goddamn time

[nostriluu]

Imagine how the French would feel if someone suggested painting the Eiffel tower in all different neons to make it stand out more.

The Eiffel Tower was covered with blinking lights for the last year or so as part of a celebration, though I think they've been removed for a little while. It was very pretty.

Re:About goddamn time

[PK_ERTW]

"The anti-counterfeit measures are basically non-existant"...

... except for the watermarks, microprint, iridescent markings, micro engraved printing process, blue and red fibers embedded in the linen paper, and the micro-thin plastic strip embedded in each bill.

I am sure that he was referring to "in comparison to other countries." Yes you may have some anti-counterfit measures, but American money is still very simple to copy, much simpler than others around the world.

That and the anticounterfit measures have to be readily and easily visible to the average cashier, or else they are pretty much useless.

PK

Re:About goddamn time

[Brian_Ellenberger]

>It's no wonder that Europe and Japan create >fancy new technology and implement it left and >right (maglev trains, alternative fuel cars, >etc), while America sticks to inventing weapons >of war, new food additives, and new ways to >patent/copyright information so that nobody can

Yea, I love those awesome flying cars they have in Japan that run on H2O and cause zero polution!

Seriously dude, what the heck are you talking about? Do you actually think the rest of the world is lightyears ahead of us in technology? I mean, if there were all these magical things Japan and Europe invented don't you think they would be making a killing selling them to us? Come on.

There are societal/economical reasons why things like maglev trains don't work as well here. Things like wanting the freedom of your own house and wanting to drive where you want to when you want to.

As for those evil Americans "inventing weapons of war", well guess what---your using one of those "weapons" right now. The Internet started as DARPANET--A Defense Department network designed to keep communication going during nuclear attack.

Brian Ellenberger

Re:About goddamn time

[markov_chain]

I'm all for new interesting things and change if it will help us. However, I just don't see how coloring the money helps-- as the press release states, it seems that $45 million in counterfeit money entered circulation in 2001. How much did the US companies spend on retrofitting their vending machines? According to this article pointed out by another reader, $350 million! It doesn't seem like a good idea to me...

Re:About goddamn time

[jedrek]

Correct me if I'm wrong but, I recall that it's illegal just to make the paper (which is actually more like cotton cloth).

As for bitching about a lack of security measures and counterfiting... In my 10 years in Europe I've run into about half a dozen counterfit bills. Compare that to the zero (0) bills I encountered during my 10 years in the states. The US Secret Service *really* takes counterfiting seriously, they don't fuck arround. Remember: security is a process, not a feature.

(A bit OT, but I've noticed britons really go for security 'toys' when guarding something. For example: German train yards don't use a lot of cameras and such, but they're well guarded by people - including security that 'camps out' in some trains. British train yards are covered with cameras, laser trip wires, motion detectors... but it's enough to go in, bust the equipment and it's pretty much clear for the week till they come in to repair everything.)

Re:About goddamn time

[kboy1]

>Different question: Are you telling me that you
>need a color-based mnemonic to remember a
>numeric-based mnemonic as to the representation
>of the value of the currency? IOW, Red=5 is
>easier to remember than 5=5?

It's not like you're being asked to retrain yourself to recognize money SOLELY on colour; they're not taking the numbers away. It's just an additional visual aid.

Glance inside your wallet and try to ballpark how much money you have. I find it infuriatingly difficult to do that with American money. Sure I have a thick wad of bills in there, but until I pull them out and look at each one, I don't realize that half of them are 1 dollar bills.

With Canadian money (for example), I ripple through the bills in my wallet, and almost without consciously looking, I have an idea of how much money I've got.

Plus, it's much harder to accidentally miss a 50 in a stack of 20s when the 20s are green and the 50 is bright red.

---
Kern Lewin

Re:About goddamn time

[cicadia]

Yah, 'cos you know colors add in your head so much easier than numbers.

Sure, why not? They're both just arbitrary symbols.

If I look in my wallet, and I've got two blues, a red and a green, then I know I've got $80. I don't do any algebraic addition, but then, neither do you when you see two $5's, a $20 and a $50.

Re:About goddamn time

[truesaer]

It's no wonder that Europe and Japan create fancy new technology and implement it left and right (maglev trains, alternative fuel cars, etc), while America sticks to inventing weapons of war, new food additives, and new ways to patent/copyright information so that nobody can use it

We don't invent that stuff because we can't make billions of dollars doing it. Weapons, additives, and IP are highly profitable.

Re:About goddamn time

[afidel]

Things on the redisigned greenbacks already in circulation for a half decade include:Color shifting dye for numeric symbol on 10's and greater, denomination strip for 20's and higher, offset pictures with watermark. The consistancy and chemical makup of the bills also works well, with a simple ph indicator 90+% of forgeries can be detected, that is why most places check 20's and greater with a marking pen, and most people will detect cheap forgeries just by handling the bill. Against more sophisticated forgers they have things like the microprinting that makes the dye's so expensive to make that you would have to creat literally millions in counterfits just to recoup your investment. Add to that that banks routinly check serial numbers to see if they are valid for the denomination of the bill. Despite being the most easily transferable currency on the planet the greenback suffers from a fairly low rate of counterfitting, at least in the US.

Re:About goddamn time

[Malc]

> > it's impossible to know if something is a 5 or a
> > 10 just by glancing at it
> >
>
> You mean, like looking at the big number in each
> corner of the paper? Different question: Are you
> telling me that you need a color-based mnemonic to
> remember a numeric-based mnemonic as to the
> representation of the value of the currency? IOW,
> Red=5 is easier to remember than 5=5?

Where I live, I don't even need to look at the numbers. The notes are different sizes and different colours. I can get a rough feel for what's in my wallet with just the briefest of glances. (If I were blind, I could probably do the same very quickly by touch). I lived in the US for 3 years, and I can tell you that it's not possible to do this there. You have to go through every bill and look at the number. That might not seem like a big deal, but it's very frustrating and irritating when you've never had to do that before.

Re:About goddamn time

[southpolesammy]

OK, I'm going to pick nits here, but...

What if you're colorblind?

Re:About goddamn time

[VEGx]

You sound so damn stupid that I'm not sure if I should tell this coz I doubt you get it... anyway, here it comes.

Since you haven't handled foreign currency you might not understand what people are talking about. It's like talking about colors to someone who is blind. But I will try.

With dollar notes, you have to take it OUT and LOOK at the number. In other countries, you can sort the notes by their size. You can separate 1s, 5s, 10s and 100s very fast. You don't have to look at EVERY note.

If you want to a dollar to the beggar you just take the smallest sized note you have. You don't have worry giving away a $100 note.

Re:About goddamn time

[Nagash]

You mean, like looking at the big number in each corner of the paper? Different question: Are you telling me that you need a color-based mnemonic to remember a numeric-based mnemonic as to the representation of the value of the currency? IOW, Red=5 is easier to remember than 5=5?

It sounds like you don't think the number will be printed on the bill in addition to the colour.

As a Canadian, I am used to coloured money (with the number) and while I am currently at Caltech for a month, I can tell you that looking in my wallet to see American money all the time is a rather different experience. For starters, I have to check the bills more meticulously to see how much I have. With Canadian money, I can just glance at my wallet and have a pretty good idea. ("Oh - I have a bunch of 5s" or "Good - I got a 20 in there")

While anecdotal (thus, not proof of anything), I found it interesting that I've never had a problem with lack of recognition of bills in Canada but when I was at the Tampa airport last year, I got a snack and the clerk gave me a 20 instead of a 10 for change. Neither one of us noticed right away. This was one of my only purchases while there.

Woz

Re:About goddamn time

[Yunzil]

Here in the UK, you can pretty much tell if a note is genuine by running your fingers across the embossed writing, checking the foil strip, and then the watermarks.

You ARE aware that US money has a strip embedded in the paper, has watermarks, and is printed on special paper that has a certain, well, money-like texture? Right?

Re:About goddamn time

[Malc]

I guess you don't rely on colour then, and probably slowed down a bit! That's why they're different sizes, and for example in Britain why they have a large solid geometric shape like a square or triangle on them (the shape is easier to read for partially-sighted people than the numbers are).

Re:About goddamn time

[elmegil]

That's pretty much my point. Why change what works for something that doesn't work any better, and will probably confuse a lot of people. Of course, I realize that they aren't taking the numbers away, but even so. The argument originally posed was that colors were somehow easier than arabic numerals, which they aren't.

Re:About goddamn time

[doooras]

well, i guess that means they work just fine. if the pen leaves a black mark, don't take the damned bill. if people don't like it, i guess they shouldn't dip their money in pizza flour.

Re:About goddamn time

[ryanvm]

Not true. Go to the Secret Service's webpage based on the measures they've taken. Just because you can't see them, doesn't mean they're not there.

How the hell are you supposed to know if someone's passing you counterfeit bills if the countermeasures are hidden to the naked eye? Maybe this has something to do with the fact that U.S. currency is the most successfully counterfeited money in the world.

Re:About goddamn time

[avsed]

But the notes are all one colour, and one size, and lack holograms! I can't believe the resistance to any kind of change I'm seeing on a GEEK site! When I stayed in the US for a few years it became obvious to me that the mainstream of society was so conservative that they'd rather retain the use of paper money to buy a soda then accept a far more ergonomic coin for their unit of currency (yes, yes, I know about the ill-fated dollar coins). Having to take out a bunch of notes from my wallet and check them before getting a cab also wasn't the greatest thing when I was blind drunk in downtown Palo Alto - back at home in England, there's no need to fumble around with my wallet thumbing the notes to check whether I've spent £100 or £50 on a night out.

Come on America, time for some change ...

Dan

Re:About goddamn time

[Dolly_Llama]

Do you actually think the rest of the world is lightyears ahead of us in technology? I mean, if there were all these magical things Japan and Europe invented don't you think they would be making a killing selling them to us? Come on.

In other news, the US trade deficit is now at $35 billion. Next question?

Re:About goddamn time

[Pretzalzz]

Okay, you want a single valid complaint? It is the practice of this country to never recall money. A bill from 1842 is considered legal tender(though it would be significantly more valuable as a collector's item). The only way the money changes is that whenever a bank gets a hold of an old note it exchanges it with the treasury and circulates the new version. The process takes several years during which time I can guarentee you that foreigners are going to be a hundred times more confused that half their twenties are red and the other half are green and the one will probably remain green in this scenario....

Re:About goddamn time

[SteelX]

I think the difference is that the vending machine cost of $350 million is a one-time cost, while $45 million (or more) of counterfeiting happens every year.

Re:About goddamn time

[Moridineas]

It's no wonder that Europe and Japan create fancy new technology and implement it left and right (maglev trains, alternative fuel cars, etc), while America sticks to inventing weapons of war, new food additives, and new ways to patent/copyright information so that nobody can use it - cause new technology requires new ideas and change, and if even the geeks can't accept the color of their money changing, imagine something that could actually be disruptive.

This is such bullshit. Why is it so chic to be anti-American right now? I would bother refuting your brainless argument if it wasn't so clearly a typical of present day anti-american sentiment.

If you want to know who makes tech people need, just look at import/export numbers--compare your european utopia of choice to the american hellhole, and be pleasantly surprised.

Re:About goddamn time

[James_G]

Well, like I said.. on UK money they have large coloured shapes, so if you're colour blind, you can tell by looking at the shape alone (Square, circle, triangle, etc). The colour is contrasted enough that it is easy for even a colour blind person to tell the shape at a glance.

Here's an image I found on Google of a 20 ukp note, you can just see the purple square at the bottom

On the other hand, if my understanding of colour blindness is correct, colour-blind people tend to have a hard time differentiating between certain colours rather than not being able to see them at all (Red and green is fairly typical, if I remember correctly). I suspect the colours on the banknotes are also chose to minimize the similarities in this situation..

Re:About goddamn time

[macwhiz]

US bills $10 and up have a color-shifting hologrammatic ink that changes from green to black as the viewing angle is changed. It's one of many ways to check the legitimacy of US currency:

• Color-shifting ink
• Watermark portrait offset from the main portrait, visible by holding the bill up to the light
• Security strip with denomination microprinted on it, located at a different place for each denomination, which glows different colors for each denomination when exposed to UV light
• Microprinting around the portrait
• Cotton-based "paper" with red and blue security threads embedded, which feels very different from standard office paper
• Intaglio printing process, which has a distinctive "embossing" effect and ink bleed pattern

Even with all these features, there are people who still accept obvious counterfeits. Anyone who has worked retail while not stoned can tell you that US paper money has a unique feel, and a counterfeit printed on inkjet paper feels and sounds wrong when handled.

Modern US currency has enough security features that the "counterfeit detector" pens sold to check the composition of the bill are a rip-off. If there's any doubt, anyone with reasonably normal corrected eyesight, or a magnifying glass, can easily check the security features.

I fear that colorizing the money will lead to increased counterfeiting, as people won't be familiar with the new bills and therefore won't know what's "wrong" about them. This has already happened with the most recent redesign. Counterfeiters got away with using green glitter sprinkles to duplicate the color shifting ink, because people weren't familiar with it.

Re:About goddamn time

[Mandelbrute]

"The anti-counterfeit measures are basically non-existant"...

... except for the watermarks ...

The world has moved on. It isn't the 1930s anymore, those tricks are failing on a regular basis and having enormous values on bills means that people have found it worth it to buy the stuff they need to do good reproductions.

Perhaps applying 1980s or above technologies won't work either due to the huge value of some bills. You guys have $500 bills don't you? If a crim has to spend half that to make every bill it is certainly worth their while. Perhaps phasing out the big bills and pushing more electronic funds transfer may help (although security is sometimes pretty bad there).

Re:About goddamn time

[Mandelbrute]

I mean, if there were all these magical things Japan and Europe invented don't you think they would be making a killing selling them to us?

Um, they have - look at all the Toyotas and Mercs for a start, then look at high tech industries led by Du Pont, Siemens, Fujitsu, Sony etc. Then take a look at American plumbing! That said, conservatism is rife everywhere and it takes a while for good ideas to take hold, and I don't know what this has to do with US cash anyway. Just fix the stuff so that it can't be copied so easily.

Re:About goddamn time

[Inthewire]

So that cost would fall to what?

Re:About goddamn time

[quantaman]

Seriously dude, what the heck are you talking about? Do you actually think the rest of the world is lightyears ahead of us in technology? I mean, if there were all these magical things Japan and Europe invented don't you think they would be making a killing selling them to us? Come on.

Uhhh... You mean like the Honda Insight? Or maybe a playstation, or nintendo?


There are societal/economical reasons why things like maglev trains don't work as well here. Things like wanting the freedom of your own house and wanting to drive where you want to when you want to.
So if you take the train you don't own your own house and it's faster to drive during rushhour then take a train that quickly goes to your destination or drive a small very fuel-efficient smart car? Lightyears ahead in technology? Not really. Infastructure? Yes. The fact is that the extreme wealth of the American consumer has lead to extreme excess. What possible use to 90% of the people who buy SUVs have for them? Have you seen a commercial for the Swiffer? One of the premier messages in the advertisement is the fact that you get to throw away things! It's is just like in the 19th century when smoke billowing out from factories was equated with progress. How far ahead some aspects of the technology in Europe is ahead is debatable but the difference is that it is being utilized. True this is due largely to the dense population of Europe but the fact remains that it leads to a difference in mindset. It's american nationalism and tastes that keeps these technologies out of the US. How many high speed trains are there in the US, I'm not sure because I'm in Canada but I'm sure that a network of high speed trains connecting major cities would be very advantageous to buisness (comparable to aircraft in speed and much more reliable and convenient).

Re:About goddamn time

[vslashg]

We specifically don't have $500 bills anymore. The Treasury stopped circulating them in 1969. They were not all destroyed and are still legal tender, but at this point they're worth more than face value to collectors.

They are so rare and would come under such scrutiny, that counterfeiting $500 bills would be silly.

Re:About goddamn time

[DynamicBits]

The treasury dept. never designed bills to work with those stupid pens. Technically, those pens deface money and are thus illegal. It takes less effort to hold the bill up and look for the thread that runs from top to bottom.

I used to work at a place that had those waste-of-time pens. I always held my bills up to look for the thread while most everyone else used the pens. Guess what.. I never accepted any counterfeit bills. Those pens wasted so much time. The results were not consistent and it took two hands to do. The bill had to be set down, written on, and looked at after waiting a little while.

No one should have their money refused solely because of the results of that stupid pen. Can someone help it if their bill was used four people ago to pay for a pizza?

Re:About goddamn time

[sir99]

And because everyone carries all the equipment (UV lights with generator, etc.) to check bills everywhere, you never have to be swindled.

You donh't need a UV light, just look at the watermark. Or the embedded strip. Or the colored threads. Or the color-shifting ink. Or the tiny writing. Or the ...

It would make more sense if they had security devices that are both extremely hard to copy AND easy to spot at a glance... [emphasis mine]

Anything is easy to counterfeit if you only glance at it. The checks I mentioned are just as easy as putting it under a light or marking it with a pen. No need to get ripped off.

Re:About goddamn time

[windi]

"As for those evil Americans "inventing weapons of war", well guess what---your using one of those "weapons" right now. The Internet started as DARPANET--A Defense Department network designed to keep communication going during nuclear attack."

Not really. For an interesting read on how the Internet began, check out Where Wizard Stay Up Late.

Re:About goddamn time

[Enocasiones]

I do. Duh. Or Duff. Doh.

Enoc

-Sign, not sig.

Re:About goddamn time

[gerardrj]

As for those evil Americans "inventing weapons of war", well guess what---your using one of those "weapons" right now. The Internet started as DARPANET--A Defense Department network designed to keep communication going during nuclear attack.

A more appropriate example is the Interstate Highway System. It was designed to provide the military a redundant and reliable mechanism for moving large numbers of ground vehicles in case of invasion. Yes, it was always meant for civilian use, but it was concieved as a military project.

Re:About Time!

[mindstrm]

Yeah..
It's *REALLY* hard to read the difference between the numbers "20" and "100" and "50" and "5"

I get them mixed up ALL THE TIME.

Seriously. Maybe you liked money in europe where each denominiation is a different size (and dimension, often).
I found it a royal pain in the ass. Can't carry it in a neat bundle.. can't fan it properly.

I hardly think some foreigners finding money all the same size too difficult is a reason to change something that has been standard for ages.

It's about time

[L. VeGas]

Now I can use every color in my ink cartridge.

Re:It's about time

[cardshark2001]

This was a fairly funny comment, however I would be more careful with my jokes, were I you.

The government does not find them funny.

RFID tags

[lingqi]

At least there's no mention of RFID tags

all currency $5 and beyond are tagged already ANYWAY. see that line about 1/5 way into the bill from the left? if i remember correctly they are magnetically tagged.

Re:RFID tags

[elmegil]

Interestingly, while I see this in a $20 in my pocket, the $10 in my pocket doesn't have the line or any sign of it having been ripped out. But it does have the watermark of the smaller face on the right end, so I'm pretty confident it's legit....

Re:RFID tags

[lingqi]

i think they started putting the strip at different positions in the money for the new design, $20 is way left, $50 is a bit to the right of half, and not sure about $10...

Re:RFID tags

[nochops]

Umm....no. The strip you're referring to is just another anti-counterfeiting measure, and simply has "USA" and the denomination spelled out. It is not magnetic.

Re:RFID tags

[parkrrrr]

Don't believe everything you read on the Internet. The strip is made of plastic and is both transparent and fluorescent, but it's not magnetic. Do some experiments. Wave a stack of 20's next to a good-quality compass and watch for the needle to deflect. Try to stick a bill to a strong rare-earth magnet to find out if it has any ferrous content. Buy some magnetic field viewing film and check it out. But whatever you do, don't just believe the black helicopter brigade.

Re:RFID tags

[lingqi]

I don't have any viewing film -- but at the mean time, i do not believe info storage magnetic fields gets detected by these means anyway. i mean, waving a stack of credit cards does not mess with compass readings.

Re:RFID tags

[Creepy]

A rehabbed drug dealer/user I knew a few years ago (an ex-roommate) said the strip sets off certain airport scanners if in large concentrations and they're used to enforce the $10000 carryable by citizens when travelling (both the $ limit and the strip are means of controlling smuggling).

He was very knowledgeable, but also suffered some paranoia. It does make sense, though...

Re:RFID tags

[parkrrrr]

Well, if it's not strong enough to see with a good compass, it's not strong enough for the boogeyman to read it from a distance, either, is it?

Re:RFID tags

[commodoresloat]

I definitely heard this too, also from a sketchy type. Thing was, this dude had collected every strip he could tear out of a bill (recirculating the bills), and this was about 6 or 7 years ago, when very few bills had these things to my knowledge. He had stacks of little strips and was talking about how he was going to collect thousands of dollars worth and walk through customs somewhere with these in a piece of wadded up paper, just to see if it sets off an alarm. I don't understand why someone would want to provoke the search that would ensue, but even more sad, I doubt this guy ever made enough money to get enough strips to ever set off the alarm in any airport anywhere....

Yeah, we think highly of foreigners here.

[dfenstrate]

"foreigners have a hard time differenciating between the bills"

does the phonecian numbering system still present a problem for some corners of the earth? I wasn't aware that the roman or summerian numerals where still in use.

Or is the next 'new math' going to be based on adding colors, instead of numbers? Yeah, you gave me two blues ($5) and a yellow ($10), so thats a blue-green ($20.)

Right. There are better reasons that this.

Re:Yeah, we think highly of foreigners here.

[benwb]

US currency does not use phoenecian numerals. While the place system of our numbering system borrows heavily from the phoenecians, the numerals themselves look quite different. Perhaps you were thinking of arabic numerals?
See Proposal for encoding the Phoenician script in ISO/IEC 10646 for a visual depiction of what phoenecian numerals look like.

Re:Yeah, we think highly of foreigners here.

[gmcraff]

In other monetary systems (and I'm thinking idly of the Italian currency before the Euro totally took over), the various denominations were also slightly different in size. It was easy to tell the difference between a 5000 lira note and a 50000 lira note by touch. Color was also varied, of course.

Thinking outside of being nice to those from out-of-town, I have a blind friend who has to have a trusted acquantance sort out her money visually, then order the money neatly into groups of 1s, 5s, 10s, 20s, etc, and then remember exactly how many of each bill she has so she can finger-count through the list to find the right bill. Any change that she receives that includes bills get shoved into a corner of her purse until she can have someone she trusts sort it out again.

In terms of being nice to our own citizens, maybe we could just print the denomination in Braille right under the SecTreas's signature. Being nice to fully sighted foreigners seems a much weaker argument than doing something of minimal cost to help out the blind.

Re:Yeah, we think highly of foreigners here.

[rcw-home]

Or is the next 'new math' going to be based on adding colors, instead of numbers? Yeah, you gave me two blues ($5) and a yellow ($10), so thats a blue-green ($20.)

That would lead to the most valuable denominations having the most subtle color variations. The new colors will be based on a proven scheme most Americans are familiar with:

$1 white
5 pink
10 yellow
20 green
50 blue
100 gold
500 bronze

Re:Yeah, we think highly of foreigners here.

[Ami_Chan]

In terms of being nice to our own citizens, maybe we could just print the denomination in Braille right under the SecTreas's signature. Being nice to fully sighted foreigners seems a much weaker argument than doing something of minimal cost to help out the blind.

While I agree whole-heartedly that we ought to make it easier for our blind citizens to sort out their money, I'm not sure braille is the answer. After seeing how beat-up some bills get I think it would eventually be too difficult to tell which is which. I think it would be better to make them different in size, as long as they could still fit into a wallet.

Re:Yeah, we think highly of foreigners here.

[Dephex Twin]

In other monetary systems (and I'm thinking idly of the Italian currency before the Euro totally took over), the various denominations were also slightly different in size.

This is actually true of just about everywhere in Europe, pre- and post-Euro.

mark

Re:Yeah, we think highly of foreigners here.

[PlaysByEar]

I thought this just funny at first, but now that I think about it a bit more, I seriously like this color scheme idea.

Can we also make the $50's feel smoother than the other bills? I always liked how they felt. (I am remembering this correctly, right?)

Re:Yeah, we think highly of foreigners here.

[BlueStreak]

Actually, paying by colour is how it works for many 'foreigners' like myself. For example, you pull out your wallet and just by seeing a hint of colour on each note, you can easily figure out how much money you have & what type of bills without rifling through each note and counting (as I do with US $). It makes life easier and the colour make the notes more aesthetically pleasing.

Despite the colour, I doubt it would affect people (like myself) that use debit or other electronic means to pay for almost everything. Cash is such a bother, cheques are virtually obsolete and anyone that sells anything accepts debit/credit, etc nowadays. For businesses, requiring correct change can be a huge pain in the ass and many are afraid of counterfeit bills (in my area, virtually every store refuses to accept anything over a $50 note).

Re:Yeah, we think highly of foreigners here.

[Cryptnotic]

Great idea, except there is no such thing as a U.S. $500 bill.

Re:Yeah, we think highly of foreigners here.

[scrytch]

Arabic numbers?! AYY-rab-ick numbers? Damn, I better write my congressman about this awful plot! They're in our numbers now!

Re:Yeah, we think highly of foreigners here.

[scrytch]

... then I remembered what my sig was after posting that, so at least *I* got a laugh out of it ...

Re:Yeah, we think highly of foreigners here.

[anonymous_wombat]

Perhaps all of the bills printed in a year that add up to the size of the budget deficit could be printed in bright red.

Re:Yeah, we think highly of foreigners here.

[Anonymous Coward]

a) yes there is
b) this is the color scheme used in monopoly money

Re:Yeah, we think highly of foreigners here.

[blibbleblobble]

"does the phonecian numbering system still present a problem for some corners of the earth?"

Well, actually the colours on a UK note mean that you can tell most fakes from several metres away just by recognising the shade of colour.

We also have different sized notes (so does the Euro) which means you can tell 'be feel' what's in your wallet without having to look carefully at the corner to read a number.

I believe that different notes are also made from different types of paper here, again letting you tell what a note is before it's left your pocket. This could just be an illusion though, as smaller notes feel more fragile because they've been handled more.

Re:Yeah, we think highly of foreigners here.

[micromoog]

So did you miss the joke, or are you just an annoying-ass bee-otch?

Re:Yeah, we think highly of foreigners here.

[guttentag]

foreigners have a hard time differenciating between the bills

Connect the dots:

• U.S. currency changed to be "foreigner-friendly"
• terrorists encouraged to use cash (previously they had to survive a grueling 6-week course on distinguishing singles from twenties)
• FBI loses what little ability it has to track suspected terrorists' activities through their bank accounts ("Hmm... $500 spent at fertilizer shop, $250 spent at Avis, $250 spent at driving school, Six one-way tickets from Karachi to Newark, $300 spent at enlargeyourpenis.com... this guy could be up to something")
• No pesky whistle-blowers proclaiming "the FBI had all the information it needed to thwart terrorist attacks but certain unnamed people further up the food chain ordered us to stand down for reasons unknown"

Re:Yeah, we think highly of foreigners here.

[morcheeba]

or just use the other standard color code...

$1 brown-black-gold
5 green-black-gold
10 brown-black-black
20 red-black-black
50 green-black-black
100 brown-black-brown
500 green-black-brown

nah, scratch that. I like yours better.

Re:Yeah, we think highly of foreigners here.

[adoll]

Hindu, actually.

The Arabs learned 'our' number system from the Hindus and then taught the Europeans.

-AD

Re:Yeah, we think highly of foreigners here.

[shoemakc]

does that mean that the value of each bill can vary anywhere between 5 to 20% ? :-)

-Chris

Re:Yeah, we think highly of foreigners here.

[91degrees]

Well... A lot of Europeans get a little surprised by sales tax being added at the till rather than included in the price.

Just put it down to an error in precision, and the store can pocket the remainder.

Re:Yeah, we think highly of foreigners here.

[morcheeba]

only on the black-black-black bills.

We use Canadian dollars in the US, too

[Anonymous Coward]

We call them "pennies"

Hmmm

[quantaman]

The Treasury and Federal Reserve now changes the design of the currency every seven to 10 years to try to deter counterfeiters.

I would think that a number of different designs circulating for a single denomination of currency would infact make it easier to get away with counterfeiting. People would be less familiar with the design of the bill and be more likely to discount inconsistencies in the design by the fact that it is a different circulation.

Re:Hmmm

[Jobe_br]

Once new bills are introduced, old bills are slowly taken out of circulation. Also, since it only comes through every 10-12 yrs, you have 10-12 yrs to figure out what the current ones look like before new ones hit the streets. I think that's plenty of time to be able to distinguish counterfeits. In any case, $45+ billion wasn't used in counterfeit money in 2001 by purchasing gum at the gas station ... so their mainly doing this for banks who need to keep their employees informed of what's going on.

Re:Hmmm

[PK_ERTW]

The lifespan of a bill is about 18 months or so, although this changes for different denominations. There are not many designs floating around, and when you see an "old" bill five years after it went out of circulation, it is almost certainly someone that decided it wasn't worth saving anymore, probably because they really needed a pack of cigarettes.

Also, when a new bill comes out, banks actively try to take the old ones out of circulation. This gets rid of them a heck of a lot faster than the natural lifespan.

If you walk in anywhere with a giant stack of old bills even a year after they have gone out of circulation, you are going to be noticed.

PK

Re:Hmmm

[alonsoac]

would think that a number of different designs circulating for a single denomination of currency would infact make it easier to get away with counterfeiting.

Yes, and with foreigners who can't tell the difference between different face values and go only for the color it would be a no brainer to fool them. (excuse the awful grammar :-(

Re:Hmmm

[Traxton1]

They don't make them anymore. If you're running around with a bunch of long out of print $500's, someone's going to know something's up.

I only know they don't because it was a question on Jeopardy :)

Re:Hmmm

[asavage]

I was told that Nova Scotia was a *Canadian province* and not a US state. It was a friggin canadian quarter. What, I'm supposed to have a perfect knowledge of geography to pay now?

The fact that it also said Canada and had a picture of Queen Elizabeth II on it could have also tipped you off.

Canada, while always having varying colours of money also recently introduced brightly coloured 10 and 5 dollar bills. When I first saw them, it thought they where from some tropical country or something.

Re:Hmmm

[Keev]

Back when the new US$100 bills came out, a friend took some to a currency exchange booth. He'd been to this place before and was prepared for their typical anti-counterfeit song and dance. In this case, the teller looked at the unfamiliar new bills he'd handed over, and said, "What are these?". My friend said, "Oh - those are the new US $100 bills". The teller apparently shrugged and said something like, "Huh. OK.", changed them, and that was that...time to fire up CurrencyShop 2.0, I guess!

Re:Hmmm

[verloren]

True, except that the average dollar bill only last for 12-18 months, and even 20s don't go for much longer. That's why the govt is pushing for a dollar coin to be introduced, as it would save printing and distribution costs in the long run

Re:Hmmm

[RDPIII]

People would be less familiar with the design of the bill and be more likely to discount inconsistencies in the design by the fact that it is a different circulation.

Great, then I'll start circulating my newly made Ontario state quarters.

Differentlly Shaped Money

[Chris Y Taylor]

Lets forget these paper bills altogether. If we want to make our money more interesting and easier to distinguish, we should just start using giant round rocks with holes in the middle.

Wait...

[Smelly Jeffrey]

The federal government instituted these bills so that the seperate states didn't make their own money, which was all of different colors, and of different sizes. They made everything the same so that our own people could have it easier. What the hell are we doing catering to foreign countries? Why not put the small pictures back and leave us the hell alone? Besides that, how will vending machines and change machines, etc, be able to adapt? They won't. We'll have to re-make all of them. Damn. What a total waste and hassle. Hm... leave it up to the federal government...

Re:Wait...

[Scrameustache]

Besides that, how will vending machines and change machines, etc, be able to adapt?

Oh, vending machines are very adaptable, I've been teaching the one at work to play dead and go fetch...

Re:Wait...

[tim1724]

Actually, it wasn't the states which were making their own currency, it was banks.

Can you imagine having Citibank currency, BofA currency, WaMu currency, Wells Fargo currency, etc.? Of course, each probably wouldn't accept any other bank's currency, so you'd probably have to convert everything into coins (hey, a use for dollar coins) as those have always been made by the Federal government.

