New money

5 Comments

Y'all know that the new peach-and-blue $20 bill is now in circulation, yes?

(I knew the new bills were coming, but I had no idea when, perhaps because I don't watch TV so I missed the ad campaign.)

The Bureau of Engraving and Printing web page provides more details about the new bill's security features and such.

CNN has a cute little article about money that failed (I'm sad to see the Sacagawea dollar listed there—I certainly do my part to keep those in circulation), most notable for the note at the end about the "technicolor" $20 bill from the early 1900s, featuring George Washington's picture. If this weren't a CNN article, I'd be inclined to think it was a hoax.

I feel obliged, in connection with that last piece, to point to the classic $2 bill at Taco Bell story, which (along with Richard Aronson's entirely unrelated Tale of Eric and the Dread Gazebo) is one of my favorite Internet-circulated stories.

5 Responses to “New money”

  1. Jason Erik Lundberg

    Oh man, I love that $2 bill story. When I was a kid, every year for my birthday my great uncle Ben would send be a $2 bill, which to a kid equals an afternoon of sugar-induced euphoria. I couldn’t wait to spend them. And back then, this was the mid-80s I guess, they weren’t such a big deal. I’m sure I got some funny looks from cashiers and salespeople, but they always took the money.

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  2. Jay Lake

    I once spent about fifteen minutes arguing with two low-IQ types at the Avis rental car counter at Love Field, in Dallas, TX. They had looked at my Oregon driver’s license and informed me that I had to have a U.S. driver’s license to rent a car there. I pointed out that Oregon was a U.S. state. They insisted it was in Canada. What finally convinced them was that I had a numeric zip code on my home address, while I pointed out to them that Canadian zip codes (yes, I know they’re post codes) had letters *and* numbers.

    Of course, they only had my word for that…

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  3. Heather Shaw

    Man, Jay, that’s an amazing story. Sad too.

    I once waited tables at an upscale pub with another waitress who worked nights as a stripper (at another place). She once gave me a two dollar bill at the end of a very difficult lunch shift, telling me that it’s what strippers gave one another for good luck.

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  4. Will

    A friend from New Mexico has told me how in 1996, many New Mexicans were unable to get tickets to the Atlanta Olympics; apparently ticket purchasing is different if you’re from the US or a foreigner, and the people selling Olympic tickets domestically thought New Mexico was in Mexico.

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  5. Jon

    Wait a second!

    You mean there’s a New Mexico?

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