Well, the great monopolization of our paper currency has been completed! The new $10 and $5 bills are out now. However the five dollar bill looks competently designed. It does not look as crappy as the $100, $50, or $20.
They have found a good picture of Lincoln, first of all. Second, they finally learned that changing the font drastically makes it look amature. They refrained from going typeface-happy on the front. (The back still has that “vision-impared” 5 graphic on the corner). The portrat is still off-centered, but now it looks deliberate and professional. It fells even and centered. The back could have been done better however. From the graphic, the White House looks a bit cartoony. C+ http://www.bep.treas.gov/5.htm
Obviously they did the five dollar bill last, because whatever lesson they learned by the time they redesigned Lincoln, they had no clue of on Hamilton. The $10 looks just as crappy as the other new bills. Hamilton looks incredibly fake, they have that wonderful “color-change” ten that destroys all symmetry (at least use the same typeface). Probably because of that the bill looks off-balanced. The five dollar is based on the same template but manages to feel balanced. And they get rid of the one thing that makes the ten unique: the perspective picture of the Treasure. Instead of viewing it from off the corner, you look straight on. That is a big mistake in my opinion. D- http://www.bep.treas.gov/10.htm
I have to disagree - I think (no, wait, that’s not the term. Isn’t there some catchphrase I should be using? Oh yes). In My Humbug Opinion, it’s a horrible portrait. I think they chose the least flattering picture of Lincoln they could find. Poor Abe - I’ve seen better likenesses in coloring books.
The $20 is the worst of the lot. Jackson looks like one of those dreadful Big-Eyed Child/Kitten pictures popularized by the Keenes in the 50’s. I’m beginning to suspect the people picking these portraits have a grudge against history. I don’t have high hopes of what they’ll do to George.
George is safe.
They aren’t redesigning the one dollar bill. Counterfeiters don’t make too many copies of ones they say. Anyway, they got that dollar coin.
Anyway, I think Abe looks distinguished. Though they can’t seem to get hair to look right. It looks like they colored the hair in. Also, everybody looks like they get their hair cut with a weed-whacker.
Of course they seem to flunk on basic design principles.
You have to admit, the five dollar bill looks the best of the sorry bunch.
The symmetry that you find lacking in the ten is an optical illusion. You noticed that Hamilton is looking to the left and is off-centered on the left hand side. Of course the optical effect will be that he is farther away. They could have had a better effect if they put the picture on the other side and left him facing the same way or even reversed his picture. If that would have happened then it would have made the balance significantly better.
The five looks alright because Abe faces towards the greater amount of open space. It is not as satisfying as it was when it was in the center but the angle he looks off to the right is such that it makes the offcenteredness look and feel better.
I seem to be the only person in the universe who actually likes the new designs. However, I think the left-facing Hamilton is a big mistake in terms of consistency with the other bills and the fact that he
should be facing into the bill, rather than outward. I feel it destroys the balance in the composition.
Otherwise, I really like the off-center positioning of the portraits, as the old design was, well, just plain boring and flat. That said, I’m not sure this design will “age” as well as the old one. I’m afraid that as design aesthetics evolve, this design will look horribly dated.
After finally seeing one of the new fives in the flesh, I have to admit, it’s not as bad as I thought. (I had only seen it in the newspaper and at the website when I made my original snap judgment.) The new bills are starting to look like real money to me, so I guess I’ll have to stop complaining about them - but I still think the state quarters look cheap and crappy!
Looking at the old versions of the $50 on the bureau’s website was rather fun - I didn’t recognize a lot of those portraits - and the evolution of Lady Liberty is revealing - literally. She appears quite matronly and modestly draped in the 1860’s; a few years later, she looks like a young Queen Victoria with a naughtily bare shoulder. Her toga really starts to slip at the turn of the century and by 1918 she’s Venus de Milo with a few added appendages. No wonder great-grampa was such a miser.
I must be odd because I don’t dislike the fronts of any of the new dollars. They are different, but not bad. The larger protraits seem to be a good thing, better remembering some of the notable people. I think some of the images on the rear of the bills are less detailed and less artistic. That is my only complaint. I agree that I liked the off center drawing of the Treasury.
One question I have. They have redone all the bills, and don’t intend to redo the $1. They have begun creating the Sackies, and I believe they are hoped to entirely replace the $1 bill. If that is successful, where does that leave George? Suppose that if sucessful we’ll neither have the first or second presidents of bills in production. Kinda sucks since those men are probably the most prominet in any patriotic discussion you could have.
Who can identify all the personalities on my money? The lady on the $20 should be a giveaway but the other three might be a challenge depending on how much of a life you have.
Yeah, they should have kept the same Treasury picture, maybe zoom in a little and clear the street. The old cars and the loiterers were starting to look strange.
I don’t think so. I’m looking at the both in my hand side-by-side now. It looks like the thing he is wearing (it looks kinda-like a cross between a collar and a cape) is tighter around his neck on the new $20.
The darks of his eye look bigger (even accounting for the fact the head is bigger) and darker. And the hair on the new one looks less wig-like.