Re:Wait...

[Smelly Jeffrey]

Mod parent up. Informative.

sounds like the gov't

[night_flyer]

is just trying to find more ways to waste taxpayers money...

Re:sounds like the gov't

[Jobe_br]

Actually, the more money is counterfeit, the more of the taxpayer's money is wasted, not only in tracking down and busting counterfeiting rings, but also in the general devaluation of our money that occurs when counterfeit money enters into circulation. I'm not sure who pays when the counterfeit money is taken out of circulation (and the criminal isn't caught), but someone does and my bet is on the taxpayer. Just a guess, though.

Re:sounds like the gov't

[Saoi]

What else are they gonna do with the money? Spend it on the people? ha ha ha ha

Did I miss something?

[silicon_synapse]

The redesign of $10 and $5 notes is still under consideration, but a redesign of the $2 and $1 notes is not included in the plans for the NexGen series

I haven't seen a whole lot of $2 bills lately. Are they planning a comeback or something? I sure hope not. It'll go the way of the one-dollar sacajawealadamabob coin they introduced not long ago.

Re:Did I miss something?

[Snowgen]

The two-dollar bill is still in circulation. In fact whenever I get cash from the bank (amazingly rare since I got a check card), I always ask the teller for all the 2's she can give me.

I just love watching people's faces when I spend them! They range from "Wow! I have to buy this out of the draw at the end of my shift" to a very perplexed look as they realize that they have no partition for 2's in their drawer.

Plus I love the picture on the back

Re:Did I miss something?

[generic-man]

The $2 bill is still made in very limited quantities. I got one a few months ago, and hung onto it for as long as I could. If the $1 coin ever catches on, or if vending machine companies finally start to accept the dollar coin, the $2 bill would become more useful.

Half-dollar coins (with John F. Kennedy's picture) are also still made, but they too are rare because they're too large to fit in most coin slots.

I like the dollar coin, and hope it stays in production. Coins last a lot longer than bills, and they don't get rejected from vending machines nearly as frequently when they're worn.

Re:Did I miss something?

[EvanED]

I was selling candy for a fundraiser earlier this year and one of my friends bought a candy bar with a $2 bill. It's just his personality too...

I later used it to do one of those big poles with lights that you hit something at the bottom with a big mallet to see how high you can make this thing on the pole go that you see at an amusement park... *That* was a great look on the guy's face...

Re:Did I miss something?

[generic-man]

Yeah, the Sacagawea $1 coin is still made. You can even buy them by the sack if you want. The old Susan B. Anthony dollars, which looked a lot like quarters, are still circulated but haven't been made since 1981.

Re:Did I miss something?

[tim1724]

I once knew someone who had fun carrying around uncut sheets of $2 bills (you can buy them from the mint at www.usmint.gov, but they're expensive) .. he'd go into a store, buy a pack of gum or something, and when it was time to pay for it he would take out his scissors and start cutting bill from the sheet.. watching to see how a cashier would react was one of the funniest things I've ever seen. It was great to go from store to store doing that to see all the different reactions you'd get.

The uncut sheet thing would work with other denominations, but it's best with $2 bills because half the time the cashier has never seen one and won't believe it's real money (especially after watching you cut it out)

if the cashier refuses to accept your $2 bills, pull out a rolll of half dollars. ;-)

Re:Did I miss something?

[AnotherBlackHat]

Yeah, the Sacagawea $1 coin is still made. You can even buy them by the sack if you want. The old Susan B. Anthony dollars, which looked a lot like quarters, are still circulated but haven't been made since 1981.

Close, but actually the Susan B. was reissued in 1999. The story I heard was that a subway system used them as tokens, and they need more. But the Mint couldn't make Squawbucks until 2000, so they had to bring back the Susan B Anthony for one year.

Most US post offices have vending machines that both accept and make change in dollar coins.
You can still pick up 1999 Susans that way. Unless you use the same post office I do...

Banks usually have Sacagaweas available. They come in a roll of 25, but they'll give you as many as you want
(within reason, and assuming they have them)
Just ask the teller for some.

doh

[theEdgeSMAK]

Now strippers can tell what I'm throwing on the table at a glance.

Re:doh

[displacer]

This is the real reason Americans are afraid of their money being colored!

Re:doh

[Cryptnotic]

Nothing American is allowed to be called "colored". We haven't allowed that since the civil rights movement of the 1950's.

Re:doh

[TrevorB]

I was actually at the strippers up here in Canada about a month ago. The Strippers were taking $5 (blue) $10 (maroon) and $20 (green) Canadian dollar bills from the crowd. Canada has no paper denominations less than $5.

A couple of Americans, oblivious of the US/CA exchange rate (about 1.5 to 1), were there in the front row with American $1 bills on the stage. FOUR (4) sucsessive strippers totally ignored their money until the fifth one took pity on them after a half hour.

Just goes to show you don't get much bang for a buck.

Re:doh

[micromoog]

A couple of Americans, oblivious of the US/CA exchange rate (about 1.5 to 1) . . .

Um, you mean 1 to 1.5. And those American 1s are gonna be worth more than your 5s at the rate things are going . . .

Re:doh

[Fjord]

IME, struppers in canada will take a "twoney", the two dollar coin. Usually you hold it in your mouth and they'll pick it up with their breasts.

They were probably ignoring the 1s because they A) aren't easy to exchange and B) the real money is in private dances, which someone with American cash wouldn't be able to buy anyway because of point A.

About time, too

[kafka93]

Although I'm English, I've lived in the USA for a few years, on and off, and *still* find the homogeneity of the bank notes to be irritating. One shouldn't have to check twice that one isn't handing over a twenty instead of a dollar bill; besides which, it's just a *token* -- it doesn't *mean* anything, really. I say this simply because people get way too caught up on the perceived importance of things like this - the obvious example being those Europeans whose principal argument against the Euro has nothing to do with financial stability, but is instead concerned with such ridiculous notions as "tradition" and "national pride".

But I digress. Different American bank notes *are* difficult to distinguish between, and I'm not surprised that this is a concern when it comes to the ease of counterfeiting, either.

And if I'm rambling incoherently, it's because of staying up all night only to watch England lose. Bah.

Re:About time, too

[paradesign]

you need to go here. Ive had not one problem in 20 years discerning the value of currency, on the fly. I was so good at it, they even ley ne tend the cash drawer at the hardware store, but i digress.

Re:About time, too

[paradesign]

er... that got royaly fudged up.
HERE

DOH!

Re:About time, too

[Telastyn]

Hint for newbies:

All cashiers (in america and montreal at least) will give you your cash in size order (20-10-5-1, etc). Every man I know also keeps the cash in his wallet in similar order. The trick is not to identify numbers, but to identify differences, which of course is now ruined by having 3 different types of $20 bills in circulation.

Re:About time, too

[emd]

I found this quite amusing as the English don't want to give up their beloved Pound for the Euro!! ;=)

I too travel often to the States and I have difficulty with the money. Before I hear another round of "Can't you read the numbers?", let me say that I CAN read the numbers, but having all the money be the same colour (notice my Canadian spelling?) makes it difficult for QUICK recognition.

Re:About time, too

[elmegil]

Colors do help people, but you're too mean to care.

yep, I'm just a big ole meany.

Re:About time, too

[shuane]

Although I'm English, I've lived in the USA for a few years, on and off, and *still* find the homogeneity of the bank notes to be irritating.

I am a kiwi (New Zealander) that lived in the US for almost three years and I found the notes difficult to deal with at first. The prime example of this was my first day at work, handing over a $5 plus 5x$1 notes instead of $6 for my lunch... I didn't notice the difference between the $5 and the $1 because I was not used to looking at the numbers!

New Zealand has notes similar to those of Australia - colourful, different sizes, plastic. The first two things make it easy for anyone (sighted, blind, short-sighted even) to differentiate the notes. When our notes started switching from paper to plastic they kept a very similar design to the previous notes so you knew they were not counterfeit (numerous other anti-counterfeiting features notwithstanding).

I did have a solution to my American-notes problem:
I used different compartments of my wallet to store $1 notes than I did the higher denominations. The fact that most ATMs in the US give you $20 notes, yet most cafeterias/stores will give you change in $1 notes, sticking to that simple rule made life so much easier.

And if I'm rambling incoherently, it's because of staying up all night only to watch England lose. Bah. - Sorry for your loss...

Re:About time, too

[Geekboy(Wizard)]

All cashiers (in america and montreal at least) will give you your cash in size order (20-10-5-1, etc).

NOT true. Most places do handle money that way, but some places just wad it up and shove it into your hands. Those tend to be where tourists go, so I bet its easy to scam them that way. I'm not just talking about street vendors, I'm talking about brick and motor stores.

Re:About time, too

[shuane]

I know, I know, it's lame to reply to myself, but I thought I should add more about my "solution"...

I did have a solution to my American-notes problem:
I used different compartments of my wallet to store $1 notes than I did the higher denominations. [correction] Considering the fact that most ATMs in the US give you $20 notes, yet most cafeterias/stores will give you change in $1 notes, sticking to that simple rule made life so much easier.

I also had another "rule" that I tried to stick to when I had the time... I would order the notes; roughly putting the most valuable ones at the back of my wallet. The $1 notes were in the first compartment, if I had any $5 notes they'd be at the front of the second compartment, $10, $20 and higher would be behind there. I could then determine what money I had by a quick browse through the groupings of notes...

Note that my wallet did have more than 2 compartments (4 in fact), but I found that I never had enough $5 or $10 notes to split it up further. Also I liked to use the other compartments for receipts, temporary business-card storage and the like :).

Re:About time, too

[Yunzil]

One shouldn't have to check twice that one isn't handing over a twenty instead of a dollar bill;

I dunno, I think if you are handing over you hard-earned cash to some mope at the gas station, you ought to be take a DAMN good look at what you are handing over, and an even better look at whatever you get back.

Re:About time, too

[ProlificSage]

$1 - George Washington
$5 - Abraham Lincoln
$10 - Thomas Jefferson
$20 - Andrew Jackson
$50 - Ulysses S. Grant
$100 - Ben Franklin

And so on. The pictures are different. You don't need to read the numbers. Look at the pictures on the bills.

Before anyone asks, no, I didn't have to look at the bills to say who is on what. But that's besides the point. The pictures are different, and on the new 20s, 50s, and 100s, are quite large.

I also have a hard time with currency when traveling. I don't know how much bigger a 10 pound note is supposed to be than a 5 pound note. Tourists are always going to have to double-check the currency if they don't want to get screwed, no matter where they're from.

Re:About time, too

[mosch]

$1000000 -- all of the presidents, and they're having a party.

Re:About time, too

[SerpentMage]

And who are these people in specific?

Seriously...

On the Canadian 10 is John A MacDonald
On the Swiss 10 is LeCorbusier
And the Euro 10 is Romanesque

Does any of this make sense to me, but yet what you say makes no sense to me whatsoever!

While I think the argument of tourists can be made one way or the other. I think the counterfiet argument is very valid.

Look closely at a new Swiss note. IT IS BASICALLY counterfeit proof. And the new Euro notes make counterfeiting VERY difficult. But the American notes are much easier to counterfeit.

Now before you say, no we have this marker and that market the reality is that much of this funny money does not actually go through the US. What happens is that people deal this funny money outside of the US and then convert that into a US bank account. That can then be used to spend US dollars anywhere. Why would the US be concerned? Because with so much money outside of the control of the US treasury it can have an amazing destabilizing effect. BTW terrorists, etc deal in US bank accounts usually and when they deal in funny money it is hard to track them.

This is why I think they want to change the money! Not at all for the benefit of the tourists. If I may be an American cynic, when has the US ever done anything to make it easier for tourists? Last I heard the current administration wanted to introduce that all outsiders coming to American was supposed to have fingerprints or something like that in the passport.

Re:About time, too

[LetterJ]

This "rule" is one that most Americans use as well.

Re:About time, too

[thogard]

I can't count how many times a Kiwi have give me the wrong change because the Aussie $2 coin is smaller than the $1 while the Kiwi $2 is larger than the $1 coin. Unless the US picks a color scheme that is the same as most of the rest of the world, there will continue to be confusion. Maybe if they pick the same colors as the Euro$, they will confuse less people.

Its interesting that the AU$.2 coin is about the same as the NZ$.2 coin and seem to be interchangable (but I am seeing fewer of them these days)

Re:About time, too

[kir]

And if I'm rambling incoherently, it's because of staying up all night only to watch England lose. Bah.

America just lost. I wonder if any Americans other than myself care?

BTW, I watched the Eng-Brz match. Brazil had a couple of extra teammates on the field, if you know what I mean.

Re:About time, too

[shuane]

Its interesting that the AU$.2 coin is about the same as the NZ$.2 coin and seem to be interchangable (but I am seeing fewer of them these days)

In one of my few visits to Aus I was given an 1 NZD coin instead of an 2 AUD coin, so I can sympathise... I did have the advantage that I could actually take it to NZ and spend it, but due to the currency differences I lost 1.20 AUD or so in the deal!

I have no idea why the Aussie government decided to A) make the $2 smaller than the $1 and B) make it so bloody similar to the 1 NZD coin, I believe ours was minted first!

Something that was quite funny too is that the NZ 10c piece is almost identical to an US quarter (yet it's worth a fifth of the price!), I think in this case the US quarter came first...

Maybe if they pick the same colors as the Euro$, they will confuse less people.

Hmmm, perhaps picking something similar to the money from the US' most common tourists or work-imports could help? Europe might not fit either of those bills. Perhaps Canadian? :P

Cheers, Shuane

Re:About time, too

[ksheff]

Why shouldn't you check twice before handing money over to someone? What's wrong with just looking at the bill? Given the number "I just look at the color and hand it over" responses, I would think that it would be easier to pass off fake bills in that environment. Sure maybe not to people at a bank, but for the ordinary people who are just throwing bills back and forth based on the color, it sure would.

Re:About time, too

[ksheff]

Look closely at a new Swiss note. IT IS BASICALLY counterfeit proof. And the new Euro notes make counterfeiting VERY difficult. But the American notes are much easier to counterfeit.

I don't have any Swiss or Euro money on me at the moment, so why don't you list out the attributes that make them so difficult to counterfeit and what makes the US bills so easy.

Help?

[thefirelane]

Apparently, with both size and color the same, foreigners have a hard time differenciating between the bills


The Federal Reserve announced they would also hire outside consultants from Parker Brothers.


---Lane

Re:Help?

[grytpype]

So now our money will have little choo-choos on them? Goody!

Re:Help?

[EvanED]

Actually, I believe Parker Brothers prints more money annually than the Federal Reserve...

Re:Help?

[Aldurn]

Not that this would be a bad thing. There are more Monopoly bills printed every year by Parker Brothers than US Currency printed by the US Government.

Re:Help?

[Xenographic]

In other news, sales of the Parker Brother's game, Monopoly, hit an all time high, with the largest shipments heading to Redmond, WA.

Re:Help?

[UnknownSoldier]

Now the US can have monopoly money like Canada ;-)

Re:Help?

[sir99]

Gives a new meaning to the term "Monopoly money."

God... are people that stupid?

[sielwolf]

Either you are a) using low amounts of bills so it is not an issue or b) you are using a lot of bills so you damn well better pay attention to what you are handling??? Right now US currency is one of the few non-retarded cash systems out there. The Simpsons summed it up perfectly this Wednesday:

"Look at all that pink and purple."
"Our money sure is gay."

To: Federal Reserve
Re: US Currency
Don't be Gay.

Re:God... are people that stupid?

[alexmeaden]

What's wrong with being gay? Get a brain.

Re:God... are people that stupid?

[dockan]

WTF do you mean by "non-retarded"? Sure your money looks cooler than any other money in the world, but having bills of different size and colour sure makes it a lot easier to identify and handle. Money that looks cool or is "user friendly" you choose :D

I have NEVER had a problem with the wrong bills

[qurob]

I've never heard of it either. I'm sure it might be strange to others, but I don't want a rainbow in my wallet.

Counterfeiters

[Washizu]

Colour will also help features that will make the notes harder to fake.

How does changing the color hurt counterfeiters? Before, you could print any denomination with your ink, but if they change the colors you'll probably only want to print one type and stick with it. That doesn't sound like a huge setback to me, since I hear the margin is pretty high from cost to sale of counterfeit money.

Re:Counterfeiters

[spaceyhackerlady]

How does changing the color hurt counterfeiters?

The colours on money are chosen to try to scramble colour scanners and photocopiers. The intent is that if you get one colour on the bill right, you'll mess up another. This is why you see certain colours over and over, like the funny purple and turquoise that appear on so many notes. The new Canadian $5 note, for example, is a distinctive blue, but also has "funny purple" highlights.

Brightly coloured notes sometimes have unexpected effects, like noting in an Australian TV show that a small-time armed robber had netted $50 (two reddish-orange, one blue).

...laura

Consistency

[Black Aardvark House]

With the last redesign, low value notes ($2 and $1) were not affected. Now this new colored money will only be done on the $100, $50 and $20, leaving the $10 and $5 as well as the low denominations.

Doesn't anyone find is strange that we'll have three completely different kinds of bills co-circulating when this is done?

Can't they read numerals

[uncoveror]

Do we really need different colors on money for different denominations? Don't most languages aroung the world use Arabic(really Indian, but that's another story)numerals? Can't tourists read these? I know some countries even have different size notes for different denominations. That makes them a pain to fold and put in a wallet. This proposal will meet some static from people who think it's just plain silly, but not as much as their plan to introduce the new 69 dollar bill with Clinton's face. http://www.uncoveror.com/clinton.htm

Moneyfactory.com

[Anonymous Coward]

Information about the previous redesigned 1996 notes and the history of U.S. currency is available at the Bureau's (Bureau of Engraving and Printing) website at www.moneyfactory.com.

Security, not differentiation

[crow]

The changes are not there to help people differentiate between the different denominations, they're there to make it harder to counterfeit the bills. They've even said that they're keeping the same look and feel, so the changes won't be that dramatic. They're even trying to make them backwards-compatible with vending machines.

Re:Security, not differentiation

[jmv]

They're even trying to make them backwards-compatible with vending machines.

That's been solved differently in many countries: makeing coins for small amounts. In Canada, we've had $2 coins (approx $1.50 US) for years now. This makes sense for many reasons. First coins cost a bit more but last so much longer, so there's money being saved by printing less paper bills. Second, I prefer coins to having a pile of $1 paper bill in my wallet... Third, our vending machines don't need optic readers that screw up 50% of the time.

Re:Security, not differentiation

[crow]

The $1 bill vs. the $1 coin has nothing to do with counterfeiting. People don't bother with counterfeiting $1, $2, or $5 bills for the most part. The $20 is the most common target domestically, while the $100 is the most common target internationally.

The $1 bill still exists for two reasons. First, despite having had a $1 coin in circulation at the same time for a century or so (probably longer), shopkeepers prefer paper to coins, so while consumers may spend them, they don't get them in change. Second, the government has been hesitant to pull the $1 bill out of circulation, both for political reasons and due to fear that it may have a psychological inflationary impact.

It makes sense...

[thelenm]

Just about every country I've been in (European and Asian) has different colors and sizes for currency denominations. And coins, too! It makes it much easier to count money.

I'm from the U.S., but if I hadn't grown up with our coin system, I would not find it at all intuitive.... United States coins come in denominations of 25, 10, 5, 1 cents... 25 being the largest coin, followed by 5, 1, then 10. If that's not confusing enough, if you want to know how much a coin is worth by reading the words on it, you'll find that the 25-cent coin (quarter) is a "Quarter Dollar", the 1-cent coin (penny) is "One Cent", the 5-cent coin (nickel) is "Five Cents", and the 10-cent coin (dime) is "One Dime". What the heck is a dime? :-)

Re:It makes sense...

[VertigoAce]

A few years ago I was sitting at the lunch table at my high school with an exchange student from England. He had just bought his lunch, so he had a bunch of coins. He had to get us to explain to him how much money he had. It's too bad the penny and nickel have their actual value on them ;-)

But other countries are just as bad. Hong Kong's 10 dollar coin (similar in style to the Canadian 2-dollar coin) is smaller than both the one and two dollar coins. The two dollar coin is nearly the same size and thickness as the one dollar coin, but has twelve wavy edges to it. China has a 5 jiao (tenth of a yuan, or 1.25 cents) that is smaller than the 1 jiao coin (which is a nearly weightless coin similar in style to the 1 yuan coin). To make things more confusing, every coin has the same pictures except for the actual number and the type of currency (jiao/yuan).

But at least they aren't as bad as the old British system =)

Re:It makes sense...

[Yunzil]

United States coins come in denominations of 25, 10, 5, 1 cents... 25 being the largest coin, followed by 5, 1, then 10. If that's not confusing enough,

Well, in England, it goes (I think) 50p, 2p, 10p, pound, 20p, 1p, 5p. Not to mention that the 50p and 20p coins are seven-sided mutants. :)

Re:It makes sense...

[trybywrench]

one dime is a couple of joints

Re:It is about time.

[BigBir3d]

But Americans brought the world McDonald's!

Lots of twisty turny bills all the same

[gwernol]

Apparently, with both size and color the same, foreigners have a hard time differenciating between the bills.I still haven't gotten used to the larger pictures

As one of those "foreigners" who now lives in the US, I've often wondered how blind people operate here? All the bills are the same size. If you can't see what's written on the bill, how do you know if you've just offered a $1 bill or a $100 bill to the checkout clerk? How can you check your change?

Its not just the blind. Imagine being able to put your hand in your pocket and know how much cash you have just by feel. That's cool. No more standing on a dark street corner in the bad part of town counting through notes to know if you have enough for a beer/cab home/meal/whatever.

Virtually every other country has different sizes for notes of different amount. This seems like such an obvious and useful thing, I'm amazed that the US hasn't adopted it? Is this the ultimate Not Invented Here syndrome?

Re:Lots of twisty turny bills all the same

[elmegil]

I dunno, maybe I like all my cash to fit in a standard wallet?

Re:Lots of twisty turny bills all the same

[gwernol]

I dunno, maybe I like all my cash to fit in a standard wallet?

Gues what, as long as none of them were larger than the current bill, they still would. See, lateral thinking is your friend :-)

Re:Lots of twisty turny bills all the same

[eweu]

No more standing on a dark street corner in the bad part of town counting through notes to know if you have enough for a beer/cab home/meal/whatever.

Wouldn't you get arrested if you were standing on a dark street in a bad part of town with your hand going wild in your pocket?

Re:Lots of twisty turny bills all the same

[L. VeGas]

It's cheaper for us to give the blind an income tax deduction because we assume they've been cheated by dishonest clerks than it is to make all that gay money.

Re:Lots of twisty turny bills all the same

[Jobe_br]

Having lived in Germany for a year and visited it many times prior to that and thereafter, I must say that I never once was able to determine how much money I had by the SIZE of it in my pocket. I do recall being annoyed because the more money I had, the less likely it would be that I could fit it in my wallet w/o carrying around one of those huge waiter billfolds.

Even so, I'm so glad Germany won this morning ... Einfach toll!

Re:Lots of twisty turny bills all the same

[Chris Pimlott]

As one of those "foreigners" who now lives in the US, I've often wondered how blind people operate here? All the bills are the same size.

I'm not sure how you are supposed to identify bills when you first get them, but I did hear once how blind people tell them apart in their wallet. The trick is to fold each bill differently depending on denomination. One you leave flat, one you fold across the middle, one you fold lengthwize, one you fold into quarters, etc.

Re:Lots of twisty turny bills all the same

[Misao]

Closer to home, although the new Canadian bills (currently the $5 and the $10) are all the same size, they have braille marks on them. Not sure how well these will hold up under long-term use, but then again, bills don't tend to last long anyways.

-misao

Re:Lots of twisty turny bills all the same

[elmegil]

Nothing like a bill I can mistake in my pocket for a receipt. Trying the "count cash without taking it out", I end up thinking I have 3 times as much as I really do, 'cos I'm stupid. Good call.

Re:Lots of twisty turny bills all the same

[shawnl]

I'm sorry, but...

Our bills have numbers on them... Clearly marked...

If you are too stupid to read numbers "color coding" will not help. Neither will different sizes.

Different sizes are fine for coins. But you shouldn't be so casual about your money that you hand out a $20 bill when you meant to hand out a $5.

Anyway, I don't think that Americans are up for having to buy new wallets to accomodate newly sized money like many had to do in Europe.

Re:Lots of twisty turny bills all the same

[truesaer]

Different sized bills sound like a pain in the ass to me....I carry my money loose in my pocket, so it would be annoying to have 4 different sizes. Right now, I can just line them all up, fold them in half, and in they go. Being able to know how much I've got just by feel doesn't really excite me too much.

Re:Lots of twisty turny bills all the same

[truesaer]

Or you could teach the kid numbers. They have to learn it anyway, and a three year old better not be carrying any bills higher than 1s anyway!

Re:Lots of twisty turny bills all the same

[SirSlud]

You can do this (or should be able to) already - the paper money is printed on and reciepts are printed on feel *very* different. I can certainly tell whats what without looking ..

Re:Lots of twisty turny bills all the same

[elmegil]

Bottom line: if it's something HARD like a coin, size will be easy to distinguish in my pocket. If it's something SOFT like a bill, I don't really think so. "This one's twice as long as that one, but I don't know what that one is offhand...hm...so do I have a 10 & a 20 or a 5 & a 10, or...."

Re:Lots of twisty turny bills all the same

[dadragon]

Or you could teach the kid numbers. They have to learn it anyway, and a three year old better not be carrying any bills higher than 1s anyway!

Actually, it colour is useful in teaching kids numbers. When I was in kindergarden, The teacher would use colours to distinguish numbers to make it easier for the kids to learn them. She stuck with money colours where there was a demonination of that colour, too. As the kids learn the symbols for numbers, they can revert to colour if they get lost.

Re:Lots of twisty turny bills all the same

[Mr Windows]

If you are too stupid to read numbers "color coding" will not help

How about if you're too blind to read numbers? Or is blindness counted as stupidity these days?

Re:Lots of twisty turny bills all the same

[Cardhore]

You're right, it is a pain in the ass. The different sizes make it hard to keep a stack of bills together, because the shorter ones keep falling out. It's also a pain to use different sized bills with wallets.

Re:Lots of twisty turny bills all the same

[tswinzig]

As one of those "foreigners" who now lives in the US, I've often wondered how blind people operate here? All the bills are the same size. If you can't see what's written on the bill, how do you know if you've just offered a $1 bill or a $100 bill to the checkout clerk? How can you check your change?

Blind people can use a money reader which speaks out the bills' values.

Its not just the blind. Imagine being able to put your hand in your pocket and know how much cash you have just by feel

Even if our money was all different sizes, I wouldn't be able to do that!

Virtually every other country has different sizes for notes of different amount. This seems like such an obvious and useful thing, I'm amazed that the US hasn't adopted it? Is this the ultimate Not Invented Here syndrome?

It's easier to straighten a pile of bills if they're all the same size. Things that hold money can be used with any bill denomination if they're all the same size. Things that take bills electronically can be less complex, if they're all the same size (just update the firmware to read the newer bills). Money fits in your wallet easier if they're all the same size. You can hide your bigger bills inside a stack of smaller bills if you're carrying money in your wallet (people nearby won't know you've got a couple $100's if they're packed inside), if they're all the same size.

Sorry, don't feel like giving that up for the meager benefits you claim.

Re:Lots of twisty turny bills all the same

[SoupIsGoodFood_42]

We're only talking subtle differences here. You can still line them all up and fold them in half. I never heard of any problems before.

Re:Lots of twisty turny bills all the same

[Haeleth]

Have you not considered _ordering_ your notes before stacking them? Arrange them by size first, and your problems disappear.

Re:About Time!

[kafka93]

Oh? You think that it's more important for a 'standard' to be maintained, then, even if it's a poor standard which leads to operational difficulties?

It's a bizarre notion, admittedly, that some people might find *quickly finding and using the correct money* to be more important than *carrying it in a neat bundle* or *fanning it*.

Jealousy!

[JudgeDredd]

You Americans have always been jealous of us Canadians and our beautiful money!

Re:Jealousy!

[bilbobuggins]

you ever tried to give an american Canadian money?
I think I can safely rest my case
;)

The wisdom of the Simpsons

[Torgo's Pizza]

From the recent episode where The Simpsons go to Brazil, where the kidnappers just receive the ransom money to free Homer.

Brazilian 1: "Look at all that pink and purple."
Brazilian 2: "Our money sure is gay."

against color

[cr@ckwhore]

I wish *they* would let us vote on it... I'd vote against adding color to US Currency.

Although the article states the current bills as a "boon to swindlers" because the bills are hard to distinguish, I disagree. I know the difference between a 1, 5, 10, etc. If you're too stupid to be able to distinguish your money, you deserve to have it stolen.

Regardless, I believe one of the attributes that makes US currency recognizable around the world is its simple color scheme. Its powerful, and looks like no other currency. When color is added to US currency, I fully expect the value of the dolor to drop because it will no longer have the bold, simple 2 color scheme. It will be just like every other paper currency on the world market.

I recently watched a documentary on the History Channel, which contained a segment about the federal reserve. A federal reserve employee expressed these very sentiments, even before the idea of adding color to US bills became a serious prospect.

Re:against color

[rnd()]

so your argument is:

colorful currency always has a low value on world markets

What about this little fact:

Live mid-market rates as of 2002.06.21 20:37:38 GMT.

1.00 GBP United Kingdom Pounds = 1.49675 USD United States Dollars

1 GBP = 1.49675 USD 1 USD = 0.668116 GBP

Re:against color

[jmv]

Regardless, I believe one of the attributes that makes US currency recognizable around the world is its simple color scheme. Its powerful, and looks like no other currency. When color is added to US currency, I fully expect the value of the dolor to drop because it will no longer have the bold, simple 2 color scheme. It will be just like every other paper currency on the world market.

To all countries in the world with inflation problems. Change your paper currency to a bold, simple 2 color scheme. That way everyone will be very attracted to your money that it will be worth as much as USD. Great idea!

Re:against color

[cr@ckwhore]

Yeah, and 1 US dollar = 9.92756 Mexican Pesos... whats your point?

Re:against color

[Jboy_24]

"Regardless, I believe one of the attributes that makes US currency recognizable around the world is its simple color scheme. Its powerful, and looks like no other currency. When color is added to US currency, I fully expect the value of the dolor to drop because it will no longer have the bold, simple 2 color scheme. It will be just like every other paper currency on the world market."

I hope your not serious. The color/shape/size/smell/taste of the physical bill has NOTHING to do with its value in the world market. This has got to be the stupidist argument against coloring/changing the dollar. The forces of the economy, the federal reserve, interest rates and 10000 other things done without even looking at the physical bill have soo much greater impact then someones aesthetic critique.

I hope the reserve has the balls to do this, then order every $1 bill destroyed and replaced with the coin. I've used them (take public transit often here in the US) and they are FAR more convienent then feeding a folded faded dollar bill to pay or get 4 quarters. Having lived in other countries where the constant whining of 'traditionalists' have little weight, I've actually expirieced .. 'progress'. Of course even uttering that word in the States gets you labeled as a 'Liberal'.

I always though american's prided themselves on progess and being the first to do something?

Re:against color

[Dephex Twin]

Although the article states the current bills as a "boon to swindlers" because the bills are hard to distinguish, I disagree. I know the difference between a 1, 5, 10, etc. If you're too stupid to be able to distinguish your money, you deserve to have it stolen.

Yes, I suppose if you are too stupid to have good eyesight, you deserve to lose your money. Honestly, I am embarrassed by the number of Americans that have said "Look at the number you IDIOT." Why is it so hard to realize that coloring money makes it *easier*? Maybe you are a master at telling our money apart at a glance and have great vision. Good for you. How is this an argument against changing the color?

Do you honestly believe that entire countries that have trouble with our money are just too foolish to get it? Maybe we who live here have adapted with what we have. Is it some sign of weakness-- is adding color for "babies" or what?

When color is added to US currency, I fully expect the value of the dolor to drop because it will no longer have the bold, simple 2 color scheme.

Wow, now that's an extreme stance. I *really* doubt this. Other countries have money that looks like no other. Our money isn't famous and worth a lot because it is known for being green... it's the other way around.

