A Modest Currency Proposal

A Modest Currency Proposal

 

I propose that we redesign the currency. Instead of them all picturing dead presidents, one per denomination, I propose that each denomination picture a category of Americans: presidents on one denomination, actors on another, and so on. Here is the list:

 

1 dollar bill and 1 cent coin:

Presidents: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Abraham Lincoln

(those three at first; eventually all of them)

 

2 dollar bill and no coin:

Actors: Humphrey Bogart, John Wayne, Judy Garland

 

5 dollar bill and 5 cent coin:

Athletes: Babe Ruth, Hank Aaron, Jesse Owens

 

10 dollar bill and 10 cent coin:

Poets: Emily Dickinson, Walt Whitman, Robert Frost

 

20 dollar bill and 25 cent coin:

Inventors: Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Jonas Salk

 

50 dollar bill and no coin:

Writers: Mark Twain, James Branch Cabell, Ernest Hemingway

 

100 dollar bill and 50 cent coin:

Scientists: Benjamin Franklin, Richard Feynman

 

500 dollar bill and no coin:

Philosophers: William James, Ralph Emerson

 

1000 dollar bill and 100 cent coin:

Musicians: Louis Armstrong, Elvis Presley, John Coltrane

 

I put popular musicians over philosophers; which I think is an apt description of American values.

Note that having a 1-dollar coin would be a cheap way for a poor person to have an Armstrong or a Presley or a Coltrane.

Who would you recommend for third position for Scientists and Philosophers?