Jane Austen is to be feature on the £10 note over here, replacing Charles Darwin. Sir Winston Churchill is also to replace Elizabeth Fry on the £5 note. A few people have moaned about it, but I can dig those choices, as well as the choices they’re replacing. Her Majesty the Queen is naturally on the other side.
However, if you were given carte blanche over your nation’s banknote design, whose portrait would you feature? Would you even put a portrait at all?
Carte blanche? I’m goin on the twenty. Zippy on the five.
Jesus. But with a big circle and slash through his face, like a no smoking sign.
US Citizen here. We should have a huge nationwide poll where certain artistic and scientific luminaries are selected to replace the political masters of the past.
In Art
I nominate:
Georgia O’Keefe
Norman Rockwell
Robert Scott Duncanson
In Science
I nominate:
Nikola Tesla
Robert Goddard
Carl Sagan
United States here. I’m actually fairly happy with most of ours; the only ones I’d kick off are Jackson from the $20 and maybe US Grant from the $50. Hamilton’s on the line, too. But if I had to do a complete redesign… let’s see.
Not sure about order, but I’d move Jefferson out of his current obscurity on the $2. Neil Armstrong is an easy nod, as is Sally Ride. Lincoln would have to remain, I’m afraid. Einstein. Eisenhower (as general, rather than as president; never mind that he’s already on our coinage). Who else is named with an E? Fred Rogers, perhaps, or Doctor Seuss. I feel it’s a bit harder to find indisputable choices on the art and lit side…
Ludwig von Mises.
Just for fun.
Obama, just to piss off the haters
More seriously, how about Seward or Dr. King?
How about something practical? I know people won’t appreciate a periodic table or scientific constants, but maybe unit conversions, the times tables? I wonder why money can’t be useful, besides for currency.
Stephen Colbert. I already have the stamps with his picture.
John Adams
Frank Lloyd Wright
Bette Davis
Carl Sagan
Albert Einstein
[ul]
[li]Mark Twain[/li][li]George Washington [/li][li]Dr. King didn’t occur to me right away, but sure, why not? That’s a good one.[/li][li]Elizabeth Cady Stanton, I guess? To hell with temperance, but I’ll allow her anyway. She’s still aces in my book.[/li][li]I’ll leave whoever the hell is on the $2 as is just for kicks.[/li][li]Too much pressure to pick the last one![/li][/ul]
-Obama, not just because he’s a president, but because he’s the first black president and represents such a huge milestone for this country that was kind of founded on slavery
-MLK Jr.
-Mark Twain
-Tesla
I’d put out a souvenir series of $1 bills with lots of American greats - kind of like the quarters series, but with bills and people, instead of coins and states and territories and parks.
There’d be a little room for biography bulletpoints, too - so people won’t look so dumb on “Jaywalking” and the like.
I’d do -
John Steinbeck
Harper Lee
Mark Twain
Ernest Hemingway
Toni Morrison
Willa Cather
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Elizabeth Cady Stanton
Frank Lloyd Wright
The Wright Brothers
Samuel Morse
…and other people as they occurred to me.
a different variation of Alfred on each denomination.
Groucho Marx as Rufus T. Firefly.
Bill the Cat.
Oh, you mean seriously? Okay:
Duke Ellington $100
Walt Whitman $50
Emma Goldman $20
Mark Twain $10
Neil Armstrong $5
Gene Kelly $1
I do have a fake dollar bill with Michael Jordan on it, and it looks great, so that could work in place of any of the above – but maybe wait until he’s no longer alive.
So, in general, uniquely American giants of, mainly, the arts. Other great candidates would be Frank Lloyd Wright and Billie Holiday. Also Woody Guthrie and John Muir. Oh, and Leonard Bernstein.
Hey, what about Jim Henson!?!? That Opie Cunningham guy? Chuck Jones? Chuck Berry? Berry Gordy? Gordon from Sesame Street?
My visage on everything.
Jim Henson is a great idea.
BTW, I am aware that Emma Goldman was an American (and, in America) only during the middle third of her life. And, that she dedicated her life to, basically, the idea that money shouldn’t make the world go 'round. I still think it would be a good choice – in part, to remind you of the less savory effects of the capitalist system, every time you whipped out a twenty.
Since U.S. currency runs in $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100 denominations, I would put the current seven U.S. Congressmen receiving the highest amount of corporate campaign contributions from lowest to highest. Just to serve as a reminder to public of what’s needed to get anything done in Washington.