# New $20 bill unveiled, and I got a beef... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 13, 2003, 3:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-bill-unveiled-and-i-got-a-beef/174975 "2003-05-13T15:58:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2003, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-bill-unveiled-and-i-got-a-beef/174975/21 "2003-05-13T20:58:55Z")
At least the new bills still have the picture of [Peter Gammons](http://espn.go.com/gammons/index.html) on them. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2003, 9:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-bill-unveiled-and-i-got-a-beef/174975/22 "2003-05-13T21:01:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by twickster \* > \*\*“Look purty” … in your pocket, thanks to Dubya! > > Sheesh. \*\* Ah, but if I wear my transparent pants. . . . everyone will see how purty they is! ---
**Author:** ![modro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/6de8d8/32.png) [@modro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/modro)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-bill-unveiled-and-i-got-a-beef/174975/23 "2003-05-14T00:13:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by dantheman \* > \*\*Ah, but if I wear my transparent pants. . . . everyone will see how purty they is! \*\* Something tells me, that if wearing transparent pants, the new twenty in your pocket might not be what people are looking at. :eek: ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-bill-unveiled-and-i-got-a-beef/174975/24 "2003-05-14T00:16:02Z")
I hope you’re right. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![mnemosyne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c4cdca/32.png) [@mnemosyne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mnemosyne)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 12:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-bill-unveiled-and-i-got-a-beef/174975/25 "2003-05-14T00:22:51Z")
My beef about the new American 20 is that they stole the Canadian font for the bottom right corner “20” on the back!!! That 20 is OURS!!! Though I think we can expect a new 20 in the next couple of years, so ours will still be purtyer!! ---
**Author:** ![OxyMoron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e9a140/32.png) [@OxyMoron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OxyMoron)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-bill-unveiled-and-i-got-a-beef/174975/26 "2003-05-14T01:55:58Z")
Damn, I was really hoping they’d do something about the portraits. Poor Alex on the ten - he’s stuck with Geraldine Ferraro’s hair, and that’s just _wrong_. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 1:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-bill-unveiled-and-i-got-a-beef/174975/27 "2003-05-14T01:58:18Z")
I’ve a feeling that the design of that number is determined by legibility requirements for the visually-impaired. I mean, look at it! It doesn’t fit the rest of the design at all! Now, if the ten turns out to be purplish, the five bluish, the fifty pinkish, and the hundred brownish, _then_ we might have a complaint. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Ruby](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/13edae/32.png) [@Ruby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruby)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 2:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-bill-unveiled-and-i-got-a-beef/174975/28 "2003-05-14T02:29:00Z")
Maybe I’m just suddenly colorblind but I don’t seem much in the way of coloring on the website picture…just _very_ slight tinting. Won’t they be just as easy to duplicate as the old ones? ---
**Author:** ![andygirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@andygirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andygirl)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-bill-unveiled-and-i-got-a-beef/174975/29 "2003-05-14T02:43:49Z")
My beef is that our dear Mr. Jackson looks like he got into a street fight with Videl Sassoon and lost. ---
**Author:** ![jweb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/71c47a/32.png) [@jweb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jweb)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-bill-unveiled-and-i-got-a-beef/174975/30 "2003-05-14T02:49:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Sunspace \* > \*\*So does that mean they’re taking in the old ones, or what? \*\* AFAIK, the US mint never actually had an ‘end-of-life’ for the old $20. They would replace the old design with the new one as bills were returned to banks and deemed to be worn out, but I’m pretty sure you can still use an 1990-era $20 bill as legal currency. Of course, this pretty much eliminates reduction of counterfeit curency as a motive for introducing a new $20. If the old bills are still good, why bother to fake the new $20 when you can fake the easier-to-counterfeit old one? ---
**Author:** ![clayton\_e](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c57346/32.png) [@clayton\_e](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/clayton_e)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 4:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-bill-unveiled-and-i-got-a-beef/174975/31 "2003-05-14T04:41:12Z")
Back to the quote about “keeping America’s $ in the pockets of American families” Remind you of something out of the 50s? Maybe a little bit like a McCarthy era “Keeping America in the hands of Americans?” And also… (besides the fact that the new $20 bill design creates absolutely NO change in who’s pocket its in) doesn’t the U.S. government _want_ American currency to be the standard for international trade? The whole statement: > [@](#): > > In addition to keeping our currency safe from counterfeiters, we are working to ensure that more of those dollars stay in the pockets of American families. The swift enactment of the President’s Jobs and Growth package should do just that. Is like saying “We paint all of our company cars green to save the passengers in the event of an accident.” :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Michael\_Ellis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/977dab/32.png) [@Michael\_Ellis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michael_Ellis)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 4:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-bill-unveiled-and-i-got-a-beef/174975/32 "2003-05-14T04:44:43Z")
I like this one better than the current style, frankly. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-bill-unveiled-and-i-got-a-beef/174975/33 "2003-05-14T04:46:15Z")
I never thought of it that way, **jweb**. I thought the banks’d be actively removing the old ones (pre-1990?) from circulation as they received them, and gradually there’s be fewer and fewer of them. I guess to truly be effective against counterfeiting, they’d have to declare an end date for the old notes’ validity, wouldn’t they? ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2003, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-bill-unveiled-and-i-got-a-beef/174975/34 "2003-05-14T05:09:51Z")
> [@](#): > > My beef about the new American 20 is that they stole the Canadian font for the bottom right corner “20” on the back!!! That 20 is OURS!!! At least the mint passed on the previous design where Jackson was wearing a crown and pearl necklace. ---
**Author:** ![MonkeyMensch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/82dd89/32.png) [@MonkeyMensch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MonkeyMensch)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-bill-unveiled-and-i-got-a-beef/174975/35 "2003-05-15T03:09:11Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ruby \* > \*\*Maybe I’m just suddenly colorblind but I don’t seem much in the way of coloring on the website picture…just _very_ slight tinting. Won’t they be just as easy to duplicate as the old ones? \*\* My WAG is that the color is in the paper. If counterfeiters attempt the leaching technique they would have to print the twenty’s color all over the bill. My guess is that’s what the Bureau of Engraving is counting on: printed ink looks different than paper white (or salmon). ---
**Author:** ![Pixiesnix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/898d66/32.png) [@Pixiesnix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pixiesnix)\ **Post date:** [May 15, 2003, 3:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-bill-unveiled-and-i-got-a-beef/174975/36 "2003-05-15T03:28:53Z")
I thought someone had spilled blue ink on the face of the bill until I saw it was an eagle’s wing…I think. \ As for Dubya’s quote, I wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d made a reference to the war in Iraq. Any opportunity, you know. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/new-20-bill-unveiled-and-i-got-a-beef/174975.md?page=1)