If you take the stance that single color->easier counterfitting is baseless, how can you then make the claim that multi-color->downfall of the dollar? Which one is probably closer to reality?

mark

Re:against color

[scot4875]

I fully expect the value of the dolor to drop

Man, you seem awfully passionate about something you can't even spell. :)

--Jeremy

Re:against color

[rnd()]

No, the post I responded to said that having colorful currency meant that the currency would be lower in value on world markets than a non-colorful currency. Thus, I compared the colorful pound and the green and white dollar. I showed the in fact a colorful currency could be valued higher on world markets than a non-colorful one.

Re:against color

[Mr Windows]

If you're too stupid to be able to distinguish your money, you deserve to have it stolen.

Really? How about if you're too blind to "distinguish your money"?

Australian 'bills'

[YakumoFuji]

the aussie non coin money i still like! plastic so you can leave it in your pocket when your jeans go in the wash. nice holograms (keeps the simple minded amused). doesnt tear as easy. nice and bright and colourful...

apparently we were the first country to use polymer notes...

two good links are here and here

and this shows all our polymer notes

-----

Re:Australian 'bills'

[Lardmonster]

the aussie non coin money i still like! plastic so you can leave it in your pocket when your jeans go in the wash.

I heard that their cash was so indestructable that the company making it went out of business.

Or would that just be another urban myth?

Re:Australian 'bills'

[SteelX]

Yes I agree.. plastic bills are the best. You don't have to worry about them tearing and all that. Singapore has plastic bills too!

Re:Australian 'bills'

[Lysander Luddite]

yeah I stayed there for 3 months last year. It took me a while to get used to the different sizes (made me wonder how I was supposed to keep it easily symetrical), but I liked it.

It was like spending monopoly money (and given th exchange rates felt like it).

I only wished they had used better designs rather than the boring "heads" they used. The Dutch, now there was a cool currency system!

Re:Australian 'bills'

[Betelgeuse on Ice]

The page with the notes is down, here is a page from the Australian Gov with pics of their notes. The clear window part is kind of cool, except I like the feel of fresh American money. If I want to feel plastic, I'll rub my credit cards...

Re:Australian 'bills'

[Large Green Mallard]

Yeah, our exchange rate bites :)

You don't keep them symmetrical, you line up the left edge (or I do anyway :)

Re:Australian 'bills'

[tim1724]

American currency goes through the wash just fine.

The paper is made from 1/4 linen and 3/4 cotton, not wood pulp.

On the other hand, I've heard that it doesn't fare well in microwave ovens. (so if you have some wet dollar bills, don't try to dry them off in the microwave.)

Re:Australian 'bills'

[Lysander Luddite]

yeah. that's what i was trying. i don't use a wallet so i wrapped it around a creedit card or metropass.

Re:Australian 'bills'

[Mandelbrute]

I heard that their cash was so indestructable that the company making it went out of business.

Would a government be mad enough to give a private body full and absolute control of their currency?

It must be some NRA weirdness like all the "Road Warrior" sort of stuff that was supposed to have happened here when semi-automatics and handguns were restricted.

Re:Australian 'bills'

[Large Green Mallard]

Note Printing Australia is a company held entirely by the government agency, The Reserve Bank of Australia. They became a company so NPA could make more money for the government by selling its secure printing service to other countries and organisations like banks. Press release is here

An english private company, De La Rue, prints money for most smaller nations, as well as travellers cheques for AMEX and lots of other security printing.

And I have no idea what sort of weirdness you're talking about regarding semi-autos/handgun restriction. Everyone who has a reason for those things get to have them. Sure, the regular public can't buy them, but really, no-one cares here.

Re:Australian 'bills'

[kavau]

I agree. I was really impressed by the Australian bills when I visited the country last year: they don't tear, don't crumple, are waterproof, and have very cheerful pictures on them. Arguably, currency shouldn't be specifically designed for entertainment purposes, but still - it's nice. And they make good souvenirs, with the additional advantage that you can "return them for a full refund" if you're tired of them.

Just think....

[Prof.Nimnul]

All those years wishing that you could actually use Monopoly money are finally "paying off," so to speak. Maybe the next step is to replace all remaining Susan B. Anthony dollars with the Race Car and the gold ingot with the Shoe.

Matt

OT: England's going home

[sab39]

And if I'm rambling incoherently, it's because of staying up all night only to watch England lose. Bah.

Some humor to cheer you up

Confusing Currency!

[Vengie]

The problem with currency changes is that you have old currency in circulation. I went to Ray's Pizza in Lower Manhattan and the man behind the counter had recently come here and had not seen the "OLD" 20's -- and thought my bill (gotten from an ATM that morning) was faked. In any situation where new currency is issued, the gov. needs to assure a "waiting period" in which you can freely trade in old bills for new ones and get the old ones off the streets. The whole point of the "new" bills is to prevent fakes -- as of right now, you can still get an old fake, rough it up, and use it on the street. Plus, old greek men will think you're trying to cheat them, even when you arent. (No greeks were harmed in the writing of this post)

Re:Confusing Currency!

[pgpckt]

The United States has *never* made any old money issued illegal tender before. You can absolutly trade an old bill for a new bill at most any bank. Futher more, it is *completely* legal to pay for your bill using a 2 cent (yes, 2 cent) piece that was once the official issue of the United States. Wouldn't be wise since they are rare, and 10 years ago they were worth over $100 a piece, but it is legal. Old money is legal forever. Go USA!

Re:Confusing Currency!

[brad.hill]

With the amount of US cash stored around the world as hard currency savings (in the range of many many billions of dollars in just the former USSR alone) there would be incredible turmoil and devaluation of the dollar as folks rushed to spend it or convert it in a panic. That's the last thing anybody wants.

Re:Confusing Currency!

[Temkin]

The United States has *never* made any old money issued illegal tender before.

I'm not sure this is true. I believe they pretty much rounded up the old gold dollar coins way back when...
Anyone know for sure?

Re:Confusing Currency!

[martyn s]

Read the article, dummy :) To be exact, the article says the US has never "recalled" any of it's currency.

I like how the US Department of Engraving and Printing seems to have a sense of humor. Their domain name is "moneyfactory" and they sell sheets of uncut cash as a gift (albeit for more than the total of the bills is worth).

Re:Confusing Currency!

[tim1724]

they didn't recall the gold coins. they just made it illegal to own gold (other than certain exceptions, such as family heirlooms and such)

after that law was repealed, it was perfectly legal to start spending gold eagles and such. Of course, by that time, not many were left so it would be stupid to spend them, as they were worth much more than $20. :)

Re:Confusing Currency!

[arivanov]

The Alaska 51 state selebrationary emision of one dollar coins stopped being a legal tender a year or two ago.

That is at least one case.

So I guess you are wrong.

Yeah, right

[vanza]

Apparently, with both size and color the same, foreigners have a hard time differenciating between the bills.

Yeah, exactly the opposite of what happens with the british unit system you use. Those are really easy compared to understanding your money...

(For the humour impaired: This is supposed to be sarcastic.)

not the first time..

[MP*Birdman]

IIRC, America used to have rainbow coloured bills back in the 1800's, before going to greenbacks.

Re:About Time!

[silicon_synapse]

It's about time we catch up with the 21st century and delineate paper money with color and size

Now I could get used to different colors, but I hope and pray they never start printing different sizes. That would wreak havoc on my wallet. It's not hard to find a bill when they're all the same size and you can sort through them, but if some are bigger than others won't the smaller ones get lost in the shuffle? I know other countries have had different size monies for a long time. Is it a problem?

I like the idea...

[Fig, formerly A.C.]

...but if we adopted Euros then all those spammers^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hbusiness people who email me about making a killing in the currency business would be out of work...

Honestly, I think a truly global currency would be good, but I think that some fat cat is making lots of money from the unequal exchange rates.

No!! No!!

[Reality Master 101]

I've always thought US monochrome money was by far the best looking money in the world. Other countries with all their "pretty" colors look like fake, monopoly money.

US money, on the other hand, looks like serious money , beefy and substantial. There's no mistaking that US currency is a serious document.

In fact, I thought the current redesign really took a lot of the "heft" out of the bills. Now color?

Who's running the federal reserve? Whoever it is needs to get a clue. Next the military will be painting our fighter jets with nice, pastel colors.

Re:No!! No!!

[Jobe_br]

Just a note - for the most part, I agree with you, but I don't think that the Fed really cares about the beefiness of the money, they care more that the Secret Service keeps busting counterfeit rings ... $47.5 billion in counterfeit money is quite a lot, eh?

Re:No!! No!!

[alienmole]

Who's running the federal reserve? Whoever it is needs to get a clue. Next the military will be painting our fighter jets with nice, pastel colors.

I don't know if this is what you were thinking of, but in the discussion of the Joint Strike Fighter contract being awarded to Lockheed Martin, someone mentioned that the Stealth bombers were supposed to be painted sky-blue for camoflage reasons. Naturally that was nixed, so now they're a mean-looking and quite visible black.

Apparently US pilots would rather die (literally) than be mistaken for pansies...

When it comes to the money, though, I actually agree with you, and I grew up with colored different sized notes so I'm not simply biased by my upbringing. The only valid argument I've heard so far relates to the blind and partially sighted. Braille on the corners ought to take care of that, though.

Re:No!! No!!

[conchoid]

I remember reading a story in scientific american or popular science a little while back that stated pastel color jets would make it more 'stealthy', harder to see from the ground.. But really, who the hell would fly a pastel plane? I think they would rather get shot down

Re:No!! No!!

[krlynch]

Naturally that was nixed, so now they're a mean-looking and quite visible black.

Um, they're black because they fly their missions at NIGHT.

Re:No!! No!!

[alienmole]

They fly some of their missions at night. At night, at altitude, a sky-blue color would not be significantly more visible. The reverse isn't true.

Re:No!! No!!

[coljac]

Why does other currency look like Monopoly money? Because you grew up in a country where real cash was monochrome, perhaps?

I really like Aussie money with the little transparent plastic window!

In any case, I don't have a lot to say in praise of cash as a concept, surely we have the technology to do away with it by now.

Re:No!! No!!

[CoolGuySteve]

I feel the opposite way. I was in the states a couple weeks ago and aside from the shiny patch, I couldn't believe how much the money looked like play money. It looks like you could print out a 20, mark it with a pink high-lighter and a cashier who has just spent the entire day handling money would never notice it. Most of the anti-copy measures on the bills seem like they need a magnifying glass or very close inspection to find. That's all neat if you're thinking about international conspiracies with briefcases full of money like in some movie, but most counterfit bills are passed over in small amounts at local stores. (It has to end up somewhere, right?)

That being said, the new Canadian money isn't that great either, while it does have neat shiny patches, brail, little tiny print all over, lots of colour, and other things, they look like coupons. The new 5 even has children playing hockey on it.. ugh. I'd rather have that Canadian Tire guy with the silly hat. And we still have the queen on our money even though we have nothing at all to do with England anymore. Why couldn't the Bank of Canada put some Canadian scientists or writers on there? They deserve a lot more recognition.

I think it's all a plot to encourage spending by making the tangible currency unbearable, what with the gay bills and gigantic coins.

Re:No!! No!!

[Starcub]

The only valid argument I've heard so far relates to the blind and partially sighted. Braille on the corners ought to take care of that, though.

I would agree that lots of fancy colors seem like a waste. However, I tend to think that having thin colored stripes along the top and bottom edges would be good. That way I could quickly locate that stray 1 or 5 amoungst the pack of 100's in my wallet without spending alot of time thumbing through them.

Re:No!! No!!

[Rhinobird]

Speaking as a former cashier, the feel of fake money is quite distinct from the real thing. Often just the feel of the bill is enough tip you off. But if you want...you could look at the color changing ink in corner and the water mark next to the dead president's head. A few strip bars I've been to have UV lamps next to the cash register for stamp checking purposes and all you need is to wave the bill under the lamp to be sure...

Re:No!! No!!

[Rhinobird]

That's an idea...I wouldn't be too of put by that. Maybe millimeter increments in widths for the various denominations for our blind citizens...I don't like the idea of having funky currency, but as long as it's way subtle, I can live with it.

Loonies, Twonies & what, "Finnies"

[crovira]

I'm a Canadian trapped here in the land of dull Greenbacks and I can attest that, while the confusion factor over the domination is not that high, damn, its a dull, ugly currency.

If only I had a lot more of it.

Re:Loonies, Twonies & what, "Finnies"

[xonker]

Heh... yeah. I'll buy that - the U.S. currency is homely - especially the newer "big head" versions of the currency. But, we're talking money here - it's only purpose is to serve as a means of exchange, it's not necessary for it to be pretty too.

Anyone who feels confused or aesthetically offended by their U.S. currency, feel free to send it all to me. I'll put up with it, I don't mind...

Well you've got to be kidding me

[SteelX]

It looks as though you've never travelled or lived outside the U.S. in your entire life.

Having different colors does make a huge difference for a lot of people. I've lived in four countries (including the U.S. now) and I definitely think that colored foreign currency notes are much easier to handle compared to boring green U.S. notes.

Re:Well you've got to be kidding me

[foobar104]

Right this second, I have a pocketful of Australian and Singaporean money. (Just got back from a trip.) At a glance, I can't tell the Aussie dollars from the Singapore dollars. They're both fairly brightly colored, but they're differently colored in an inconsistent way. In other words, an Aussie $5 bill is easy to distinguish from an Aussie $10 bill, but hard to distinguish-- at a glance-- from a Singapore $5 bill.

So it's two sides of the same coin, ha ha. It'd be a challenge to make the US dollar bills look different from one another while preventing them from looking like the bills of other countries.

Re:Well you've got to be kidding me

[SpryGuy]

Which brings up an interesting argument... these same people who can't tell our mono-chromatic denominations apart might suddenly fall back (lazily) on their own associations with color, and assume the blue bill is less than the orange bill, because that's the way it is in THEIR country... even though it might be the opposite in OUR country. I'm sure someone will then complain about that, no?

Re:Well you've got to be kidding me

[SoupIsGoodFood_42]

I don't think he was infering that he had muliple currecnies in his wallet at the same time. If that's the case, then yes either way is confusing. But most people just have one currency in the wallet. So colour does make sence for the majority.

Re:Well you've got to be kidding me

[jag164]

Christ, you're talking AEstetics with money?!? Get a life. $$ serves one pupose...to pay for shit. If your laying awake at night bithing about how ugly greenbacks are.....well, me thinks you better talk to your shrink about it.

Re:Well you've got to be kidding me

[danimrich]

I'd say that it is easier to distinguish between different currencies than between dollar bills of different denominations. After all, they're gonna have different styles, sizes and so on.
The Euro has made a lot of problems disappear. (after all, I don't need to buy D-Marks or Dollars any more when going to a foreign country.)

Re:Well you've got to be kidding me

[ksheff]

Actually, I found the different color money wasn't that big of a deal. I always looked at the face of bill and the number. Having them different sized was a pain though.

Re:Well you've got to be kidding me

[Astfgl]

We should Vegas-ize our bills. Maybe put porn on them depicting what you can get for each denomination. Heck, that'd be a public (pubic?) service for some of the furriners that visit here...
(Of course, this wouldn't work for anything under a $50, unless you dig carrying around a pocketfull of crackwhores)

Re:Well you've got to be kidding me

[Sri Lumpa]

At a glance, I can't tell the Aussie dollars from the Singapore dollars. They're both fairly brightly colored, but they're differently colored in an inconsistent way.

You are right! To avoid such stupid confusion with all these colors, all the world should do like the US and use only green bills of the same size, with the same layout (except for the details like the name of the country...), so it will be easier to differentiate between the American green $1 bill from the British green £50 bill from the Japanese green 10000Yen bill.

what's wrong with differnt colored bills?

[TheCyko1]

I still haven't gotten used to the larger pictures. And now this?

I don't see what's so bad about makeing different bills different colors, i think it makes it alot easier to see what you have in your wallet without haveing to take out that gigantic wad of paper. besides, when you goto another country and are forced to use thier curency, you usually just use the color of the paper to tell you what bill it is.

Also in other countries, they change thier curency often to try to protect against counterfiting, the reason the US has the most counterfit dollars is because we don't chance the look of are bills for very long periods of time, and one of our dallors usually goes a very long way in other countries. just my opinion, i wouldn't mind hearing what the rest of you think

this kind of money we need

[lingqi]

money shot

Excerpt from zzz: Bank notes of Belorussia: 3 and 10 rubles. Most countries put famous people on their money, Belorussia decided to put animals. There's a very special way to fold two notes...

it's a great day for drunks!

[so1omon]

the hard drinkers among us should all be cheering at this idea. how many times have we slapped down a $10 bill as part of a tip, thinking it was a $1? god knows, i've done it on an alarmingly regular basis. this could save me some cash, which could be used to buy more hard liquor!

on the other hand, bartenders should be weeping like babies right now.

Re:it's a great day for drunks!

[so1omon]

it would take far, far more than that...

Mark of the Beast

[webword]

--

.

--

Re:It is about time.

[DEBEDb]

The US is probably on the bottom rung of how interesting the money is.

See, US currency does not have to be interesting.
Already most people are interested in it. :)

finally

[Sir Elton John]

It is high time that the United States join the rest of the civilised world in adopting colourful currency. You will soon find that it raises the spirit and invigourates the soul.

I would suggest a psychadelic colour scheme that hearkens back to the days of free love and peace. I suspect that won't go over to well, but a man can dream, can't he?

Re:finally

[Ashtangi]

Yeah, and we should make them out of hemp paper that can be used for rolling up a nice big spliff. Blotter paper would be good too, for when you can't carry the vial.

currency tracking hardly needs rfids

[Surt]

I used to work for the treasury department, and back about 10 years ago they were working extensively with the FBI to improve on the ability to track down money laundering and counterfeiting.

The biggest thing heading our way in that department is a nationally linked serial number scanning system. Basically, since virtually all stores have laser scanners already, and a strong desire to avoid getting fed counterfeits (since they lose the counterfeit money without reparation), stores will be offered the opportunity to scan the money you hand them, and have a unique serial number checked against a national database. Money being used at multiple locations at the same time can be flagged as counterfeit, and refused by the stores.

The big benefit to the FBI comes when they can then follow money virtually every time it is spent. It can even be correlated with time stamped receipts at the stores to see what was bought.

A portion of this system is already in place in a number of banks, which have better scanners that work with the existing money supply, but in the next generation of currency, there will be a small bar code on the upper right edge of the currency for this purpose.

Its a pretty cool system, and should really help to cut down on organized crime.

Re:currency tracking hardly needs rfids

[flonker]

Actually, I find the prospect of this rather frightening. This makes hard currency much less anonymous than it is now.

Re:currency tracking hardly needs rfids

[nochops]

Bar code?

So what's to stop someone from printing a bill with the serial number of A01234567890A but a bar code that equates to B09876543210B. I can't decode bar codes on sight, can you?

So the counterfeiters can print the same bill many times, with the same human-readable Arabic numeral serial numbers on them all (this is the part that hard to print), and unique bar codes (bar codes are easy to print). The store clerk won't be able to tell the difference on sight, and when he scans the bill, the serial number would be unique, so it (hopefully) wouldn't match anything in the Fed's database.

Human-readable text has minute flaws and features that the experts can detect. They can say, for instance that such and such a bill, with such and such a serial number was printed from this plate, which has this tiny defect here. The bill doesn't have the defect, so it's probably a fake. Bar codes on the other hand, need to be read by a machine, so it needs to be pretty precise, AFAIK.

I could be misunderstanding something here, so correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems like an awful lot of trouble for something so easy to circumvent.

Re:currency tracking hardly needs rfids

[ethereal]

So much for remaining untraceable by paying cash. I think this is the most Big Brother-esque thing I've ever heard.

Re:currency tracking hardly needs rfids

[grytpype]

I think it would not be cool if the bank kept records of the serial numbers on the currency it dispenses to me, and the merchant I give the cash to scans the serial numbers, and a record goes into a database somewhere (maybe in the Ministry of Homeland Security) that "grytpype just spent $20 buying Little Debbie Snack Cakes at KMart." That would really, really, really suck.

Re:currency tracking hardly needs rfids

[CeruleanSilver]

If they had any sense at all, they would just keep track of which serial numbers they had allocated. So if someone scans in an unused one, it would immediately be flagged as invalid.

As far as the store clerk not being able to tell that the printable and bar-code serial numbers do not match: who cares. The scanner could easily display the decoded version on a computer screen. Besides, with the current situation, it's not like most clerks analyze the ink composition while the customer is in line.

All that needs to be done is flag a purchase with a bad or duplicate bill along with the customer's identity. Once they can analyze the data trails and see where the bad dollars originated, they can (theoretically) nail the source. Also, if they've marked a bad bill by serial, then they can get to work on inspecting the physical characteristics.

Re:currency tracking hardly needs rfids

[tjhayes]

What a wonderful troll that was! Too bad the secret service is the agency in charge of protecting the currency.

Re:currency tracking hardly needs rfids

[wings]

So much for remaining untraceable by paying cash. I think this is the most Big Brother-esque thing I've ever heard.

I agree. When individual bills can be traced, It will be difficult to keep any transaction anonymous.

Re:currency tracking hardly needs rfids

[raoulortega]

Looks like we need to add a new moderation class- paranoid.

Actually, this is more of a troll, and a good one, too.

Re:currency tracking hardly needs rfids

[grytpype]

No, that would be like killing someone for his credit cards. You'd get busted (or tracked, at least) as soon as you used the cash.

You know, victim withdraws cash (duly noted in the MoHS database), victim gets killed (again, duly noted), killer buys Little Debbie Snack Cakes with victim's cash... one database lookup later, killer is firmly in the custody of KMart security (who have been deputized by MoHS, of course).

Re:currency tracking hardly needs rfids

[Cryptnotic]

this is the most Big Brother-esque thing I've ever heard.

You ain't seen nothing yet.

Re:currency tracking hardly needs rfids

[blibbleblobble]

Right. So we can't even use cash anonymously anymore?

The Guild

Re:currency tracking hardly needs rfids

[Sloppy]

You guys are just ripping off WheresGeorge!

Re:currency tracking hardly needs rfids

[vanyel]

It's definitely time for a good smart-card based cash system. We need a good incentive for people to get smart card readers on their computers and then someone can start up a Paypal-esque system to use them...

Re:currency tracking hardly needs rfids

[adolf]

Nice idea, but horribly flawed.

A "unique" number which has not been printed on a legitimate bill (and, yes, the Treasury -already- knows the serial numbers of every bill ever released into circulation) would trivially and automagically be flagged as counterfeit.

Which means, since you can't just make them up and get away with it, that the counterfeiter must borrow serials from legitimate bills.

This leaves open the possibility that two uniquely identical bills (the counterfeit, and its legal clone) are in two places at the same time. Which, with this mythical database, is also trivial to flag.

It's not quite as easy to circumvent as you think.

Re:currency tracking hardly needs rfids

[mosch]

nah, RFID tags in every bill are way more big brother-esque.

why no, officer. i have no idea how it is that the money i pulled out of that atm got deposited into that drug dealer's bank account 2 days later. i spent that $400 on ice cream, not an ounce of alaskan thunderfuck.

Re:currency tracking hardly needs rfids

[KegDude]

..have a unique serial number checked against a national database. Money being used at multiple locations at the same time can be flagged as counterfeit, and refused by the stores.

That doesn't seem to make any sense. Say I am at Walmart and the guy in front on me uses a $5 bill to make a purchase, then I receive his $5 bill at part of my change. As I'm walking out, I see a display of batteries that I remember I need, so I pick some up and go to the next checkout counter. I might use the $5 bill to pay for them. Now, that same $5 bill was used just a minute ago, but that doesn't mean it's counterfeit.

Or I could receive a $5 bill at an airport shop, just before I get on a plane. If I use that $5 bill in another part of the country in another hour or three, that still doesn't mean it's counterfeit.

And if "being used in multiple locations at the same time" means "at the exact same time", then they are probably not going to catch too many counterfeit bills.

If it means "within a few hours" (or whatever time period, really), then they are going to be getting a whole lot of false positives.

I just don't see how this could work at all.

Re:currency tracking hardly needs rfids

[Zach Baker]

Right. So we can't even use cash anonymously anymore?

Sure you could. Just launder them by exchanging bills with anonymous strangers. Or at a casino. Of course, watch out for getting counterfeits in return...

Re:currency tracking hardly needs rfids

[Pain in my *$$]

I'm sure they can just scan the digits. After all the Post Office can do it with hand scrawled zip codes on the fly.

Re:currency tracking hardly needs rfids

[ethereal]

As long as you kill somebody for their cash and hide the body so that the murder isn't discovered for a day or so, you have some time to move the money. Same thing with credit cards - until the database has the "Danger, Will Robinson" bit set, you're home free to use the purloined material.

Not that I'm advocating this, but I could see this becoming a problem. At least until we are all using biometric smartcards with multiple forms of identification to pay for anything, at which point we're back in big brother land again.

Here's hoping this thread really is a troll. It was an interesting one, at least.

Re:currency tracking hardly needs rfids

[tyen]

If it means "within a few hours" (or whatever time period, really), then they are going to be getting a whole lot of false positives.

No, all they have to do is know the GPS coordinates of each scanner in the system. As each bill's serial number is scanned, its global coordinate is also noted. As the crow flies, the maximum speed between any two points on the planet today for most citizens is a maximum of mach 1; it will surely increase in the future, but likely not by much for a couple of generations. The energy costs are quite high already for existing speeds, and nothing on the horizon seems to indicate that higher speed civilian transport with the same or lower energy costs are in the offing. The government is not in the habit of transporting cash by supersonic military craft as far as I know, so overrides are likely not necessary.

The detection of the same serial number in two different locations simply must not violate the theoretical maximum speed someone can transport cash from one location to another.

The flaw in this scheme is that as the maximum speed increases, so does the size of the potential pool of counterfeit bills. The scheme completely falls apart if we ever figure out Trek-like transporter technology, for example.

Finally, the parent post forgot to note that the majority of U.S. cash is used and held outside of the continental United States. Remember, greenbacks are the de facto reserve currency of the world, so every central bank wants a chunk of greenbacks to "back" their local currency. The scheme is only effective if it is expanded to private enterprises in other nations.

Re:currency tracking hardly needs rfids

[Pete (big-pete)]

It's definitely time for a good smart-card based cash system. We need a good incentive for people to get smart card readers on their computers and then someone can start up a Paypal-esque system to use them...

Such as these for example?

I live in Brussels, and we have "Proton" (PDF link) here. It's electronic cash, and I can charge it at my bank, and if I get an appropriate telephone terminal, then I can charge the card with money at home!

As a result, I can leave home in the morning, buy a newspaper, go to work, buy a Coke from a vending machine, buy my lunch, and then do my grocery shopping on the way home, all without handling even a single cent of physical cash.

Electronic cash is the true way forward - I'm just waiting for bars and cafes to adopt Proton, then I'll almost never need to carry real metal or paper money around at all.

-- Pete.

Re:currency tracking hardly needs rfids

[thelexx]

"but in the next generation of currency, there will be a small bar code on the upper right edge of the currency for this purpose."

And another control scheme falls to SuperSharpie, most permanent and black of markers! Is there no limit to its powers?!

LEXX

Re:currency tracking hardly needs rfids

[vanyel]

I know smart cards are quite common in Europe, but I didn't see any computers with readers when I was there. I would also want to make sure the protocols were safe, yet didn't leave tracks. I would like to see PDA's with readers also, so say we're at lunch and you all pay my pda, then I put it in my card (or maybe it has a dual reader and you do the transfer direct into my card), then I pay the bill --- simplifies the waiter(ess)'s job. Though I could also see them leaving a terminal with the bill at the table and each person checks off their menu items and enters a tip amount.

Still, you folks "across the pond" are way ahead of us and I'd first like to figure a way to get us jump started. American Express tried, but their software sucks so bad, it isn't useful as anything but a regular credit card.

Re:currency tracking hardly needs rfids

[Pete (big-pete)]

Well the technology isn't yet being used for the net, but I should think they're planning on it, it seems like the perfect alternative to stuff like Pay Pal.

There is no real security to actually use the cards, when a payment is made, the card is put into a reader, the shopkeeper types in the amount, and then the card-owner just presses "OK" to confirm. The transactions are usually so small, that any authentication process would cost far more than it's worth, so the card really is like cash. Generally people only keep as much cash on the card as they feel they are likely to need - I can't be bothered to charge it, and I trust myself not to lose it, so I usually just charge it to the maximum (125 Euros), and spend until I'm down to my last 10 Euros or so before recharging.

As for not leaving tracks, I don't know exactly how bad it is, but I have heard that it is possible to recover the cash from the bank if the chip gets damaged etc, but it's a long process. If this is true, then it means that all transactions must be tracable for the bank to be able to find exactly how much was left on the damaged card.

I personally don't have a problem with this, as I very much doubt there are any agencies out there that are really all that curious about how much I spent for lunch - or whether I've dropped by the newsagent today. I really don't think it's the kind of technology that people will be making any types of suspicious transactions with, due to the low amounts involved.

-- Pete.

Re:currency tracking hardly needs rfids

[CProgrammer98]

"when he scans the bill, the serial number would be unique, so it (hopefully) wouldn't match anything in the Fed's database."

That's the WHOLE POINT!!!! Every number that's been issued would be ON the database so if one is scanned that isn't - BAM you're caught.

differenciating

[larry bagina]

Apparently, with both size and color the same, foreigners have a hard time differenciating between the bills.

Where can I find some of these foreigners? I'd like to do some currency exchanging!

Cold, Hard Sentiment

[donnacha]

Apparently, with both size and color the same, foreigners have a hard time differenciating between the bills.

I realize how strange that must seem to Americans but it really is true; I travel all over the world and the U.S. is the only place where I have to really think about what I'm doing, it's insanely easy to make mistakes.

Given that money is meant to be representational, and given that the different bills represent entirely different amounts, it only makes sense to distinguish them from one another as much as possible.

I once met someone working within the US treasury and took the opportunity to ask him why they didn't take advantage of color printing. He reckoned that it was politics more than anything else; no politician wanted to be the one to suggest changing something with which Americans identify so strongly. I guess it's a bit like the British being sentimental about the pound despite all the jobs and markets they're losing to Ireland and the other countries who've adopted the Euro.

Re:Cold, Hard Sentiment

[LordNimon]

the U.S. is the only place where I have to really think about what I'm doing

Well, that's a first!

Re:Cold, Hard Sentiment

[Yunzil]

I travel all over the world and the U.S. is the only place where I have to really think about what I'm doing, it's insanely easy to make mistakes.

In other words, you admit that you can't think? :) Seriously though, given that you are handing over your money, shouldn't you be paying attention to what you're doing?

Re:Cold, Hard Sentiment

[donnacha]

In other words, you admit that you can't think? :) Seriously though, given that you are handing over your money, shouldn't you be paying attention to what you're doing?

That's exactly my point: I want to devote my attention to the transaction, not to making sure I'm accidently handing over a fifty instead of a twenty.

Everyday, each of us has a continual flow of details we try to keep track of. Sometimes we miss a few and that's when we make mistakes. Good design is about making things so effortless to use, so intuitive, that we can concentrate on a wider range of elements.

In the case of money, it's very useful if you're able to flip quickly through what's in your pocket , recognizing each note's value by glimpsing any part of it.

Money is used everyday by almost everyone. Even a few seconds lost per transaction mounts up to a lot of wasted time and energy. I would suggest that Americans don't realize how much time they waste on this because they've never become accustomed to a better system.

Re:Trouble? Trouble at the Gentlemans Club

[puto]

I know what you mean. But the worst part of it is that now your average near-sighted stripper will be able to tell who the cheap skates are from across the stage. Us poor guys who wave the singles will be screwed!!!

Puto

Tough time differentiating? Try Turkish Money!

[ZipR]

I constantly had problems there due to all of the zeroes on the money. When you're wheeling and dealing, it can be tough to tell the difference between 500000 and 5000000 on the fly. Luckily, the few times that I did give the wrong bills (5 mil instead of 500,000), the person was nice enough to correct me. Regardless of how countries differentiate their denominations, it requires familiariry with the bills to get to know them. Unfortunately, sometime it takes trial and error...

Damn!

[Sean Clifford]

Damn, now I'll have to upgrade all my counterfeiting equipment!

