I Am A Five! I Am A Five!

Did you see that the five dollar bill is getting a new look? Here, here, and here are some stories about it.

I love this quote from the first article I linked:

"We wanted this redesigned bill to scream, 'I am a five. I am a five,"' Larry Felix, director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing said in an interview with The Associated Press. "We wanted to eliminate any similarity or confusion on the part of the public between the $5 bill and the $100 bill."

Um, dude? I don’t know about you, but I have never in my life confused a $5 and a $100 bill. I’m pretty sure that is a mistake I would never make. Yep. Pretty darned sure.

Okay, Larry was making a point about counterfeiters bleaching $5s and reprinting them as $100s because the security features are the same, but my joke was way funnier if I didn’t explain that.

I think the new money looks nice, don’t you? I wish I saw more of it in person. Especially the ones with Mr. Franklin on them. Oh, wait. They haven’t redesigned those yet. Okay, I want to see lots and lots more of Mr. Grant then. But I wouldn’t mind the old plain green Franklins.

Since I was looking at the money site, I thought I’d look and see who was on the really big bills. Here’s what I found:


$500 Blue seal - John Marshall (1918)
Green seal - William McKinley (1928 & 1934)

$1,000 Blue seal – Alexander Hamilton (1918)
Green seal – Grover Cleveland (1928)

$5,000 James Madison

$10,000 Salmon P. Chase (secretary of the treasury 1861-1864)

$100,000 Woodrow Wilson

These large denominations were last printed in 1945 and discontinued in 1969. Interesting, huh? And who decides who gets put on which denomination bill? Thoughts to ponder.