I'd spend it.

[gridlore]

I love the designs, and the Bill of rights on the back, but where's the Second Amendment? Can we reintroduce the $500 bill and use that on the back? Put Alexander Hamilton on the bill for ironic purposes.

I'm holding out for one and two dollar coins. Canada totally corrupted me on this.

Edit The first and second amendments are on the $5. I still think the Second Amendment deserves it's own bill.

Comments

[john-appel.livejournal.com]

We have one dollar coins. I have one in my pocket right now, given as change from an automatic parking system in Austin, TX a couple weeks ago. Some of the vending machines at work actually recognize dollar coins, though most don't.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but we need to stop printing dollar bills and let people know that coins are the future. Sunset them after five years, and have everyone turn in their old banknotes for shiny coins.

[cmdr-zoom.livejournal.com]

I don't want a heavy, jingling pocket. Do away with the $1 and I'm more likely to stop using cash and move to debit as much as possible.

[johno.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it's cool to think your broke then count your change to find you don't have just $1-2 dollars in change, but $15-20...

Happened to me lots in Australia.

[bunyip.livejournal.com]

I miss $1 & $2 coins. ;)

I also miss money that will survive going through the laundry.

Australia has had polymer money for over 20 years now.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

While we were in Montreal we were using cash almost exclusively, and never had a problem with excessive Loonies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_1_dollar_coin) and Toonies (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_2_dollar_coin). In fact, they seemed to circulate faster than the USDs that live in my wallet simply because they are there and easy to use. The Couche-tard (http://www.couchetard.com/home.html) and its associated Subway in the Montreal underground near our hotel got most of the one and two dollar coins we accumulated.

In fact it was so easy to use the coins we forgot to bring home a Loonie. (One Toonie is sitting on my dresser.)

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

I'm with you on discontinuing the $1 bill. No need to demonetize the bills, however; just stop printing them. Canada stopped printing $1 and $2 bills years ago, but the bills themselves, if you find one, are still legal tender. (I have a C$2 I saved from the period when they were going out of circulation.

US $1 coins have the same purchasing power, more or less, that a quarter had in 1975. My experience with Canada was that having a $1 and $2 coin rather than a bill was not a particular hardship, nor did it lead to a massive number of coins in my pocket.

The Japanese equivalent is the 100-yen coin, and there we were warned to accumulate them when possible, because so many vending machines took them and wouldn't take bills.

[johno.livejournal.com]

There was Nova episode, 15 years ago now, "Making a Dishonest Buck". It was all about counterfeiting and what the US could do to make it harder.

Many of the things they talked about have happened. Microtype, fiberstripe, making several features larger.

However the biggest recommendations address why US Bills are the most counter fitted have not been implemented. Aside from economics, it's EASE OF DUPLICATION. Demonations all the same size, using the same paper, using paper, using the same color scheme, etc, etc..

Even then in the mid 90's the BofE and Mints wanted to get rid of the dollar bill and the penny. Why? Both cost nearly as much to make as it's value.

However, they are battling a cultural and ecomonic impact. Folks like their "green backs" and they like playing XXXX.99 for things. On the economic side, there is no slot in most change drawers for $1 & $2 coins

[tsjafo.livejournal.com]

If they put Hiram "the drunkard" Grant on the $200, then they gotta put Robert E. Lee (God bless him) on the $500.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

There is the slight matter of Lee being a traitor who rose up in armed rebellion while Grant was a President.

People sort of remember those things, and winners get their pictures on the money.

[tsjafo.livejournal.com]

Lee wasn't a traitor, he was a Virginian! He rose up in armed defense of his state when it seceded from the Union. That meant something different before the war than after.

Besides, I'm partial to the name.

[lisa-marli.livejournal.com]

They are Beautiful, and tell who we so completely.
I like that those broken squiggly things in the corner actually make the denomination when held to the light. Nice effect.
It needs to have a watermark feature, as that is hard to counterfeit. That is hard to show on a 2d website. Those squiggles may be it, which would be excellent.
We really need to do a Major Redesign, but people hate what has been done already, claiming the money looks fake.
I love having $1 coins and wish they would show up in my change. I give them out, but they never seem to go any further.

[netquiddler.livejournal.com]

I agree, we should go to $1 coins exclusively, and get rid of the pennies (Swedish rounding for all cash purchases).

Maybe each dollar bill should be different color? Say a pink $5, a yellow $10, a green $20, a blue $50, a tan $100, and an orange $500?

Of course, perhaps the biggest problem with counterfeiting is that old bills are still legal tender - why try to pass off a new bill when you can try to pass off an old bill?

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

If we could just get all the pennies currently residing in mason jars and other storage places back into circulation, there's be less of a problem.

Each bill on the site has a differently colored strip.

When we introduce new money the Federal Reserve institutes a replacement policy. Essentially, when old bills come into a Reserve bank, they are replaced in circulation with a new bill and destroyed. Add in the short lifespan of paper currency (under two years for the most commonly used denominations) and you quickly replace the notes in circulation.