Critique on plans for the US dollar redesign
Edward Rothstein, a critic working for The Wall Street Journal, has written a very interesting opinion piece on the proposed redesign of the US dollar notes. If you recall, the plans are for the 5-, 10- and 20-dollar notes to get a big makeover with several new faces added the notes, amongst them no less than 8 women who played a part in the abolishment of slavery, civil rights movement and women's right to vote.
His critique is both directed at the choice and combination of people ("a potpourri of portraits") but also the incoherent imagery the dollars will get.
"Alexander Hamilton, the founding father of America’s economic system, stays on the $10 bill, but the institution on the back—the U.S. Treasury—will now appear as a backdrop for the 1913 Women’s Suffrage Parade, accompanied by images of almost a century of suffrage leaders (...) The Treasury is on the back of Alexander Hamilton’s bill because he was the first Treasury secretary and helped shape conditions for the prosperity and power that the building represents. Now that structure will be the backdrop for an event that has nothing to do with Hamilton or the monetary system."
It's a very interesting observation in my opinion. I for one am very curious how the designers of the new note will deal with all the different images they want to show.
Photo: German actress Hedwig Reicher wears the costume of "Columbia" with other suffrage pageant participants standing in background in front of the Treasury Building in Washington, District of Columbia, on March 3, 1913. The performance was part of the larger Suffrage Parade of 1913.
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