There’s an old saying (either that or I made it up…) that if there were to be a world currency it would have Homer Simpson’s picture on it.
That got me thinking, what if there WAS a world currency? Who would be on it that would have appeal/recognition to everyone? To make this a bit easier I’ll limit the bills to…
1
5
10
20
50
100
500
No change yet…maybe we will get to that depending on how popular this thread is 
Newton, Copernicus, Galileo, Darwin, Borlaug, Jenner.
Lotta Brits there, I guess.
Gandhi & Mandela.
No one, in my opinion.
If there’s a world currency, it’ll almost certainly have to be without faces. One persons hero is anothers villain. The few people who aren’t villains to some people are too long dead to have enough popular support world wide, and only have their support in their home countries, really.
It won’t have faces on it, it would more than likely be corporate logos.
So Coke might have one, MacDonalds, Microsoft, etc.
Shakespeare. Yes, he wrote in English, but his works have been translated and performed in many of the world’s languages and locations.
Beethoven or Mozart. Music is universal, and I’d suggest that these two are well-known around the world for their compositions.
Ferdinand de Lesseps. Designed and built the Suez Canal, and laid the groundwork for the Panama Canal. In other words, thanks to him and his vision, sea voyages were made shorter and safer and less-costly for all nations.
Sir Sandford Fleming. First to propose a system of standard time for the world.
Sir Isaac Newton. His theory of gravity allowed us to understand such things as orbits. His work allowed us to launch spacecraft into orbit and to the Moon, and to send spacecraft out to explore the solar system, helped by the gravity of the bodies they were passing. He taught us much about the physics of the universe we live in.
I agree. I can’t see countries ever agreeing on whom to put onto the notes.
Indeed, when the designers of the Euro bills faced a similar problem, they didn’t put faces of people on the notes. Instead, they put architectural elements representing the various styles of buildings in Europe. The 5 euro bill has the earliest type of archicture; as the bills get bigger the archictecture gets more modern, passing through stages such as Gothic and Renaissance. The largest bills (500 euro?) have modern architechture on them.
why does a face need to be on a bill of currency?
all you need is the denomination, some sort of design that’s hard to counterfeit and all the other anti-counterfeiting measures.
Personally, i think having the Seven Wonders of the World might be a decent idea. Or perhaps just a world map on it and only the denomination and color of the bill changed.
Einstein, Shakespeare, Gandhi, Darwin…
Gandhi would be veteoed by Pakistanis, Bangladeshis, Sri Lankans, Nepalese and half of India.
Save to say that if the intrinsic worth of the denomination - what you can buy with it - is near to that of the US dollar and Euro, there will not be a 1 worldy (for lack of a better word) note, there will becoins. So they’ll probably be 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 and maybe 500 (which the Euro has).
What faces is concerned, there might be some difficulties there. I know the Euro has important buildings on their notes instead. Also, every nation has its own ‘heads’ side of the coins. So while a german 1 euro coin has a different ‘heads’ it can still be used everywhere else. i just checked, of the 7 coins I have in my pocket rigt now 2 are french, 1 is belgian, 1 is german, 1 is spanish and of two others I can’t tell. And I live in the Ntherlands.
Well I think Newton, Darwin and Einstein would pass the test here.
Or to be more accurate, those who consider Darwin and Einstein villains SHOULD be marginalised. And I still can’t think who Newton would piss off. LaRouche, perhaps.
…the conqueror
I think a Mt. Rushmore-like assemblage of several themed faces/busts on each denomination would be good - maybe four faces on each note, rotated in and out of a larger (and extensible) pool for each category.
No living humans (sorry, your Majesty) or fictional characters (sorry, Mr Holmes)
so…
1 - People who made a significant contribution to music & entertainment
5 - People who made a significant contribution to literature, poetry and art
10 - People who made a significant contribution to sciences broadly, or that aren’t covered by other categories
20 - People who made a significant contribution to astronomy/cosmology
50 - People who made a significant contribution to medicine
100 - People who made a significant contribution to technology
500 - People who made a significant contribution to peace and human rights
This is my vote. Can any one think of a natural wonder that is well known from each continent?
The Great Wall
The Pyramids
Machu Picchu
The Grand Canyon
The Colosseum
Ayers Rock
or just landmarks, I suppose
The NYC Skyline
The Sydney Opera House
The Forbiddden City
The Taj Mahal
Kilimanjaro
Mt Fuji
St Basil’s Cathedral
Notre Dame
Westminster Abbey
Christ the Redeemer from Rio de Janeiro
Chichen Itza
I like the idea. And it could be rotating so every five years new ones can be nominated! Let’s make it happen!
I think it should be important inventions instead, things that people all over the world have benefitted from. Starting with the wheel and progressing through windmills and printing presses to the modern era with transistors and communication satellites.
I like this idea. And the micro printing on the bill could give background information on the invention and its uses. Eyeglasses should be on one of them with all the people’s lives they’ve improved.
Eyeglasses would be useful to read the microprinting as well.
