We (Australia) have coins now for $1 and $2, and they are great. Notes of those values in good condition are worth a little more than their face value, and made of paper! Very strange to handle paper money for most of us, we’re 100% plastic money now.
I don’t recall anyone having a serious problem with the change over.
abby
It should be noted that $1 bills do not have that nylon strip in them. So one way to tell that someone has bleached a one to counterfeit a twenty is that it doesn’t have a strip. Think about that next time you feel like removing the strip.
Is it morally OK to give a counterfeit bill to a stripper if you know that what she’s showing is mostly counterfeited with silicon?
We’ve had coins for $1 and $2 dollar bills for years in Canada - loonies and toonies. I like that our money is coloured and has Braille. I swear American money is becoming more like Canadian everyday. I just hope the value doesn’t plummet like ours, although ours is on the rise. Now, you know how I got my nick. 
Dammit! I don’t freaking want color money! BAH! Double BAH!
Anyway, my guess for keeping green and black is that it is 1) cheaper. Fewer colors equals fewer costs. And two, tradition. They were green and black for a long time and dammit, that’s what American money should look like.
Maybe in the next version they can add texture, so visually impaired people will be able to tell how much cash they have.
(Or can they do this now? Hm.)
I think it’s sad how ugly our money is.
We have some of the best designers in the world and that is what they can come up with?
How embarassing!
Bah, I think the Swiss have the coolest looking money.
**dantheman[/b[, some countries deal with this by making the money in different sizes. The Lira is a good example. The smaller the denomination the smaller the bills.
Yes, I think I knew that… but what about the United States? We’re not known for our creativity in money production, the new colors notwithstanding.
The Susan B Anthony was introduced in 1979, but the dollar bill never withdrawn. The Sacky was authorized by Congress in 1997, but again, dollar bill not withdrawn. By “attempt” I mean an unconcerted effort that has the (lack of) focus and (zero) intent, much like how we “attempted” to move to the metric system.
For a more methodical analysis of why dollar coins are not popular, see www.gao.gov/new.items/d02896.pdf
Note the section entitled, “Public Resistance Is the Greatest Barrier to Increased Use of the New Dollar Coin.” The General Accounting Office says in fancy language that people like dollar bills.
Yup, they’re not bad. Especially the 5 Swiss franc coin. This is a real coin that is actually worth something! (At todays exchange rate, USD3.80). As far as I know it’s the most valuable coin that is actually used normally (as opposed to coins created for a special occasion, or in limited circulation.)
The bills start at CHF10, and are indeed not too ugly - plenty of colours and easy to distinguish. Here’s an image, although the colours look a bit dull. They are all the same width to make automatic processing easier, but with length increasing with value.
It was me.
I asked for the colored money because I’ve always be jealous of the Canadian colored money.
I wanted it. I win. Too bad for you pale and ugly color haters.
What good does it do to keep changing currency as long as the old bills are legal tender? Why don’t counterfeiters merely copy the old style bills? It seems if we want to stop counterfeiters, we’d have to set a date after which the old bills become worthless.
MSU 1978: so the part on american paper money about it being legal tender for all debts public and private was a lie?
money i don’t spend i deserve to loose? thats not right.
I was all set to make some smart ass comment about it being an Illuminati plot, etc., etc. and then my mind went blank.
Bills have a relatively short life span in circulation, so the plan is to simply to allow the older bills to “expire” naturally, and gradually pass out of circulation.
Yes, but even if they pass out of circulation, counterfeiters can still make them, since the designs themselves wouldn’t be illegal. They just wouldn’t be making any more of that particular design. I guess it would toss up a red flag if someone had a 2003 twenty with a 1996 design, or something.
Right, dantheman. If I was a counterfeiter, why would I bother trying to print the new bills? We are retiring the old bills when they get too worn, and someday the older style will look very odd when you get one. But for some time, we’ll be printing high security bills while still accepting ones easier to counterfeit. Seems nuts to me.
netscape, I’m not saying you need to spend it or lose it. I’m suggesting if we want to foil counterfeiting we’ll need to get all the older bills out of circulation.
That’s the key, dantheman; your last sentence.
Here in Canada, our bills are redesigned every few years. I’m not sure how many years pass between redesigns since the introduction of each denomination is staggered and it takes time for the old bills to pass out of circulation as they wear out, but I can recall at least four series designs in my lifetime. No bill is ever worthless; it will always be worth exactly whatever its face value is. Currency collectors may give you more for the bill, depending on its condition and rarity, but I’m talking about everyday transactions.
Now, when I worked as a retail cashier, I usually saw the current series of bills being used to pay for goods. Only rarely would I see a bill from an older series, and if I did, it was usually pretty beat up. If I was from an older series, and in fairly good shape, we’d take a closer look at it, especially if it was a higher denomination ($50 or $100). Using an old bill did send up a red flag, in other words, and we would take a closer look.
Some posters have alluded to setting a date after which the bills with the old design will become worthless. There’s no need–if the BEP stops printing them, they will pass out of circulation quickly enough. Any remaining in mattresses will still be legal tender, although rare and unusual to see in everyday transactions. In fact, using the old design in such circumstances may not be to the counterfeiters’ advantage, since, as I mentioned, such bills got a much closer look than the current design. At least, they did in our store.
But it’s still a valid bill, and it’s not illegal to spend it or accept it for payment. And with the older US bills, it’s a lot tougher for the untrained eye to discern whether one is fake or real. (The new ones, what with their watermarks and all, are easier to figure out.) The point is that as long as the older bills are still legal tender, a smart counterfeiter will simply counterfeit those. Even if such a “real” bill is rare, people will accept it as payment.
Those older bills might get a closer look, but unless you’re a skilled engraver, you might not be able to tell if it’s not real.
It would make more sense to make the older bills illegal - that is, people would need to exchange them for the newer ones.
I’d say that unless you’re skilled, you definitely won’t be able to tell whether it’s real or not. Remember, we’re talking about making counterfeits of the old style bills, which did not have all these anticounterfeiting measures!
Exactly! No one will lose anything, expect people who for some reason won’t bring their old ones in to be exchanged. And that, perhaps, is a good thing.
would their be a cut off date in which they could not exchanged?