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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

unlike our boy neil.

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

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

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

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

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

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

Bills would be places

Yellowstone
Golden Gate
New York skyline
Old Ironsides museum
Painted Desert


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

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

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

purple mountains majesty, amber waves of grain . . .




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


Great thread! Nominated. :eyes:

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

Hey, the man did love women ;)

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

And the man was smooth.

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

nt

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

on the wooden nickle

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

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

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

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

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

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

Give-and-take.

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

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



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

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