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Tuesday, January 14, 2014

Money, Money, Money

Why is paper money so unlovely -- so dull? This isn’t the case for all countries but it’s sure as hell true here in the good ol’ US of A.

Compare ours with:

The pre-Euro French 50 Franc note sporting Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, the author of The Little Prince.

The Deutsch Mark 50 with Germany’s main man Baroque/Rococo architect Balthasar Neumann.

How’s ‘bout the Dutch 50 guilder note with it’s brilliantly sublime sunflower?

The early 20th century Austrian 50 Kronen note featuring  a snippet of a Koloman Moser painting?

Even the Euro, though not as interesting as the bills it replaced, isn't so dull.

The Australian 50 with preacher, inventor and writer, David Unaipon?

Why is US currency so colorless? Yes, yez, it's green. We have greenbacks (though the fronts are green too) but it's a dreary, ultra serious, eat-your-cabbage green.

And the faces on the bills are, with two exceptions, presidents.
Washington on the one dollar bill, Jefferson on the deuce, Lincoln is a fin, Hamilton a sawbuck, Andrew Jackson's on the 20, Ulysses S. Grant is featured on the 50 and Benjamin Franklin rocks the hundred.

Why not put some of our tremendous artists and authors on there?

I'm all in favor of having Emily Dickenson on the one dollar bill.

We could have an image of Deborah Butterfield's magnificent horse sculptures on a fiver.

Mark Twain's visage on the ten?

John Singer Sargent's Portrait of Madame X can vogue it out on the double sawbuck.

How about Miles Davis on the 50? Change the color -- make it Kind of Blue.

And what about giving Mister Franklin a break? The late great Thelonious Monk can step in. A yard could be known as a Monk instead of a Benjamin.

Ya know, c'mon already! We've had and have some amazing creators in this country. Let's have them represent us monetarily, eh?
Money -- Liza Minnelli, Joel Grey

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