Tuesday, May 13, 2003

Worth The Paper It's Written On? The new twenty dollar bill was unveiled today.  My first impression isn't favorable.  Our currency used to be distinguished.  Classy.  The American greenback was easy to spot.  Now our currency is slowly slipping in the direction of what Yugoslavia is putting out.  Do we really need to be emulating Yugoslavia??  At least it doesn't look like what folks in Oman are folding in their pockets.  The Omani bill looks more like what a pothead has taped to his wall than something you'd buy anything with. Oh, and wasn't it nice for all these news organizations to post nearly perfectly sized images of these bills?  Wasn't too hard for me to find one that someone had already removed the word "specimen" from.  I'm not sure how much of an anti-counterfeiting measure that is to make these images available to anyone over the internet.  Saves the counterfeiters the trouble of scanning a bill when it comes out. Besides all that, didn't we just change our money a few months ago?  It sure seems like that.  The CNN article says five years ago for the $20, though I have a hard time believing that.  The article also mentions the intent of the government to do this every seven to ten years!  Soon it'll be like visiting a foreign country every few years and having to get used to the goofy looking money, but not having to deal with the hassel of actually leaving the country.  And speaking of changing money, what the hell ever happened to that Sacagawea dollar coin?  Wasn't that supposed to make our lives easier or something?  What a colossal failure. Oh, if you've got a hardcore coin fetish, there are places to buy those dollar coins for up to $18.00 apiece.  Eighteen dollars for something that's meant to be worth just one.  I've never fully understood the logic behind that.  Same thing goes for geeks who collect baseball cards.  Why pay all that money for a piece of cardboard with a picture pasted on it? By the way, if you're into checking out pictures of what other countries fold in their wallets, go to the Balson's Bank Notes Gallery.  There you'll find a peck of pretty paper pictures (say that three times fast).  More than enough to satisfy the most currency curious. Last but not least, why are we still printing "In God We Trust" on money?  How that is not a clear violation of the separation of Church and State?  One group actually sued to have it removed, but were turned down because it is "not a religious phrase."  How a judge could state that with a straight face is unbelievable.  But then again, I wasn't there.  Maybe the judge was giggling uncontrollably the entire time. 8:02:37 PM     |

© Copyright 2005 Alex L. Mauldin.