Why, oh why, oh why, does the US Treasury insist on continuing with single-size, single-color banknotes regardless of denomination? Most everywhere else I've ever visitied or lived, has banknotes of differing sizes and colors for different denominations. Here's just a couple of examples - the Australian Dollar and the Euro:
http://www.snikte.net/images/ausnotes.jpg
http://www.snikte.net/images/euroset.jpg
When handing over a wad of these notes, you can see at a glance whether you're handing over what you expected, without having to examine every note in the pile to make sure you haven't slipped a twenty in with that pile of singles. Furthermore, it only takes a quick glance in your wallet to know if you have enough for dinner or if you need to hit the ATM along the way.

Visually impaired folks must absolutely hate the uniformity of the USD.

So, what do you reckon? Is it time we moved into the 21st century (or even caught up to the 20th!), or should the greenback remain unchanged forever?

on top of that, there's the anti-counterfieting motive too... not that counterfeit bills really work in the 'States, but internationally, in second and third world economies with very weak currency (ie: a lot of places in S. America, Russia, for example) it would (and probably has) proliferate(d) to some extent, which is something completely ignored in the price of the AllMighty Dollar...

Canada's mint has recently gone about changing all of our bills, maybe with such an intention of strengthening international confidence in our northern buck... and to make it look prettier ;)

Why?

In a word, tradition.

Personally, I wouldn't like different size notes. I've been to other countries with different sizes and I kept dropping the smaller ones on the floor because they got stuck between two bigger ones.

As far as counterfitability, the recent (last 10 year) revamp of the US currency has introduced a number of very difficult to copy features. For example, microprinting, color refractive material, imbedded metallic strips, etc.

Besides, and this is just me, I can't think of the last time that I spent more than $100 cash on anything. I know there are still a lot of people out there that cash their checks and put all their money into their wallets but I think most of the (industrial) world is moving more and more to electronic payment methods. For this reason, I don't really see the US treasury redesigning it's currency in the near or intermediate future.

Just my $0.02 :D

keeping the traditional greenback theme also conveys a sense of stability in its value, which is the utmost important thing for any country's currency :)

I'll keep looking for Ben & George & Ulysses & Andrew's heads to see if I have enough for dinner ;)

Originally posted by Aesculapius
...but I think most of the (industrial) world is moving more and more to electronic payment methods. For this reason, I don't really see the US treasury redesigning it's currency in the near or intermediate future.Exactly. Electronic is the future. Paper is on the way out.

As much I loved the beautiful currency when I lived in Brazil, I could wallpaper my entire room with it for less than buying the wallpaper.

Originally posted by Puppy1
Paper is on the way out.

don't be so sure: the whole world isn't the USA... i'm not trying to be pretentious or anything, but most of the world BADLY needs cash to facilitate what economy they have: it's a nearly perfect commodity... perfectly liquid, perfectly redeemable and acceptable... electronic "cash" (chequing) is nice and everything, but the more that the banks have to do, the more friction it'll cause in the economy, and eventually the more it'll cost us... now, of course they're doing a great job to minimize the work they have to do, but the cost and the work is still there... hmmmm... well, supposing that the cost generated by electronic transition is overcome by the social security benefits (electronic money being harder to steal in most ways, and all), the infrastructure has to be there; the banks, the network, the terminals, the cards... it'll be decades for some countries to get a system working. the beauty of cash is that you don't need any of that, just a price... and everyone has their price ;)

I seriously doubt that the cost of electronically processing transactions would be more than cash.

With cash, the banks will still have to pay someone to sort/clean/count it, so there's still plenty of work, only different tasks. Also, minting/printing currency is expensive, and it only lasts a few years of actual use before it needs to be replaced.

Machines for processing cash, ie bill acceptors, counters/sorts, etc, are more complicated, more expensive, and need to replaced more often than a simple credit card scanner (because they have more moving parts).

Personally I wouldn't like different sized bills but I like our Canadian different colour scheme. If you have wallet with pink and brown bills you are a happy guy. :)

I think it would be more cost effective for the US to use the same design and materials the for currency. That way new equipment will not be needed to be made for the new bills and you know there is a steady supply of whatever is needed to make them.

Its just an opinion. but I do like to see a whole new radical design. I like to see something like dollar bills with holograms coming out of it..hehe:D

Originally posted by Aesculapius
Why?

In a word, tradition.
That is exactly how I feel. I don't know about others, but I love the feel of a nice crisp bill. I also just like the look. I agree they could be made in to more artistically pleasing designs, but for me the look of the bill is beautiful to me.

Originally posted by Y&Y
I like to see something like dollar bills with holograms coming out of it.

Actually, when the US redesigned their currency, they attempted to put a hologram on it. The problem showed up with the crusher. Its this thing that rolls up a bill and then crushes it down to about the size of a marble. They do this and other things to abuse the new bills to see what will happen with wear. The holograms on plastic like material didn't hold up. So what they did instead was to grind up that same holographic material into a powder and then us it in the printing on a specific portion of the bill. They put it as the denomination in the lower right corner of the new bills. As the light changes, the refraction and color changes as well. This method passed the crush test.

Originally posted by m477
I seriously doubt that the cost of electronically processing transactions would be more than cash.

Machines for processing cash, ie bill acceptors, counters/sorts, etc, are more complicated, more expensive, and need to replaced more often than a simple credit card scanner.

hmmmm... you may have a point. but again, the capital costs and technology hurdles are so high that cash is the only viable solution for developping economies... also, human labour for counting/sorting the cash would be cheaper than having machines that do it in an underdevelopped economy, often (demand for labour and whatnot)...
minting isn't always a problem for severely underdevelopped countries, as they have an economy which would run on foreign currency (like the Greenback) ;)

I'm for keeping it as is. Not for tradition, but for my wallet.

US Currency is hard to fake for two reasons:

1. Paper material
2. How the green ink is manufactured

Getting a US dollar bill to look like a US dollar bill is easy. And counterfeits have been and probably always will float around in Europe, especially the middle east. Most people don't know but Kennedy gave the Shah of Iran a US minting machine as a gift. Why he did this...I have no idea....maybe it's the reason the Secret Service allowed him to get shot, stupid theory, probably doesn't float anyways.

The US Treasury dept obviously did their homework when it came to choosing the paper material. The paper is drawn from a particular type of tree only found somewhere in the US. I'm pretty sure it's a federal crime to chop one of these trees down. On top of that, the green dye used is also naturally extracted from an indigenous environment somewhere in the US. I forget what I read in a book about the secret service cause all that was interesting were the raids on couterfeit operations :)

I think those two properties alone pretty much give the world and the US security that no one else could be manufacturing fake dollar bills.