Comments on: A Hundred Bucks Says You Won't Read This Story

A Hundred Bucks Says You Won't Read This Story

reenum — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 13:24:31 -0800

Esquire's Chris Jones looks at the old techniques used to make the new US $100 bill.

By: Thorzdad

Thorzdad — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 13:38:55 -0800

Another new Benjamin? How often do they redesign these things now? It makes me happy, though, that they're still using hand-engraving. Engravers are rock stars. A related question...Can one still spend the old, small portrait, non-security-strip $20 bills?

By: cjorgensen

cjorgensen — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 13:45:13 -0800

Related: EURion constellation It had a passing reference in the article, but makes interesting reading on its own.

By: Etrigan

Etrigan — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 13:49:12 -0800

Can one still spend the old, small portrait, non-security-strip $20 bills? They're still legal tender, but private businesses can refuse them, so don't go off on the guy working an overnight shift at the 7-11 who thinks it looks weird.

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 13:54:27 -0800

Unless you're more of a player than we think you are Esquire thinks I'm less of a player? This is a great article, once you get past the weird put-down or ironic compliment.

By: Grandysaur

Grandysaur — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 14:05:26 -0800

I want to see more images from the actual design process. All of Thompson's sketches from the process... Yeah, the machines are cool, but let me see his moleskine! Interesting article, thank you.

By: elizardbits

elizardbits — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 14:09:23 -0800

This article fails to highlight the best part of the new $100 bills, namely the fact that they were clearly designed in microsoft word using clip art.

By: brokeaspoke

brokeaspoke — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 14:13:26 -0800

Simply fascinating. Thanks.

By: glaucon

glaucon — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 14:30:34 -0800

By: Teakettle

Teakettle — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 14:37:18 -0800

I own that drafting brush. It is one of my most prized possessions. Charette #3650.

By: fatbird

fatbird — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 14:43:37 -0800

Weirdly, in this image, the watercolor set is crap--a Pelikan set of elementary school grade pan colors. I suppose that color work isn't a huge part of it outside of mockups, especially since their colors are apparently carefully designed by computers to be difficult, if not impossible, to reproduce by camera or photocopier, but still, you'd think they could spring for a Cotman travel set, at least.

By: stoneweaver

stoneweaver — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 14:56:32 -0800

Came here for clipart comment, left satisfied.

By: entropicamericana

entropicamericana — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 15:38:21 -0800

New money is so ugly. No, I mean the actual money. It's ugly. Especially the coins. They don't even SOUND like real money anymore. Now if you'll excuse me, there are some clouds that I need to go yell at.

By: ckape

ckape — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 15:56:17 -0800

I don't see how adding a simple gradient is suddenly means it was designed in Word, especially since the example given in that buzzfeed link has a lot more shading to make the digits look 3D.

By: graymouser

graymouser — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 15:58:02 -0800

I've always thought it was ridiculous that the US refuses to go over to dollar coins (discussed peripherally here with regard to dollar bill designs). I have a peculiar liking for the things, which most people regard as some kind of curse you incur from using a twenty to buy a ticket for a MetroCard or PATCO, or at a self-service parking lot. I always have one in the pocket of my winter coat, even though I never spend it, through force of habit. The dollar bill at this point feels wasteful. What was fascinating in this article is the love and care put into dollar bill designs, while most people I've heard voicing an opinion on recent US currency hold that it looks garish and awful.

By: ardgedee

ardgedee — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 16:05:01 -0800

> This article fails to highlight the best part of the new $100 bills, namely the fact that they were clearly designed in microsoft word using clip art. What? no. They don't look alike at all. The shapes of the characters are completely different. Color doesn't even have to be a consideration. Granted the big splash of "100" on the new bill is just as ugly as the one in MS Word, but if they actually look alike to anybody, all I can surmise is that the Fed did this specifically to make it easy to spot the stupid forgers.

By: sio42

sio42 — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 16:22:40 -0800

We get color on our money now? Neat. But i still use plastic for pretty much everything.

By: Zack_Replica

Zack_Replica — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 16:24:56 -0800

Well, it is pretty ugly money, and you've still got the God stuff on the back. It looks like it was designed by a committee. ...in a dark room. Canada's got the cool coloured polymer money that you can see through and Science! on the back of ours: the discovery of insulin, a DNA strand, and an ECG. And a woman scientist doing the Science! because Why The Hell NOT? You guys should march for nicer money. Or at least send a stern email.

By: scose

scose — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 16:27:05 -0800

The engravings on USA money are much more beautifully executed than any other currency I've seen. Our color palette and designs aren't always great but those engravers have got to be the cream of the crop.

By: Zenabi

Zenabi — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 16:29:22 -0800

I win.

