Who is on your money?

[Ramo]

Richard Feynman and Enrico Fermi. American physicists (although Fermi didn't grow up here IIRC).

[OzzyKP]

Oh yea, cause if you are gonna honor physicists who didn't grow up here, they clearly beat out Einstien.

[Ramo]

Fermi came here as relatively young IIRC.

But Einstein too.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Oh yea, cause if you are gonna honor physicists who didn't grow up here, they clearly beat out Einstien.

Though I'd put Edison on a US bill first. Btw, the US just got new $20s, and damn do they look like European clown money .

[self biased]

hey. i think those new 20's are dead sexy.

[:) Smiley]

Essentially the same as the old 'new 20' though looks like it's been acid washed. Haven't seen one in person yet myself.




Compare to old style of $20 bill (now only the $1 bill has this style, since no-one bothers to counterfeit 1's.)



While I was searching for pics I came across this rather interesting trick you can do by folding a 20: http://www.citizensoldier.org/twentybuckpics.html

[:) Smiley]

some more interesting stuff

[Buck Birdseed]

My, my, you americans need practice making coloured money don't you? The new 20-dollar bill looks like Soviet-era eastern european money.

(Last time I made this exact post I included links to some specimens of said currency types, but I can't be bothered now.)

[rixxe]

10 franc banknote:
Le Corbusier (Charles Edouard Jeanneret),1887-1965
Architect, town planner and theoretician, painter, sculptor and writer.
20 franc banknote: Arthur Honegger, 1892-1955, Composer.
50 franc note:
Sophie Taeuber-Arp, 1889-1943
Painter, Sculptress, Craftswoman
100 franc banknote:
Alberto Giacometti, 1901-1966
Sculptor, Painter and Draughtsman
200 franc banknote:
Charles Ferdinand Ramuz, 1878—1947
Writer
1000 franc banknote:
Jacob Burckhardt, 1818-1897
Historian of art and culture

[Giovanni Wine]

Originally posted by Ramo
Fermi came here as relatively young IIRC

I doubt he was very young... as he was already teaching Physics at the Roman University.

(one very famous student of him is Ettore Majorana... a genius who unfortunatly disappeared)

Saluti

[mindseye]

The Peoples Republic of China has two forms of currency in circulation. The older features images of various Chinese people from different walks of life: old & young, workers, farmers, minority groups, etc. They are actually quite nice.

The boring new currency (about five eyars old) features Mao, Mao, and Mao.

[Stefu]

5 euros: A stupid friggin' bridge
10 euros: A stupid friggin' bridge
20 euros: A stupid friggin' bridge
50 euros: A stupid friggin' bridge

All the rest of them have stupid friggin' bridges, too. GRR! IT'S NOT REAL MONEY WITHOUT DEAD WHITE (well, unless they're colored) MALE (occasionally female) HEADS!

The old Finnish money had dead white male heads as any proper money should:

20 marks: Väinö Linna, a writer

50 marks: Alvar Aalto, an architect

100 marks: Jean Sibelius, a composer

500 marks: Elias Lönnrot, a writer

1000 marks: Anders Chydenius, an economist

There really ought to be some sort of a way to put guy heads in the Euro money. I suggest going with the founding fathers of Europe theme.

[Skanky Burns]

Behold, colour.

[:) Smiley]

Whats up with European currency coming in so many different sizes of bills?

[MikeH]

Most countries do that don't they? US is the only one I've been to that doesn't. Partly so blind people can tell the difference between notes from touch.

[Rufus T. Firefly]

Turkish coins and currency all features on their fronts the face of Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the leader of the Turkish War of Independence and first President of the Republic. The coins (50,000 lira, 100,000 lira, and 250,000 lira) all have their demoninations written on their reverse. The bills have various Turkish monuments accomplishments on their backs:

500,000 lira: The war memorial at Chanakale (better know to you all as Gallipoli)

1,000,000 lira: The Ataturk hydroelectric dam

5,000,000 lira: Anitkabir (Ataturk's masoleum)

10,000,000 lira: Piri Reis's 1513 map of the world, one of the first to show the Americas

20,000,000 lira: The ruins of Ephesus (yes, paiktis, I know, I know -- it's Greek, not Turkish. But it's here).

[Bereta_Eder]

Good. As long as it is recognized as Greek, as it is, no problem.

On a humorous note, I took a cab in Constantinople and there you pay in millions turkish liras. So it is very easy to be fooled and confuse all those zeros. The taxi driver was Kurdish (or so he said after I told him I was Greek) and told me a touching story of how his sons are rotting in turkish prisons because they are Kurds.
He proceeded in completely ripping me off.
I gave him 1000000 lirra he said sorry that is 100000. But what he did was changing it very fast with a lesser note after I gave the note to him.
Clever little bastard, ripped me off royally. He could easily compete with the Greek taxi drivers.

[Urban Ranger]

We are probably the only place where there are 3 private banks (instead of the central bank) that can issue banknotes. There are $10, $20, $50, $100, $500, and $1000 banknotes, making it a total of 18 different designs.

[Gramphos]

Originally posted by Buck Birdseed
1 krona (new design, just changed):
silver, king on front, crown on back

Weren't there two versions of then new verion. Or do I rembmber wrong?

(I think that there were one that only where made in a serie of 100 000 and then changed due to the picture of the king being to old)

5 kronor:
silver, king's name cypher on front, butt-ugly 70s-designed denomination on back

There are still some of the old design circulation (especially the 1972ers (I don't have one of them right and don't remember what king is on them)
There have also been 5 kronor notes, but they haven't been printed since the 60s IIRC and I don't know what picture they had.

10 kronor:
gold, king on front, denomination/three crows on back

Don't forget the old 10 kronor note (no longer valid) They had Gustav VI Adolf on the front, in green color, and the wepon in blue and red, and the back were some strange mix of purple and green.

50 kronor:
yellowish, 19th-century soprano Jenny Lind on front, Key Harp (trad swedish musical instrument) on back

I remember there were an old design sometime when I was small, then they disappered for some years (still valid, but no new were being made) and than these turned up.

[Az]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
We are probably the only place where there are 3 private banks (instead of the central bank) that can issue banknotes. There are $10, $20, $50, $100, $500, and $1000 banknotes, making it a total of 18 different designs.

Not so. Scotland is that way, too. The system is esp. stupid since Scottish pound and English Pound are basically the same. Scottish pounds are easier to forge, though.

Oh, and our later series of notes are all of the same size, too.

[Ben Kenobi]

Most countries do that don't they? US is the only one I've been to that doesn't. Partly so blind people can tell the difference between notes from touch.

Or you could just have braille on the note, like we do. All our bills are the same size.

[General Ludd]

Originally posted by Ben Kenobi


Or you could just have braille on the note, like we do. All our bills are the same size.

There's braille on the paper notes?

I don't believe you. And even if there was, it would be useless with notes that have been in circluation a while - after they're all wrinkled and worn.

[Monk]

The value of coins have historically been related to whatever material they were printed in and so the most valuable ones - 20 and 10 DKR - resemble gold and the lesser ones silver and copper. On the biggest coin seems to be a horrific picture of somebody who after closer examination appears to be the queen and then on the back you have sign of the three lions used by Danish kings for 800 years or so. At one point I had a theme coin featuring the city hall of Aarhus on one side and there have been a few others as well.

On the notes, they took the sensible choice not to include any royals but rather people who made some sort of important contribution. Earlier the bank notes featured people nobody knew at all, but now, we've got narrator Karen Blixen, also known as Isak Dinesen, composer Carl Nielsen, actor Johanne L. Heiberg, scientist Niels Bohr (and his pipe!) and finally the painters Anna and Michael Ancher. Although I must admit the Danes didn't knew all of them either (especially Heiberg), so don't feel bad anyone. And on the back of each there are some pictures from various churches around the country.

It seems neither Hans Christian Andersen or Søren Kierkegaard were found worthy of a bank note, but the website of the National Bank indicated that might have to do with the lack of good portraits. But it's probaby because it's just too bloody obvious.

[Starchild]

Originally posted by Azazel


Not so. Scotland is that way, too. The system is esp. stupid since Scottish pound and English Pound are basically the same. Scottish pounds are easier to forge, though.

Basically the same? They are the same, ie, British Pound Sterling. It's just that in England and Wales, the Bank of England prints the notes, in Scotland the Royal Bank of Scotland, the Bank of Scotland, and the Clysdale Bank print notes, and in Northern Ireland a couple Northern Irish banks print notes. I've handled a few Scottish notes and the new ones have all the security features you'd find on English notes.

The irony of the system though is that only English notes are actual legal tender. Scottish notes, while used as money, are not actually legal tender and can be refused by merchants if you attempt to pay in them.

[Immortal Wombat]

And *are* refused by customers if you attempt to give them in change. Silly customers.

[Starchild]

The excuse my store uses is that we dont' know the security features on Scottish notes so we can't tell forgeries. Which is a blatant lie as we've got a blacklight scanner and no forger who puts UV ink on his notes is going to get caught by us no matter what we do.

[Hagbart]

Originally posted by Monk
....On the notes, they took the sensible choice not to include any royals but rather people who made some sort of important contribution. Earlier the bank notes featured people nobody knew at all, but now, we've got narrator Karen Blixen.....

Danish notes:

[Hagbart]

Danish coins:

[Peter Triggs]

Starchild

in Northern Ireland a couple Northern Irish banks print notes.

I once saw a £5 note from one of those banks that was, I think the word is 'plasticized', i.e. it was stiff with what appeared to be plastic coating. The Irish bloke said that they got the idea from the Australians: putting a plastic coating on the bills kept them from getting soggy in the pockets of the surfers.

Was this total BS, or can any Australian confirm this?

[Skanky Burns]

Aussie notes are polymers. Pretty much feel like plastic, but can still be torn. They are a hell of a lot stronger than paper notes though, which I remember very vaguely from childhood. Our money is colourful, strong and features lots of security, erm, features.

And yes, they most certainly are waterproof. I just tested that with a 20. Can you wash your money under tap-water?