# You're not allowed to put Presidents on US $... Who do you choose? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 13, 2015, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-allowed-to-put-presidents-on-us-who-do-you-choose/719986 "2015-05-13T23:51:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2015, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-allowed-to-put-presidents-on-us-who-do-you-choose/719986/1 "2015-05-13T23:51:45Z")
Let’s imagine for a moment that the Centauri finally show up in orbit, and in a spate of uncharacteristically enigmatic minimalistic interventionism, make no changes other than to threaten to use their [Mass drivers](http://babylon5.wikia.com/wiki/Mass_driver) on Earth unless the United States chooses to replace the Presidents and politicians on paper money with non-political figures. Who would you put on the bills? Just tossing this out there for thought, not spending much time on it: $1… Louis Armstrong $5… Orville & Wilbur Wright $10… Jonas Salk $20… Harriet Tubman $100… Mark Twain Non-U.S. Dopers, feel free to replace the “U.S.” with your own country as you want to. ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2015, 11:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-allowed-to-put-presidents-on-us-who-do-you-choose/719986/2 "2015-05-13T23:57:18Z")
I’d keep Franklin on the $100. He looks good there. Is he a politician? Otherwise: $1 Hank Aaron $2 (you forgot the 2) Bill Gates $5 Liberty (as in Statue of…) $10 Clarence Darrow $20 Martin Luther King, Jr. $50 (you forgot the 50) Georgia O’Keeffe ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-allowed-to-put-presidents-on-us-who-do-you-choose/719986/3 "2015-05-14T00:29:25Z")
$1: Mark Twain $2: Pete Seeger, why not $5: Martin Luther King Jr. $10: Neil Armstrong $20: Let’s go with the poll and put Harriet Tubman on the $20 $50: Albert Einstein, our most valuable immigrant? $100: I agree keep Franklin on the $100. ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-allowed-to-put-presidents-on-us-who-do-you-choose/719986/4 "2015-05-14T00:32:59Z")
$1… All Apollo 11 astronauts $5… MLK $10… Douglas MacArthur $20… Harriet Tubman $100… Orville & Wilbur Wright ---
**Author:** ![Leaffan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/leaffan/32/299_2.png) [@Leaffan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaffan)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 12:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-allowed-to-put-presidents-on-us-who-do-you-choose/719986/5 "2015-05-14T00:38:04Z")
Canada: $1 Is a coin, and I’ll keep the loon. $2 Is a coin, and I’ll keep the polar bear $5 Wayne Gretzky (Arguably the best hockey player ever) $10 Sir Alexander Fleming (Discoverer of penicillin as an antibiotic) $20 Sir Frederick Banting (Discoverer of insulin as a treatment for diabetes) $50 Tommy Douglas (Father of universal healthcare, and grandfather of Kiefer Sutherland) $100 Terry Fox (Cancer patient whose name is synonymous with cancer fundraising worldwide) ---
**Author:** ![kopek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kopek/32/337_2.png) [@kopek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kopek)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 12:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-allowed-to-put-presidents-on-us-who-do-you-choose/719986/6 "2015-05-14T00:49:11Z")
Seriously? I would like to go back to using various depictions of Liberty/Miss Liberty like we did prior to 1909. For paper something like the Educational Series of notes. Not as seriously? The cast and crew of the Bob and Tom Show. ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-allowed-to-put-presidents-on-us-who-do-you-choose/719986/7 "2015-05-14T00:59:33Z")
Is Art Linkletter still on the $100,000 bill? ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-allowed-to-put-presidents-on-us-who-do-you-choose/719986/8 "2015-05-14T02:06:36Z")
Love, love, LOVE the idea of Satchmo on the $1 bill. Bob Elliott and Ray Goulding on the $2. Mark Twain on the $5. Dr. Timothy Leary on the $10. Eleanor Roosevelt on the $20. Buster Keaton on the $50. And, yeah let’s keep Ben Franklin on the $100. ---
**Author:** ![susan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/susan/32/17537_2.png) [@susan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/susan)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 2:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-allowed-to-put-presidents-on-us-who-do-you-choose/719986/9 "2015-05-14T02:30:52Z")
I vote for stars, birds, geological phenomena, machines, abstract art. 'course, [this](http://static02.mediaite.com/themarysue/uploads/2013/07/alienmoney.jpg) is nice, too. ---
**Author:** ![desertmonk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@desertmonk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/desertmonk)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-allowed-to-put-presidents-on-us-who-do-you-choose/719986/10 "2015-05-14T02:54:48Z")
Sell it to the highest bidder. $1 bill= the new Ford, $5 bill= Mickey Mouse, and so on ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 3:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-allowed-to-put-presidents-on-us-who-do-you-choose/719986/11 "2015-05-14T03:16:49Z")
$1: Statue of Liberty $2: We take this opportunity to get rid of this useless note. $5: MLK $10: Norman Borlaug $20: Apollo 11 Rocket (putting only the astronauts on the note seems to slight the effort of all the scientists and engineers) $50: Frederick Douglass. Maybe Twain. Or Louis Armstrong. Hell, I don’t know. When was the last time you saw a 50 anyway? $100: Lewis and Clark This is a tough exercise. Trying to pick six Presidents out of 44 is easier than six people/images out of a vast number of iconic nonpolitical figures. I could easily be swayed from any of my picks. ---