By: Joe in Australia

Joe in Australia — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 16:36:00 -0800

But recently, Americans decided they liked jeans that stretched, so jeans companies began adding spandex to their fabric. Money with spandex in it wouldn't be money anymore ... But adding spandex would make your dollar go further.

By: pompomtom

pompomtom — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 16:46:33 -0800

...the most coveted bill in the world... Think I'd prefer a €500, but people are strange.

By: ckape

ckape — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 16:48:33 -0800

He was nineteen when he began working at the bureau, a talented high school art student with no formal training in currency design. That just makes me wonder where one would get formal training in currency design other than working for the Bureau of Engraving and Printing or a foreign equivalent.

By: Monday, stony Monday

Monday, stony Monday — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 16:50:15 -0800

It's a bit like Nuclear Submarine Operation; there are only a few organizations that do it. Although some countries outsource their money printing.

By: freakazoid

freakazoid — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 16:54:10 -0800

I love articles like this, but I really miss the artwork and design of the old US currency, so I keep old bills whenever I happen to get them as change. Unfortunately this happens less and less.

By: BlueHorse

BlueHorse — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 17:06:45 -0800

Well, it is pretty ugly money, and you've still got the God stuff on the back. LIAR! Any hunnert dollar bill in my pocket is a thing of awesome beauty. They're still legal tender, but private businesses can refuse them, so don't go off on the guy working an overnight shift at the 7-11 who thinks it looks weird. I got ~~panties~~ twenties older than some of those 7-11 clerks. Canadian money FTW!

By: mykescipark

mykescipark — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 17:09:37 -0800

Can one still spend the old, small portrait, non-security-strip $20 bills? International data point: When I was on Socotra in March, my translator told me that the local exchange guy had a policy of refusing the "new" $20 bills because he hadn't seen enough of them to know if they were real. So I was forced to use as many old $20s as I had in my possession ... which, in 2013, was not very many. He actually did refuse my newer bills all throughout my stay until, at the absolute end of my cash flow, I basically had to beg him to take my new ones.

By: IndigoJones

IndigoJones — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 17:25:50 -0800

I respect the craft a lot, but I hate the drift towards the look and feel of Monopoly money. I want pictures of mean men probably packing heat and a promise to give me precious metal on demand. In time I suppose we will get the money we deserve.

By: notsnot

notsnot — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 17:59:42 -0800

We got paid a couple weeks ago at the shop, a couple of these new hundreds for a new set of O2 sensors in a pickup truck. Upon seeing the bills in the hand of the customer, a friend, my brother-in-law (the boss) actually said, "What the fuck is *that*?!?" In other numismatic apocrypha, when I first got my camera converted to infrared, I was taking pictures of "still life"--whatever I had on hand--and discovered that five-dollar bills have banding in the ink that's only visible in the IR spectrum.

By: islander

islander — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 18:08:33 -0800

I'll take a suitcase full of colourful Benjamins over some digital dohicky of Bitcoins any day.

By: stebulus

stebulus — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 18:36:48 -0800

Canada's got the cool coloured polymer money that you can see through You can shine a laser pointer through our money too.

By: Greg_Ace

Greg_Ace — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 18:52:39 -0800

entropicamericana: New money is so ugly. I know dahling, aren't they simply dreadful? Mummy always said so.

By: kiltedtaco

kiltedtaco — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 19:25:44 -0800

All I want I from US currency is: 1) Dollar coins 2) All prices in stores to be tax-included which I think will generally lead to 3) the gradual elimination of all coins worth less than a quarter. This is one area where Europe just has things really right and we have it really wrong. Pennies, ugh!

By: Sys Rq

Sys Rq — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 19:31:59 -0800

New money is so ugly. It is, but ugliness is easier to see. Canadian money FTW! Our current crop of bills is basically okay, I guess, but it bugs me so much that the 2 on the $20 is in the wrong typeface.

By: ErWenn

ErWenn — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 19:32:10 -0800

What I can't figure out is why the U.S. is so resistant to doing anything with our bills to help the blind tell them apart. There must be a reason, but nobody's been able to give me a satisfactory explanation.

By: Etrigan

Etrigan — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 19:37:42 -0800

What I can't figure out is why the U.S. is so resistant to doing anything with our bills to help the blind tell them apart. Change is scary. Plus, there might be some cost for replacing bill-readers in vending machines and the suchlike. It's not a sufficient reason, but I'm sure there's some asshole lobbyist who harrumphs meaningfully every time the issue is raised.

By: savetheclocktower

savetheclocktower — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 20:01:09 -0800

kiltedtaco: "2) All prices in stores to be tax-included" Very, very hard to do in a nation where most counties/municipalities collect sales taxes at varying rates. The actual sales tax you pay often varies, even from a city to its suburbs.

