Imagining new currency

This is pretty cool…

Have you noticed how every time the Treasury releases new money it’s uglier than the old money? All the layers upon layers of counterfeit protection really take away from the original, classic design. So while our pal Washington is still looking pretty good, some of the other bills (Hamilton!) are hurting in a bad way.

So, with an eye to the inevitable next round of currency redesigns, Richard Smith at The Daily Blend asked readers to submit their ideas for a redesign of our currency. The basic idea is to create something that takes the issues with modern currency (security, accessibility) into consideration from the beginning, with hopes that the resulting design will be both attractive and highly functional. The results were pretty interesting!

I’ve assembled a few of my favorites below, click on the name above the image to see their complete submission. You can see Smith’s top picks here.

#1.Michael Tyznik

And here’s what the designer had to say about his entry:

Here are the main ideas in this design: Money and the color green are inextricably intertwined in American culture. I think it’d be a mistake to remove green as the primary color. Instead, each bill has a brightly-colored holographic strip embedded into it which contains the denomination. The width of this strip also changes with the denomination. This introduces an element which makes each bill extremely easy to identify. There is also braille denoting the bills’ denomination on the holographic strip.

The idea of presidents being on money is also intrinsic in American money, and I don’t think that should change. One thing I definitely don’t want is the government deciding what cultural figures or movements are the most important or “American.” Instead, I think the most important politicians should be on money. For the same reason, I  put government institutions on the bills, representing each of the branches of government.

In addition, I think one of the most important things about America is our Bill of Rights. I think it is probably the most important information any citizen can have, and for that reason, it is printed on the back of the bills. It is sometimes thought the amendments are listed in order of importance, so it makes sense to have the first ones on the most common bills and the last ones on the less common bills.

Lastly, I changed the denominations of the bills. I think we need to get rid of the penny, because they’ve gotten to the point that they’re more expensive to produce than they’re worth. Instead, the coins would be 5¢, 10¢, 25¢, 50¢, $1, and $2. The coins can keep their current design, and the $2 would be slightly thicker and larger than the $1, with a shape similar to the UK 50p coin. I’ve added a $200 bill because the $500 is entirely impractical, but the 200 € banknote is in general circulation and I think a $200 could be useful.

#2. Kyle Thompson

#3. Mark Lee

#4. Jeff Harris

I hope you all enjoy taking a look through the rest of the submissions, they’re quite fun.