"Mike Dworetsky" wrote in message
...
Drago the Wolf wrote:
http://www.mydollarplan.com/new-100-dollar-bill/

I was a little disappointed with the back of the new $100 at first,
because I thought the low-vision numeral would be similar to the $10,
$20 and $50's, but now I grew to love both sides of the new $100 bill
and the $100 is now by far, my favorite of this series.

What sucks is, it is being released on Febuary 10 of 2011. I wonder
why so long, because they are likely just about to release the next
generation of U.S. currency. If the U.S. currency is going to be
redesigned every 7-10 years, 2011 when the new $100 bill comes out
will be 9 years since 2003, when the new colorized $20 bill came out,
so, following the release of the new $100 bill in 2011, we may be
hearing more about one of the already colorized denominations getting
a redesign again the following year in 2012, the 10 year mark.

I have heard a few things about the governement possibly changing the
size of all denomination paper money and probably the designs a bit
too, except the $1 and $2 bills. This really bothers me seeing as, I
live in a family of people with poor vision, and my mother can hardly
see without glasses, and has a hard time telling $1 and $2 bills apart
without her glasses unless they are right in her face. I myself am
20/400 vision in both eyes and can see all right, but am supposed to
wear glasses full time, but I only wear them when I drive or watch tv.
I just can't read things in the distance, but, in the future I may
depend on a different sized $2 bill. So I don't see why, if the
government does not want to redesign or change the size of the $1
bill, thats is all fine and dandy with me, but if all other
denominations are getting a redesign, as well as a resize, redesign
the damn $2 bill. I DO NOT want them to just stop printing $2s, I just
want them redesigned to make them more usable for those who use them.
Everything else, including the half dollar coin has a distinguishible
feature for the blind and visually impaired: its size. So, if the $1
and $2 bills remain the same size, and all other denominations will
change in size, the $2 bill would still be discrimitory against the
blind and visually impaired. Perhaps I should write THAT in a letter
to my government officials.

Regarding vision-impaired users and bank notes, the USA has finally taken
a lesson from the UK which has had bank notes of different sizes for
different denominations for decades. Similarly for the euro.


I wish they would just get rid of the rag $1 and $2 bucks.
Unfortunately, in the testimony I read, no denomination was considered
to be replaced with a coin, which is a real shame, because they could
really make a nice $2 coin distinguishible for the blind.

Much the same sentimentality was widely expressed in the UK 28 years ago
when the pound note was replaced by the pound coin. There was a lot of
opposition to doing away with it; you would have thought they were
proposing to murder babies or something.

For some reason (presumably there were thought to be votes in it)
politicians in the USA were opposed to replacement of the $1 by a coin,
and when you did get one it looked like a quarter. Eventually that was
fixed, except that apparently the note and coin circulate side by side.

The average life of a circulating $1 note must be a few weeks at most.
There are still 1983 1 pound coins circulating in the UK. The coin is far
cheaper to make when you factor in the lifetime factor.

The paper note is made from a renewable source while clad metal coins are
not. How much money would really be saved by eliminating the $1 bill while
continuing to print $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100 bills? Plus millions
of unused $1 coins. So far, no need for the expense of a security redesign
of the $1 bill either. BTW, are the latest plastic bills made from oil?

In the US, there likely are loads of one dollar coins remaining in storage
from 1979 that won't circulate largely because people don't care to use
them. Nowadays, people don't handle coins often enough for them to wear
out. Fifty years ago, it was common to receive well worn coins in change.
Today it's common to find fifty-year-old coins showing minimal wear among
your change, coins that would likely last another fifty years.