New money is supposed to look more like

[hypergreatthing]

Monopoly money. Maybe it's just some strange message from the gov't?

Seriously, where do they have the time and the money to spend on new designs and colors? I for one think it's a total waste of time to make a new design and add color to some bills which have just changed in the past 10 years. Don't you think the gov't has more important issues to deal with other than issuing new colored money?

Re:It is about time.

[RexRuther]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. I for one like the look of US$ Classic, gracefull, and fits easily in the pocket.

When I was in England I was walking around with a pocketful of pound coins. What a racket!

Bring back the $500 and $1000!

[Anonymous Coward]

I remember seeing a $500 when I was a kid.

Supposedly, they got rid of them to make things harder for drug dealers/cash laundering.

But if you look at inflation, isn't it time to bring them back into circulation?

Re:Bring back the $500 and $1000!

[generic-man]

$1000? Fuck that. I want a few $100,000 notes. :)

Re:Bring back the $500 and $1000!

[tim1724]

Yeah, they used to make $500, $1000, $5000, and even a few $10000 notes. And the six or so ridiculous $100000 notes.

Today we have these things called credit cards. Why would you ever need a $500 bill when you can use your credit card? Or a debit card or a personal check? The main uses for such a thing would be the illegal ones.

Anyway, go to the Post Office and get a $500 money order if you really want an anonymous way to carry $500 on a single piece of paper. (see www.usps.com for more info on money orders.)

Re:Bring back the $500 and $1000!

[RKloti]

The Swiss Franc is still issued in 1000 Fr (about $650 US) denomination. Though there aren't any 500 Fr notes; the next smallest denomiation is 200 Fr. The denominations are all the same width, but each is 11 millimetres longer than the next smallest denomination.

You can see what Swiss money looks like here. (Requires JavaScript, unfortunately)

True

[pjdoland]

I just hope the secret service thinks it's funny.

Re:True

[Anonymous Coward]

If the Secret Service had mod points, L. VeGas would receive -1 Convicted Felon.

We've already done multi color

[Kagato]

There are several times in the US past when bills had other colors on them. Dating back to the 1800's. No one died then. Why does this have to be a big deal.

Re:We've already done multi color

[stevey]

Ironically the whole greenback thing came about because you used to have multicoloured notes.

Way back in the past, (from what I understand of it - in my capacity as an ignorant foreigner who was incredibly confused about your mono-coloured + sized currency) you used to have different types + designes of notes in different states - the introduction of a common currency was done explicitly to cut down on counterfeits.

(Mostly because people could print almost anything and say it was money from far_away_statetm ;)

Changing size is a Very Bad Thing

[Jeremiah Blatz]

The Tanzanian currency makes higher-denomination bills bigger. Back in the 80's when they let their currency float, inflation got pretty bad and they had to introduce new, bigger bills. It got so bad that they had to reset and introduce a new bill (1000 shillingi, as I recall) that was smaller than all the smaller bills. The 500 shillingi bill wouldn't properly fit in standard wallets.

Funny...

[JaredOfEuropa]

Funny that many people are so concerned over how their money looks. Never mind the reasons for not changing it, everybody seems to have their own. Then again, there are not that many reasons to change sizes and colors either.

It's hardly an important issue.

As long as they aren't yellow...

[Smallest]

...like a credit card receipt. i'd be tearing them up and throwing them away. :(

-c

how about real change?

[Mr. Slippery]

While they're at it, howsabout some real change in the bills - like changing who's on them?

Start with the $20. Jackson. How did this genocidal maniac, who laid the seeds of the Trail of Tears, who shattered the Constitutional balance of power by ignoring rulings of the Supreme Court, who appointed Taney (who authored the Dred Scott decision) to that same court, end up honored with a place on our money?

Re:how about real change?

[Grishnakh]

I've always wondered about this too. Jackson was easily the worst President the U.S. ever had for exactly the reasons you stated. Why is he constantly honored?

I'd like to see Jefferson take his place. Or how about some other old Presidents, like John Adams, who never seem to get much recognition?

Re:how about real change?

[cryptochrome]

Oddly enough Jackson has an interesting history with money.

The Second Bank of the United States was established in 1816, and quickly became one of the most influential institutions in the world. Many people regarded the privately owned bank which wielded independent of the government as a dangerous and anti-democratic institution, benefitting the rich at the expense of the working class and heavily tied to foreign interests. Or as banker Meyer Rothschild wrote, "Let me issue and control a nation's currency and I care not who writes its laws." No person fought so hard and so opposed the bank as the populist Andrew Jackson, who once famously remarked "The bank...is trying to kill me, but I will kill it!" In 1836 Jackson vetoed the bill to renew it's charter, and considered it one of the greatest accomplishments of his career. However, following the panic of 1907 the Federal Reserve was established, for all intents and purposes identical to it's predecessors.

It is with considerable irony that Jackson's visage now appears appears on the $20 bill, beneath the words "Federal Reserve Note".

Re:how about real change?

[Carbon Blob]

Jefferson is on the two.

Unless of course you meant you meant George.

Re:how about real change?

[Grishnakh]

No, I meant Jefferson. The two is so rare, that Jefferson I think is getting a raw deal by being on it instead of a far more popular bill like the 20. How about they put Jefferson on the new 20, put some not-so-notable President on the 2 (like Adams maybe), and put the truth about Jackson in the history books for once.

And the score is....

[nochops]

Well, with about 100 posts so far, I see about half from non-Americans, with legit reasons why the US should use this system, and about half from Americans, basically saying fsck the foreigners...they need to learn to read the numbers...etc.

It speaks volumes about our (Americans') culture and attitude towards the rest of the world as a society, and yes, I'm American.

Re:And the score is....

[alienmole]

I'm not an American, I grew up with colored notes, but I've lived in the US for 11 years and haven't had any problem dealing with the banknotes. I prefer them, actually, but for subjective reasons that others have mentioned - they seem more serious than the brightly colored "monopoly" money in many other countries.

I haven't been seeing a lot of really valid arguments from non-Americans - so far, the only one I really buy is for blind or partially-sighted people. For them, I would think the color might not be the main issue - some braille and appropriate simple differentiating symbols would seem to do the trick.

I think Americans are right to say that they shouldn't change their currency simply because some outsiders have trouble with it. It should only need to be changed if it's demonstrably inferior. No-one's actually demonstrated the need for color yet - instead, they're arguing based on preference and what they're used to.

There are all sorts of confusing things about moving between countries. Language, for one thing. This is about the least important of those. I'd argue that Americans should not change their currency simply to satisfy those who want America to be more like what they're used to. What's next - please don't play baseball or American football, it confuses us???

Re:And the score is....

[killmenow]

and attitude towards the rest of the world as a society

I think you misunderstand.

Americans don't have a bad attitude towards foreigners...we think more like this: fsck everybody who's not me!

Re:And the score is....

[fractalus]

This is an interesting point, but (as a Brit living in the US) let me flip the thought around: what does this say about the rest of the world telling the US how it should do things?

The US gets a lot of flak for telling the rest of the world they should do this or that. I've done a fair bit of traveling myself, and I can say that different currency always takes a bit of time to get used to. You have to train yourself to focus on the important differences. With US currency, it's the numbers (or the photos if you actually want to memorize those). With European currency it seems to be colors (which you must associate with numbers) as the numbers often have lots of distracting stuff around them that draws your eye AWAY from the number, arguably the most important information on the currency!

So yeah, Americans will resist change, but another way of looking at it is, why fix what isn't broken?

Food for thought.

Re:And the score is....

[L. VeGas]

It speaks volumes about our (Americans') culture and attitude towards the rest of the world

There's a lot of good reasons for the French to adopt English as their primary language. It speaks volumes about their culture that they stubbornly refuse to comply.

Re:And the score is....

[brogdon]

Yes, yes, you're right. I suppose we should take into account more foreign opinion on our money considering it's the most relied-upon cash in the world.

You know what the official national currency of Libya is? The American Dollar. Most businesses in poorer nations (q.v. Russia) would probably prefer dollars to their own currency as well.

Seems to me we're doing the rest of the globe a favor by making the dollar stable, let alone making it easier for them to read.

Re:And the score is....

[GoatEnigma]

Yeah, but just because the dollar VALUE is relied upon, doesn't mean that everyone in the world is changing their paper currency for American paper currency. The idea of "relied-upon" is a market notion - a measure of economic stability. Intrinsically, it's the value and the backing, and not the actual pieces of paper.

Re:And the score is....

[Frank T. Lofaro Jr.]

People in other countries use the same numbering system we do!

10 means 10 for everyone (except for geeks that see at as 2 in binary or 8 in octal, or 16 in hex ;)

Re:And the score is....

[SirSlud]

-2 for a totally broken and impotant point.

How the hell does the value of the american dollar proove that its easier to read? You don't really think that countries adopt the american dollar because of how its printed, do you? Thank you for my laugh of the afternoon. :)

Of course, I may have just been troll-fed, but at least it beats what I'm workin on right now.

Re:And the score is....

[Dephex Twin]

So yeah, Americans will resist change, but another way of looking at it is, why fix what isn't broken?

Why not improve when something has been shown to be demonstrably better?

I don't see this as Europeans telling us what to do. It's not like some Americans (who are rational) don't also think this is a good idea.

mark

Re:And the score is....

[renoX]

Mmm, do you realise that a large part of Europe just changed their currency unit?

And no, it isn't easy: in my mind I still use the old one, but I hope that in 2 years or more, I'll get used.

As for being stubborn, which contry has refused to use meters as their standard unit for decades?
:-)

Re:And the score is....

[wannabe]

We're American.

We rule the world now since the most Imperial Bush II has ascended to the throne.

Let the rest of the world change to our standards, they'll have to sooner or later.

Re:And the score is....

[brogdon]

"How the hell does the value of the american dollar proove that its easier to read?"

It doesn't. If you think that was the point I was trying to make you have reading comprehension issues.

The point I was attempting to illustrate is that the rest of the world should just be grateful our nice, stable dollar is around at all, and shut the hell up about what color it is.

Re:And the score is....

[beanyk]

What's next - please don't play baseball or American football, it confuses us???

No, as long as you keep saying "American football", and don't call real football "soccer".

Re:And the score is....

[Atlantix]

I've done a fair bit of traveling myself, and I can say that different currency always takes a bit of time to get used to. You have to train yourself to focus on the important differences. With US currency, it's the numbers (or the photos if you actually want to memorize those). With European currency it seems to be colors (which you must associate with numbers) as the numbers often have lots of distracting stuff around them that draws your eye AWAY from the number, arguably the most important information on the currency!

I think any good traveler would have to watch the numbers. I highly doubt there's an international standard for what color or size goes with each value so if you start depending on those features you'll just get confused. By keeping all American money the same color, we're forced to check the numbers which is a Good Thing.

And to the posters that complain about accidentally giving away a $20 when you meant to give a $5...stop blaming others just because you're a frigging idiot!

--Atlantix2000

Re:And the score is....

[goon america]

Maybe what you said says more about our self-loathing. Non-Americans are saying fsck the US, they should learn to use the colors. Americans are saying it isn't worth the effort. (How many times have I confused a $10 for a $1? Maybe twice in my whole life, and that was with the old, smaller portrait money.)

Re:And the score is....

[perky]

10 means 10 for everyone (except for geeks that see at as 2 in binary or 8 in octal, or 16 in hex ;)

I don't know about you, but for me ten is 1010 in binary, 12 in octal and 10 in hex. I think that you are perhaps slightly missing the point of using different bases.

Re:And the score is....

[perky]

I suppose we should take into account more foreign opinion on our money considering it's the most relied-upon cash in the world.

Did you just ignore the first paragraph?

Re:And the score is....

[godzilla_akimbo]

You're a dumbass. First of all, 10 in hex is not ten. Second, re-read the parent. He's saying a one followed by a zero is the number 2 in binary, the number 8 in octal, etc.

Re:And the score is....

[alienmole]

I used to call "real" football soccer even when I lived in "the colonies". So you're outa luck there, mate...

Re:And the score is....

[rtaylor]

I hope that in 2 years or more, I'll get used.

Me too, but in the good way -- and with an increased frequency ;)

Re:And the score is....

[Lomara]

Well, speaking as an American who has just returned from England, I rather enjoyed being able to tell the difference between paper bills without needing to look at them. I could stick my hand in my pocket in the checkout line of a market and know I was handing over a £5 note before looking at it. On the other hand (all puns intended), some of their coins feel the same by touch, same as our Sajawhatsit dollar and the quarter - they are nearly the same size and weight. That's what kills some special coins, I think - not being able to tell the difference between them quickly. Just my 2p...

Re:And the score is....

[aridhol]

I haven't been seeing a lot of really valid arguments from non-Americans - so far, the only one I really buy is for blind or partially-sighted people. For them, I would think the color might not be the main issue - some braille and appropriate simple differentiating symbols would seem to do the trick.

We use braille in Canada on our new 5s and 10s. The problem is that after a few transactions, the braille wears down to nothing. They need to use a different system than just raising the bumps on the paper. Maybe putting something (plastic?) into the paper where the bumps should be.

Re:Arabic numerals anyone?

[Moridineas]

They're not Arabic numerals. Arabic speaking countries for the most part use their own numbering system, which in some cases looks somewhat similar to ours. 1 is a vertical slanting line, 4 is a backwards 3, 5 is a o shaped 0, 6 is a slanting 7, 0 is a period, etc. it is true that the general base 10 numbering system came through arabic hands to Europe (from India), but our letters in their current form aren't arabic. Calling them arabic is like calling our letters hieroglyphics (we got ours from the Romans, who got theirs from Etruscans, from Greeks, from Phoenicians, ROUGHLY from hieroglyphics)

Brail?

[BoBaBrain]

Most "foreign" money comes in different sizes for the same reason that it comes with Brail. The colours/holograms/scratch-n-sniff patches are just for cuteness.
How do the visually impared deal with USD?

Let's try a test

[swb]

Go to any country in the world. Give away a $1, $20 or $100 to whoever wants one. See how many $1 bills you actually give away. See how many $100 bills you actually give away.

If you give away anything but $100 bills, then I'll believe foreigners can't tell American money apart.

Re:Let's try a test

[markmoss]

That test had better be in a _rich_ foreign country - there are lots of places an American $1 is worth a day's pay, for the lucky few that even have a job. Try it in Afghanistan and they'll take all the bills and all your change too - and maybe run off to the scrap metal dealer with your keychain.

Re:Let's try a test

[Mojojojo Monkey Inc.]

Yes, yes, we all know foreigners are stupid compared to the genius Americans, but I'd hope that the literate foreigners could at least count. How would a little Chinese kid know instinctively that the blue fifty dollar bill is worth more than the orange ten dollar bill? Honestly?

Re:Let's try a test

[Mojojojo Monkey Inc.]

Oops, so I see I'm on the same side as swb. Your wording confused my meager American brain. Carry on.

Re:Let's try a test

[lars_stefan_axelsson]

Go to any country in the world. Give away a $1, $20 or $100 to whoever wants one. See how many $1 bills you actually give away. See how many $100 bills you actually give away. If you give away anything but $100 bills, then I'll believe foreigners can't tell American money apart.

Actually, since the US $100 bill is worthless/useless all over the world, even in the US (what's the point of bringing money that you have to go to a bank to exchange for the local currency, such as twenties), I'd be surprised if the $20 wasn't the most popular currency, at least in the parts of the world where that wasn't in itself an outrageous amount.

Oh, and while you're bashing the rest of us for not being able to read numbers, how about the dime, which doesn't even have a number printed on it. It sure as h*ll doesn't say 10 cents anywhere, that's for certain.

Re:Let's try a test

[swb]

According to most of the sources I've read, the $100 is not only the most popular but the most widely counterfeited denomination.

This would make sense if you consider that much of the developing world, which holds like 60% of the US currency overseas, uses it pretty much as the currency for getting anything meaningful done. If you factor in a cash-based economy that uses or demands US dollars for many transactions (foreign exchange, probably many of them), denominations smaller than $100 don't make sense when you're trying to pay someone thousands of dollars.

I'd guess that the usual situation is to hold quantities of dollars in $100s, but perform small-denomination transactions in the local currency. It's also likely that local governments, perhaps even assuming good intentions, dislike a lot of US currency floating around as it tends to devalue the local currency, if not in terms of exchange rate at least in terms of status/desirability.

How will this affect Danger Mouse?

[rhiorg]

Just as I'm about to finish the script for my live-action adaptation of Danger Mouse, I learn that we're changing our money. Great.

So now the name Silas Greenback will be an antiquated reference and the villainous character will have to be changed to reflect whatever color the government finally chooses. It will change the entire dynamic of the show, since the name "Greenback" made since because he is GREEDY and therefore desires MONEY, and because he is a FROG. A GREEN FROG.

I just hope they don't choose pink...because then the villain will have to be a Flamingo in order for the name to work. And there's already a bird villain in the show - the nefarious Stiletto! Not to mention Mad Manuel, "the Flamenco assassin", which sounds entirely too much like flamingo.

Thanks for ruining Danger Mouse, you feds!

Bad idea

[af_robot]

Considering the cost of ink cartridges i don't think it will be very profitable.

Re:Bad idea

[discogravy]

Haven't you got that email about how to refill your ink cartidges cheaply? It's all I get in my hotmail accounts.

Re:Bad idea

[SmittyTheBold]

Just wait until the Smitty Press introduces the new $20,000 note. Then maybe printing my own money will be profitable...

Re:Trouble? Trouble at the Gentlemans Club

[Bob McCown]

Us poor guys who wave the singles will be screwed!!!

Actually, probably NOT screwed...

Maybe not...

[splume]

Yea, but you usually don't see the older designs in circulation. Banks take it out because they get worn, etc. I imagine they keep they cycle like that because that is how long they think it will take to produce a reliable counterfeiting machine. My theory is that the shorter the cycle the more difficult it is to counterfeit.

Re:Maybe not...

[splume]

Well, I think it depends on how short the cycle is, and how dramatic the change is. If the cycle is an annual one, then you are right, people couldn't keep track. But, if the cycle was more like five years, then I think people would figure it out. And, if the changes were substantial, such as changing the color, picture, location of key items (number, picture, etc.) then I think it would be reasonable to say that people would know the difference.

Re:Maybe not...

[thogard]

This has happned man times in many places in Africa and South America.

There were fake new $100 bills floating around the middle east before they were released in the US.

Terrible idea

[Anonymous Coward]

The last thing I want is multicolored money. I don't want some asshole to know I'm carrying a big note by seeing a certain color in my wallet while I'm at the grocery store.

There are many situations where it's possible for other people to view my money. I don't want some careful observer 5 meters away to know I'm carrying more than usual because of some colored Monopoly money!

Re:Terrible idea

[jcsehak]

On the flip side, you also wouldn't be able to wrap a $20 around a wad of ones and look like a high roller. Terrible idea indeed.

Re:Terrible idea

[edunbar93]

Or, alternatively, you could get mugged over a bunch of ones with the current money.

Besides, you guys have heard of Interac, right? :)

Re:Terrible idea

[Kanasta]

You're a retard.

Which will expose your money to view longer?

1) Glancing in your slightly parted wallet and seeing eg 5 red notes, 2 green ones, and 1 blue one?

2) Taking the wad of cash out of your wallet and viewing each note individually to ascertain its value?

Who the f*&k is going to count your money before they rob you anyway? You have a fat wallet, they'll take it. If they all happen to be $1s, bad luck, they'll take that risk.

If you live somewhere where everyone around you is trying to rob you anyway, you should really consider moving to a safer neighborhood.

A new, old standard.

[xanthus]

Let's just drop the paper altogether and go back to the gold standard! Whoo-Whoo!!

Oh wait, I can't remember what a troy ounce is anymore. Dang. How many shavings to a bit again?

Re:About Time!

[Schnapple]

Friend of mine once paid for his burrito at a local restruaunt with the then-brand new $20 bill. They gave him change for a $100 bill. Suffice it to say his order was suddenly "to go".

Re:About Time!

[meknapp]

Frankly, I don't get what's so hard about it. The numbers are represented as large digits on all four corners on both sides. (1,5,10,20) It is written out in English on the bottom on both sides (ONE DOLLAR)

Granted, it's a system I grew up with, but now looking at least the 1,10, & 20 objectively - they are clearly marked. Particularly the newer bills have bigger numbers.

I frequently go to Canada, and I've become accustomed to their monetary system as well. However, I don't feel the bright colors really help differentiate the bills - it just makes them seemer less stately, more Disney.

Just my $.02 US ;)

Waste of money

[jonerik]

Keeee-rist, doesn't the government have anything better to do? I'd argue that one of the reasons why people - albeit subconsciously - regard the dollar as highly as they do is because of its monochromatic appearance. Because of that it looks solid. Sturdy. Foreign currencies might be more festive, but to be honest, to us Americans it just looks like their treasuries couldn't make up their damn minds, which is not a big confidence builder.

And I know I'm about the hundredth person to mention it, but how hard is it to look at the corner of the goddamn bill?

In any event, Congress will never go along with it. The treasury department has been trying to switch over to dollar coins for years, but Congress just laughs at them and beats them up for their lunch money whenever it comes up.

Re:Waste of money

[SirSlud]

> ... to us Americans it just looks like their treasuries couldn't make up their damn minds, which is not a big confidence builder.

This is somewhat frightening. Americans (well, for the sake of argument, I assume you cant speak for _all_ of them, so lets say you) conclude that treasuries with multi-coloured currency 'cant decide on a colour'? The article is about suggesting or investigating the possibility that different colours for each denomination may actually be a good thing for those who use it. Personally, the better and more efficiently a population gets at 'using' a currency, the higher my confidence in that currency tends to go.

> And I know I'm about the hundredth person to mention it, but how hard is it to look at the corner of the goddamn bill?

And I know I'm the hundredth person to point this out, but what about blind people?

Re:Waste of money

[SoupIsGoodFood_42]

And I know I'm about the hundredth person to mention it, but how hard is it to look at the corner of the goddamn bill?

Very hard if they're all stuffed in your wallet with the corners covered up. I could give you more senarios if you want.

Adding colour just make things easier. It's as simple as that. I don't know what big deal is (actually I do, but I'd rather not get into cultural/political value of the Greenback).

Re:Waste of money

[jonerik]

Americans (well, for the sake of argument, I assume you cant speak for _all_ of them, so lets say you) conclude that treasuries with multi-coloured currency 'cant decide on a colour'?

Actually, I said "it just looks like their treasuries couldn't make up their damn minds." There's a difference between perception and stating something as a fact.

And I know I'm the hundredth person to point this out, but what about blind people?

Maybe it's an obvious question, but how would changing the color of the bill help them?

Re:Trouble? Trouble at the Gentlemans Club

[Pfhreakaz0id]

somebody uses something other than ones? She's gonna have to do more than rub her breasts on my face for a fiver, or am I a cheap bastard?

Note to self: Stop asking rhetorical questions... I mean, do they ever accomplish anything?

Different materials

[cicadia]

So the new $1 bill will still be made of paper, but the $5 will be printed on burlap, while the $20 will be an engraved slab of lead.

I wouldn't be too sure about your wallet, either. I hear the new $10 bill will be made of Jello :)

But I was told that color and size don't matter!

[L. VeGas]

Boy am I humiliated. Up till now I thought my 6" money was quite adequate.

How the blind know how much is in their wallet

[HeroicAutobot]

My blind friends (not a statistically significant sample, for sure) solve this problem by only carrying one dollar bills.

Of course, this is a pain because just carrying around $50 can double the size of your billfold.

Ignorance is no excuse for stupidity

[southpolesammy]

Come on. Really. US currency is the most well known currency on the planet, is used in lieu of local currency in some locales, and has several mechanisms installed to prevent counterfeiting as well as to ensure the readability of the bills.

Go to the Secret Service website and look up the details behind the reason why American currency is designed the way it is.

I Say Go For It!

[Tiado]

It would be nice to see some US currency to have a little bit more definition among denominations. I don't get why there are so many that are afraid that colored money will make then 'fruity', does it really matter?

Besides, in a few years we might end up being a cashless society anyway and banknotes won't matter anymore.

Re: Systems of measure

[Ethidium]

Ah, but that was caused not by NASA's failure to use metric but by Lockheed's. Lockheed figured that since people in the US use the english system, they should translate all of their data to english units before they sent it over to NASA with the probe. NASA assumed the data were metric, because, well, that's what everybody in science uses! This is why NASA people now refer to the English system as the "Lockheed system"

Monopoly

[goodhell]

Great! Now when I play monopoly I could really be losing a lot of my money.

I new I should have put up a couple of hotels on St. Charles!

It's what you're used to

[alienmole]

I've lived in the US for 11 years, and I don't find that I have to check twice that I'm not handing over a twenty instead of a one. You're just used to certain cues and haven't got used to different ones yet.

I had much more of a problem with the fact that a dime is physically smaller than a nickel or even a penny, but is worth more. What's up with that??

Re:It's what you're used to

[Dephex Twin]

I am also American, and I can agree that I generally can recognize the bills pretty quickly and don't have much trouble.

However, I think we have all had times when we accidentally hand a 5 instead of a one when we're trying to gather the money really fast, or when we can't quite remember if we had just handed a 10 or a 20 to the cashier. If the 10 was blue and the 20 was red, it would be easier to recall that information.

Perhaps you (meant generally) can count American money quickly. Do you really think that it wouldn't be faster if the bills were more distinct?

While the money DOES look different, having different colors and sizes for each bill makes it even easier. Why should it just be "not too difficult if you are used to it" when it can be easy for all? Is there some good reason to avoid it?

Imagine if all the coins were the same size and color, and just had big numbers on them. Sure, we could tell them apart, but it sure sounds like a pain in the ass, doesn't it?

That's where Europeans are coming from. We Americans have just adapted to this pain-in-the-ass paper money.

mark

Re:It's what you're used to

[alienmole]

I can't think of a solid objection to color, other than preference-based (it's a greenback, dammit, and I say that as a resident alien :) Size, though: counting paper money of different sizes is a pain, unless you're separating them into different piles.

And maybe it's just me, but I know what money I hand to cashiers etc. If I didn't, I'm not sure color would help me. Perhaps what we're talking about here are people's different cognitive mechanisms, and by maximizing the number of different cues, money becomes friendlier for everyone, not just those that are good at recognizing and remembering digits or dead presidents.

Still, I'm more sympathetic to those who say that if you can't tell the difference, you deserve to lose it! :P

Re:It's what you're used to

[raoulortega]

I had much more of a problem with the fact that a dime is physically smaller than a nickel or even a penny, but is worth more.

Back in the bad ole days when coins were made of metals with real value, the value of the silver in a dime exceeded the value of the base metals and copper in the lesser valued coins. (Although ten dimes did not weigh the same as silver dollar.) Similiarly, a gold five dollar coin was much smaller than a silver dollar. The double eagle, the $20 gold, was about the same size, reflecting the idea of 1:20 gold to silver.

Re:It's what you're used to

[elmegil]

I'd say money of different sizes would become pretty UNFRIENDLY to my cognitive and usage patterns in a big fat hurry. I'll cope with fruity colors (hey, you could start doing poker games with fruity pebbles, color coding them to the money values!), but I won't cotton to no funny sizes & shapes.

Re:It's what you're used to

[tim1724]

it used to be that dimes were made of silver, nickels were made of nickel (go figure), and pennies were made of copper.

silver cost much more than nickel or copper, so the dime had to be smaller.

today, of course, they're mostly zinc. (well, the dime is actually zinc-clad copper.)

I read somewhere that even Canada isn't making its nickels out of nickel anymore. that sucks. Canadian nickels used to have so much nickel in them that they were magnetic. (if you dropped one in sand, it would be covered in bits of iron when you fished it out.)

Re:It's what you're used to

[SoupIsGoodFood_42]

I've lived in the US for 11 years, and I don't find that I have to check twice that I'm not handing over a twenty instead of a one. You're just used to certain cues and haven't got used to different ones yet.

That's the whole point. Having coloured notes is a much bugger cue as to what the note is. It's as simple as that. It just makes more sence.
The only reason I can think of for someone not wanting to go to coloured notes is because of tradition etc. Not usability.

Now all people have to do is...

[EvanED]

memorize which color goes with which. Which, of course, is SO much easier than just reading the number.

I just hope they do like M & Ms did

[sootman]

and let us vote on the color. Pink! Blue! Purple!

Re:Trouble? Trouble at the Gentlemans Club

[geekd]

no matter what a stripper says, there is no sex in the champaign room.

;-)

Internet Holographic Paper!

[Quixadhal]

Now that we're pretty close to having LCD paper, and wireless internet access in every major city, I'm all for the next generation of money having LCD hologram foil that has a full 3-D animation of George W (or whomever is President when it's "printed") waving out from each bill. Whenever you're in range of a wireless network, the hologram can be updated to meet the current political climate, and of course banner ads can scroll between the large flashing colored denomination symbols. (Quickly pulsing red ball means $50, slower green pyramid means $20).

Now if they can get integrated micro-foil speakers too, we can have money that talks to us and cries "Spend Me!", "I've been in your wallet for 3 days, Don't you need more Cheezy-Poofs?"

Re:Internet Holographic Paper!

[TheCyko1]

um... not to be rude or anything, but, can i have what your smokeing?

Re:Internet Holographic Paper!

[SirSlud]

If Americans have any luck, it might just be the ink they plan to print the new bills on.

(Imagine! "Smoking money - its not just for the rich anymore!")

Re:About Time!

[smurfbane]

How about the 'standard' size of the paper currency slot and countless vending machines and change machines accross the nation? Who's going to upgrade them all (and pay for it)? Who's going to design the new devices that accept 4 different sizes (1, 5, 10, 20) of money (and pay for it)?

What about the banks? All those money counting machines have to be redesigned and replaced.

Poor standard indeed. I've YET to go in to a grocery store and mistakenly give the cashier a 50. I tend to look at the numbers printed all over the face or back of a bill before I let go of it.

MOD most of this up.

[Neil Watson]

Apart from the war rant I think this deserves a little +1 MOD.

Re:MOD most of this up.

[JohnFred]

"If it's green and wiggles, it's biology."

No. If it's in the US, then if it's green and wiggles it's cash.

Re:No more green OR pennies

[evacuate_the_bull]

If Rep. Jim Kolbe (R-Ariz.) has his way

Particularly of interest were these paragraphs:
To phase out the penny, Kolbe said, cash transactions would be rounded up or down a nickel over a transition period before removing it from circulation. But Americans for Common Cents (ACC), a group dedicated to keeping the penny, said Kolbe's rounding proposal would hurt Americans, particularly the poor, because companies would round in their favor.

"Corporations have a profit margin and will have a tendency to round up," said Mark Weller, ACC's executive director and senior vice president of the Sagamore Group lobby shop. "There will be a disproportionate effect on those who can afford it least."


Since businesses run this country anyways this is probably inevitable, but it would really hurt the consumer in the long run. A penny isn't much by itself, but over a lifetime that is a huge loss...

Some background...

[Black Aardvark House]

A "dime", or 10-cent piece was once called a "disme" when 10 cent pattern coin were minted in 1792. (Disme means "tenth" and was supposed to be used like "dollar" and "cent")Furthermore, until 1873, he U.S. Mint minted 5-cent silver coins called "half-dimes" (half-dismes in 1792). The familiar "nickel" wasn't minted until 1866, and was bigger than a dime because it's made of base-metal (dimes were mostly silver then), 3 parts copper, 1 part nickel. Nickels say 5 cents, to differentiate from the half-dimes.

Our money seems counter-intuitive, since all our coins are debased. Metal content was changed in dimes and up in 1964 from 90% silver to the current copper-nickel composition.

The U.S. Mint also made half-cents and cents as large as a half-dollar till 1857, a two-cent piece and two flavors of three-cent pieces, but that's a different story for a different post.

Try picking bills in a wallet without colors

[C0vardeAn0nim0]

I've seen enough americans here saying "read the fscking number". but what when the bills are inside a wallet, or purse ?

you have to take all the bills out to read the numbers ? oh, but there's the images, right ? wrong. except for the 1 dolar bill I have no fucking clue of who is in each bill. inside a wallet all of them look the same to me.

now with colors at least I'll know that they're diferent, and it'll be easier to associate the colors with the face value if I ever go to US.

face it, from all the so called "civilized" countries, US is way behind in terms of currency printing technology.

