Is the United States currency in need of a makeover? The people at the Dollar Rede$ign Project think so. They began an online project, collecting designs for new currency. The theory is that new currency, by being brighter, bolder, and new, will inspire American citizens to be more interested in the economy- and spending their money. If the new money was more interesting, the economy would be stimulated as people used their money just to try it out.
A brief history of the American dollar: Before the Revolutionary War, the colonists used English, Spanish, and French currencies. Massachusetts was the first state to issue paper currency in 1690. Our currency was named the "dollar" in 1775, and the central government first issued treasury notes (called Demand Notes) during the Civil War. Beginning in 1862, United States Notes, called "greenbacks" replaced Demand Notes and were printed until 1971. A standardized design that we now recognize was implemented in 1929, and security measures such as microprinting were first utilized in 1990.
The new designs range widely, and many are extremely different from the dark green bills we are used to. Those pictured above are vertical, reflecting a study done that revealed more people deal with their money vertically than horizontally. Others are loosely based on the Euro design in an effort to encourage cooperation with European countries. Some include images of important Americans in history, including Barack Obama, Amelia Earhart, and Martin Luther King Jr. Others list important American values: equality, liberty, justice, creativity. Some have images of transportation, others are just patterns. Each set includes a design for every bill, and each bill has the important information: "United States of American," the denomination, etc.
The people at the Dollar Rede$ign Project are no longer accepting designs, but have opened voting for the best design. They also have created petition to encourage the government to consider a redesign of our American currency to stimulate the economy. Check out the various designs, pick a favorite and vouch for it. Or, express a reason to keep our old dollar design. Is a radically new design worth it, or will it just confuse check out clerks around the country? If you support a new dollar design, what would you like to see on our cash? Why?
12 comments:
On the homepage of the Dollar Rede$ign Project, it says:
"It seems so obvious to us that the 'only' realistic way for a swift economic recovery is through a thorough, in-depth, rebranding scheme – starting with the redesign of the iconic US Dollar – it's the 'only' pragmatic way to add some realistic stimulation into our lives!"
I find this claim to be pretty unfounded and mostly ridiculous. Sure, it's been proven that eating foods of various colors is often more appetizing than eating food of just one color - but would mulitcolored money really entice people to spend more? If anything, wouldn't colorful bills encourage people to hold onto their cash and keep the interesting new designs? I know that every time I see a state quarter I've never seen before, I try my best to hold onto it. Contrary to the site's assertion, of all the things that could be done in order to get our economy back on its feet, redesigning money is the least "pragmatic."
-Jessia Hoffman
I acutally find these dollar designs to be quite useless and confusing. For one thing, what will happen to the old dollar design? Will the old dollar design become insignificant in comparison to the new dollar design? What happens of places only accept the new dollar design, and not the old and vice versa? Moreover, changing the design definitely not urge Americans to spend more. There are only six designs of the dollar ($1, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100), and I am pretty sure they aren't very hard to find in comparison to collecting baseball cards. Moreover, it's not like these bills help increase the value of the bill or anything. Money is still money. Lastly, it seems like such a waste of money printing these bills in different colors and creating new designs because it would probably cost more money, time, effort, and ink to print out this money instead of using the standard green bills we have now. I think it's best if we stick with the bills we have now in order to create less confusion and to save money that we could be spending on more important things, like Medicare.
It would be a waste of money to remake how the U.S currency looks like. We had just retrofitted all of our money with anti counter-fit marks, so this seems like a useless idea. Changing the money would confuse a lot of people and it would be easier for thieves to pick out the higher denomination bills.
The American green currency is a symbol around the world, recognized everywhere. If we were to copy the world, then it would be a symbolic way of us giving up our currency to give in to the world. Our currency is the most used in the world in transactions and in reserve banks. For us to give up this currency would have widespread impact not only in our country, but around the world. Our currency is a symbol of our country, just like the bald eagle or the American flag. Our currency is very unique within the world and should not be changed. It will cause our currency to be seen as on par with the Euro or even the Chinese yen causing potential disaster for the future economy of the United States.
Although everyone is against the design change for the U.S. dollar, i find it quite interesting. We have made changes to money before and i never saw a problem in it. If people haven't noticed we have remakes of the 5, 10, 20, and 50 and i don't find people complaining about them. This would just make the U.S. dollar look much cooler which i like because i enjoy witnessing all of these interesting designs on the bills. Also, i find the new designs for the U.S. dollar a good idea because people will have a much harder time, or won't be able at all, in converting 1 dollar bills in to 100 dollar bills. See the designs for the money make each dollar amount different looking so counterfeiters won't be able to switch a 1 in to a 100. I feel people should see that this is a good way to make our money look cooler as well as make it harder do convert bills.
I agree with previous commentators in that a radical redesign of the dollar bill is unnecessary to try and entice people to spend more of their money. Personally, I like the current look of the dollar and would not appreciate a total redesign of something that has been around since 1929.
I find it interesting that our collective agreement is relatively against these new dollars. I also think that the redesign, while interesting, is not worth the effort. It is fun, though! If a new design was adopted, what would the consequences be? Also, Stephen, there are more than six: you forgot the $2 dollar bill and multiple bills worth much more used only in banking and other high denomination transactions.
I admire that people are trying to get our society to get more interested in the economy and help it by getting us to want to spend more. But I do not like the idea that we should change how our currency looks like. I also don't think we should follow the way the Europeans design their money because I believe we should be more independent and not follow what Europe is doing. I also believe we shouldn't change the people on our bills and leave it to the people who helped make our country so that we can give them the credit they deserve, even though there are some people who highly criticize them.
Quite honestly, I don't think there's a point in changing the look of American money. It won't make our economic problems go away and it won't change much in my opinion. I'm not opposed to adding a little more color like the 20 dollar bill has, but I don't think they should change the whole thing. I don't understand how it will help our economy, but that's just me. Furthemore, what will happen to the old dollar bills? Can Americans still use them or will we have to dispose of them? It will be confusing for people to use both versions of American money. To me, we shouldn't fix something that isn't broken.
I was going to comment on the futility of this new type of currency, but instead I will try to play the devil's advocate:
First of all, the economy is not improving much, so how could this new experiment be harmful? The work needed to exchange all of the existing currency would create more jobs and could help the economy in that way.
Also, there is a benefit to blind people and those in a hurry if the new dollars are different sized so money can be found by touch.
Chris mentioned that our current money has anti counter-feit marks. Well, I am sure these marks can be added to the new dollars too.
Jonathan said that our dollars are a symbol and make us unique in the world, but the new money would be unique too. And is our money realy above par compared to the euro or yen?
What do you think?
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