**Author:** ![Hail\_Ants](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/dc4da7/32.png) [@Hail\_Ants](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hail_Ants)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-allowed-to-put-presidents-on-us-who-do-you-choose/719986/12 "2015-05-14T04:30:41Z")
Just a reminder: Not only was Franklin not a President, but Hamilton ($10 bill) wasn’t either (shot in a duel by Aaron Burr)… I would still specify that the person absolutely \*\*must \*\*be deceased. And have been dead for at least a generation. Having living (and recently living) people’s images on current documents reeks of forced idolatry. ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Feldon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lord_feldon/32/341_2.png) [@Lord\_Feldon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Feldon)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-allowed-to-put-presidents-on-us-who-do-you-choose/719986/13 "2015-05-14T05:00:30Z")
> [@Hail\_Ants](#): > > Just a reminder: Not only was Franklin not a President, but Hamilton ($10 bill) wasn’t either (shot in a duel by Aaron Burr)… But both were politicians, which the OP has also excluded. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 1:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-allowed-to-put-presidents-on-us-who-do-you-choose/719986/14 "2015-05-14T13:58:41Z")
> [@Lord\_Feldon](#): > > But both were politicians, which the OP has also excluded. Franklin was so much more than a politician. I will nominate him to keep his place as the first great American Scientist/Inventor, leading writer and publisher, self-made businessman and generally the most world-famous colonial American. ---
**Author:** ![wevets](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e9a140/32.png) [@wevets](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wevets)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-allowed-to-put-presidents-on-us-who-do-you-choose/719986/15 "2015-05-14T14:16:24Z")
> [@What\_Exit](#): > > Franklin was so much more than a politician. I will nominate him to keep his place as the first great American Scientist/Inventor, leading writer and publisher, self-made businessman and generally the most world-famous colonial American. Just have an alternate in case the Centauri disagree - it’s not like there aren’t plenty of accomplished people to choose from. So I also thought about Edgar Allen Poe - what do folks think of him? Any visual artist suggestions other than Georgia O’Keefe? (Thx **Procrustus** ) Any sports figures? Both **Procrustus** and **Leaffan** suggested a sports figure… ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 2:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-allowed-to-put-presidents-on-us-who-do-you-choose/719986/16 "2015-05-14T14:52:46Z")
I would put a nude picture of Eleanor Roosevelt on the $1 to encourage the move to a cashless economy. For all the other denominations, have a lottery where the entrance fee is the same as the denomination - $5 for the fiver, $10 for the ten, etc. Winner gets to pick for that denomination for bills printed over the next year. Enter as often as you like. I am too cheap to enter, but if I won by accident or something - $5 - Sally Ride $10 - Thomas Edison $20 - Whoever is on the Ten Most Wanted list, so his face would be familiar to everyone and he would be arrested sooner $50 - public service announcements to spay or neuter your pet $100 - Rin Tin Tin Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Ukulele\_Ike](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/df788c/32.png) [@Ukulele\_Ike](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ukulele_Ike)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-allowed-to-put-presidents-on-us-who-do-you-choose/719986/17 "2015-05-14T14:57:36Z")
Edgar Allan Poe is famous for going through cycles in terms of literary respect. His stock has been flat for a long time now, maybe 60 years. My daughter went through Stuyvesant High, Yale, and the University of Chicago without reading “Annabel Lee,” let alone any of the tales – either assigned or for funsies. For a writer of that era, Melville or Hawthorne would be an easier sell. I thought about visual artists, but had a tough time coming up with one of the proper stature. My first pick would be Augustus St. Gaudens, but he was born in Ireland. ---
**Author:** ![cmyk](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmyk/32/3353_2.png) [@cmyk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmyk)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-allowed-to-put-presidents-on-us-who-do-you-choose/719986/18 "2015-05-14T14:57:40Z")
$1 - The Monopoly guy. $5 - The Monopoly guy. $10 - The Monopoly guy. $20 - The Monopoly guy. $50 - The Monopoly guy. $100 - Keanu Reeves. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-allowed-to-put-presidents-on-us-who-do-you-choose/719986/19 "2015-05-14T15:07:15Z")
Lewis & Clark, Edison, Bell, Neil Armstrong, von Neumann, Bardeen, Borlaug, Salk & Sabin, and many others come to mind as good non-politician candidates. ---
**Author:** ![gallows\_fodder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/8c91f0/32.png) [@gallows\_fodder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gallows_fodder)\ **Post date:** [May 14, 2015, 4:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-allowed-to-put-presidents-on-us-who-do-you-choose/719986/20 "2015-05-14T16:30:40Z")
> [@cmyk](#): > > $1 - The Monopoly guy. > $5 - The Monopoly guy. > $10 - The Monopoly guy. > $20 - The Monopoly guy. > $50 - The Monopoly guy. > $100 - Keanu Reeves. I like the way you think. $1 - Martin Luther King, Jr $5 - Jonas Salk $10 - Paul Newman $20 - Harriet Tubman $50 - Andrew Carnegie $100 - Keanu Reeves (even though he’s Canadian) E: $500 - [Charles A. Cutter](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Ammi_Cutter) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/youre-not-allowed-to-put-presidents-on-us-who-do-you-choose/719986.md?page=2)