another POLL: US currency is the most boring and ugly in the world

[GW]

Question: Is US currency the most boring and ugly in the world. Is it time for the BEP to stop dabbling in color and go for it. Some countries have fantastic looking currency and in comparison

 

BEP now has some Super Orlof Intaglio (SOI) presses.and may someday be able to print fantastic looking currency.

http://www.uspapermoney.info/general/soi.html

 

as an example here is a note that has over 90 security features, including some unusual ones like latent imaging on the back of the note.

http://www.kba-print.de/en/news/newsanzeige.html?newsfocus=nxps%3A%2F%2Fkba%2Fnews%2F2004-08-11%2F%3Flanguage%3Den%26pool%3Dkba

 

Q: Should BEP start making fantastic looking currency like the one below, or stay with the green back, current design ?

 

 

[Bartlesvilleok]

A lot of it is that people are totally dumb and just do not pay attention. Most fakes are easy to spot just by the look and feel.

 

You have a bunch of cashiers and places that get in there head that all they have to do is use one of those markers on the bill and it is all good but that does not help with the people going around and bleaching the $5's and re-printing them. If people would just take a half second to look at the bill then it would be fine.

[johnny9434]

It would be nice to see some better currency like back in the day where you had different thing on it ( the little things that made a difference )

[Scott B]

It would be nice to see some better currency like back in the day where you had different thing on it ( the little things that made a difference )

First, current FRNs are not like the old banknotes regardless of types. They were beautiful engravings with meaning. One of my favorites is the 1901 Buffalo Note with the images of Merriwether Lewis and William Clark (see below). There are so many other great designs, but I have this thing for buffaloes!

 

International currency can be beautiful. I collect Israeli currency and find a lot of great designs honoring the people and places of Israel. In fact, attached is the image of the 20 New Israeli Shekel note made from the polymer substrate. In had, the note looks wonderful! Forget the polymer "paper," just the design is fantastic. The BEP should look at these notes for inspiration.

 

Can you imagine, a color recreation of the Buffalo Note? Or how about the Grand Canyon on a note? In fact, the National Park Quarters should have been done on currency and not on a quarter! It would have made a better impact.

 

Scott

[Jadds-migration]

I'd much rather have the greenbacks than the funny-money printed by most other countries. I look at some of these foreign notes and they look like cartoon napkins that we used for my daughter's last birthday party.

[gpnyc]

I'd much rather have the greenbacks than the funny-money printed by most other countries. I look at some of these foreign notes and they look like cartoon napkins that we used for my daughter's last birthday party.

 

I'm with you. US currency, while not what it used to be, still looks more like "money" to me than the monopoly money other countries print. Put another way, US currency has class. Foreign currency, with a few exceptions, is gaudy and ridiculous looking for the most part.

 

(IMO of course).

[Conder101]

US currency is terribly boring. On the other hand items like that Giori note or most foreign notes are frankly hidious. The truly great notes were those of the 1

late 19th century that depended on superb intaglio engravings. These note tend to be truly beautiful and frankly I think would be incredibly hare to reproduce. And many anti-counterfieting security features could be incorperated into them as well without hurting their asthetic appeal.

[kbsig106]

The foreign polymer notes are strange and some look silly. Like the Antartica Polymer Notes - even if they're sudo LT.

[BOILER78]

They need to get back to their glory days and produce notes like the Educational series or the Rainbow notes.

 

[Revenant]

Boiler, are those yours? If so, daaaaamn......