Re:Try picking bills in a wallet without colors

[ubernostrum]

OK...when I need a bill, I have to open my wallet anyway; can't get the bill out otherwise. Oh, yes, I believe at that point I can see enough to tell them apart.

Bad Idea: We'll lose brand recognition

[mikosullivan]

I'm against adding color to the bills. The US dollar is the most accepted, stable currency in the world. It may be "boring", but it's trusted. From a marketing standpoint, the greenish color scheme has fantastic brand awareness. People know it's US currency just by glancing at it. We will do our monetary system a disservice by trashing this brand

Re:Bad Idea: We'll lose brand recognition

[ryanvm]

From a marketing standpoint, the greenish color scheme has fantastic brand awareness.

Good point - we wouldn't want people to start using competing U.S. currencies. Seriously, you sat through too many marketing classes if you think U.S. currency needs brand awareness to be valuable.

Re:Bad Idea: We'll lose brand recognition

[kevin lyda]

"brand recognition"? this is a news for nerds site, not a news for marketing weasels site.

it's my understanding that the latest changes in the us currency were due in part to the fact that us currency was too easily copied.

National Identity?

[DeadVulcan]

The fact that some people seem to get so emotional about bills seems to indicate that money is a substantial part of their identification with their national identity.

It's only money. I find this a bit troubling. And I'm not even American.

I suspect in most parts of the world, this is a no-brainer.

Re:National Identity?

[goon america]

money is a substantial part of their identification with their national identity.

No, it only means that people have strong feelings about their money. It makes people feel good or powerful. Whatever it was you were babbling about was something that you wanted to believe anyway..

Re:About Time!

[EvanED]

Of course, we can get used to size differences easier than vending machines can.

Criticism of foreigners unwarranted?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, there are numbers at the top of the bills that distinguish currency.

The problem if you are unfamiliar with the bills or handle a high volume is relying too much on the number in the corner of a bill.

I recall hearing a couple years ago on the local news about a person who was simply taking the corners from $20 bills and affixing them to $1 bills. He was doing this during the holiday season, so the cashiers stressed from the frantic pace of things were letting them slip by.

I would imagine foreigners not being familiar with our bills might be vulnerable to the same type of scam.

Having another immediately evident distinguishing factor that people can easily recognize would protect against this.

In the short term, the different types of bills circulating may make things difficult; however, in the long run this is probably a good idea.

Re:Criticism of foreigners unwarranted?

[cryptochrome]

Wouldn't a "fake" $20 bill cost $21 to make, plus adhesive then?

Re:Criticism of foreigners unwarranted?

[brianber]

No, if a substantial portion of the bill is intact it can still be spent. Now anyone who thinks the corner is supposed to be taped on and look disjointed....

Re:Criticism of foreigners unwarranted?

[AVIDLY INTERESTED]

As someone who was a foreigner in New York once, I can attest to the fact that all your money looks like the same is not all bad.

Given you seem to tip everyone for doing just about anything, it can actually come in handy.

I could only afford to catch taxis because I used to roll a couple of dollar notes up and hand them to the driver, with him probably thinking they were fives.

Am I a Cheapskate? You betcha, but I am only talking about the tip, I still paid the full price for the trip.

Mandatory Conspiracy Update

[jmoriarty]

This whole color change is just a cover. The government has already used all the hidden conspiracy information in the $20, so they need to add more.

Don't worry, though. Hundreds of Origami Experts and Interior Decorators are standing by to unravel the dastardly secrets.

LIARS!!!!!

[Ziviyr]

The U.S. government has never recalled or devalued its currency.

Explain why they're raising the amount of money in circulation (scarcity decreases, so does value). And why I can't exchange my old silverbacks for pounds of silver?

They have been devaluing currency for as long as I can recall. So I reiterate my subject line.

Re:LIARS!!!!!

[xyzzy]

Simply printing more currency doesn't a priori devalue the dollar. First, there are way more "notional" dollars than physical ones. So, all the treasury has to do is swap some "notional" ones for physical ones, and presto: we have more physical dollars and no devaluation.

As to the silverback issue: what do you mean, exchange for a POUND of silver? You could exchange your dollar for a dollar of silver. And you still can. You just have to go to some place where you can buy silver.

Re:LIARS!!!!!

[xyzzy]

Right, but inflation is an economic thing, not a government thing. The government plays a part in that (perhaps by spending a lot of money it doesn't have in the form of bonds), but they can not control it -- I'm sure they wish they would.

As the previous poster pointed out, I was really wrong in my description of the various metal standards. However, I'm not sure I'd call leaving the gold/silver standard "devaluation". And I certainly wouldn't say that the average inflation rate we've had, even taking into account the 70s, is huge. Yes, you can't buy a candy bar for a nickel any more, but you can also talk for a minute from Boston to California.

Well, everyone fears change

[GoatEnigma]

While you may mock the foreigners, I still love Americans who come to Canada and get mad because they receive Canadian change when they pay for things....

P.S. can you throw in some totem pole seeds with that?

Re:Well, everyone fears change

[slavetrade55]

Man, you said it. I had an american one day rifling through a handful of change asking me what it all was.

"What's this?"
"That's a bridge token"
"What's this?"
"A canadian nickle."
"What's this?"
"A canadian quarter."
"What's this?"
"uhhh, that's am american quarter."

:)

Re:It is about time.

[Jobe_br]

The US does not have "a" culture, it has many and most are quite interesting, actually. Fortunately, each sub-culture isn't permitted to design its own currency, though I imagine that would be interesting.

I challenge you to walk into a boston pub and tell all the Irish-*Americans* there that they have no culture. Yes, its from Ireland, but they are also Americans and as such, that is our culture as well. The argument goes for many of the immigrants that have chosen to call the US home.

Re:About Time!

[FunkSoulBrother]

While I agree that there is no real reason to change the size of american bills, I really do hate your arguement.

Its the same one people use against the Metric system (which, IMO, would actually be a huge step foreward for this country) "Who is going to replace all those "MPH" signs?" "It will cost billions!" Tough. We need to adapt as a society.

That said, yeah, seriously, this is a non issue about the bill size.

Re:It is about time.

[Saige]

Yes, I know, I was spouting off a bit there.

I guess it's just that I've spent way too much time living in the Suburbs, and anyone who's lived in them knows damn well the suburbs are completely without culture (other than the culture of consumerism).

There's a reason I have plans to move INTO a city (such as Boston) - so I can get somewhere where there actually is culture, people that walk from place to place (instead of taking moving metal boxes everywhere), and getting past the feeling of being the only person around cause everyone's so isolated from each other.

Re:About Time!

[Seehund]

Yes, but you have to pick up the note and look at its markings.

Compare the US banknotes with for example the Swedish ones.

Now let's say you're drunk and tired at 3 AM and you want a taxi ride home from the nightclub. One quick glance in the American wallet says you've got a bunch of banknotes (if you're lucky...), they're all the same size and the same colour. One quick glance down the Swedish wallet immediately tells you if you can afford that taxi ride home or if you've got to stagger home on your feet/knees/hands/whatever. Not having to stand in the street flipping through your money to read their numbers will also make you a less attractive mugging victim on that walk home...

You can even keep your money in the pocket and feel how much money you're carrying, not to mention the blind who have to do this all the time.

the blind man I asked

[bluGill]

Told me that he just kept different bills in different compartments of his billfold. He asked clerks to seperate them for them, and if things were complex just handed his wallet to the clerk. Clerks don't cheat the blind guy we guess.

Offtopic???????

[BumbaCLot]

Why the hell is this offtopic? And can some 'foreigner' with insight into how vending machines in other countries work flawlessly with different sized money?
I was speaking with my co-worker about this, and the massive cost of redesigning and implementing new vending machines were the first response out of his mouth. I was thinking more along the lines of 'not folding nicely in a wallet', 'can't people read numbers' etc.. I've used vietnamese, jamaican, and british money, and the first two I never wanted coins, because of their low value, and in England hated waking up with a pocket full of pounds after a night of drinking, not to mention wondering how many had fallen out of my pocket on the subway/taxi/couch I had passed out on/in.

Who needs this much help?

[azool]

"The introduction of additional colors will also help consumers to identify the different denominations."

I thought that's what the huge NUMBERS in every corner were for.

Re:About Time!

[stcanard]

Frankly, I don't get what's so hard about it. The numbers are represented as large digits on all four corners on both sides. (1,5,10,20) It is written out in English on the bottom on both sides (ONE DOLLAR)

The problem is a lifetime of habit. You grew up knowing you had to look at the numbers in the corner, so you do. I grew up being able to tell the denomination by a quick glance at the paper in general,so I do.

Remembering to actually look at the corner and focus on the number there really does take a lot of effort, after 30 odd years of not having to.

It's much the same way people read. You aren't actually looking at each individual letter in this post, you're just recognizing the pattern of the word. If the writing is hard to decipher, then you have to slow down and spell out each individual letter to get the word.

That's how foreigners feel every time they try to deal with American money.

Re:About Time!

[smurfbane]

It's almost an apples vs oranges thing. Every nation (before the euro) had their own unique currency. The U.S. and Boliva (IIRC) are the only two countries that *don't* use the metric system. Changing a standard to sync up with a international one isn't quite the same as changing your own personal standard just because.

It's the face

[tie_guy_matt]

Everyone is talking about how we need to put triangles and such on our money so you can tell the value of the note quickly. I think people are overlooking the fact that the most important shape on every bill is the picture of a human face. If we know someone we can all quickly tell them from a glance. I think our friends Washington, Hamilton, Jackson, et al, do as much to tell the value of a note as any funky shape would. I understand it takes people from other countries a while to get to know our friends but then again life sucks sometimes. Yes people in the US can be Amero-centric. Yes I can see how it gets annoying -- get over it! Oh I also think the human face is a good anti-counterfit method. Yes, changing the size of the different bills would be good for the blind -- aint gonna happen though. Look how much money it costs for them the switch to the Euro. Think we are going to spend that much over here? Also legal tender should have this rock solid -- you can trust me -- I will be worth this much forever feel. Changing the design every few years isn't going to help that image. When the new $100's and $20's came out am I the only one who thought it looked like Monopoly money (and I don't mean cash in M$'s bank account?) Yes it is just a slip of paper (well US money is more like cloth than paper) but it should somehow feel like it is something more.

Change in the infastructure

[wompser]

Personally, I'm all for the change. But there is something that no one has pointed out yet: The enormous cost of new capital machinery.

Many years ago I worked for Coca-Cola, who had 1 million plus vending machines with dollar bill acceptors in South East Wisconsin. Figuring the hard costs alone of new bill validators at 20 million bucks, you can bet there are going will be some VERY strong lobbying when these proposed changes start getting discussed.

Re:Change in the infastructure

[RollingThunder]

So in other words, about twenty bucks a machine, or probably less than a days take per machine.

Big freaking deal. The flipside can be argued, that there will be e benefit to the economy because all these new acceptors will be made and purcahsed.

Re:Change in the infastructure

[bug506]

There are no plans to change the $1 bill, nor the $5 and $10 as of now. The only vending machines that would be affected would be those that take $20, of which there are relatively few...

Off the top of my head, I can think of two groups that will likely be affected--high-priced subways (like SF BART and DC Metro) and casinos (with all of their slot machines).

Since these groups just upgraded their machines to the latest technology for the last bill change, hopefully the bill readers will require only a software upgrade to recognize the new bills.

Re:Change in the infastructure

[Sentry21]

Just hope they do everything at once. The Canadian government recently changed the look of the new $5 and $10 bills. They look much nicer now, much more European as well as having much nicer security features (ever held one up to a blacklight? it's pretty neat).

The problem is, they staggered the releases. The $10s came out first, and now most of the $10 bills I handle (I work at a major grocery chain in the photo/electronics department) are the new ones. Then, maybe a year later, they released the new $5 bills, even though they were designed at the same time. The result? Two redesigns of bill readers and two refittings of any vending machines that accept bills.

However, since we introduced $2 coins, they, in combination with the $1 and $0.25 coins we already had, can be used for... well, any vending machine. The only bill readers I've seen in Canada are in change machines. As much as I hate pocketfuls of coins, I hate bill readers more. Go us.

As an aside, American money is the ugliest money I've ever seen. I was in Amsterdam last year, and I thought to myself 'this is really ugly money'. When I got a good look at American money a few months later though, I realized thet Dutch money is merely plain. American money is seriously hard to look at.

--Dan

Re:Change in the infastructure

[ruzel]

I would be shocked if companies like coca-cola, who are masters of manufacturing effeciency didn't see this coming the last time they had to change. Surely they're just going to have to do a software upgrade. If that's not true, they should be kicking themselves.

The fed said that they were going to do this every seven to ten years. Surely they broadcast that, and surely the manufacturers heard it (though probably not all). What I wonder is whether the fed has any system to deliver the new designs digitally for the manufacturers to then upgrade their software with.

Regardless, the whole thing is pointless because even if the fed were transferring the money digitally, and yet hadn't yet come up with a standard for digital currency, what the hell are they doing? That's the real question: is all of this upgrading to currency ever going to be an upgrade to digital currency? Where is the standard?
______________________

Re:Change in the infastructure

[seann]

anything like when Canada introduced the Toonie?
Or the loonie?
Sure we're a small country, but that's still a *very* *big* *change* *in* *money*

WHAT?

[Colossus]

How in the blue hell can you mistake a 1 for a 5, or a 1 for a 10, or a 5 for a twenty?

Oh my, I looked at the 5 and thought I gave you a twenty, but really it was a 50 because... I AM STUPID.

Apperently most aliens are stupid. "How the hell can I tell the difference between a 1 and a 5 dollar bill when the number are printed so clearly on them? This is just ridiculus!"

In the US, Americans are bred not made

[sckeener]

I am afraid it is true. The proud USA spirit seems to have been encoded into a stupid gene. Why? Well,it is just a guess, but when a country can't even adopt metric when the rest of the world has....need I really say more? Occasionally bright ideas are suggested, such as changing the color of our money, but those ideas are coming from foriegn genes.

We're proud and stupid. God Bless USA.

Re: Systems of measure

[EvanED]

I didn't know about the "Lockheed System" tidbit... that's rather amusing.

Anyway, that doesn't change his argument, because if the US had been using the metric system, Lockheed wouldn't have assumed that NASA was using the imperial system. (I prefer the term "imperial" system rather than the "english" system, because even England no longer uses it.)

Re:It is about time.

[Naurgrim]

I know when I've been trolled, but what the hell...

So, if our beautiful greenbacks are so damned uninteresting, could you please explain to me why US currency is so desireable to you and every other snooty foreigner?

Sure, you'll criticize it as uninteresting, but you sure as shit wouldn't pass up a stack of dead presidents, would you?

US Currency not ugly

[cryptochrome]

I don't think the currency is ugly at all. Far from it. While other countries' gaudy bills look like flyers for some cheap rave, our distinctive greenbacks always look exactly like money. You may not be able to tell how much from just a quick glance or feel, but that is not necessarily bad. The designs on the bills are intricate and detailed yet highly visible and consistently recognizable, as is the color and feel of the cash. The idea that a multicolored design is somehow more desireable than a monochromatic one is just plain dumb, like saying that color photography is artisticly superior to black and white. As for the subject matter of dead great presidents and historical monuments and emblems, that suits me just fine. It may not be touchy-feely, but it's our history.

And on a side note, just how is changing our currency going to benefit the US? A careless tourist may give you the wrong money, but no cashier will accept it - except maybe if it is too high, which ultimately represents an influx of cash. Too bad for them, but it's their own fault.

Re:US Currency not ugly

[Saige]

I don't think the currency is ugly at all. Far from it. While other countries' gaudy bills look like flyers for some cheap rave, our distinctive greenbacks always look exactly like money.

You've got that idea backwards. We don't feel that the US money is money because of some special feature it has that foreign countries don't, but because we were taught that US money is our money, thus got used to it, and that is why other countries' currency doesn't seem like money.

If the US used colors and other countries were all monochrome, you'd be arguing against going monochrome, claiming only the US's bills look like real currency.

How does changing the currency help? Hmm, improved anti-counterfeiting. Quicker identification of bills by sight. Reduced number of people making mistakes by handing over the wrong bill.

Re:It is about time.

[SirSlud]

>What a racket!

Makes for a far more effective mating call than the ever-silent paper-stuffed wallet tho ...

Seems to me to be a waste of time

[Zerbey]

Wouldn't it make more sense to make the notes different sizes like many other countries do? When I lived in England, it'd be a simple task of sticking my hand in my pocket and finding the required note by its size. Blind people are still going to have the same difficulties they've always had figuring out what note they're holding (actually, I'm interested to hear from any blind readers on how they do this). [1]

I'm sure these new notes will be much more expensive to print than the current note. With the state that the US economy is in right now it seems like a very large waste of money.

And, on a personal note - I prefer green anyway.

[1] Aside: the disadvantage of this would be having to replace the bill slot on millions of vending machines instead of just reprogramming them.

Re:About Time!

[pivo]

Stately? You think our bills are stately? Jeez, here I've been thinking that they're the most boring and unimpressive pieces of paper that exist, outside of my grocery register slip.

We've had interesting and beautiful currency in the past, and most other countries have a lot nicer looking currency than we do. We're just going through a bad period.

C'mon, go along with it. It'll be fun! Besides, all your friends are doing it.

Colorblind

[southpolesammy]

What if you're colorblind?

Eeeeeek!

[Tsugumi]

Wouldn't making it harder to counterfeit the greenback bankrupt several countries? How's Russia going to survive when half its paper curreny gets flushed out as fake?

Register your discontent!

[Galvatron]

Sure, it's not as important as writing your congressmen to stop the SSSCA, or what have you, but if the idea of the US going to Monopoly money pisses you off, they did helpfully give two contacts on the press release:

Federal Reserve - Susan Stawick - 202-452-2955
Bureau of Engraving and Printing - Dawn Haley - 202-874-3545

Alternatively, fill in this form.

Re:Register your discontent!

[B.D.Mills]

the idea of the US going to Monopoly money
You've got it backwards. The design for Monopoly money was based on US currency. I guess they added the colour to make the game easier for children to play.

Re:No more green OR pennies

[SpryGuy]

The penny should absolutely be abolished in all cash transactions. Keep track of it in all credit and check transactions, but as for cash, it's worthless.

It costs almost a penny to make a penny, and they don't circulate at all. They end up in shoeboxes and jars all over, but they just don't circulate. They're a complete and utter waste. They should be abolished.

Likewise, the dollar bill should be abolished in favor of the dollar coin. And the two dollar bill should be brought back into prominance. Thus we end up with the same number of coins (subtract the penny, add the dollar) and the same number of bills (subtract the dollar, add the two dollar), so cash drawers don't have to be redesigned.

It's an overhaul that's way over-due. I think the people complaining that abolishing pennies would hurt the poor are showing an amazing lack of imagination, and are suffering a horrible case of "the sky is falling" syndrome.

Not for foreigners

[RobinH]

I don't know where you get the idea that it's deliberately for "foreigners"... I heard this story on the radio a month ago, and the story definitely mentioned it was to make counterfeiting more difficult.

The newest Canadian bills are not only different colours, but they have braille, a special glossy maple leaf overlay, and a bunch of pressed on 'dots' which, with some difficulty, can be peeled off to prove they are not just printed on. All of these things (except, perhaps, the braille) are primarily to stop counterfeiting.

... and guess what: I use both Canadian and U.S. currency every day, and the different colours of Canadian money make it wayyy easier to differentiate different denominations.

Consider this, many times, you just went to a bank machine and got $100 as five $20 bills. Then you buy a pack of gum to break one of the twenties. Later, when you go to pay for something that's $4.95, and you want to find that $5 bill you know is in your wallet, it's MUCH easier to just look for a blue piece of paper, rather than looking at the writing on each individual bill. Maybe it only saves you 5 or 10 seconds, but if you're in a line with 5 or 10 people, and each person takes 5 or 10 seconds longer, that adds up over the course of a day.

Besides that, twice in the last two years, someone giving me change in the U.S. has tried to pass off a $1 as a $10. I noticed it, but I wonder how many times they actually succeed?

Re:Not for foreigners

[rmitz]

Do you really just stuff bills willy-nilly into your wallet? I can't imagine that.

Re:Not for foreigners

[Atlantix]

Consider this, many times, you just went to a bank machine and got $100 as five $20 bills. Then you buy a pack of gum to break one of the twenties. Later, when you go to pay for something that's $4.95, and you want to find that $5 bill you know is in your wallet, it's MUCH easier to just look for a blue piece of paper, rather than looking at the writing on each individual bill. Maybe it only saves you 5 or 10 seconds, but if you're in a line with 5 or 10 people, and each person takes 5 or 10 seconds longer, that adds up over the course of a day.

Of course, while you're waiting in line with those 5 to 10 people, you could find that $5 bill and have it ready by the time you get to the front of the line and the line will move efficiently. Of course, we could easily get into a discussion of the likelihood of Americans being that curteous... :)

--Atlantix2000

Re:Not for foreigners

[Mr Windows]

If they're easy to tell apart, you can just stuff them in. It's human factors 101...

Re:Not for foreigners

[Sentry21]

The newest Canadian bills are not only different colours, but they have braille, a special glossy maple leaf overlay, and a bunch of pressed on 'dots' which, with some difficulty, can be peeled off to prove they are not just printed on. All of these things (except, perhaps, the braille) are primarily to stop counterfeiting.

You forgot to mention the 'Bank of Canada' text and logo, and the little weird wormy lines that show up on the bill when you hold them up to a blacklight. Blacklights are relatively cheap and you can them forever, so it's an inexpensive way for retailers to verify bills, and it's great for banks, who can always use one more way to verify bills.

--Dan

Re:Not for foreigners

[seann]

Me and my friends were talking about the new bills, and the black light, and of course thinking of ways to fool the system.

So if we printed up a ten dollar bill (Not scanning them on those susposed scanners that recognize money and shut down, shesh!) and then printed it, and then used Seman from an unsuspecting person to draw the wavy lines. Since Seman glows in ultraviolent light, it would perceive as being a legit bill! Why argue with the feel of the paper when you see the black light work eh!

However, for legality reasons we have not tried this. Although we did use some Cuban coin that resembles a Toonie to pay for a donut at Tim Hortons Once.

babel on..

Geez I've already been modded down once

[sielwolf]

But the entire reason to change the money so far has been "Americans are resistant to change" and so, to prove that they aren't, they should change.

Huh? Because using US cash is only marginally more difficult to use than other cash, it should change. C'mon... It's not like US money is all written in 3cm squares with only barcodes on them to differentiate them.

A similar argument: "In the US they only have stick-shift automobiles! As a foreign contractor this is annoying! Back home everyone drives automatics! And when we tell them to change they say 'We should change just because it assaults your refined foreign tastes?' like a bunch of rubes! Stupid americans..."

To say that a people are free to chose only what you let them isn't freedom.

Actually I wish all automobiles had to be stick-shifts. It would solve the cellphone problem right quick.

Re:Geez I've already been modded down once

[Drakin]

What? Not hard to drive a manual and talk on a cell at the same time, as long as your wheel alighnment is decent. Done it many times.

Blind

[macemoneta]

I always wondered why US currency wasn't different sizes, or used "feelable" edges, so the visually impaired or blind could identify the denomination.

Re:Blind

[ReverendRyan]

The problem with "feelable egdes" is that as the bill gets warn out, the paper will start to loose its stiffness. As that happens, it will become increasingly difficult to feel the edges of the bill. As for the sizes, I personally prefer if all my bills line up in my walet. However, I saw somewhere that Braille was used on bills in another country (Canada, maybe?). That seems like a good idea, if it can also be prevented from wearing out.

Color would be extremely usefull when sorting money at a till. Sometimes when I only glance at a bill i mistake a 1 for a 10, and once even a 2 for a 20.

bills in different colors and sizes?

[dubiousmike]

I'd bet this is just a big scam by the pocketbook industry to boost man-purse sales.

planned obsolescence:

First my Nintendos
then my OS
now my wallet...

Color could sometimes help...

[b0bby]

At my first job in retail the manager had a $100 bill pinned to the wall. One day I asked if it was from the first sale or something. He said, no, check it out. I look again, no big deal. I look once more and notice that it's really the center two fifths of a one with the ends from a hundred crudely stuck on with tape. The cashier hadn't had enough change to break it & had given it to the manager, who hadn't noticed either. The printing is right, the paper feels right, it all looks fine. This scam works because as long as 50% or more of the bill is intact it's still legal, so you can cut the ends off a hundred & still deposit it or cash it at a bank. This would be much harder to pull off if the bills were different colors.

Just a question...

[Snake]

Apparently, with both size and color the same, foreigners have a hard time differenciating between the bills.

It took (lots of) non-americans to make your Treasury change colors & sizes.

I really wonder how vision-impaired americans cope with this problem.

I guess that taking care of tourists is much more important that taking care of your own blind people.

See this for a careful design of bills. [To be honest, I'm not happy with the artwork personally]

Okay, I was a little harsh. Just see this initiative like a Section 508 applied to bills & coins.

It makes life much easier of handicapped people, as, it also help you normal guys (508-compliant Web sites are usually cleaner than non-508)

Counterfeiting, Dark Taxis, and Natioanl Image

[plcurechax]

I think it is a great idea, because it finally allows the US Treasury to put some decent anti-counterfeiting into their bills. I mean you think they would be embarassed to be the most successfully counterfeited currency in the world.

Not just new hued (i.e. not bright colours, but various hues) bills but magentic inks, water-spots, metal foil sown into the fiber, various printing methods (for a tactial feel to the blind). Other countries such as Canada have introduced braille for the blind.

The braille is also good for check your pockets at the bars before offering to buy the next round of beer. While in Britian I had my first exposure to different sized bills, and I found it useful to be able to assess at a glance what is in my wallet, and to double check the change from the taxis driver after a night out. Too often you cannot read the bills since it is dark, and taxis are pretty horrid at having burnt out interior lights.

Of course many people will be distracted by the "national image", the real issues of harder to make a quality counterfeit it to the benefit of the US economy, and just about everyone in the US except criminals and the CIA (who have been accused of counterfeiting, but never proven).

For those who cannot understand the tourist angle. I suspect that is a PR claim, but visitors are not only dealing with a new currency, they are often using a second, third, or fifth language, and also trying to do currency conversion to their native currency when shopping and trying to budget their trip. There are those shop keepers and tourist industry people who try to take advanage of the similiar appearance. I'm know that there has been more than a couple bait-and-switch cases of people doing much like a card trick when giving back change; to not just tourists but everyday Americians.

Re:Counterfeiting, Dark Taxis, and Natioanl Image

[brood]

I think it is a great idea, because it finally allows the US Treasury to put some decent anti-counterfeiting into their bills. I mean you think they would be embarassed to be the most successfully counterfeited currency in the world.

If I'm not mistaken, (and with my luck...), anyway, I think that US currency is the most widely used currency in the world. I guess it's only the law of averages that it would be the most successfully counterfeited. Not that that's an excuse...

The only thing I don't like about the idea of brightly colored bills is what every other person seems to like about it, the fact that you can so easily tell the difference between denominations. What happens when you're getting your money out of an ATM machine at night? It certainly makes it easier for crooks to target you.

Re:Counterfeiting, Dark Taxis, and Natioanl Image

[scosol]

I think it is a great idea, because it finally allows the US Treasury to put some decent anti-counterfeiting into their bills. I mean you think they would be embarassed to be the most successfully counterfeited currency in the world.
Well duh- perhaps that's because it's the most widely-accepted currency in the world? With buying power almost anywhere? *ahem*

Re:Counterfeiting, Dark Taxis, and Natioanl Image

[plcurechax]

most widely-accepted currency in the world? With buying power almost anywhere?

What does widely accepted and buying power have to do with whether the US dollar bills are easy to forge or not? Nothing.

It is not in the best interest of the US economy or any other legitimate economy in the world for forged US bills to be used.

I also suspect that in 10-20 years the Euro may surpass the US dollar, in part because of Europe's more pro-active stance against counterfeiting, and being a currency backed by three very powerful and stable countries (UK, Germany, France).

Re:Counterfeiting, Dark Taxis, and Natioanl Image

[Anomie-ous Cow-ard]

The only thing I don't like about the idea of brightly colored bills is what every other person seems to like about it, the fact that you can so easily tell the difference between denominations. What happens when you're getting your money out of an ATM machine at night? It certainly makes it easier for crooks to target you.

With all this talk about foreigners, i still want to know what happens when you go from a country where, for example, red=$10 and green=$1 to one where red=$1 and green=$10?

Even in one country, i have trouble buying most of the arguments. Recognition isn't such a big deal, you go through your money and look for "5", instead of go through your money and look for "blue". The only real advantage i can see would be that you could fan your money and find "blue" slightly easier, but that still won't speed up the old people in line. This easy recognition could harm as well, if people get so used to the coloring that they accept any random wad of paper with blue patterns assuming it's a wadded $5.

As for different sized bills, i seriously doubt the "count your money in your pocket" types. Different shapes (in plastic), braille (plastic again), or some sort of other raised patterns (probably also plastic, but maybe something paper-based could be made robust enough) i could accept counting by touch, but not a bunch of similar worn-paper rectangles. This is why it works for coins, coins are rigid. If you do go with rigid dollars, be sure they'll fit in pockets and wallets without having to be folded or you'll just have more trouble. The "blind people can ID it" types have a better argument, but braille/raised patterns/anything cheaply machine readable (i.e. barcodes, those embedded strips) solves the same problem without the drawbacks (replacing all money-handling equipment, offended tradition, etc).

Re:Counterfeiting, Dark Taxis, and Natioanl Image

[Swaffs]

ATM's these days mostly only spit out 20's anyway, and most of those that do spit out smaller denominations won't be for much longer.

Re:Counterfeiting, Dark Taxis, and Natioanl Image

[CProgrammer98]

"The only real advantage i can see would be that you could fan your money and find blue"

Exactly, except it should read "casually glance at it to find the blue". You have to look harder to find the number 5, wheras a blue 5 pound note is blatently obviously different to thr orangy brown 10 pound note

Damn web developers

[looseBits]

-- Off topic so go ahead and mod me down but I am pissed. --

I went to ft.com (source of the article) and I got a error message saying I was using an unsupported browser!! How can Opera 6.0 not be supported? Lazy web developers!!

examples?

[brer_rabbit]

Anyone have a picture of one of the new bills? Preferrably a large tiff image, around 2400 dpi, front and back...something I could print at the local Kinkos?

Re:Certainly a step in the right direction...

[gnarled]

Large value bills such as $1000 were discontinued for a reason. Who, except drug dealers, needs them. To pay for groceries or a twenty or fifty are always sufficient. I guess if you were going to pay for a house or car with cash you would need $1000's, but again, who does that besides drug dealers anyway.

Also, I hate $1 coins. They are annoying. If you have a stack of 10 singles in your wallet, it is nicely folded and quite light. However 10 coins would be heavy and make tons of noise when you walked. This would likely make you a target of thieves.

Re:About Time!

[JahToasted]

Frankly, I don't get what's so hard about it. The numbers are represented as large digits on all four corners on both sides. (1,5,10,20) It is written out in English on the bottom on both sides (ONE DOLLAR)

Although all the programmes on your box may be accessible via the command-line it's usually easier to click an icon.

Similar with money. You could pull out the bill look at the number and know the value. OR you could look at the colours of the currency in your wallet and immediately know how much you got. not looking at numbers and no pulling out the notes. Just pop open your wallet and you immediately know.

American money looks fake anyway so don't worry about ruining its integrity.

This is the equivalent of saying something like "my car gets 4 rods to the hogshead and that's the way i like it." I know i got the quote wrong, whatever. The point is don't be so damined attached to a system that is less efficient just because you're used to it... Evolution, try it, it's fun!

I think you're onto something there.

[cryptochrome]

I think you're on to something there. Our country is a nation of immigrants who have come seeking political freedom and economic opportunity. And what symbolizes economic opportunity in America more than anything? MONEY. GREENBACKS. $$$$. Which incidentally have pictures of the folks responsible for said political freedom. A symbol of our nation. Multicolored, multisized bills with non-historical designs, in contrast, look like monopoly money to us.

P.S. I also think we should bite the bullet and go metric. But changing the highway signs alone will be crazy expensive.

Re:I think you're onto something there.

[Preposterous Coward]

P.S. I also think we should bite the bullet and go metric. But changing the highway signs alone will be crazy expensive.

True, but how much does it cost to deal with the confusion that arises because of the inconsistency between metric and "Imperial" (or whatever you want to call them) units? What was the NASA fiasco with Mars Global Surveyor...

Re:I think you're onto something there.

[Chuq]

Here is Tasmania, Australia, we have just had most of our urban street speed limits changed from 60km/h to 50km/h, except for a select few which remain at 60 and have been signposted as such - 50 is now the default so to speak.

In the US you could get two birds with the one stone. Change to metric and reduce your speed limit at the same time - save money by not changing the signs! Though 35km/h is damn slow..

Re: the toonie.

[Spud the Ninja]

I've always thought doubloon (double-looney, in this case) was good, but it never caught on. Toonie is pretty bad.

US money should have different arrangements

[iabervon]

If you look at the traditional US currency from a distance (both sides), you'll find that it all looks exactly the same, except for the $2, which has a big picture on the back. Of course, few people regularly use the $2. It was really nice when the new $20 came out, because it looked really different from the other bills, while still looking somewhat like US money. Then they came out with $10 and $5 bills that looked like $20 bills (since I'd gotten used to $20 bills looking the new way).

Rather than using different colors, they should use different designs: leave the $1 the way it's always been, the $20 the new way, make the $5 and $10 different in other ways, make the front of the $2 like the back (wide, rounded image). Make $100+ bills different colors.

Of course, they could make the bills all different colors, but leave the $1 the same way we're used to. I think the identifying feature of US currency is the fact that there are all the busy sections of little lines, more than the color.

Re:US money should have different arrangements

[user32.ExitWindowsEx]

Oddly enough, I got a very new-seeming $2 while on vacation in the Seattle area. It came as part of the change from a ferry trip. I was shocked to have gotten it. I thought you could only get $2 bills at Monticello. It didn't look like it had been circulating around.

Re:No more green OR pennies

[tomhudson]

So much for penny-ante poker games.

Re:Certainly a step in the right direction...

[meknapp]

Why don't we at least have a $250 or $500 and a $1000? Again, the dollar has become severly devalued in the last couple decades and it would be smart to start introducing larger bills again.

While it's true that a dollar isn't worth what it used to be, something else has changed as well. Most large transactions are not conducted with cash. Plastic and EFT usually take care of that now. I can't think of a single time in my life I was wishing for a $250.

Re:About Time!

[dadragon]

When I was last in the USA, I saw these weird slits on the vending machines that wouldn't take $1 bills, what's up with that? What are they for? I always thought it was for bills so you could buy things in them, but I guess they're just illuminated show cases.

:)

No more bills

[killmenow]

Ok, I'm late to post but hey, here's what I think:

1. get rid of pennies...they leave little round marks in my feet
2. make nickels smaller...like the size of dimes
3. make dimes bigger...like the size of pennies
4. make quarters smaller...like the size of nickels
5. stop making bills valued under $10
6. make more of those cool sakajewia $1 coins
7. issue $5 coins slightly larger than those $1 coins

Helps the blind, helps foreigners...only people I can see complaining are the cheapskates who won't give a stripper $20-30 for a lap dance...If all you're there to do is put $1 in her g-string, rent a fscking movie...if you want some touch, pay up.

Re:No more bills

[Vegeta99]

I'll tell you what, i'm gonna be PISSED when some asshole snatches up the $5 coin I just dropped. Fuck that. I hate the $1 coins. They're too much like a quarter. It's fine the way it is (eliminate quarters)

Yes, we're stumped

[akintayo]

Since you'll are so adept why not make all your coins the same size and colour ?

Re:About Time!

[FunkSoulBrother]

True, but you make my point. International currency is still kind of a unique thing, and up to the citizens of ones own country (who, in Americas case, don't seem to want colored bils)

The metric system on the other hand is something that needs to change here, to bring us up to speed with the rest of the world. I just don't like to see the money arguement thrown around at all, because I know its going to bite me in the ass when I want something payed for (the change to the Metric System) with my tax dollars.

Thus, I think people opposing change on either of these fronts need a better arguement than "who's going to pay for it".

Re:It is about time.

[cachorro]

Please send all the ugly money that you don't want to me. I am trying to collect the largest pile of ugly money in the world.

But, seriously, doesn't it bother anybody else that if we color our bills, everyone (including the bad guys) would be able to see the color of your money? I will have to stop carrying around $500 at a time.

Re:PINK BILLS

[greymond]

lol

Re:About Time!

[Lurkingrue]

What is a "bizarre notion" is that some people find it difficult to look at a simple number (from a nearly-universal numbering system, I might add) and make the intuitive leap to equating that to monetary denomination.

If you can't figure out what a number means on a dollar bill, and rapidly interpret that number as equalling the value of the note, you probably shouldn't be in charge of your own money anyway.

Smalltime Counterfeit Attempts

[Kozz]

Well, here in the US, I've worked at numerous stores handling cash, and I can tell you that "knowing who's on the face of a bill" and bill color definitely has a effect on the ability to counterfeit. Some small-time counterfeit attempts will try to do things like cut single corners off a $20 or $50 and then put those high-denomination corners onto the body of a smaller-denomination bill, like a $5 or something.

It's not a high-volume method of counterfeiting, but some people will give it a shot anyhow. Now if the colors of different denominations change, surely you'll notice if the corner of a bill is an entirely different color from the body of the bill. It's not such a bad idea.

Otherwise an inattentive clerk might look only at the corner of the bill to determine the denomination, and won't notice that, "Hey, waitta minute, why is Lincoln on the face of the $50 bill?" Sure, you can also read the "FIFTY DOLLARS" printed on the body of the bill as well, but colors would definitely help.

boon times for underachievers

[GungaDan]

So now the cashier at McDonalds, after keying in your order based on pictures of food instead of those tough-to-master words, can tap, "wonder-horse" style, on a color chart to tell you how much you owe. It's surely a sign of the anti-number end times. And I suspect Tom Ridge is involved.

Re:About Time!

[Grishnakh]

Well, in the case of the measurement system, I think it would probably pay for itself in time as foreign companies do more business with American companies, due to using the same measurement system. There'd be lots of savings, like garages not having to keep two sets of tools, people not making English/Metric conversion errors (like with a certain spacecraft), etc.

Changing the sizes of currency won't save any money for anyone (except for people too lazy to look at the numerals and giving away $100 bills instead of $1s); it'll just cost.

Re:About Time!

[EvanED]

They used to be pretty (read: really) finickey, but the only times I've had problems recently is with bills that look like they've been through the washing machine a few hundred too many times...

Powers of 2

[Frank T. Lofaro Jr.]

Let's go whole hog and make money in powers of 2.

$1, $2, $4, $8, etc. denominations.

It would make it so much easier for geeks to count, and make writing software for ATMs so much simpler.

;)

Re:Powers of 2

[Tomster]

And better yet, let's write them in base 16:

1, 2, 4, 8, 10, 20, 40, 80, 100....

-Thomas

Re:Powers of 2

[MooseGuy529]

...and make the standard for writing currency amounts hex--prices on ATM's, cash registers, everything will go waaaay down! Of course, it also involves teaching the entire nation to add and subtract in binary and/or hex as fast as we can with decimal--a lotta work.

Re:Powers of 2

[Oily Tuna]

And no more $99.95; instead everything will cost $63.63.

Break out the alcohol!

[Planetes]

I was at Mardi Gras in New Orleans (lived there at the time) a few years ago and had a Canadian friend ask me if I knew why Canadian bills were all different colors. With a dead serious expression he said "So you can tell them apart when your drunk.." and walked off. Knowing his drinking habits, I've always got a personal chuckle that in his case I believe it.

Re:About Time!

[Yunzil]

You could pull out the bill look at the number and know the value. OR you could look at the colours of the currency in your wallet and immediately know how much you got. not looking at numbers

You don't have to yank it all the way out of your wallet, just thumb the corner. Jeez. And I've been in England where the money is in different colors. Except I still can't tell a purple-and-orange 5 from an orange-and-purple 10. Or was it the other way around? Or was it the 20?

American money looks fake anyway so don't worry about ruining its integrity.

English money looks MORE fake, and that plastic Australian money looks like it was manufactured by Parker Brothers. :)

Cost of new money cost of counterfeiting

[captaineo]

Changing the form of paper money is not without costs. Consider that vending machines, subway machines, and any other bill-accepting device must be upgraded to recognize the new format.

I read in the USA Today this morning that last time our paper currency was altered (1996), it cost the vending industry $350 million to adapt. The same article quotes that only about $50 million in counterfeit currency is passed per year.

Is it just me, or does this sound like a huge waste of money? By changing the currency once again, the government is going to force the vending industry through another huge upgrade, the costs of which will inevitably be passed on to consumers. All to counter a measly $50 million in counterfeiting?

I understand that aside from the dollar cost of counterfeiting, there is also the issue of trust in the currency (a legitimate dollar is worth a little less when counterfeiting is widely suspected). But still, the vending industry's $350 million investment only lasted 6 years, and I bet most of the money was spent earlier rather than later, so even the amortized cost is still much higher than the cost of counterfeiting.

I wouldn't be surprised to find out if the lawmakers that allowed this just happen to be in the home state/city of a vending machine parts manufacturer... Government waste makes me sick.

Re:About Time!

[Yunzil]

The U.S. and Boliva (IIRC) are the only two countries that *don't* use the metric system

Er, we DO use the metric system. Just not in public. :) The car industry, for example, switched ages ago.

Speaking of Canadian Money...

[PK_ERTW]

Lots of people have mentioned are Canadian Money, and something interesting has happened up here. It was about 15 years ago that we got rid of our dollar and introduced the loony. OK, it makes sense coin money lasts much longer and is way more economical than paper. BUt, was there ever outcry. My god, you would think it was the end of the world.

However, next came bill changes, then the $2 coin, then more bill changes, and so on. The complaining has gone down and down over time. Now, we pretty much just accept that our money changes. New bills come out and old ones leave. It is no big deal, and it really doesn't bug anyone.

My point, yes there is huge resistance, but eventually, people come to accept change. You have had the same money so long, that even a bigger head has caused complaints and outcry. People will get used to change.

PK

Another reason to not like it

[Isaac-1]

As things stand in the world today you can travel to almost any 3rd world country on the planet and find that the locals will accept two forms of payment, the local currency and U.S. Dollars. If the U.S. Dollar stops looking like the U.S. Dollar, then some of its appeal around the world may drop off. Just think about that the next time you are being asked for a bribe by some 3rd world police officer when he finds a bottle of tylenol in your bag.

Ike

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:About Time!

[kafka93]

Although your point is well-taken, it misses a couple of things. For starters, in most countries I would imagine that the currency *does* change on a reasonably regular basis, even if only in fairly small ways -- basically, to prevent piracy. It seems likely that all of the vending machines of which you speak would therefore need to be updated at any rate. Secondly - I didn't say anything about different sizes of money; it might well be less difficult to modify vending machines etc. if the only changes were in the colo[u]rs of the notes.

A good number of 'ifs' and 'probably's in there, I know - so my second point would be that all these kinds of tasks do not necessarily hurt the economy - after all, they provide jobs, circulate money, spread wealth.

Besides which, half of the things that you describe are the kinds of things that *need* to be replaced on a regular basis anyhow, and that *are* redesigned on an equally regular basis due to developments in technology (both of the manufacturers and of the counterfeiters).

And yes, you need to look at the numbers printed on the bill. That's part of my point.

Re:It is about time.

[alienmole]

Perhaps you can evaluate a society by how artistic their currency is.

No, actually, you can't. But you can evaluate people by how illogical their arguments are.

Re:No more green OR pennies

[captain_craptacular]

Actually I bet compainies would be more likely to round down. It's absolutely amazing how many people equate $39.99 with $30 rather than $40. I bet they would rather round to $39.95 than an even $40 just to keep the suckers in check.

Re:No more green OR pennies

[Guido del Confuso]

Likewise, the dollar bill should be abolished in favor of the dollar coin.

Yeah, right... I hate carrying around change when I can carry the much lighter and easier to handle bills (try putting coins in your wallet). Nobody carries silver dollars (or those new Sacajawea dollars) in lieu of paper money because they simply suck to carry. I hope we don't follow the lead of Canada (and all those other third world countries in Europe ;-P) and remove low denomination paper money from circulation.

Also, they stopped really circulating two dollar bills because nobdody liked them. You can just as easily carry two ones or a five, and that proves much more versatile. Besides, having to regularly deal with currency in multiples of two breaks up the scheme of things. Five ones equals one five, two fives equals one ten, two tens equals one twenty, and five twenties equals one hundred. Two dollars just don't fit in (Change for a ten? Ummm... one five, two twos and a silver dollar OK?) Fifties don't really fit well into the scheme I described, but I hardly ever see those anyway. I much more often see twenties and hundreds.

Having said that, I thought Woz had a really cool idea. He would take uncut sheets of twos and bind them into a perforated book. Then he would tear them out and give them as tips. I understand he once got into trouble with a casino doing that...

The bills will change every 5 years

[Komi]

A friend of mine works for a company that makes bill readers, and he was telling me that not only are they adding color to the bills, but they will change them every five years or so. American money is just too easy to counterfeit, and this is the governments plan to fix that.

komi

How about disabled people? Or security?

[mindriot]

Apparently, with both size and color the same, foreigners have a hard time differenciating between the bills.

Hmm, the foreigners are not really the problem. Ask blind people, they're the ones who have trouble with the bills. The European Central Bank had the Euro bills and coins designed in a way that makes them usable for the visually impaired as well (different sizes, contrasting colors, relief printing, different coin edges).

Most definitely, it's time for the US to do something about those lousy bank notes (yes I know, most tender is plastic cards anyway). Maybe taking a look overseas could occasionally help (considering that, for example, Germany had most of those features for almost ten years)...

</rant>

Hmmm...Bryant wouldn't have been pleased

[Lurkingrue]

While I love your handle, I have to point out that this was not the way the gold & silver standards worked...The original poster is pointing out that you had a system where the value of the dollar was tied to a set amount of precious metal (i.e.: ten dollars, for example, would always be worth an ounce of silver). When the gold and silver standards were abolished, then the dollar was no longer tied to any particular value in the material world, and precious metals became merely another commodity.

Re:Hmmm...Bryant wouldn't have been pleased

[xyzzy]

Yup, you're right (blush). Although, interestingly enough, it took me quite a while to find out *how much* silver you could get for your one dollar silver cert. The answer is obvious: the amount contained in one silver dollar! (how much that is, I dunno, but that's apparently the answer).

OT: Is there any reason I can't find the parent of both of our posts on the main page for this discussion, even at -1????

I'm still waiting for golden dollars to reappear

[mblase]

Yeah, remember those things? The
Sacajawea dollar coins that were supposed to be in use everywhere by now, except that people kept pulling magpies and stashing them away in socks without ever actually spending them, just like the Susan B. Anthony dollars before them.

Americans may or may not have noticed that the $1 bill is the only one that hasn't been redesigned with the larger off-center portraits, and it never will. It wasn't "officially" planned that the dollar coin would replace the dollar bill, but clearly that was the hope.

I want them back, and I want them everywhere. I want to be able to stick them into soda machines instead of having to carry around four times as many heavy quarters. I want them worse than I want to be able to tell my paper bills apart by glancing at the color, because dammit, they're so convenient. But the Mint seems to refuse to produce any more, and nobody but me wants to spend the ones they get at the Post Office.

Sadly, the Mint seems slow to respond to new ideas. Much like the rest of any given federal government, I suppose.

Standard color scheme

[raoulortega]

For all the folks who think that a color scheme is superior to printed numerals-- is there a standard color scheme used on all foreign notes? (Besided the already mentioned Monopoly money scheme).

Does green always mean 20, and blue 10 and purple 333? Aren't you in danger of thinking your blue euro note is the same as that blue yen note? Should the UN establish a commision to standarized monetary colorization and force all signatory nations into compliance?

Re:About Time!

[meknapp]

No offense taken.

My point is, you look at Greenbacks and you know you're looking at $US. No hip pretty colors, but worldwide recognition of a solid economy. That's why I say they're stately. Remember what your Mom told you about not judging a book by it's cover?

I suppose I spoke too soon...

[mblase]

According to the U.S. Mint catalog, golden dollars are still being produced every year. (Had me fooled. I honestly haven't seen one in a store since 2000.)

Boring

[james_orr]

I moved to the US from Scotland about 7 years ago. I actually had more trouble getting used to US coins than bills. I still don't understand why 5 cents is larger than 10 cents??

But the US bills are just BORING. You need some color in there to brighten it up a little. In Scotland we had not only different colours for different denominations, but the design changed depending on what bank printed it!

When in Rome...

[CoreyG]

So somebody thinks it's easier to get the entire US population to adapt to colored money than it is to get a relatively few amount of foreigners to adapt to numerically differentiated money? That's a good idea.
Maybe we should change all our road signs to something non-English to make it easier for the foreigners, after all, they're not used to road signs written in a non-native language.
And what happens when some foreigner mistakes a Blue US $20 for a Blue French $.001? What's the solution to that one? Put numbers on the bill, like they have now? Double check with what bill you're paying? Actually read the denomination on the bill? What a novel idea...

Re:About Time!

[dadragon]

Well, I haven't been there in about 3 or 4 years, so I don't have much experience with them. Our vending machines only take coins ($1 and $2 are coins), and there are some machines which take larger notes to make change for the machines which only take coins.

So I figured I'd make a bad joke about it. Those change-making machines here do suck, too, though.

Re:No more green OR pennies

[xonker]

Doing away with the penny is basically giving in to the idea of infinite inflation, and that a penny will never again be worth something.

The dollar coin can be useful, but I prefer paper. The last time I spent a few days in Canada, I felt awash in coinage. I'd feel sorry for anyone who makes a living off of tips... and slipping a coin into a G-string just isn't the same! (Not that I'd know...)

Pennies do circulate, even though you yourself may not use them.

Abolishing the penny altogether probably would hurt the poor to some degree, though I'm not prepared to argue that it would be catastrophic, but it would undoubtably have a negative effect if merchants are allowed to round all transactions to the nearest nickel. My real concern is that officially getting rid of the penny would speed devaluation of U.S. currency.

Asians DON'T look alike to non-asians

[darkonc]

They look alike to people who aren't exposed to asians in daily life.

Asians tend to live in a multi-asian culture, so it's easy for them to tell asians apart. because they have to hone their asian-differentiatiation skills.

Similarly, someone who grew up in Italy might have a hard time telling a bunch of swedes apart unless {s,}he had managed to live in sweden for a while. (yep... Tall blonde... what the hell else do you need to know?).

I agree

[Tranvisor]

I for one agree that the greenback has a tremendously strong brand identity arond the world. Pick 20 countries at random and show people on the street a dollar, a euro, a pound, and a yen and see which one of those currencies gets recognised more then any other. My money's on the dollar.

Changing the US currency's color is a change so radical, it would be like Coke deciding to change the color of its 2-Liters Blue, 24-packs Green, 1-Liters Purple, and leaving the cans red.

Would it help out tourists? Of course it would. But last time I checked, foreign investors spend a hell of a lot more money then a german family that comes to see the statue of liberty for a week.

Re:I agree

[Bake]

Well, at least with Coke, they don't have 2 litre bottles for everything, i.e. everything from the volume of a small can up to a 2 litre bottle.

Foreigners? Who cares?

[fmaxwell]

Frankly, I don't care if innumerate foreigners have trouble distinguishing which bill is which. It's good for our economy. If they want to leave a $92 tip on a $8 meal, who are we to complain? And if they don't pay enough, the cashier will tell them.

I'm purple with envy

[evanh23]

of those "foreign" people who have everyone else's things revolve around them..

Think about it..

It's my money, and since it's mine, I say that it stays green. Screw the bastards who don't know elementary math.

Re:It is about time.

[martyn s]

carfree website

carfree cities, book

colored money is for gambling

[ostrich2]

Mark my words...this is a plot by the "gaming" companies to get their dealers to be more accurate. Think about it: you walk into a casino and haven't changed your money yet. Right now, you slap a bit on the felt, and the dealer has to look at the bill to know how many chips to give you. In the future, they just see the color and dole out the chips.

If the colors end up as:
Purple - $1000
Black - $100
Green - $25
Red - $5
White - $1

You'll know their plan!

What I don't understand is why they give you anything at all. When you put money on the table, they should just pick it up, nod a smile to you, and put the money in their till. That way, the cut out all the drama of losing it $5 at a time.

Re:About Time!

[EvanED]

Hey, take it easy with the vending machine jokes... the vending machine companies made quite enough of them...

(Adapted from a Douglas Adams quote from The Salmon of Doubt about the Mac Portable)

Symmetric Money

[juggla]

More than anything, I wish dollars were symmetric -- meaning no "correct way up". There's nothing more annoying than someone handing you a big crumpled wad of bills and having to pile them all the same way.

You're all missing the point.

[drsquare]

Let's compare the advantages and disadvantages of money of different colours and sizes:

Advantages:

Vastly more efficient recognition of denominations.

Easier to use for the poor-sighted.

Denominations can be recognised at a distance by merely a brief glance.

Disadvantages:

It's what everyone's used to.

The advantages vastly outweigh the disadvantages. And I'm sorry, but calling everyone stupid for not wanting to stop and read every single note does not count as an argument against the coloured notes.

darn client sniffer

[ChristTrekker]

They blocked Opera. Of course, as soon as I spoof as Mozilla I can get in fine. I wrote the FT a nice note. :)

Colors are one thing, sizes...

[The Wooden Badger]

I spent some time in Europe and the different colors was nice for telling which kind was which (especially when each bank has their own flavor of currency), but the different sizes made sifting through them in my wallet a pain. Each one fit the wallets folds differently and the different heights made it harder to get at some. It really made me miss my old greenbacks. I can't really see a whole lot of sense in catering to foreigners if the numbers are clear and in a uniform place. I think that it does make sense to people with bad eye sight, however. I guess the different sizes help when eye sight gets really bad, but there is going to be a learning curve. On second thought lets just abolish money altogether. It isn't like I'm getting paid what I'm worth/do anything anyway.

Re:Vending Machines - TAKE Sac-a-bux!

[ackthpt]

Seriously, I find the Sac-a-bux work great where accepted, and save you the hauling of many quarters and straightening bills (which cost NYC about $165,000 per year a couple years ago.)

It's truly amazing that the US economy pretty much gets by on Cents, Nickels, Dimes and Quarters whereas some countries have had as many as 8 different denominations of coin before the Euro. (Yeah, there's technically a Half Dollar, too, but I think collectors or casinos are the only place to see them anymore, banks don't like to order them as stores don't use them.)

I saw something...

[cr0sh]

The way it looked was like it was one of those ultra-kooky conspiracy things...

Anyhow, it was something about how the new bills will be called something else (instead of a US Dollar, it will be US Currency), and that it was only to be used inside the US, not outside.

Sounded crazy...

But given all the other TONS, AND TONS OF FUNKY SHIT - the DMCA, CCDBTA (sp?), USA Patriot Act, recent events - does it not seem like something possible?

Why do I have this impending feeling of gloom and doom - like some MAJOR SHIT is happenning, that very few are paying attention to, that Americans in general, and the world maybe, are ignoring - like we are sliding into a "Brave New World"/"1984" REAL DYSTOPIA - but in a way no one seems to care? I have this VERY REAL FEAR that I am going to "wake up" and cry "WHAT HAPPENED! WHERE DID MY LIFE GO!" - all to the sound of others screaming the same...

Re:I saw something...

[randomkind]

Because that impending feeling of doom is true. Well, impending doom is a bit much. The way I see it, there are two possible futures: We'll be given the dignity of all being locked away in jail cells in an Orwellian America. Or we'll be further pacified by retarded, uninforming, watered-down, cutesey, biased CNN news broadcasts, and mind-numbing television sitcoms, while the government runs its conspiratorial hands through the only remaining (and most powerful) communication medium in existance and ruins it entirely, until we've got the individuality and the capacity for thinking for ourselves of a hyperactive four year old cracked out on ridalin and rubbing his crotch to Barney. As much time as I spend rubbing my crotch, I'm hoping for the former. That's going a bit far, but there's no denying the recently made slightly public government conspiracies and all that crap. On a whole, 9/11 did more good for the country - evil, opressive legislation, oppertunities to cause war and bind all remaining dissident nations to our economic will, bettered economy, reasons to ressurect the defense industry, etc etc, than it did bad (only a couple thousand people killed, another hundred thousand jobless - no big deal when you consider what we did to the Middle East before 9/11, and then afterwards, and what we're going to do). The clear as day evidence that the US Gov knew about the attack is all right there in the open. And now it's clear that they counted on it. There's lots of crazy shit going on today in America, that's raping us of our 'rights' (if we ever had any). It's a shame that our miserable, miserable media just sort of glosses over it. And that the American people are unable, or unwilling to research it themselves, and connect the dots. For example, it's pretty esoteric knowledge that the US government began a new 45 Billion US$ s00p3r s3kr3t spy satellite project early last year. We're big on hideing the things that we don't want to know from ourselves.

No more 1's

[MoTec]

I'm all for replacing the $1 bill with coins, like those gold ones that nobody ever seems to use. I travelled a while back thru Canada and saw their $1 and $2 coins (loonies and two'nies) I think it's a good idea. The coins are going to last a lot longer than the bills so I think it'd be more cost effective for the goverment in the long run. Of course, all sorts of other costs would be involved in vending machines and such.

MoTec

My CLI terminal isn't color!!

[fortinbras47]

color GUIs are for wusses

Re:Counterfeiting, Dark Taxis, and National Image

[Telastyn]

Actually isn't the dollar the most counterfeitted money because Americans are the best criminals?

counterfeit

[Cryptnotic]

It is very common to find what are known as "raised notes", legitimate bills which have been modified to look like higher-denomination bills. If a clerk, customer or foreign tourist isn't paying attention, they may receive these types of bills. There is
a page on the Secret Service web page about these type of counterfeit bills. Switching to different sized and different color bills would eliminate this type of fraud.

In Becoming a Rebel

[Aldurn]

Yes, I'm American. No, I haven't dealt with foreign currency to a great extent, other than the usual "Oooh... Canadian penny!". But let me tell you: Being able to tell at-a-glance what a bill is should have been done a long time ago.
Imagine you're writing a computer program to recognize the value of money. The process your program would go through is something akin to this:
1) Locate the bill in an X-Y plan from our current perspective.
2) Orient the bill. Which side is up?
3) Determine what we can and cannot see on this bill.
4) Determine if we can see one of the corners.
5) If we cannot, we must re-orient the bill and go back to step 2.
6) Determine where the edge is.
7) Grab the image a little bit away from that corner.
8) Read the value of the digit.
9) Look that image up in a table.
10) Get the value from the table. That is the value of this bill.

Now assume you're writing a program for color-coded bills. The logic may flow something like this:
1) Locate the bill in an X-Y plane from our current perspective.
2) Read in the RRGGBB value of this bill.
3) Look those values up in a table, matching the closest values.
4) Get the value from the table. That is the value from this bill.

The human brain operates in a similar manner: Orientation is difficult. And reading is much more difficult in adverse conditions, such as low-light or harsh weather (i.e. "I need to catch a cab! How much do I have?").
Colored money would be a good thing to have. Especially for us lazy Americans.

Re:With the euro approching 1 dollar

[ackthpt]

Up to about 100 years ago this was pretty much the case, they were silver coins, about 90% pure, and refered to as Crowns (at least to english speakers.) An ounce of Silver was an ounce of silver, wherever you went. Merchants in southeast Asia countermarked or "chop marked" coins to guard against counterfeits. The coin of the world for a considerable time was the spanish 8 (ocho) Reales. (Follow the link to learn a little more) Following WW II the crowns of the world were pretty much replaced by paper money, getting away from the problems of fluctuating silver prices, but creating exchange headaches for everyone. Now there Euro and the US $ being employed as the currency of other countries.

Offering Plate at Church / Tipping

[dukeblue219]

It seems to me that there might be a little bit of a privacy issue here. Imagine if everyone in the church knows that you only put a $1 in the plate by its color, or if somebody knows you tip poorly by the colors you leave on the table.

I know how much you have!

[xee]

Now whenever you open your wallet a single glance will be all that is required to count your cash. That goes for you and me both. So I'll know how much you have. Yet another privacy denied.

"Foreigners" get confused? Um, so what?

[surfimp]

This "oh, the poor foreigners get confused" gambit smacks of BS to me. So what? International tourism, while being hugely important for many countries throughout the world, is only one facet of that multi-header, multi-national juggernaut we call "the U.S. economy". Surely not a large enough facet that we need to go out and change our entire currency (at who knows what cost) so that people spending a six day / seven night vacation at DisneyWorld don't accidentally drop a $50 instead of a $5 when buying their 64oz. Gutbuster(TM) for Jr.

I think the real issue here is making it more difficult to counterfeit bills. I'm no expert on the subject, but I've heard for years that multicolored money is more difficult to counterfeit that bills which are of more limited color schemes (i.e. U.S. greenbacks).

In all likelihood, one impetus behind this move is to make it more difficult for foreign counterfeiters to reproduce U.S. dollars. If that is the case, then in actually what they're trying to do is make it MORE confusing for foreigners, not LESS.

How about a really useful change?

[The Beezer]

What I'd really like to see is reversible money - like playing cards. How much time is wasted each year by clerks, bankers, and everyone else that has to waste time getting a stack of money all facing the same way?

Who reads microprint!?!?

[Beetjebrak]

Try scanning and printing a $20 note and a 20 (that's Euro, for the font-impaired) note. Look at the result. It would be much easier to spend the american fake.. for instance in a bar. Who the hell reads microprint??? The colours in the Euro-fake would seem off the mark at first glance, whereas the dollar is mostly just murky dark green. It is extremely difficult to match colour on a desktop scanning/printing setup. Professionals spend $$$ on such systems and it's still not 100% foolproof. I'm Dutch, and we used to have very brightly coloured bills which were nearly impossible to scan and print colour-correct. I had some great fun with glue and fake banknotes stuck to mall floors when I was a kid.. but many people saw they were fake from a distance. Dollars would have been a lot more fun. I must admit I'm not very familiar with american bills, so I don't know if the higher denominations have them, but the holographic foil-strip that goes onto every single euro-bill is certainly a good idea! RFID-tags are of course a little less attractive ;-)

This generally wouldn't be a problem...

[StriderKuja]

This generally (foreigners having trouble with our currency) wouldn't be a problem, but apparently we are in the minority and foreigners are in the majority (as far as population is concerned). ~:0)

Re:Trouble? Trouble at the Gentlemans Club

[D0wnsp0ut]

Dude, you get the SAME dance for a buck as a five or ten spot.....

Coins

[Jordy]

I'm surprised the idea of changing our coins hasn't come up. The US doesn't print arabic numerals on their coins, but instead force people to read:

One Cent
Five Cents
One Dime
Quarter Dollar

The dime in particular probably doesn't make much sense to people outside the US.

Re: Systems of measure

[Alexis Morissette]

How about the term "standard" (seeing as the name of the measurement system is US Standard)? And what's with this "imperial"? What empire are we talking about?

Re:Australian 'bills' - Urban Myth

[Large Green Mallard]

Urban myth.

The Polymer that the notes were printed on was developed by a government body called CSIRO - Commenwealth Science and Information Research Organisation. Interesting story I read in an Australian Coin and Banknote magazine about how they initially tested their plastic (polymer) notes. CSIRO's research facility had a lot of $7 notes printed up for use internally.

Polymer banknotes do wear out eventually, however more commonly they are removed from circulation because the ink rubs off as they bend. I used to work in a supermarket, and collect banknotes, so I kept an eye on them. We would regularlly have $5 notes (our most common note) in circulation for 5 years, and many longer. In my wallet right now I have a 1996 $20, 1998 and 2001 $5 and a 1999 $50.

Banks use a low heat to flatten them out when they get them, since the polymer does hold creases and bends

Cash for the visually impared

[Hydro-X]

Here in Canada, on our new $5 and $10 bills, as well as the 20, 50 and 100 that will be coming out over the course of the next few years, braille dots have been added to the top corner. This way the blind as well as people with partial vision impairments can work with the braille and colors.

