World's Ugliest Currency
My vote for the world's ugliest bank note is the new US $10 bill (click for larger pictures)
Really these images don't do justice to just how butt-ugly this bill is. I understand the need to introduce color and anti-counterfeiting technologies. I also understand that they are trying to maintain elements of the historic greenback. But this bill marks the point where it is now impossible to sustain both these goals. If we need color, then its time to go color -- maybe Peter Maxx could design a new bill.
Really, who designed this thing? The combination of colors is god-awful. And what's that blank oval on the back that looks like a misprint? This thing is a mess.
(Note to my wife: Yes, I am actually blogging about this. She thinks that some of the things I get worked up about are kind of trivial.)
Update: One of the commenters reminded me that there were for a while calls to replace Hamilton with Reagan. I guess Hamilton was singled out because like Franklin, he is a non-president. Which is kind of ironic, since Hamilton probably knew more about money and banking than all the presidents on the other bills combined. I'd be a lot happier if they instituted some kind of waiting period, like for the Hall of Fame, of say 50 years before you can get your face on currency. Besides, everyone know that the Gipper is supposed to be on the quadrillion dollar note.
KipEsquire:
Fair enough, but more important to me is that this silly campaign to replace Hamilton with Reagan seems to have subsided.
What I'd like to see is Reagan -- or almost anyone -- replace Jackson on the Twenty. Jackson was George W. Bush before Bush was, and deserves no commemoration in a country committed to limited government, limited politicians and the rule of law.
August 31, 2006, 4:33 amCraig:
I think now would be the best time to be a currency counterfeiter. Aren't there three versions of the $10 and $20 out right now (maybe even other bills); the original, the updated, and the color updated? Some high school kid working at a gas station doensn't know the difference, and could be fooled easily.
August 31, 2006, 7:08 amKim Scarborough:
"'Should we put Reagan on the ten-dollar bill?' I says to Giblets. 'We'd have to bump Alexander Hamilton.'
"'I don't know why we don't put Aaron Burr on there,' says Giblets. 'He won the duel.'"
--Fafblog (http://fafblog.blogspot.com/2004/06/memorials-monuments-money-should-we.html)
September 7, 2006, 12:44 pm