By: srboisvert

srboisvert — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 20:04:37 -0800

What I can't figure out is why the U.S. is so resistant to doing anything with our bills to help the blind tell them apart. I vote for making them smell. $1 smells like nothing $5 smells like a big mac $10 smells like cheddar $20 smells like bacon $50 smells like steak $100 smells like vanilla.

By: elizardbits

elizardbits — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 21:21:19 -0800

CANADIANS PLZ CONFIRM OR DENY: do any of the new bills truly and factually smell like maple syrup?

By: PinkMoose

PinkMoose — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 21:24:56 -0800

yes.

By: bongo_x

bongo_x — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 21:48:43 -0800

This article fails to highlight the best part of the new $100 bills, namely the fact that they were clearly designed in microsoft word using clip art. Yeah, I'm not getting that.

By: Mental Wimp

Mental Wimp — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 21:57:28 -0800

Another new Benjamin? How often do they redesign these things now? Bragging time: While working at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, my sister co-led the design team for the redo time before last (prior to the colorization change). After a stint at Bank of Canada, she's back at the Fed. I've asked her about the secret anticounterfeit features, but she'd have to kill me if she told me.

By: Mental Wimp

Mental Wimp — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 21:58:10 -0800

$100 smells like vanilla. No, it smells like money.

By: Ivan Fyodorovich

Ivan Fyodorovich — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 22:33:21 -0800

"After a stint at Bank of Canada, she's back at the Fed." Maybe it's just me, but I think that "banknote scientist" is a very cool occupational title. I imagine an alarm going off at a major casino, your sister roaring up to the door in a Ferrari and red dress, sashaying out of the car and up to the panicked manager at the door, "Name's Church, Sara Church. Someone called for a Banknote Scientist?"

By: dhartung

dhartung — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 22:36:21 -0800

Yeah, I'm not getting that. Hey, Buzzfeed. When you use the Helvetica typeface in one place, and it looks the same as the Helvetica typeface you use in another place, that's a feature. It's, like, the point. What I can't figure out is why the U.S. is so resistant to doing anything with our bills to help the blind tell them apart. Well, it's been raised in the halls of Congress, but not passed into law as of yet. The BEP seems to be taking things more seriously in the past, working on such things as currency reader devices and, more recently, mobile apps. They claim they are working on "the raised tactile and large, high-contrast numeral features to be included in the next U.S. currency note designs." (I guess that's part of the orange 100, which should at least help the visually impaired.)

By: bongo_x

bongo_x — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 22:40:50 -0800

Yeah, I'm not getting that. Hey, Buzzfeed. When you use the Helvetica typeface in one place, and it looks the same as the Helvetica typeface you use in another place, that's a feature. It's, like, the point. What I meant to say was that I wasn't getting the point of the article.

By: mrhappy

mrhappy — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 22:41:00 -0800

Although some countries outsource their money printing. Yes, I know a guy who is responsible for printing several different currencies. He does very well for himself. (Relax, NSA, I'm not going to spill the beans)

By: polymath

polymath — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 23:00:55 -0800

The portrait of Franklin on the new hundreds looks to me like he's irritated at the bearer for spending so much money. I can almost see the thought bubble: "Fucking spendthrift..."

By: ROU_Xenophobe

ROU_Xenophobe — Mon, 09 Dec 2013 23:27:57 -0800

Very, very hard to do in a nation where most counties/municipalities collect sales taxes at varying rates. 100,000+ gas stations manage it, as do umpty-thousand movie theaters.

By: Goofyy

Goofyy — Tue, 10 Dec 2013 01:27:15 -0800

In some state, at least, it was by law that prices on merchandise were required to be marked without sales tax. The idea was that consumers be made aware of how much they're paying in sales tax. (I don't recall where this was, I've lived in a lot of states).

By: TWinbrook8

TWinbrook8 — Tue, 10 Dec 2013 06:14:44 -0800

They are phasing out the 1000 rupiah note in Indonesia and replacing it with a coin. It's the smallest denomination in paper money and worth roughly 10 cents. I am sad to see it go because I love having all my money in easy-to-see, lightweight notes and not have to fish around in the corners of my wallet for coins. There is a coin... discrepancy here, as often prices in a supermarket can not be achieved by the combination of coins in your possession resulting in more profit for market owners and little pieces of candy for yourself. Also, it's been my experience that money changers are very quick to learn about new currency designs and even quicker to refuse to take the "old" ones, as well as discounting any bill that has the slightest tear or wrinkle. I've actually ironed my paper money before going to the money changer.