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New $5 Bill is Purple; Barney Said to Be Thrilled

by Sean Hackbarth

New $5 bill front

The Greenback is dead. I don’t mean it like a paleolibertarian who thinks American went to hell with the founding of the Federal Reserve. I mean that our currency is no longer green or attractive. The march towards the dollar looking like the euro continues.

The U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing announced the new bill via the internet. They’ll claim they were trying to be innovative. I think they wanted to keep critics like me away from questioning the agency’s sense of taste.

If they ever bother to redesign the $1 bill they should go all out and uglify it. I’m thinking plaid or even red polka dots all over George Washington’s face with bold zebra stripes in the back ground. If we want to ruin the dignified look of our currency let’s go all out.

New $5 bill back

“Honest Abe Gets Colorful In New $5 Bill“

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This entry was posted on Friday, September 21st, 2007 at 11:14 am and is filed under Economics. You can trackback from your own site.

4 Responses to “New $5 Bill is Purple; Barney Said to Be Thrilled”

1

The march towards the dollar looking like the euro continues.

Hey, if looking like the Euro would make the dollar as valuable as the Euro again…

2

DJ – I sure hope not…shudder.

Sean – I’ll take greater forgery resistance over subtle beauty anyday. This is a move that domestic currency experts have been after the Fed to do for a looooong time.

3

I’m all in favor of anti-forgery technology, but do they have to use the ugliest stuff around?

4

I hate to admit it, but I haven’t seen the Euro. I’ve always thought, however, that money was prettier on the Continent than it is here: I liked the fact that they used different colors for different denominations, and I also think that different sizes is a plus–it makes it easier to know how much cash you have on hand (though I don’t know if that will work with our vending machines–I know it would make life easier for the blind).

All that said, our currency is not getting any better-looking: it’s not becoming “graphically bold”–it’s just looking, well, cheap. There is a difference.

The forgery thing is serious, though: printing technology has been getting scary-good for better than 20 years.

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