Excuses for not putting a woman on a U.S. banknote

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Is there where we wait in line for someone to demand Reagan be put on the dime?

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If we do that, then one week a month the dollar will be worth 23¢ less.

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But… if we put a woman on a $20 bill, then it’ll only be worth $15.60, right?

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“Washingtons go to wifey, you know how that go”

-AZ

The easy excuse is that “a woman” is not very specific! Once we have some woman presidents, it will make their future efforts much easier. Since I apparently have a reputation for disliking of state currency, it might not be surprising that I don’t consider it much of an honor to appear on the stuff.

Meanwhile, I thought that putting Alfredo Garcia on bank notes would be nicely subversive.

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As someone who collects currency (coins, mainly) I have to say that American banknotes are boring, boring, boring. Americans are missing a very real opportunity. Other countries actually see their currency, especially their banknotes, as a way of highlighting national achievements and points of pride based not on politics, but on the hard work of their citizens. They look at heritage and culture and honor moments of great moral progress. The United Arab Emirates adorns its bills with images of falconry and fishing boats, in homage to what there was before oil. European currency has scientists and equations. The Japanese have authors and images of nature. The South Africans have the image of their modern founder, Mandela, on all their notes; but on the other side it’s lions, leopards, and the flora and fauna of the area.

I think it’s high time to put a woman on our money, and to go beyond that. Imagine what Saturn V would look like on the back of a $20 bill.

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Equal Rights for Rocketships!

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Jackson is a pretty terrible person; but he’s darkly fitting for the $20.

Military ruthlessness, a history of not-always-exactly-legal entreprenureship, enthusiastic abuse of basically every tribe to cross his path, populist rhetorical style…

It’s a pretty good fit for the bill that is more or less the gold standard for slightly shady movement of money(anything smaller is bulky, anything bigger draws attention) in USD.

I suppose it depends on whether you think we should put people on money to honor them, or put people on money because it seems fitting, darkly or otherwise.

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I’m picturing a dollar bill with a Twinkie on the front and the Hollywood sign on the back.

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Reagon having trouble getting on a bill makes some sense. As this list captures, his “great” accomplishments are not necessarily good things, depending on the observer. There are people who legitimately loath him. FDR’s kind’a the same way, except love/loath percentages are different. And he beat Hitler. And setup a boom so big it makes the former’s look like a recession.

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I nominate Georgia Neese Clark Gray for the first woman to appear on U.S. currency.
Not only was she the first woman treasurer, there has not been a man at that post since her tenure.

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I’m for putting a woman on US currency, provided all US currency is designed by JSG Boggs

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._S._G._Boggs (without a doubt my favorite artist, all time)

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So Susan B. Anthony was fine for a coin but not good enough for a bill?

@ActionAbe one of the prized pieces of my collection is a set of coins from Tuvalu. It came with an explanatory note that because there are so few people in Tuvalu the five-thousand mint run meant more coins would be in collections than circulation. It’s not the scarcity I love, though, but the designs.

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Harriet Tubman, abolitionist and humanitarian

Grace Hopper, programming pioneer who helped modernize the navy and set technical standards still in use today

Sofia Vergara, because, c’mon

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I’d buy that for a dollar.

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Which bill should Lucy Parsons be on? or Mother Jones?

I have a worrying feeling the next woman (other than Liz Windsor) to appear on British currency will be Maggie Thatcher. I promise that I will not object as long as we get a ÂŁ50 with Marx and Engels or Peter Kropotkin on it. I still think that Mary Seacole should have been on the new ÂŁ10

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I’m holding out for Amy Johnson.

Isn’t there a Jane Austen one coming?

I’m still pissed off that they took the safe option and didn’t put Mary Seacole on it.

If the politics of who we put on notes is divisive we could have a note of national unity with the Mitford sisters on it. I’m sure there will be someone for everyone on there.

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