What do you think about the new $20 bills?

Robert · Senior Member

I'll hold my opinion for now. In case you haven't heard/seen, the Bureau of Engraving & Printing is releasing the series 2004 notes now. So far it's just the $20s but I think other denoms will follow.

http://news.yahoo.com/fc?tmpl=fc&cid=34&in=business&cat=us_currency_and_coins

What do you think of them?

Question

Bob P · Site Admin

I love the new notes Robert. I got my first one the other day, and my daughter wanted to borrow $20....I said no....not till I get another one! I really do like the new security features, the changing colors, and the watermarks. Maybe we are finally getting away from the dull FRN after all these years.

Bob P

Doug · Advanced Member

I got one on the way home from work this AM! I like them too as they are a definate improvement from the old ones.

SteveAZ · Member

I like em. It's about time we added some more color to our bills. There were some great bills put out at the end of the 19th century and then it seemed the US lost its ability to be artistic. What I would like is to see is the designs go back to the beauty of the older types.

coppercoins · Site Admin

I don't know anything about them, haven't seen one yet.

Gabe · Senior Member

I saw one today in the store while purchasing Marlins stuff... go Marlins!

Very neat bill.
Bob- BTW, the watermark and the color shifting ink was already present in the 1996 series of $20 bills. The eagle in the background makes the bill look unreal. Very neat design.

Robert · Senior Member

For those of you who may not know, "The Onion" is a satirical newspaper that is published every Tuesday/Wednesday online at http://www.theonion.com/

Be warned, some (but not all) of their humor is PG-13 or even R rated. There are some gems in there from time to time, IMO.

This week there's a "story" on the new $20 bill. Thought I'd share it here. The article is about 1/3 the way down under the heading "News In Brief".

Chuck if this is not OK, let me know. I thought this was relevant to the thread so I posted it.

smed · Senior Member

Is "The Onion" supposed to be funny/satirical/humorous/etc?

It compares to humor as Molly Ivins does to honest and accurate reporting. Complete failure.

But at least "The Onion" tries to be funny. Molly could care less about facts.

Robert · Senior Member

I guess it's a matter of taste.

You didn't find the story on Congress raising the "Executive Minumum Wage" to $565.15 per hour to be the least bit funny?

Talking about a "standard of easy living", "Almost 8% of my income disappears after taxes", "This wage hike is our way of giving something back to the American people who are most important"...

Nothing?

It's true that many of the articles (and the authors, I assume) have a somewhat liberal bent, but once in a while you see one like this:

http://www.theonion.com/onion3842/marxists_apartment.html

OK I'll try to keep my sense of humor more to myself in the future.

smed · Senior Member

Yup, a lot of things have to do with taste. That site happens to do nothing for mine.

Please don't feel the need to keep your sense of humor to yourself; I'm sure others find The Onion hillarious.

coppercoins · Site Admin

I finally received my first new $20 and had a chance to look it over. No real opinion - since I don't see much of the color change, they aren't much different to me at all. The one thing I really don't like about them is the haphazard addition of color to the reverse. I think they could have done a much better job.

coop · Expert Member

There not too bad, for monopoly money! Laughing

coinnut4 · Member

Hi coop,
The new bills definitly resemble "play money" of old but the recent addition of the eagle to the obverse coupled with a splash of color is a definite improvement over the "old" new notes...(if that makes sense)....
I agree that the Mint seemed to have lost any artistic influence around the turn of the century with the last rendition of the "educational series " of notes. I guess that once a stable plataeu had been reached and confidence in the "green backs" was developed they did not want to take a chance on upsetting the "apple cart" so to speak by adding to or taking away from the design that was so trusted....
Coinnut 4

coppercoins · Site Admin

It would be the BEP (bureau of engraving and printing) not the mint. The US Mint handles the coins only, a different entity entirely.

coop · Expert Member

I like the classic look of the older bills. The educational notes and others that feature Liberty rather than dead Presidents. Not that they shouldn't be honored, but give us a break and give us something else. The classic looking coins featuring Liberty also are my favorites. Lets get back to basics and make a coin and bill of beauty rather than something just to circulate. JMOO