You might think that the dots would wear off or get damaged in being handled so much, but I've seen a fair bit of banged up new 10s and the dots are hanging on. IIRC, it's some process patented by the Bank of Canada, and it may already be in use in some foreign countries.

In "God" we trust

[coljac]

Maybe they can take the opportunity to remove the ridiculous and unconstitutional "In God We Trust" motto that has plagued the notes since 1957.

Re:Counterfeiting, Dark Taxis, and National Image

[Nept]

75% of all counterfeiting is done outside of the US.

The reason we have the most counterfeiting as opposed to any other country, is that the dollar is the strongest and most international currency in the world.

Colored money?

[OrangeHairMan]

Well some colors that are on the paper money in certian countries are just obsurd. To quote one Simpsons episode, about Latin American money: "Our paper money is so gay." I hope the US won't have to stoop that low. ;)

Orange

What about the cents?

[John Courtland]

I've seen some poor German guy mistake $250 for $2.50. He tipped a buddy of mine $100 because he thought it was a dollar. That's a bigger problem, Currency like the Yen, where it's a couple thousand yen to buy anything is better in my opinion, because it's impossible to mistake that confounded decimal for a larger sum of money. That's where the real problem is.

Australians Use Plastic...

[AcidDan]

We ditched our paper currency quite a number of years ago, now we have bills made from a pseudo-plastic compound. Sure our currency is coloured but the best anti-couterfeit measures are:

1) it's not paper
2) items such as transparent sections of the note

If the US go throug with this change it will be great! Even if they don't bother with a colour change, they should at least look at making the notes out of a meterial other than paper.

Trust me:- No more accidentally leaving a 10er in the pocket of your pants and discovering it a mushy ball after they go through the wash...

-- Dan =)

Re: Systems of measure

[EvanED]

Standard works I guess. I'm used to "Imperial"

>>And what's with this "imperial"? What empire are we talking about?

The English empire, silly. The whole "The sun never sets on the British Empire" thing?

Not so good...

[westies-from-hell]

..if you're color-blind.

"Wait, was that a $20...or a $2...?"

Subtle colors don't do well with me, and I imagine that, unless we start having Peter Max design our money, the colors are going to lean more towards the pastel end of the spectrum.

ObCanadian: I'm married to a Canadian, and I hear this rant about the mono-chromatic money *all* the time. To me, Canadian money looks like I should be using it to put houses on Park Place....

...worth about as much, too... :-)

wish they'd be a little more radical...

[Compay]

I hate the choices they made about who and what to put on US currency. Why do we have to have all politicians and images of government buildings on our currency? What about artists, scientists, and people who have made important contributions to US and world culture? What about national parks and beautiful non-governmental buildings? Why the hell do we still have Andrew "Indian killer" Jackson (the president responsible for the Cherokee trail of tears) on our 20 dollar bill? Why is Alexander Hamilton on the 10 dollar bill?

Here are some of the people and things I'd love to see on there instead of what we've currently got:

• the Grand Canyon, Monument Valley or Mt. Ranier
• the Statue of Liberty or the Golden Gate Bridge
• Martin Luther King or Harriet Tubman
• Edgar Allen Poe, Mark Twain, Walt Whitman or John Muir
• Duke Ellington, Aaron Copland or John Coltrane
• beautiful birds like the Eastern Bluebird or the Great Blue Heron (OK, I know we've already got the Bald Eagle)

Imagine a beautiful full color panorama of the Grand Canyon on the back of a 20 instead of the White House... wouldn't that be nicer?

The list could go on and on and on... but those are just a few ideas I've had ever since they did the first redesign in the 90's. I guess the US government is too busy trying to create an image of grandeur to actually use symbols that come from the country's cultute and natural heritage.

Don't get me wrong, I think it would be OK to leave guys like Washington and Jefferson on there - they are some of the founders of the country and deserve to be represented. But having some more focus on culture as opposed to government as the things symbolic of our country would be nice. You know, "of the people, by the people, for the people..."

Re:wish they'd be a little more radical...

[Edmund Blackadder]

Well old presidents are safe. There isnt much complaint about people like Lincoln, Washington etc. But when you get into culture things get tricky. Having Mark Twain on our money would be great as a representation of what America has given to the world, but once we put Mark Twain on our money some people will start insisting on some more divisive or just bad choices. For example religous leaders will come up. Some more questionable writers will come up. Remember the stamps? It started out with putting great americans on our stamps and then things devolved into bad singers and cheesy actors. And its easy not to use certain stamps but not using certain banknotes could be a bitch.

Maybe 1970's bills

[freeweed]

I haven't seen an inkjet that can come CLOSE to replicating the fine detail on our newest bills, let alone a consumer-level scanner that isn't flummoxed by all the fancy goo-gaws (tiny print, etc). Try scanning a bill sometime, you'll see large areas that just don't scan right.

This is of course ignoring the fancy reflective and/or iridescent areas that we've had on our larger denomination bills ($20 and higher) for years now. No inkjet in the world can duplicate this, and it's one of the most obvious missing features in any fake bill.

Methinks you're speaking out of your ass if you're claiming someone can use an ink/bubble-jet at home to print out money.

Re:Maybe 1970's bills

[tomhudson]

Sorry, but even the cheapie inkjets can do a decent job on good paper (it's all in the paper).

The fake NEW-STYLE $10.00 I was passed had a fake iridescent patch on it (the maple leafs thingee in the middle).

As for the tiny lettering, my eyes aren't good enough to read it after decades tanning before a monitor.

It's happened enough that the RCMP has issued guidelines to stores on what to look for, and all the recent updates concerned inkjet counterfeits.

Go to your local gas station and ask the clerk to show you their copy.

As for speaking out of my ass, it's arse in Canada. :-)

I don't have trouble with small bills but...

[Eric Damron]

I think I need practice with really large denomination bills. If the government would just send me a bag full of VERY large denomination bills I could willing to practice.

Nope

[epepke]

I would love it if our money were prettier. However, it seems to me that this idea comes across every few years, and nothing ever comes of it. The new 20's were supposed to be in color, and then they decided not to do it. Ho hum.

You do have to admit, though, that it's pretty stupid to say that foreigners would be able to differentiate our money better if it were in color. Even if it were in color, it would be in a different color code from what they're used to.

Re:Nope

[CProgrammer98]

The point is that it's much easier to distinguish between a big blue rectangle of paper and a big green rectangle of paper than it is to flick through the stash of notes looking for a 5 or a 10. You will quickly learn that blue means 5 and green means 10 or whatever. Here in the UK, and I guess in mosty of europe, we simply don't look at the numbers. Heck, I couldn't even tell you whete the "5" is on a 5 pound note, I just know it's the "blue" note. We do all our counting by colour, it's so much simpler!

so who sets the color code?

[frovingslosh]

What a stupid idea, make the money even more like play money to supposedly suit foreigners. I just don't buy it. Sure, I've seen different colored money in other countries, but I certainly never learned their color code, I looked at the numbers on the bills. Has the new world order standardized the color code for money, or will this just lead to more problems? How many foreigners, not competent enough to read the numbers on the bills are going to be thinking in terms of our color code, rather than their own? We're just inviting problems when we encourage foreigners to use a color code, then someone is sure to accuse us that we deliberately cheated them because they didn't realize that our bills are not valued in the same order as their bills.

Re:so who sets the color code?

[megauni]

It is more to make them look different, as in different denominations...

Re:so who sets the color code?

[seann]

Read the numbers on the bills, and verify that it's a 5 doller bill because it's blue!!!!

Re:so who sets the color code?

[UranusReallyHertz]

So what? I have a hard time imagining other countries redesigning their currency because American tourists can't tell the bills apart. I am sorry, but I just can't feel sympathy for anyone who is too stupid to look at the bill BEFORE he spends it to make sure it isn't a 20 instead of a one.

backwards compatible for vending

[asv108]

If they every change lower denoomination bills, it will meet a lot of resistance amongst the vending community unless these notes will work with the current standard dollar bill acceptors. Given the many failures of the reintroduction of new currency in the past, I wouldn't be surprised if there is a major public backlash against the new notes.

Re:Annuit Coeptis. Novus Ordo Ceclorum.

[sykora]

It means/stands for...

The pyramid signifies strength and duration: The eye over it and the motto, Annuit Coeptis (meaning He, [Godj has favored our undertakings), allude to the many interventions of Providence in favor of the American cause. The Roman numerals below are the date of the Declaration of Independence. The words under it, Novus Ordo Seclorum (meaning a new order of the ages), signify the beginning of the new American era in 1776.

According to the Federal Consumer Information Center

Different sizes of money

[sparkie]

The different sizes in money is to cut down on counterfiting. For example. If the 50 dollar bill is larger than the 1 dollar bill, you cant blow the ink out of a 1 dollar bill, and then print a 50 on it. It's been used in asian countries forever.

Cash counting problems

[drunkahol]

Having same colour and same size notes actually costs the US billions in extra cash counting.

Notes have to be sorted first to ensure that a bundle is all 10's for example. In Europe, if a 100 is slipped in by mistake, the counting machine will stop because the note is a different size. In the US, the 100 will get counted as a 10 (or vice versa). Hence fewer mistakes and less sorting time for the coloured and different size notes.

If you want to go ahead pissing money down the drain - be my guest. But don't go all superior and claim we can't read numbers. I can - but poor sighted (not blind) people from anywhere in the world can have problems telling the difference between 10 & 20 dollar bills.

Re:Cash counting problems

[mosch]

actually you're wrong. (imagine that, somebody spewing falsehoods on slapdash.org)

american currancy counting machines can tell what the note is, and do some counterfeit checking, on the fly. easiest way is the little metal strip (which fluoresces under blacklight) is in a different spot on 100s, 50s, 20s, 10s and 5s. Of course, there are a lot of less easy ways around too, since if that was all that got checked, banks would regularly get 2 inch stacks of $50s that only include $100 of real cash.

Re:Cash counting problems

[Arandir]

but poor sighted (not blind) people from anywhere in the world can have problems telling the difference between 10 & 20 dollar bills.

Short sighted people will have no problem. They're *short* sighted. Just hold the note closer to your nose. Color isn't going to help color blind people at all. And color blindness is very common.

Frankly, I don't see where the problem is. Europeans and Asians aren't confused by the monochrome quality of US currency, they are confused by a different values of the currency! A "10" in the US is different than a "10" in Mexico which is different than a "10" in Germany which is different than a "10" in Thailand...

Wouldn't it be wonderful if the US used the same color for 10 Dollar bills that England used for 10 Pound notes? I could retire in a week!

Re:Cash counting problems

[Drakonian]

american currancy

Imagine that, someone making a spelling mistake on /.

And I suppose every corner store has one of these 'currancy counting machines'? I suppose every small business does as well?

Re:Cash counting problems

[Drakonian]

And I suppose every corner store has one of these 'currancy counting machines'? Yep. They're called cashiers, or clerks.

Oh! So these clerks you speak of, they are easily able to easily tell a high quality counterfeit bill from a genuine one!?? Do they have black lights behind their eyeballs? Neato!

Re:Cash counting problems

[jedrek]

Europeans and Asians aren't confused by the monochrome quality of US currency, they are confused by a different values of the currency! A "10" in the US is different than a "10" in Mexico which is different than a "10" in Germany which is different than a "10" in Thailand...

That's a cheap shot and it's totally wrong. Most europeans and asians that I know that travel can convert currency in their head, on the fly. Euros to dollars to yen to pesos like that (snaps fingers). On the other hand, most of the american tourists I meet when moving around europe are paralyzed by the thought that they have to use something other than american dollars. It's usually John and Martha from Nebraska, not Hans and Anna, who are confused that their $10 is not 10E or 10GBP.

Re:Cash counting problems

[Arandir]

And thus the trap is sprung! Hans and Anna, who can convert exchange rates in their heads, know that 10 Fumarks equals 23 Barchmas smugly pull light blue pieces of paper from their wallet with which to tip the porter. Unfortunately in Fredonia a light blue is the color for a 100 Fumark note...

I believe one of the orginal premises of this whole article was that colored currency will make it easier for foreign visitors to use US currency. But that will not be the case unless the entire world standardized on particular colors for particular currency units. And that ain't going to happen.

p.s. The reason that Hans and Anna can convert currency in their heads is probably because they've travelled to other countries more often than John and Martha. The nation density in Europe is higher in the US, which makes it much easier and cheaper for Europeans to visit other nations. John and Martha have to schedule vacation time and make plans to visit Mexico or Canada, but Hans and Martha can probably go visit another country spontaneously over the weekend, and sometimes even just for an evening.

Re:Cash counting problems

[patchmaster]

And having counterfeit bills in many different colors would change the situation... how?

Re:Cash counting problems

[ksheff]

Most europeans and asians that I know that travel

That's just it. They are experienced travelers and are used to doing it. The tourists that you speak of are probably retirees that are out of the country for the first time in their lives. It's not a hard task, just an unfamiliar one.

Re:Cash counting problems

[netsharc]

I believe one of the orginal premises of this whole article was that colored currency will make it easier for foreign visitors to use US currency. But that will not be the case unless the entire world standardized on particular colors for particular currency units. And that ain't going to happen.

Hesus! Geez, FYI, the rest of the world has had different color notes for a long time. I myself has lived in 3 countries with 4 different currencies (the last two because of the country's change to Euro money) and have never had any problem that each demonination has different colors, geez a 10 Australian dollar note is very much different to a 10 Euro note; different color, different picture on it, different material even.

It doesn't take very long to sub-conciuosly realise what value the colour and the pictures on the bills represent.

The best currency denominations

[martyn s]

The best currency denominations are ones based on powers of 3. See theres a trinary number system, that instead of having the values 0,1,2, it has the values -1,0,1. This is called balanced ternary. I know it sounds weird, but it works out. This number system accurately represents the way we pay for money: if we want to pay 3 dollars we can pay 5 and get 2 back.

So the best system is based on the denominations 1,3,9,27,81 etc. This is the most efficient system for doling out change to pay an exact amount.

Think of it this way. There is a riddle which goes like this: if you have a two pan balance and you want to weigh an object (integral weight) with the fewest number of counter weights, which counterweights would you need? There answer is 1,3,9,27, etc. If you want to measure 14, you put down a 27 on one side, and put down a 9, 3 and a 1 on the side with the object you're weighing.

So you only need one of each bill to pay *any* amount exactly. So let's say you want to pay 14 dollars. You give 27, and you get back a 9, 3, and a 1. This works for ALL values.

see American Scientist: Third Base

Re:The best currency denominations

[goldfndr]

With this in mind, the x4-5 system (0.01, 0.05, 0.25, 1, 5, 20, 100) doesn't seem that bad.

Oh, and the x3 system minimal transaction depends on each party having one of at least denomination, no?

Re:The best currency denominations

[martyn s]

Well yes, but with the system we currently have, we need more than just one of each denomination.

Yeah, and

[Cardhore]

let's get rid of English, even though it's not even American, because that language is way too hard for foreigners to understand.

Misleading?

[newerbob]

Guess all those misleading numbers that were inadvertantly slipped into every corner of both sides. If numbers are too tough, then you shouldn't be playing with that much money anyway.

In 2004, we get to hear about how this system is already in place in a line with 5 or 10 seconds longer, that adds up over the world and the U.S. is the root of all evil. Although I'm English, I've lived in the bad part of town counting through notes to know if you've just offered a $1 as a dangerous and anti-democratic institution, benefitting the rich at the bars before offering to buy the next generation of currency, there will be working so smoothly that all citizens will be offered the opportunity to scan the money you hand them, and have a unique serial number scanning system.

Basically, since virtually all stores have laser scanners already, and a strong desire to avoid getting fed counterfeits (since they lose the counterfeit money without reparation), stores will be distracted by the stores. The big benefit to the ease of counterfeiting, but never proven. For those who cannot understand the tourist angle. I suspect that is a great idea, because it finally allows the US economy, and just about everyone in the US except criminals and the CIA (who have been accused of counterfeiting, either. I used to the blind.

Other countries such as Canada have introduced braille for the treasury department, and back about 10 years ago and had a Canadian friend ask me if I knew why Canadian bills are not only different colours, but they have braille, a special glossy maple leaf overlay, and a strong desire to avoid getting fed counterfeits (since they lose the counterfeit money without reparation), stores will be a small bar code on the ability!

it's not paper.

[rebelcool]

it's actually a form of very stiff linen. I believe the actual composition and process for making it is a secret, but its not 'paper' in the usual sense.

You can wash a bill many times before it becomes unusable. they're designed that way.

Re:About Time!

[bigbadwlf]

In Canada, you only see those 'paper currency slots' on change machines at casinos and laundries.
Since we have $1 and $2 coins, they're pretty rare. You'd never see one on a Coke machine.
On the rare occasion I do have to put paper money into a machine, I find it a pain in the ass to have to make sure the corners aren't folded and so on.

Aussie money

[andygrace]

I've lived all round the world and by far the best bills are Australian notes.

They are different coloured and slightly different sized so you can look in your wallet and know exactly what you have without taking them out to check the numbers on them.

They are made of plastic so if you accidently throw them in the wash with your clothes they are fine.

They're incredibly tough and next to impossible to damage without atacking them with scissors.

They've got a built in hologram like device with a tiny clear plastic window to make them extremely hard to copy.

AG

Foreigners are STUPID

[rice_burners_suck]

foreigners have a hard time differenciating between the bills

Foreigners are just a bunch of stupid people anyway. If they can't understand what 1, 5, 10, 20, 50 and 100 mean, they shouldn't be allowed into this country in the first place.

Have a hard time differenciating between the bills... What kind of lame-brain dumb motherfscker has a hard time differentiating between bills that have the gosh-flippin amounts written all over both freakin' sides?!?!??!!?!?

Re:Foreigners are STUPID

[rice_burners_suck]

Let me tell you something, you STUPID FUCK who moderated me "flamebait"... People outside of this wonderful country think they're so damn smart. They laugh at the United States and think we don't have any common sense or whatever. And yet, when they enter this country, they have trouble differentiating between cash bills that have the God-flippin' amounts written in numeral notation in four places, on both sides of the bill, along with the amount spelled out in English once on each side. *T*H*A*T* *M*E*A*N*S* *T*H*E* *V*A*L*U*E* *I*S* *S*P*E*L*L*E*D* *O*U*T* *I*N* *T*E*N* *P*L*A*C*E*S* *O*N* *E*A*C*H* *B*I*L*L*! If that's not enough to make it quite clear what each bill is, then THOSE FOREIGNERS ARE STUPID PEOPLE, and like I said, THEY SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED INTO this COUNTRY!!!!! We're not a bunch of stupid people! We're Americans, and that means we don't need to color-code all our shit like a bunch of kindergardners, damn it!

For two hundred of the Lord's years , the citizens of the United States of America, the most wonderful country in the world, have had NO trouble whatsoever in differentiating between the bills. I don't understand the difficulty! It's like those idiot foreigners who put on their RIGHT turn signal and then turn LEFT. What's the difficulty here?

I'll tell you EXACTLY what the difficulty is: THEY ARE STUPID PEOPLE!

Oh well. I'm obviously pissed off. I'll need to drink some Negra Modelo. It's Mexican beer, as opposed to immitation beer. (All beers that are not Mexican are immitation. Likewise for all food, all girls, and all El Caminos.)

Oh yeah, and I do agree with whoever that is who's sig goes something along the lines of "having a lameness filter on slashcrack is like having a shit filter on your ass." Why the fuck do you need a lameness filter on slashcrack anyway? FUCK lameness filters! In case you think my usage of the word FUCK is excessive, perhaps you should do a bit of research on your own and take a gander at the content indicated by the following uniform resource locator: http://justin.justnet.com.au/rudestuff/uses-of-the -word-fuck.html. And if you CHOOSE not to be bustin no ganders over there, then that'z Joe's problem. (Joe who? Joe-momma!)

Ooooooooh well. Time for more BOOZE. It's FRIDAY!!!)

Re:Foreigners are STUPID

[Steve B]

Let me tell you something, you STUPID FUCK who moderated me "flamebait".

I see somebody's new sigline.

Not worth a Continental...

[FortranDragon]

How many folks remember that phrase? Some of you younger people might not recall it, but I'm of a generation that does. The memory of _bad_ money is long, *very* long. The greenback (US Dollar) means something because its stability was a consequence of the worthless Continental. No one wanted to repeat that mistake again.

So, yeah, I do think that brand awareness plays a part in US currency. The current green-colored bills mean something to people. It is peoples' belief in a currency that is what sustains it. If the average US citizen starts viewing the NextGen bills as 'Monopoly' money or funny money it will be doomed at a currency.

The Fed knows this so they'll work long and hard to try to convince people that the bills are 'ok'. They have the recent redesign going for them, I think. People have a fresh memory of a change so possible resistance to another change might work.

Oh, on the counterfeiting reason for the change, I find it interesting that in past years the reason the Fed gave for not introducing color was that it was supposedly *easier* to counterfeit color bills. People looked at the color and not the denomination, whereas with ours people checked that actual bill. (Also, printing up some bills on your printer won't work. Greenbacks are cloth, not paper, and won't literally feel right.)

Finally, as far as the problem with checking the denominations go, just do what I do: perform an insertion sort. ;-) I sort my bills front to back, smallest to largest denomination. I can just as quickly check the denominations I have as I could looking at the colors. Since I never carry more that $20 - $30 in my wallet my search time is effective nil. :-D (Yeah, yeah, it is anal method, but at least I don't have to think about the various bills in my wallet.)

Re:Not worth a Continental...

[brianber]

Hear! Hear! Most Americans when they think of money, think GREEN!! As about 500 other posts have said "read the *&^@in' number!

As for security, on the $10 bill and up, the number on the bottom right corner of the face changes color when viewed from different angles. It only takes a second to verify, believe me, I've done it many times.

And yes, I'm familier with the phrase "Not worth a Continential." Also parlays well with "not worth the paper it's printed on." (23yrs old)

plastic money

[leastsquares]

In Scotland, there was a trial with credit card-like replacements for each bill (or each note, as it is called in Britian). I thought it was great - perfectly washable -- for example, I could take my wallet kayaking and not care about getting it wet.

Unfortunately, everyone else hated the idea, so it was dropped.

Re:No more green OR pennies

[qintar]

Since businesses run this country anyways this is probably inevitable, but it would really hurt the consumer in the long run. A penny isn't much by itself, but over a lifetime that is a huge loss...

Ah, that pesky concept called "rounding". I realize it's a bit confusing, but here's how it works...
1 and 2 cents gets rounded down
3 and 4 cents gets rounded up

When you introduce the randomizing effect of sales tax and multiple item purchases, the effect is a wash. Doesn't matter how rich or poor you are, Rep. Kolbe's bill won't cost you or save you any money ... unless you count the fact that the government and merchants will be able to process cash transactions less expensively.
For more information, go here.

Re:About Time!

[Karn]

There are people in this world who would have told the cashier that he/she made a mistake (everyone knows that cashiers pay for their screw-ups out of their own pocket.)

And then there are people like your friend.

Hey! That's like..

[SteelX]

..O'Reilly money!

Quick question...

[sapgau]

What country does NOT have multiple colors on their money (besides the US)?

Seems that it is only used for the convenience of selecting the right bill at a glance.

Not really that important

[LinuxMacWin]

Even though I agree that changing the color (or size) would be interesting and might help some people, I am not really sure it provides such a great benefit.

I think the perspective is skewed by other countries having colors in the currency, which is actually a contrast in currency model rather than a genuine problem.

Consider the following analogies for example:

Would a Briton find the same colors for a denomination "10" in France, or Russia? If the 10 is red in Britain, and Green in Russia, is that not confusing?

How about the reverse? Does an American automatically figure out "10" v/s "20" immediately on arrival in another country? Hardly.

So the bottomline is learning curve rather than the color or size.

I have dealt with currency from 3 countries for an extended period, and after the initial learning curve, I am figure out / count / sort all of these at the same speed.

Or is it just an irrational fear - "I never thought currency could be in the same color"? Isn't it the same fear which makes people say - "but he ain't white / black / brown". Is it just the fear of change !

Re:Let's try a test, in Turkey

[charon_on_acheron]

One of my instructors during Military training mentioned his time stationed in Turkey. All personnel were REQUIRED to convert most of their paychecks to the local currency, the lira, at the official exchange rate.But they would then take a handful of US $1 bills with them when they went off-base.

If they wanted to buy something in town that cost the equivalent of $10US, they could buy it with a single $1 bill. Any train ride cost a single $1 bill. The locals didn't want the Turkish lira money, they wanted the American $1 bill. Because the $1 bill was worth a lot more than the official exchange rate would allow.

The other funny part is that an American $10 bill or $100 bill was worthless, because the locals didn't know what they were. They knew what the $1 bill was, and that's all they wanted. That is the true value of a US 'greenback'.

So try your test, but don't be surprised if not everyone follows your reasoning.

By the way, the reason the military were required to convert most of their paycheck to Turkish lira was politics and economics. If everyone cashed their paychecks for $1 bills, then spent them in town, the economy would go down the drain. The exchange rate was seriously imbalanced, just to prop up the lira. A flood of $1 bills would have crashed the whole system.

Traffic lights

[SoupIsGoodFood_42]

1) Imaging if traffic lights were all green, and had "Stop", "Stop if you can", "Go". Automaticly, it is harder to tell that the traffic light is telling you, no matter how intelligent you are.
Different coloured notes have got nothing to do with people who can't read. It's to do with making it even easier to recognize a note. It's a fact, anyone denying this dosn't know what they're talking about.
And why do stupid people deserve to have their money stolen? Or are you just trying to argue with a stupid point?

2) When I think of the USA, the colour of the notes are the last thing I think of. Sure, if you see a note, it's easly recognised are a cliche US note, but power and pride of the US economy don't spring to mind....Just a US note. I doubt the enconomy would suffer if the US changed their colour scheme. Hell, not big shots/coporates/stock markets/govenments deal with cash anymore anyway. It's all stocks, electronic cash and other stuff I know nothing about.

Who d'ya love baby?

[bolx]

It's the love of money that's the root of all evil!

I mean, money just sits there, doesn't it. What's evil about that? It just sits there, being green, tempting me, making me want it, making me want to do bad things to get more of it...

OK, OK, money is evil. Even just sitting there, it's being evil, making me evil.

Heisenberg (or was it Pratchett?) was right, the act of observing changes the observer, now I'm evil. Ahhh nuts!

What about coins ?

[Wild Beastie]

The first time I visited the US I had some trouble with the notes, but the far bigger problem was "one dime" coins. Most people in the world know that there are 100 cents to a dollar, but what the hell is a dime? Nowhere on the coin does it tell you its value. (Before you flame me, yes I do now know what it is.)

Re:What about coins ?

[Edmund Blackadder]

I agree.

When i first came to america long time ago, when i first went into scool they gave me a test designed to check if i was able to function in american society (to see whether i needed special classes). I felt pretty confident, knowing english well and all, but at one point they gave me a sheet with pictures of coins, and asked me which ones i should use to make 1.52. Well i spent ten minutes looking for numbers and after that i declared that there was something wrong with those coins :).

But I dont think thats of much concern for the US govt. Unfortunately i dont think they care much about immigrants that need to count their change.

They do care about foreigners using us dollars for trade and investment, and those people mostly use large notes. I read somewhere that the hundred dollar note is the most used us banknote abroad.

and we're not ASKING them to!

[godzilla_akimbo]

It's the other way around. Seriously, whose color scheme will we use? Not Canadian -- wouldn't want to get them mixed up. If the point is that people from other countries aren't used to our non-color scheme, why should I believe they're going to jump on board and learn our new COLOR system. Isn't it easier to READ THE NUMBERS than to learn a whole new color scheme?

It is not ''difficult''

[Tom7]

Of course it's true that adding color makes it *easier* to distinguish bills, I have to contend with your statement that american bills are "difficult" to distinguish between. I have never, ever, squinted or got out my magnifying glass to try to tell them apart, or asked for help from the cashier. I've never asked for someone to wait up while I compare all the bills in my wallet to see if I can find the twenty. That, to me, means it is not "difficult". In fact, I'd say it is easy to simply look at the big numbers in the corner or the new big portraits to tell what denomination it is. Yes, it could be somewhat easier with colors, but that comes at a cost of altering tradition (and you know how Americans love their money!). As an actual American, I do prefer the tradition over the minor convenience.

Re:It is not ''difficult''

[vague]

It's really simple. They want to make your money _better_. Differentiated bills would be _better_ bills. They would be more useable. It really makes a difference for usability. Now, a quick visit abroad won't make you appreciate this difference, you can't use visual cues with which you aren't familiar. But once you are it makes a real, practical, everyday _difference_. It makes handling money less error prone and makes estimating the ammount of money you are carrying that much easier. Not to mention the benefits for the visually imparied.

You are resisting _real, tangible, and easy improvement_ because of _tradition_ and because you are unwilling to change what you grew up with, "It works swell now dammit, I don't need no hard disk, floppies do all I need!". That is what this boils down to.

I say we bring on this change, because I _know_ it's an improvement.

Re:It is not ''difficult''

[Tom7]

> You are resisting _real, tangible, and easy improvement_ because of _tradition_ and
> because you are unwilling to change what you grew up with, "It works swell now dammit, I
> don't need no hard disk, floppies do all I need!". That is what this boils down to.

No, I'm resisting a minor improvement to something that's already easy. Would I like it if my keyboard was also color-coded to make typing easier? The arms of my t-shirt color-coded to make it easier to tell front from back? There are plenty of easy things that can be made easier, but if they mean making the things ugly too, then I am probably not for it. If they do want to make a *real* difference, like dispensing with cash to make way for electronic money, getting rid of the penny, etc. then I am all for it. It's just a matter of weighing the pros versus the cons.

Also, as others have pointed out, this is not necessarily "easy"; consider for instance the tens of thousands of automatic bill changers around the US.

Re:It is not ''difficult''

[vague]

I'm not saying the transition is easy, merely that the issue is really easy. And that you have a hard time appreciating how important the difference it really makes is if your only experience with "the other side" is visits abroad.

It is my opinion that it makes a real and important enough difference to make the "tradition" argument look stupid. I also think it's worth the costs in time and money(!), but I understand how one could have a different opinion on _that_ matter.

Bah!

[Sneaky_Jesus]

leave our money alone! Screw Europeans. I don't want MY money looking and feeling like Monopoly money like European and Asia currency does. It's rather sad they can't tell the difference between bills, it's not that hard if you actually pay attention.

Re:Bah!

[Wild Beastie]

Monopoly money was based on British currency, so of cause British money looks like Monopoly money to Americans.

Re:No more green OR pennies

[Guido del Confuso]

I know that they make coins to save money, but since I don't expect them to actually give me that money back (god forbid), they might as well spend it on something I get a tangible benefit from. I don't want to carry around dollar coins if I don't have to. I suspect the reason Canadians stopped bitching about the $1 coins has more to do with the fact that the Canadian government didn't really care. I can't imagine any possible convenience advantage to having coin money worth more than a quarter (note that nobody in the US uses 50 cent pieces, either).

I can't imagine anybody likes using coin money. If something costs $1.79, I'd rather just pay $2 than fish through my pockets for exact change. If the government abolished bills smaller than $5, I'd either have to pay with a five and get a whole bunch of coins back or pull out a handful of change and pay with exact change. Either way sucks.

Get rid of the penny

[Goonie]

While you're printing numbers on the little beggars, could you do away with the penny? It's just a wallet-filler; you can't buy anything with it. Australia did away with one and two cent pieces years ago and we don't miss them.

And, while you're at it, fix up your bloody immigration form you fill out on the plane to take a short trip to the States. As well as asking whether I was involved in the Jewish Holocaust (well, no, but I killed a few hundred Tutsis in Rwanda and the odd dozen Bosnians, but I suppose that's OK), it asks whether I had "committed any crimes of moral turpitude" (can I call my lawyer to determine whether killing Tutsis and Bosnians is a crime of moral turpitude? I don't feel in the least guilty about it, and given the last question it doesn't seem like the US is too cut up about it).

Re:Get rid of the penny

[UncleFluffy]

And, while you're at it, fix up your bloody immigration form you fill out on the plane to take a short trip to the States.

