I’ve been wondering which person’s picture is on the most pieces of money. I came up with three candidates, but there may be others.
Abraham Lincoln – on every US one cent piece for over a century (since 1909). Also on five dollar bills since 1914. He was also on some one dollar bills in the 19th century.
George Washington – on every US one dollar bill since 1929, and also on some in the 19th century. On all quarter dollar coins since 1931.
Elizabeth II – on all British money since 1952 and on various Commonwealth coins and bills. Not on all Commonwealth coins and bills, though. For example, she’s not on any Indian or Pakistani money, nor on Canadian bills.
If I had to guess, I’d say Liz, then George, then Abe, but maybe there’s someone else I’m not thinking of.
But she’s on every darned coin, including the pennies. Pretty much the same all across the commonwealth? (once in a while I run across a penny or a nickel with some George on it…)
I’m going to go with Mao-Tse Tung who appears on 20, 50 and 100 yuan notes in China. There are smaller denominations each with a different man and a woman side by side but not sure if they are actually people or an artist’s invention.
In terms of number of individual notes and coins – not different ones – Mao Zedong and Mahatma Gandhi will be at least in the top five or six. That’s because they are on all the current bank notes of their respective countries, and those countries each have a large population.
But, in terms of different notes and coins, I think it has to be Elizabeth II.
Just in case anyone is in doubt, the OP is about all coins and bills with the person’s picture on them, no matter when issued. Not just those in current circulation, nor the number of different denominations or whatever.
As far as I can tell, Mao is on all Chinese bills, but he’s only been on them for roughly 10 years. He was on the 100 yuan bill of the previous series (along with 3 other Chinese leaders), but I don’t think he was on any before that. So he’s no doubt on a lot of bills, but has he passed Elizabeth? Do the Chinese release data on how many of each denomination have been issued?
All-time, I’d guess King George VI. When he was king, the Empire included a lot more countries, and he was on just about all the coins and currency in each one.
I go with Abe Lincoln. While the US didn’t have all those colonies that the Brits did, we certainily churned out quite a few cents between 1909 and today.
Let’s just use 1995 as an example. The US Mint made,in that year, 13.5 Billion cents. You do the math.
That picture is a mixture of the older currency that was used in the eighties and nineties and the new currency which is used now. Mao is now on all the new paper currency below the 1000 yuan note. (However the old currency is still legal tender.)
A quick check of my US paper money book says about 100+million $1 notes from 1928-1999. And, sure, there have been massive amounts produced since 1999, but even if you double my first number, I don’t think you beat the cent production.
example–between 1982 and 1995, over 150 billion cents produced.
I have read that the most reproduced portrait in history is Arnold Machin’s portrait of Elizabeth II which has been used on British stamps since 1967, and was used on British coins from 1971 until 1984 (as well as the decimal coins issued in advance of decimalisation from 1968 onwards).
The article in the first link says “well over 200 billion copies” but I think that is talking about stamps only.
Looking at the mintage figures for coins over that period (here and here) I make that:
