How do you feel about the controversy over a woman's image on the ten dollar bill?

Fighting over which one is just wasting time. As long as it’s a $5, $10, or $20 I’m fine with it. Not because of who is on it now, but because those bills are used a lot.

Why just one? If it’s because of cost I accept that as a prudent decision. If it’s because they only want to give one up to be a woman that bothers me. Why not have the bills change periodical and have a few faces rotating. I bet the majority of people don’t even know who is on what bill except for maybe Washington on the $1 bill.

Seems like the male politicians don’t want to see female in the bill and try to make it disappear little by little.

I would also prefer to see Jackson replaced than Hamilton. In general, the choice of who should be placed on currency should be based on merit, not gender. Unfortunately, women have not had the opportunity to gain the prominence that men have. Hopefully, that will be changing. I can accept having one token woman to start. After that they will have to earn it.

I don’t care about it all. I feel like it’s a weak token offer to make women feel like this is some sort of progress. It’s all bread and circuses.

Remember, even if all the bills had women on them, women would still earn less of them than men.

Why any politician or anyone else would oppose a woman’s face on a bill is totally beyond my comprehension. Nonetheless, woman, man or Fluther avatar, I could care less which as long as the bill spends.

I just had to chuckle a little as I thought about this more. Just a week ago my boss had some money out on his desk and I caught a glimpse of a one hundred dollar bill. It was so pretty. Very colorful. I asked him how long they have looked like that. He said about two years. Two years?! Do other bills look like that?

I’m thinking for me a woman on my credit card would get a lot more play than money. I use so little cash.

I agree with @keobooks totally. “Bread and circuses.”
Are we going to have to create new bills to accommodate ‘tokens’ for every race and gender in America?
I’m fine with the dead presidents. They shaped the country in which all the rest of us live in unprecedented prosperity. I’m not in favor of spending taxpayer money to make esoteric changeg to our currency.

@ibstubro Regarding expense, they do change the notes periodically anyway.

The fact that putting a woman on any currency is a “controversy” is very telling of how women are viewed. You can see it plainly in one of the replies above – a tolken woman is acceptable, but after that they will have to earn it.

There are plenty of women who have “earned it” and should be honored for their achievements. The only real question is should a bunch of dead presidents still be idolized, or should they be replaced by other, just as important people in US history? I think it’s time for a change.

We ought to be spending money on replacement designs. US currency is in the most demand and highly desirable to counterfeit. It used to be dead easy until some of these “esoteric” changes were made, and is still fairly easy. We won’t have that problem if the government keeps handing the country to the rich so they can outsource it to China. Of course the counterfeiters will not be so interested once the Yuan or Euro becomes the standard

I think we should keep what’s on the bills now. Why should we dump a president that was previously found worthy of a bill? I have no issue with a woman on a bill – but flip flopping faces just to have a woman seems like a blatant appeasement.

Why not make a $30 bill with a woman on it? And what woman are they going to choose? Are they going to dump the presidential theme too?

To me, the whole thing screams of crapping on our own history. Of course, some actually think that’s a good thing.

I’d rather see money designed so it’s finally accessible to the blind. It’s absolutely ridiculous that with all of the stuff being done to make the world wheelchair accessible, no ones deemed it important enough that blind people can recognize a bill in their hands without a special scanner. (Yes, they can fold up a bill so they can recognize it later. But without a scanner, I could hand any blind person a 1$ bill and tell them it’s 100$ and they’ll just have to trust me.)

Almost all the other countries have bills in different sizes. It’s not too much to ask.

Different sizes or Braille markings.

This is cool beyond words.

@Apparently_Im_The_Grumpy_One Not all US paper currency has a president’s face on it. Alexander Hamilton wasn’t; he’s on the $10. Benjamin Franklin’s face is on the $100 bill, and was also on a half-dollar coin for a limited period. Ever seen a $10K bill? I haven’t. It has a picture of Salmon P. Chase. Anyone know who that is without looking it up?

Oh yeah, the “women can have one token bill, but then they’d have to earn it”

Too late. We already got Sacagawea on a coin. We need to go earn this next one.

I’m still thrilled and feel so liberated about the Sacagawea coin. I’m sure all the folk on the reservation are grateful for it too.

Oh—and Susan B Anthony. I forgot that she actually made it to paper money. So we ladies got TWO free passes. We’ll have to work extra hard next time. I don’t think we’re ready for another bill so soon.

I was so busy experiencing the liberated joy of Sacagawea that I totally forgot Susan B Anthony.

Fun fact, of the 8 German DM bills, 4 were women.
And none of the 8 people were politicians, they were all artists, writers/poets, scientists.

Susan B. Anthony, @keobooks.

I just did a brush up on my American history and I, too, think that it should be Jackson replaced on the $20 over Hamilton on the $10. Hamilton was a hugely important founding father. Jackson was a huge slaveholder that was instrumental in putting the US on the road to hel the spoils system.

I agree with @Apparently_Im_The_Grumpy_One that we should leave the current line-up alone or create a new denomination.

@ragingloli makes a brilliant point, and one I’d love to see. Celebrate the arts and sciences rather than old pols. Although I think Washington should stay as our “token” politician

I shudder to think that President Obama is going to be given the ‘token black’ position on US currency. Not because he’s black, but because I think he’s been a poor president.

I hate the over-use of the word “controversy”.

It suggests there is a reasonable disagreement, instead of loud drooling knuckle-draggers having a tantrum.

To be clear -

- The U.S. Treasury was never considering replacing Jackson on the $20 bill. That was an unofficial campaign ran by private citizens and had nothing to do with the Treasury Department.

- The reason the Treasury is doing this with the $10 is because they had decided to do a redesign of the $10 bill anyway, to make it harder to counterfeit.

- Alexander Hamilton was never President. He was the first Secretary of the Treasury, and an influential figure in the fledgling days of our country, but he was never President.

- Hamilton isn’t being replaced. A certain percentage of the new $10 bills will still carry his portrait, and a certain percentage will carry the portrait of whoever they pick as the “token woman”.

- Anyone who takes issue with this is a troglodyte.

Tokenism:
noun
1. the practice or policy of making no more than a token effort or gesture, as in offering opportunities to minorities equal to those of the majority.
2. any legislation, admissions policy, hiring practice, etc., that demonstrates only minimal compliance with rules, laws, or public pressure:
Admitting one woman to the men’s club was merely tokenism.

So @ibstubro and @Apparently_Im_The_Grumpy_One, the group of men currently portrayed on the currency are the only important group in US history? How does change automatically mean we are crapping on our history? By this argument, we are crapping on other parts of history.

One could argue that Eisenhower and Roosevelt (both highly involved in WW II) should be on the currency. How about other important political, social, artistic or scientific figures who played important roles in history? Pearl Buck? Martin Luther King? John Glenn? Ceasar Chavez? Betsy Ross? Helen Keller? Among many others.

@ibstubro

This isn’t necessarily tokenism however. There’s going to be one woman now because there’s one bill slated for redesign now. The next bill up for redesign may include another.

I’m not sure it would be any great achievement to have a woman’s face plastered on anything notable for guaranteed depreciation.

I’m with you, @Inara27. As I said above, I’d be good with keeping Washington as our political representative and using arts and sciences for the rest.

It smacks of tokenism, @Darth_Algar.
” I can accept having one token woman to start.” was the only part of @LostInParadise‘s post I disagreed with.
@keobooks seems to have tokenism as her base of argument: ” I feel like it’s a weak token offer to make women feel like this is some sort of progress. It’s all bread and circuses.” and I agree with her.
I’m not opposed to a total redesign. I’d like to see influential Americans on the obverse and artistic renderings of American ideals (think Walking Liberty), icons (Statue of Liberty), and natural wonders (Grand Canyon) on the reverse. Basically an advertisement of what’s great in America.

@ibstubro

Maybe, maybe not. We’ll see in time I suppose.

@stanleybmanly we should always appreciate women. Quite right. *applauds

Personally, I would find nothing flattering about the symbolism involved with finding my face centered on something whose planned destiny is to grow old, filthy and wrinkled.

In fact, I would prefer no reminders in my pocket of the reasons I’ve restricted mirrors in the house to regions frequented exclusively by the missus.

I’d like to see animals on our bills, maybe endangered species, certainly more worthy than any human political animal. ( @stanleybmanly LOL…standing ovation! )
Reminds of the time I inadvertently wrote out my check to the IRS farm animal design checks on check #666 with 3 little pigs in a trough. So perfect it couldn’t have been better had I tried to send a subliminal message to Uncel Sam. haha

I’m just glad the United States has fixed all of it’s other problems so that this can be an issue to focus on.

I want the people who REALLY appreciate money to the point of being romantically involved with it to have the privilege of their mugs plastered on the stuff. Say (my personal idol) Scrooge McDuck.

I’m a Canadian and we have had a women on some of our bills like forever,about time you yankies caught up.

I like your country’s ideas on decorating your pretty money ever since the introduction of the loony.

Whatever happens, I hope one day there’s an American coin with a hole through the middle. I’ve got some from Japan. Absolute genius. Bi-metal coins are also super cool.

Also above all else, we need new colors in paper money. In almost every other country, wallets look like they are filled with rainbows. American wallets seem to be filled with spoiled spinach.

indeed

We certainly have the necessary firearms to blow holes in any and everything.

sorry tried to post a link to show you our 2 dollar coin but it didn’t work.

Different colours and sizes are a MUST! Also…. I currency reflects its culture. So… good on ya, ‘merica.

While I agree that tokenism is problematic, the US never seems able to progress to anything more substantial until it has had its moment of tokenism to ease the transition. As such, I’m all for a change in whose face is on our money even if it’s neither the biggest problem we’re facing nor anything like a real solution to any of the smaller problems we face. Because as purely symbolic as it is, it opens a door.

My own preference would be to replace Jackson with Martin Luther King Jr. and have Susan B. Anthony take over the quarter. But I’m not picky.

@Blondesjon “I’m just glad the United States has fixed all of it’s other problems so that this can be an issue to focus on.”

Because the country can only focus on one single thing at a time right? And, God knows, a redesign of a dollar bill (which would be happening anyway, regardless of the woman issue) is going to take up all the country’s time and resources for the next few years.

I feel terrible about it.

@Darth_Algar… It seems to be getting a lot more public attention right now than about 173 other issues that deserve it.

It’s a piece of colored paper we assign value to so that it can be traded in for goods and services that we usually don’t need. Get over yourself money.

@SQUEEKY2 “I’m a Canadian and we have had a women on some of our bills like forever,about time you yankies caught up.”

Well… we’ve only had the queen. I don’t think that’s grounds for moral superiority! No Canadian woman of note has ever been on a note.

And here’s a toonie for you. :)

Well, my. I sat back, watching. I was surprised how long it took before anyone pointed out that not all those dead men on our currency were past presidents. I was surprised how few seemed to know the significance of Hamilton being printed on some denomination, and why Jackson was such a poor choice to keep.
@Inara27 , nice. I don’t believe we have met. I hope to share space with you on Fluther more times in the future. I enjoyed the points you raised here.
@ragingloli , very nice, the information you provided here. I am glad to have the input from some livng in other countries.
@ibstubro , while I don’t feel the same about President Obama’s performance of his duties as do you, I like much most everything else you had to say.
@keobooks I am standing back from my computer, applauding. Also, “Spoiled spinach”’ ha ha, spot on!
@dappled_leaves , @SQUEEKY2 , now now, no need to butt heads over who has the best women!

@Darth_Algar , your information is interesting. It clarifies a couple of things for me. Maybe they are still open to suggestions. I like the idea of Hamilton residing ever on his sweet spot in the center of the obverse. Perhaps they could make a border around the bill of various cameo faces; Amelia, Rosa, Betsy, well, some of these…
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=great+american+women&qpvt=great+American+women&qpvt=great+American+women&FORM=IGRE
(Not the one hiding republicans)

In regards to tokenism, well, I don’t think that could apply here. The number of persons featured on paper American currency is such a small club, I don’t think even the number one could be considered a token, but rather a hard earned spot in a very exclusive group.

Did you know that they don’t usually put living people on currency (except for the British Monarch) because there is a still a chance they could disgrace themselves? New Zealand re-did their bank notes and it was decided unanimously that Sir Ed Hillary be put on the 5 dollar note, even though he was still living. I met him just after. I should have had him sign a couple for me. That appeals to the nerd in me.

No, @cazzie , I did not know that. Interesting.

Maybe the OP would agree to move this post to Social so the modded off comments would be restored?

Anybody here collect coins or currency from around the world? Pm me

Personally I think they should choose Jeannette Rankin, the first woman to be elected to the U.S. Congress (and at a time before women’s suffrage was universal).

@Darth_Algar ends the controversy.
A woman that used the political system to change the political system for the betterment of women.
“I may be the first woman member of Congress,” she observed upon her election in 1916. “But I won’t be the last..”
“I felt the first time the first woman had a chance to say no to war, she should say it.”

I tried to link the last two quotes to the source, and either the US House and Wiki links wouldn’t work here. Try searching her there?

Jeannette Rankin

I’d like to see less emphasis on political figures and more on people who did more than just be elected.

But in the age she lived in, Jeannette Rankin did amazing things. She was so lucky to be a woman of independent means and what she did with it was great.