LOL

The one that always got me on the visa waiver form was the one that went "Are you here to commit an act of terrorism ? [ ] Yes [ ] No"

(For the US citizens amongst you, yes, I am serious, there was/is a form that all foreigners entering the country without a visa had to fill in that contained the above multiple-choice question)

It's good engineering

[Servants]

If numbers are too tough, then you shouldn't be playing with that much money anyway.

It's not that anybody can't tell the difference between the bills, it's that making it easier to tell the difference is a good thing. Color makes bills more distinguishable at a quick glance, from a distance, in low light, whatever.

It's weird that so many engineer-types here don't seem to understand this. You want color and numbers for the same reason that you want for loops and while loops. You can get by with just one of them, but it makes things needlessly difficult for the reader.

Old money.

[BrookHarty]

If your interested in seeing what the money of the past looks like, found a good url. http://www.frbsf.org/currency/bills.html
A 1776 1 3rd dollar. 33.3333333 cents. lol

Wrong answer.

[brianber]

the reason the US has the most counterfit dollars is because we don't chance the look of are bills for very long periods of time

WRONG!

and one of our dallors usually goes a very long way in other countries

Right the second time. If Rubbles were worth more than dollars and were like Visa, (accepted everywhere you want to be) they would be counterfeited at much higher rate than dollars. It doesn't matter how often the money is changed, it's just like whenever some new "unbreakable" code comes out, some kid with blue hair cracks it.

Money As A Collectible

[TastySiliconWafers]

Besides the new anti-counterfeiting benefits of the new money, there is another reason that our government likes to print new money. It is an easy source of revenue for the government. If they just printed more of the same currency style, it would inevitably result in inflation. But if they change the currency design, they can get away with printing more currency without inducing inflation.

When the government prints a new currency design they can rest assured that numismatists all over the land will instinctively hoard both the currency produced for the last few years prior to the change and the first few years of the new currency. Take a look on eBay and see what a 1909 V.B.D. penny or one of the WWII steel pennies sells for nowadays (in comparison with other currency of the same denomination and similar age).

This collecting activity essentially allows the government to add more value to its coffers than the value it must expend to produce the new currency. This can be done because much of the currency will never be spent as such. It will be kept as a collectible object with inherent value above and beyond it's face value as currency. The net effect is that collectors are paying the government for the ability to retire currency from circulation. They're doing the same thing with the quarters that have logos of the 50 states on the back.

The U.S. Postal service is another successful example of this sort of practice. They print and sell a tremendous number of postage stamps that will never be used to send a letter.

Hi, are you a moron?

[Inoshiro]

Ever driven a CAR? Ever noticed how signs don't come in uniform shapes and colours, only differentiated by the WORDS on them?

No, you haven't noticed that -- because colours are the most intuitive and fastest way of humans differentiating between several distinct objects. Ever tried to say what colour something spelt when the words were in another colour? You probably didn't do 100% because of that same fact.

That's why Canadians, Britons, Austrialians, etc, etc, etc, etc, .. basically everyone except the US (which, I note, also rejects the metric system) has been holding on to its quant "old" money while other countries have made their bills easy to differentiate, and harder to counterfeit.

Re:Hi, are you a moron?

[Kelsevinal]

And yet America still manages, despite our "'quant' old money" and lack of metric system, to be the richest country on Earth, as well as leading the world in technological development. Funny, that.

Re:Hint: OPEN the wallet

[Drakonian]

What if you carry a lot of bills? Predicted response to this: You shouldn't be carrying around that much money idiot!! It's like engineering and software development: You don't want to develop a work-around, you want to SOLVE THE PROBLEM.

Perhaps you (and the majority of other posters) are only arguing this insane point because of your patriotic pride in greenbacks? Maybe? The simple fact is, it is EASIER to distinguish colored bills.

waaaay ahead in Canada...

[zincfishy]

Hey, for once we Canadians are way ahead of the American! We did the colour thing ages ago, and are slowly working towards making -everything- a coin. No one dollar bill, no two... just larger and larger coins. I figure eventually we will have a $100 bill that is the same size and shape as a normal bill, but made out of solid nickel with a hinge in the centre. Nevermind hard to counterfeit, hard to carry.

The "foreign confusion" argument is truly terrible, but there are some excellent pros:

Searching: In Canada, when you open your wallet, you can tell what you have right away. Just as books have spine labels, making stacked bills easy to read is helpful. It may be my lack of experience with American bills, but it always feels like I am looking through index cards. Hardly a huge complaint, but no Republican could resist the chance to make money easier to spend.

Boredom: I would imagine that working in an American mint is currently the most boring job in the world.

Excitement: American money looks so somber... like it should be neatly stacked somewhere. Coloured money looks like it is dressed up with nowhere to go... it seems like a shame not to spend it.

Exotic Dancers: Currently look out to see men or women waving green at them... wouldn't it be nice to know right away what table to dance on first? Someone just has to take out an orange and wave it around and you get first service.

And lastly;

Capitalism: America is supposed to be the home of the red, white and blue... freedom and individualism, and over the top spectacle. Meanwhile, all your money looks like it was dressed in olive drab by Chairman Mao.

Re:waaaay ahead in Canada...

[Oswald]

Excitement: American money looks so somber... like it should be neatly stacked somewhere. Coloured money looks like it is dressed up with nowhere to go... it seems like a shame not to spend it.

Tell me about it. Last time I was in Canada I made the mistake of being a considerate guest and changing a bunch of my cash into your play money. I spent like crazy; the colors made it seem like Monopoly money. "Oh, you like that one? Here, have one with a goose on it. Cool, huh?"

BTW, I went ahead and spotted you the VAT (or whatever it's called up there) even though I'm eligible for a rebate ;) Just my way of saying thanks for letting us live in the temperate part of the continent.

Re:waaaay ahead in Canada...

[zincfishy]

Hey, thanks! It's the HST or GST depending on where you visited. We used your money to fill the nasty pothole in front of my house.

You spent the bill with the goose on it? Hey, technically that is a voucher for "one goose", and only redeemable for a Canada Goose. We don't use it much up here. All our visitors get one in the hopes that they will eat one of our billions of annoying geese.

I was only slightly joking about the colours making people spend. We are used to the money, so the effect is minimal on us, but I honestly think that tourists spend more coloured money than the would green money. I wonder if there is an actual study on this?

It would work perfectly: introduce the coloured money in the US, citizens get a little looser with their money for about 6 months, and boom! ...economic recovery. After that, only the tourists "over-spend", which is what you want.

Don't worry about the climate... we have two tricks: a giant bit of land that is more southerly than a quarter of the continental US (Southern Ontario) and then when people get too old for the cold we ship them to Florida.

OT: How much longer will we use paper money?

[alumshubby]

Given the increasing proportion of money velocity that happens electronically rather than the old-fashioned way (promissory notes, letters of credit, checks, paper currency and coins), I wonder how long it'll be before modern governments start phasing out non-electronic transactions entirely and start posting all buying, selling and lending against databases under control of their banking and finance authorities.

I seem to recall a passing reference in a short story of William Gibson's -- might have been "Johnny Mnemonic"? -- to the idea that paper currency might actually become illegal. Certainly it would be easier for the US to implement this in the guise of making us all safer from terrorism by allowing the Powers That Be to track every transaction. The IRS would love to make the underground economy suddenly 100% taxable, I'm sure. To the extent that it would aid in the War On (Some) Drugs, it's probably further desirable to certain folks.

In parting, here's a musing by Neal Stephenson about the very subject of electronic currency: his short story "The Great Simoleon Caper", a sort of a free-software take on the idea.

Coloured Just Like Canadian Money...

[ablair]

...and the final step in our glorious plan for Canadian World Domination!!

Re:Coloured Just Like Canadian Money...

[phillymjs]

That was the first thing I thought when I heard this, remembering the weekend I spent in Toronto chuckling every time I opened my wallet to pay for something. I don't want money that looks like it came from a Monopoly set. And at that particular time, Canadian money was worth about as much as Monopoly money-- I think I turned US$300 into damn near CDN$500.

If people are unable to differentiate denominations, screw 'em-- learn how or be gypped out of your cash. Why must we continually dumb down everything about our society? I was raised to live in a world where intelligence was rewarded and ignorance was its own punishment. Now everyone bends over backwards to cater to the lazy and stupid, and I feel like I wasted the first two decades of my life growing my intellect. I could've just been watching NASCAR and pro wrestling on TV, eating pork rinds and drinking beer all that time like everyone else, and just had the government fix everything for me when it became evident I was too dumb to function in society,

The way things are going, I guess they'll take care of the problem of illiteracy by just outlawing books and writing.

~Philly

Oh goody, color-coded money

[Fear the Clam]

Just what Americans need. Another excuse to avoid reading.

Re:No more green OR pennies

[beddess]

i dunno, i like silver dollars a lot. I don't
think they're too much trouble to carry around.

whoever heard of a 'gold dollar' though.
those things are terrible. I lent a buddy of
mine a couple bucks a few weeks back, and he
tried to pay me back in gold dollars.
I wouldn't take the damn things.

I've only gotten stuck with them a few times, but
whenever i would try and spend them people would
recoil in horror and start to pull their hand back.
I figure I'll just use any other ones i come across to pay tolls.
Those bastards have it coming.

We should do a poll...

[adgriffi]

So, seeing as this is going to happen, what color would you choose...

I think we should make a shirt: "Got Green?"

Mod away....

[Riplakish]

This is not a troll, but it probably is flame-bait, but wtf.

[sarcasm on]
It really is hard to tell our paper currency apart, what with the denominations printed in about 10 - 15 places on each bill. And they sure are hard to counterfeit, what with the 6 or more obvious counter-measures, and the 6 or so non-obvious counter-measures in each bill.
[sarcasm off]

I LIKE our money the way it is. I don't want money that looks like a rainbow shit on it. If foreigners can't take the time to learn the denominations of one of the hardest currencies in the world, then fuck'em.

Re:No more green OR pennies

[SpryGuy]

See, that's why you bring back the $2... for the strippers :-)

Besides, which do you prefer to carry, 4 quarters, or one dollar coin? A dollar coin would consolidate much of the coinage you carry around, imho.

Besides, if you really hate it, just use your check-card for a nice, exact-change cashless transaction! :-)

Re:About Time!

[Squarewav]

Poor standard indeed. I've YET to go in to a grocery store and mistakenly give the cashier a 50. I tend to look at the numbers printed all over the face or back of a bill before I let go of it.

I used to work for target not to long ago and every time I was on the register at least two times an hour someone would hand me 20 instead of a 5 , or even a 100 instead of a one. It happens and it was not just morons ether , 9 out of 10 it was a yuppie who was not paying attention

Australian Bills are different colors and lengths

[dregs]

Australia has made a much bigger jump, in that all the bills are now printed on a polymer, instead of paper, the bills, last on average about 5 times longer, and they have some cool features such as clear windows in the bill, that I would guess are impossible to copy.

As well the bills are translucent, and if you hold them up to the light you can see parts of the design on each side add together if everything is alligned up correctly.

And the 2 best things about Oz money,
1. You can wash them, and nothing happens to them at all.
2. You can put them in the oven and make shrinky currency (Although that would be illegal and I do not suggest you do it :-)

Re:No more green OR pennies

[xonker]

Besides, which do you prefer to carry, 4 quarters, or one dollar coin? A dollar coin would consolidate much of the coinage you carry around, imho.

No, not really. I usually carry 5-10 dollars in singles, I rarely carry change any longer than it takes to purchase something and get home and empty my pockets. The quarters I use for laundry, the rest I save and cash in when my change jar fills - or squander in penny-ante poker. It's useful to have a number of singles so I can leave a tip or buy something that I wouldn't bother with using a debit card. But I don't carry change for purchases, I'm not going to count out three dollars in quarters.

Besides, if you really hate it, just use your check-card for a nice, exact-change cashless transaction! :-)

Sorry, but I feel kind of silly putting $1.05 on a debit card. Also, I'm the paranoid type - if we ever switch completely to a "cashless" society where most people use debit/check cards for transactions, I'm dead certain that banks will start charging per transaction or charge fees for the cards monthly - I don't want to depend that much on the bloodsuckers at the bank.

Come on

[dmarx]

Attention "international visiters": if you don't like US money don't come to the US!

Catering to who??

[bobgoatcheese]

Maybe it's just me, but shouldn't American money be designed with Americans in mind? Sure, maybe a few foreigners are confused by our whacky scheme of telling bills apart by the large numbers in the corners, but I bet more than a few are still confused by the exchange rate.

Douglas Adams

[RobHood]

After reading the article and some of the threads, I can't help but think of a HHGTG quote:

"... were mostly concerned with the movements of little pieces of paper. Which is strange because, on the whole, it wasn't the little pieces of paper that were unhappy. ..."

Just so you know...

[brianber]

Now that apartheid in South Africa has been for the most part eradticated, Japan and Israel are the two most racist states on Earth

A substantial portion of the Israeli citizenry is of Arab decent, and guess what? Many of them are elected to office!

Now let's compare this to the Palestinian Authority. Non Arabs in leadership roles of any kind - 0.0%. They are all Arabs. While we're on the subject, who runs Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, Yemen, Qatar, United Arab Emirates (let's think about that one), and Syria? Arab males, mostly un-elected dictators. Percentage of population that is not Muslim-Arab? Roughly zero. Who's racist? Don't believe everything you see on CNN.

Oh, and what about Zimbabwe? The black run government is stealing land owned by white farmers. Now they are facing a major famine, go figure. Let's see who else is guilty of racism to the degree you accuse Japan and Israel of...Rwanda, Bosnia (very few Serbs left), Croatia (again, very few Serbs left), Kosovo Albanians (yet again, very few Serbs left), Macedonian Albanians, gee, that's at least 2 strikes against Albanians that I'm aware of.

Methinks you need to get more informed of the way the world really looks.

Color blind?

[harmonics]

So for you color blind people please send me all your old worn out twenties, I'll send you special "new, colored" twenties...

It would make it easier

[sharkey]

Just shell out a few bucks for Monopoly, then visit the local Stop'N'Go, rather than having to go to the trouble of putting Dubya's face on a self-printed $200 bill.

Yes and no

[Goonie]

Yes, it's a private company, Note Printing Australia. They also produce banknotes for a bunch of other countries right here in Oz.

It's very much still in business.

Re:Yes and no

[Mandelbrute]

Yes, it's a private company

No, it's a "corporatised" group entirely owned by the government. These organisations used to be called "Qangos" and now they are called government corporations. It has something to do with making treasury figures look good, changing the "culture" of the public service organisations, and being able to keep blame at arms length. Australia is full of enormous numbers of these organisations. I used to work for a group called "Austa Electric" which was entirely owned and controlled by a state government. It even had shares for some reason, despite only having a single shareholder.

So in short, look at the website and you'll see some fine print somewhere about it being 100% government owned.

Re: Systems of measure

[Rob Simpson]

"How about the term "standard" (seeing as the name of the measurement system is US Standard)? And what's with this "imperial"? What empire are we talking about?"

Why, the American empire of course... "Shrub, I am your father!"

...

Nah.

Re:About Time!

[Enocasiones]

One quick glance down the Swedish wallet immediately

...shows you the EDGES of the bills

...not! Since they have different colours and sizes, if you have ordered them more or less properly, you get to see at a glance what youve got. Neat. Of course it can be a bit more bulky, but how thick is your wallet?

I wonder how I can be discussing this

Re:About Time!

[Enocasiones]

Lets nitpick (I actually tend to believe the poster):

I used to work for target not to long ago and every time I was on the register at least two times an hour someone would hand me 20 instead of a 5 , or even a 100 instead of a one.

A conservative estimate of what one could get:

The swaps are for the minimum considered and happen as rarely as possible (twice per hour). That means a net +$30 per hour. Considering 8 hours workdays and 20 working days per month, thats $57600 a year. Quite a nice salary bonus :)

Re: Systems of measure

[UncleFluffy]

even England no longer uses it

We only use it for the important stuff. Beer is still served in (20floz) pints.

Advice on the new look

[Kafteinn]

You need a jolly fat chick with a huge hat.

try printing transparent holograms on your inkjet

[DABANSHEE]

The Oz mint makes polymer currency, complete with a hologram encrusted window, for Australia, Thailand, Papua New Guinea, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Brunei, Indonesia, Kuwait, Western Samoa, New Zealand and Romania.

The polymer sheeting is made from in a huge complex where balloons with about the same volume as a WWII aircraft carrier, or something, are blown out from melted polymer in a huge complex. I read a good article on the process in the Sydney Morning Herald's Good Weekend section about a year ago.

Here's some links

Oz Dept of Foriegn Affairs 'n Trade

Note Printing Australia

ABC News (the US ABC that is)

Another ABC page

Oz Reserve Bank currency page

Securency PTY LTD

Currency 'how are they made?' page

RBA Polymer page

clue found!

[PHanT0]

OH MY GOD! I thought this wouldn't happen in my life time! You guys finally figured it out.... well, ok, ya go the reason wrong (thank god no one has impared vision in the states)... but ya finally caught-on.

Watch-out! The next thing you know, they'll figure-out that thumb-tacks are useful things!

Re:Australian Bills are different colors and lengt

[Oswald]

You can wash them, and nothing happens to them at all.

Next time you have a spare US$20, try this handy test: insert in pants pocket; wash in regular laundry; dry. Voila! Unchanged (well, cleaner) $20 bill. But you already knew that.

Bullshit.

[Rhinobird]

I CAN read the numbers, but having all the money be the same colour (notice my Canadian spelling?) makes it difficult for QUICK recognition.

I have NO DIFFICULTY telling the difference between the different denominations of US currency. However, when I was in Europe, all the flipping colors on the currency just ran together for me, and I was using the corners of the bills just like in the US anyway...only it was harder because many currencies had the number in just one corner.

You forgot to mention the feel of the bill

[Rhinobird]

I used to be a cashier and after handling money all day you know what money is supposed to feel like. When someone hands you a counter fit it doesn't FEEL right, then you look at the bill funny, then you look at it carefully, then swipe it with that pen thingie. But it all starts with how the bill feels...and I like how our money feels.

Re:Australian Bills are different colors and lengt

[berniecase]

Australian money pics here.

The colored bills were a big help when I was in Oz on vacation.

Paper money? Why bother

[AVIDLY INTERESTED]

In Australia we moved about 15 years ago to plastic notes.
If you guys are changing your money anyway, why don't you go all the way, and get rid of the paper ones.
Plastic notes are almost impossible to counterfeit; They can be put through the wash without falling apart; they last years longer than paper notes, and you don't need to cut down a forest to make them.
It has always surprised me that the US, that is supposed to be among the most technological countries in the world, is still using basically the same technique to make its money that it did 100 years ago!

The Most Successfully Counterfeited in the World

[shoemakc]

I mean you think they would be embarassed to be the most successfully counterfeited currency in the world.

Given...The US is behind compared to other countries in counterfeiting measures. However is it merely coincidence that American currency is also one of the strongest and most universaly accepted in the world?

Think about it...let's assume for a momment that it was equaly easy to counterfiet all currency....would you be printing up pesos, francs, or US dollars?

There's a good chance that even with improved anti-counterfeiting measures, US currency would remain the most successfully counterfeited in the world simply due to it's liquidity.

-Chris

Re:Hint: OPEN the wallet

[Drakonian]

It DOES make sense. With colored money, you don't need to pull it out and rifle through. A savings of 5 seconds sure, but it adds up. I think you are still missing the point. It's not about the people complaining. It's EASIER. I think that fact is indisputable? It's easier and there are many added benefits: Benefits for the those who have impaired vision. And much more difficult to counterfeit.

You're main argument, which seems to be the consensus argument among /. posters today, is that "I don't want no fscking 'gay'/monopoly money!!! I'm American, and our money is GREEN!"

Re:No more green OR pennies

[ncc74656]

To phase out the penny, Kolbe said, cash transactions would be rounded up or down a nickel over a transition period before removing it from circulation. But Americans for Common Cents (ACC), a group dedicated to keeping the penny, said Kolbe's rounding proposal would hurt Americans, particularly the poor, because companies would round in their favor.

BXes, commissaries, and other retail outlets at military bases overseas haven't used pennies since at least the mid-80s...maybe earlier. When my parents returned from Germany in 2000, they had to start dealing with pennies again and didn't care much for them. There is a definition for rounding...if the price ends in 1, 2, 6, or 7, you round down, while if it ends in 3, 4, 8, or 9, you round up. In the long run, it all averages out. ACC sounds like some crank Naderite group that bashes anyone who has a dollar more than they do.

FWIW, it doesn't matter too much to me whether the penny stays or goes. I tend to get rid of them shortly after I get them, usually by throwing a few into the purchase to get quarters/nickels/dimes back and to see if I can confuse the minimum-wage clerk behind the counter ("The total is $2.87, so why did he give me $3.12?").

Re:No more green OR pennies

[ncc74656]

whoever heard of a 'gold dollar' though. those things are terrible. I lent a buddy of mine a couple bucks a few weeks back, and he tried to pay me back in gold dollars. I wouldn't take the damn things.

Where are they circulating? I've never even seen one out here. Postal vending machines give out SBA dollars (which I get rid of ASAP...dollar coins as a replacement for bills are ghey), and I've seen more than a few $2 bills, but the new gold-colored dollar coins apparently haven't made their way westward.

(They could be worse...they could be like British £1 coins, which are about the size of two nickels stacked together. A small number of those will weigh your wallet down pretty badly.)

Show Me The Colour Of Your Money

[Grail]

Check out Australia's currency.

Of course, you pig Americans are so inbred and stubborn that you need proof that different sized and coloured notes would be an advantage.

Very well. Open your wallet. Spread the notes section open - just peek inside. Don't take any of the money out of your wallet - don't even pull the corners out to read the numbers. Just by looking at the notes, lying there in their sessile state, count how much you have in your wallet. Even better, locate one of the three $50 notes you have in your wallet, amongst the $5, two $20 and a stack of receipts - without leafing through the notes, trying to read the "50" in low light.

This is what my notes look like in my wallet.

It's much easier to count money in your wallet by looking at the coloured edges, than by fingering through and looking for the numbers. Especially in a crowd, where you don't necessarily want to take the notes out of the wallet for everyone to see.

Even better, it's practically impossible to confuse an Australian note with a shopping receipt or voucher. Coloured notes also aids the 40% of adults who are illiterate (you don't have to be able to read to know that a yellow Australian note is $50). Admittedly, Australian notes don't have Braille on them. That's cool - I might have to move to Canada just because of the cool currency :)

Change the colour of your money. It's about convenience, accessibility and security, not just aesthetics.

Re:No more green OR pennies

[Prof.Phreak]

Doing away with the penny is basically giving in to the idea of infinite inflation, and that a penny will never again be worth something.

That's my opinion as well. Pennies are the things that can stop a runaway inflation. It takes .6 the worth of a penny to make one, so as long as you have a penny, the devaluation cannot happen as quickly as it would without them.

Sine, gov controls the value of money, they can print as many 100 dollar bills as they want (even to settle their own debts!), but if they're always required to be able to exchange that 100 dollar bill for 10,000 pennies, they won't be as eager to devaluate money as quickly.

Notice that every runaway inflation in history was the result of "cheap" money; money that costs almost nothing to manufacture. Digital money is nearly 100% free, and may eventually feed an uncontrollable inflation (since you wouldn't even need the time and resources to print/distribute bills, and people won't be as bugged carrying crates load of money to buy groceries).

Unfair comments from Americans

[melevitt]

Apparently, with both size and color the same, foreigners have a hard time differenciating between the bills.

I am an American, living in London and I have to say I think this comment is unfair.

The statement above implies that foreigners have a hard time because they are either stupid or lazy. Most of the comments supporting the status quo seem to have the same opinion. Along the lines of "I can easily read the number in the corner so what's the problem..."

First, foreigners are not stupid or lazy. Foreigners are used to paper currency that is a different size, so to go to America and not have those extra clues is confusing.

Second, the Americans here are claiming that having all the same size and color bills are fine, but turn that argument around. Imaging that every coin was the same size, shape, texture, as a quarter and the only way of telling a 1 penny coing from a 50 cent piece was by reading the number engraved on the front!

Most people would agree that being able to reach into their pocket for some change and pick out the correct coin by feel is a good thing. Why, when you apply that same prinicple to paper currency, is it suddenly a silly idea or unneeded?

Methinks some people just don't like change (pun intended).

The Color of magic^w money

[darkonc]

Makes sense. As a 'merkin, you'd never be trained to recognize money by color. In the US, that's an entirely useless talent.

Let's see now.. It's green, so It must be a $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100 or $1000. Boy oh boy, that narrows it down bigtime!

In a few years time, though, the idea of recognizing bills by color will be commonplace in the States.

Re:The Color of magic^w money

[rafa]

While of course I understand what you intended by "'merkin", I thought I should point this out.

We're changing OUR money for WHOM?

[The Only Druid]

Why on earth should one government change its money so people not even PART of that country can use it better? If the US citizenship has no problem with the money, what do we care if others do? Besides, how _ignorant_ do you need to be in order to not read simple numerals? If you cant read english well enough to identify the numbers 1,5,10,20,50 and 100, then you shouldn't be handling our money.

Re:We're changing OUR money for WHOM?

[forkboy]

The worst part of all this is, the arabic number system is not just American, it's used pretty much everywhere. So, if you can't tell the difference between your numbers, you're either an uneducated savage or just a plain old-fashioned stupid fer'ner. Either way, neither party qualifies as a major portion of our Gross Domestic Product.

Re:Obligatory Simpsons Quote

[The Only Druid]

Actually, the quote is: "Look at all that pink and purple." "Our money sure is gay."

Jalous

[scattol]

You guys are just jalous of the technical superiority of most other countries currency. Let's review:

• different colours make them easier to identify.
• easier identification speeds up transactions and reduces the risk of errors.
• different colours make them harder to counterfeit since you have a much wider palette to match.
• Multiple colours gives more artistic freedom, making it possible to have scenes looking more realistic. I mean who ever saw a green horse or a green building!
• different sizes make them easier to use for the sight impared
• Better spread of denominations (the missing $2) means fewer pieces of paper to exchange, speeding up transactions, reducing the currency space consumption
• Missing high denomination coins ($1 and $2) means more equipement needed at vending machines since processing paper bill is required increasing costs thereby reducing the efficency of the currency system.
• Missing high denomination coins means increased expense for the treasury due to increased bill production compared to coins resulting in higher taxes to sustain the increased cost of a suboptimal system.

No wonder the US dollar is falling against most other important currencies!

Re:No more green OR pennies

[beddess]

look carefully at the next subway token or any
other sort of token you get. The mistake is very
easy to make. It happened to me the first time i saw one.

Why use dollar bills when you have a debit card?

[Enzo1977]

Personally I don't even bother carrying around money anymore. I use my debit card, and at the end of the day after selecting to make my transaction either direct from my checking account by entering my pin, or indirectly with the CC logo and a signature I've successfully avoided having to handle a single dollar bill. Since I've started to use my debit card more and more I'm amazed at the number of locations that allow the client to make cash alternative transactions.

No more Mr. Generous

[ader]

At last, no more $100 dollar tips for the washroom attendant.

Ade_
/
("The English guy who just tipped me a hun'erd!")

Re:No more green OR pennies

[netsharc]

Actually when I was in Australia, the lowest denomination they had was 5 cents, but prices aren't always divisible by 5, in grocery stores for example. When last digit of your groceries bill is 1 or 2 cents, it gets rounded to 0 cent, for 3, 4, 6 and 7 you pay 5 cents, and for 8 and 9 it gets rounded up. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, but I'm guessing that the laws of statistics would say that the end result is close to a balanced zero..

Re:No more green OR pennies

[evacuate_the_bull]

Everyone seems to be concerned with rounding up or down, and that's all well and good if we were to phase out the penny and thus we'd have to round while it was being phased out. However, once the penny is gone every price should end in 0 or 5 (to do otherwise makes no sense as the lowest monetary denomination would be 5). So a company has no incentive to round down then, and everything will technically be rounded up - anything currently ending in 1, 2, 3, 4 would go to 5 and everything 6, 7, 8, 9 would go to 0 (10). Therefore the consumer never wins, and I personally do see that as problematic. FWIW.

Re:No more green OR pennies

[ksheff]

I'm dead certain that banks will start charging per transaction or charge fees for the cards monthly

They already do that. I get a monthly fee for having a debit card and businesses are charged a fee for every debit or credit transaction and when they deposit a check. Surprisingly, the most costly form of payment for a business to accept from customers is cash. It has to be counted at the end of the day, an armored car company has to be paid for regular pick up/drop off, dishonest clerks can easily steal it, dumb ones can easily give out the wrong amount, etc.

Planning for the merge

[jdfox]

For the same reasons that the Euro was floated at a rate to settle very near 1 Euro = 1 Dollar, I predict the new dollar colours will be matched to Euro colours.

Then they can merge the two currencies with ease, when the EU merges with NAFTA.

Re:Tough time differentiating? Try Turkish Money!

[RKloti]

For heaven sakes, when your currency is that inflated, why not issue banknotes with the amount of money written in expotential form?

Like 5e+6 instead of 5,000,000.

Could be a problem in a country that doesn't exactly have the world's best education system, though.

Re:Hint: OPEN the wallet

[ksheff]

I've heard this argument over and over again. How in the hell does having different colored money make it more difficult to counterfeit? Counterfeiters usually stick with the high denominations and may even specialize on a particular one. If that's the case, color isn't going to matter. Someone that's going to try to make a bunch fake 20s isn't going to care what color they are as long as their fakes are a very close match to the official 20. Whether it be green, red, blue, orange, etc. doesn't matter. It does make it harder for a relatively successful counterfeiter from scaling up the operation (ok, we got the paper & ink right for those 5s we test marketed...let's start working on the 50s).

Re:About Time!

[darien]

And I've been in England where the money is in different colors. Except I still can't tell a purple-and-orange 5 from an orange-and-purple 10. Or was it the other way around? Or was it the 20?

In fact the £5 note is bluey-green, the £10 is orangey-bown, the £20 is dark indigo and the £50 is red. I take your point - you still have to get used to knowing which colour is which. But even if you don't know which colour means which value, you can still see easily at a glance how many different sorts of note you're holding, so if you have a wad of twenty bluey-green notes and two reddy-brown ones, you only have to look at two notes, rather than twenty-two, to know what you're carrying.

I'm surprised by the vehemence with which people - exclusively Americans, it seems - are lining up against this idea. Yes, numbers do the job fine, but there are obvious benefits to using colours as well, and I really can't see any harm in
doing so.

A few people have said coloured notes wouldn't help colour-blind people; but they'd certainly be no harder for the colour-blind than the present ones. At any rate, colour-blind people don't just see in black and white; they can normally distinguish between various colours. It shouldn't be too hard to design coloured banknote designs that are easily distinguishable by the majority of colour-blind people too.

I can imagine the difficulty

[hayden]

At a glance, I can't tell the Aussie dollars from the Singapore dollars.

Do you often have trouble telling the difference between paper and plastic? Australian bills are made of plastic.

Re:I can imagine the difficulty

[hayden]

My apologies. Singapore money is also plastic and the reason it looks similar is because it uses the same technology from the Reserve Bank of Australia.

Re:About Time!

[Holgate]

And I've been in England where the money is in different colors. Except I still can't tell a purple-and-orange 5 from an orange-and-purple 10. Or was it the other way around? Or was it the 20?

Thank you for confirming that you are an idiot, and that your objections are based upon being, um, an idiot. How about for starters that the Bank of England notes get bigger, the higher the value?

virtual mod: +1 funny

[darkonc]

'nuff said.

Varies by location.

[hearingaid]

I use TD Bank. I've noticed that some branches hand out fifties, while many do not. My perception is that BC branches are more likely to give out fifties than eastern branches, and also more recent branches usually don't keep fifties.

Movies

[Cyberop5]

Great, now how are low budget movies going to fake a stack of 50 orange colored hundred dollar bills when all they can afford is 50 blue one dollar bills?

Re:Paper money? Why bother

[gerardrj]

For the most part there is no wood (ie trees) in our currency in the U.S. The recipie for the paper is motly cotton. Cotton is most definately an easily renewable resource.