Well, that also occurred to me. But it happened to be dinnertime, so I’m sure that the ugliness of the bill wasn’t the only factor.
I’m fine with changes in the design of money. It’s just that the changes are often bad ones. Instead of getting lovely, rainbow-colored money like other countries have, we end up with this hideous Trading Spaces-style currency. I am quite fond of the state design quarters, although they may not be different enough. My favorite is the one with the big tree–the Charter Oak, I think it is. It’s so pretty.
When and where was the Canadian $2 bill ever considered as bad luck? It never was in Ontario in my experience (i.e, since around 1970, when I started to handle money).
Change pouches are a mark of the elderly where you are? Here, they’re just unusual. Still, using a change pouch is better than what I used to do: use a baggie. This was because I had holes in my pockets from all the stuff in them. Then I became less broke, and could afford to fix my pants.
Coins need not be “small” change.
I think of small change as “the fiddly coins that get in the way”. Since I need quarters and loonies for the laundry, small change to me is dimes, nickels and pennies. Quarters are just “change”. Fifty-cent coins would also be “change”, I think, if there were enough of them in circulation that we enountered them often. I’ve started to think of loonies and toonies as ‘big change’.
As I mentioned in that thread on the effects of rising gas prices, the prices of things like cans of cola and chocolate bars have started to rise here. The company caf is now charging $1.07 for a can of cola, instead of $1.00, for example. Likewise in the vending machine.
This seems to be creating a change in patterns of coin movement. Two weeks ago I had trouble giving away extra pennies to the cashier, but today they were in demand, and I now have only quarters and big change left in my pouch. Of which I just spent two toonies for a box of Girl Guide cookies.
Certainly that would add justification to the $400+ of airfare plus I don’t know how much for a hotel since I don’t have anyone to stay up there with anymore!
Though I would need someone to help me navigate the subway/bus system. Not that it’s so very arcane, because it isn’t, but I’m easily confused in big cities.
The $5 bill will not be changed. However, the new 50 already is red, white, and blue.
This series, the first redesign of American currency since 9/11, has a symbol of freedom on each bill- in large form in the background, and also miniature next to the portrait. The 20 has a large eagle in the background, and a small eagle next to Jackson’s portrait. The 50 has an American flag in the background, and a small blue star next to Grant’s portrait. The 10 has the Statue of Liberty’s torch in the background, and a small torch next to Hamilton’s portrait.
This appears on all of the new notes- the 20 and the 50 as well (only they’re 20s or 50s, of course). Why, I don’t know.
Ew. I just got a $10 today for the first time. It is kind of ugly.
However, no major complaints from me, since I’m not going to frame it and hang it on my wall. I’m more likely going to exchange it for prettier or tastier goods and services.
Namby, pamby pastels. Goddammit, when I say red I mean Goddamn red. And when I say blue I mean bluer than the thumb of a cross-eyed carpenter (Jack Benny. If your are going to plagiarize why not from the best?). And when I say white I mean a white that makes brand new snow look shabby.
I can’t find who said it - but someone in here said that they didn’t think there was a significant population of people other than tourists, who had problems distinguishing the notes apart.
Well, first of all, let me acknowledge that as a tourist I have found them the worst currency in the world that I have ever used due to their sameness.
However, let’s think a bit more about who might find them tricky to use - that’s right, people with eyesight problems. So we have the full gammut of people ranging from the blind to people with a reading problems. So, if the majority of people over the age of 40 need reading glasses, add in to this people who have much worse sight impairment, and I think we have a very large group of people.
Especially, given our aging population.
I cannot for the life of me understand why the US sticks to this crappy money - the rest of the world seems so much more user friendly and enlightened when it comes to money. YOU MAKE THEM ALL DIFFERENT COLOURS and YOU MAKE THEM DIFFERENT SIZES!
As for coins, we have a gold $1 and $2 coin, the rest are silver - they are all different sizes.
God, I feel progressive.
I believe the dull US money partly involves a powerful psychological block about how staid and boring = serious and respectable.
And of course there’s the inertia factor of having all the notes the same size easing processing, packaging and shipping, and a huge preinstalled based of uniform-sized cash registers and the like.
They did accommodate, minimally, the less-sharp-eyed by taking at least one of the corner numerals in each of the denominations and making it bigger, bolder, and higher-contrast. But they are way short on tactile-ID features.
The different size part would seriously offend my anal sense of organisation. I like same-sized bills. They’re easy to stack, fold and count. Different sizes would be a major pain in the tuckus. (For those of us that aren’t blind anyway, which is the real reason for the size differences of nations that employ this strategy. I think we had braille on the corners once, but being paper they tended to flatten out, making the concept a little pointless)
Different colours though, yes. But then I’m used to that much.
Oh please - I can tell you now that folding a bunch of notes of slightly different dimensions is no different than folding a bunch of notes exactly all the same.
You really are stuck in the anal stage of psychosexual development!
I know change is hard for most of us, but really America, live a little - it’s hardly the same as starting a new job or moving to a new town etc.
Yes, but counting them from one hand to another or – worse – flipping the corners – is more awkward when you have to constantly adjust your finger positioning to grasp the variously-sized bills properly.
But when the denominations of the notes are readily identifiable visually by colour and size, it becomes really easy to quickly sort them into a stack arranged from largest to smallest size/denomination; this makes counting/adding the values quite a bit easier and quicker.
This was because I had holes in my pockets from all the stuff in them. Then I became less broke, and could afford to fix my pants.