January 13, 2022

"A plan announced in 2015 to replace Founding Father Alexander Hamilton on the $10 bill was reversed a year later, due in part to the massive success of Broadway musical 'Hamilton.'"

"Instead, the Treasury Department announced that a vignette of suffrage movement leaders would appear on the back of the currency — a redesign that will not enter circulation until 2026. Another effort under the Obama administration to replace Andrew Jackson, the president responsible for the 1830 Indian Removal Act, with abolitionist Harriet Tubman on the $20 bill was shelved by the Trump Administration. After taking office last year, President Biden pledged to revive the plan and 'speed up' the process, but Tubman is still not set to appear on the bill by the end of Biden’s first term, or a potential second term, The Washington Post reported. Production for new paper currency faces major holdups, driven by a need for new anti-counterfeiting features and court injunctions calling for bills to include 'meaningful access' for people who are blind or visually impaired. Coins, on the other hand, have seen frequent redesigns...."


The "heads" side of the coin still has George Washington (as is legally required), though they've switched to a version of him facing in the other direction — sculpted by a woman. So these new images of women are on the "tails" side. I hope this doesn't lead to any arguments over coin flips. Call "heads" to be safe.

66 comments:

Jake said...

Tails never fails.

Kevin said...

I have barely handled cash at all in the last 2 years, and barely did prior. I often forget it even exists and am surprised when I see all the redesigns that have happened to it over the years. I know people like me are the problem, because electronic transactions are easier to track and control, but it is just how it's turned out for me.

mikee said...

These new coins would be different from those millions and millions of coins minted over the past century, the coins that are unavailable in large enough numbers now that retailers are often unable to make change for purchases? Because the new coins would be available for use, right? Not just vaporware?

Wince said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Original Mike said...

"The "heads" side of the coin still has George Washington (as is legally required), though they've switched to a version of him facing in the other direction — "

Your tax dollars at "work"…

What a waste.

What's emanating from your penumbra said...

Call "heads" to be safe.

I haven't seen the image choices, but if my imagination is correct, I love this idea of putting ladies on the "tails" side of coins.

Lem the artificially intelligent said...

Obama must be very proud. Link

M said...

Maya Angelou was a whore and a madam. She manipulated young women into selling themselves to men. Do you ever get the feeling the misogynists are laughing at you? You should.

Joe Smith said...

Even our money is woke.

We are so fucked.

gahrie said...

Your tax dollars at "work"…

What a waste.


Actually this is one of the few times where the government makes money. Every one of these new quarters that is put into a coin collection is effectively a 25 cent profit for the government.

What's emanating from your penumbra said...

Is it feasible to convert to 3-sided coins and have a "boobs" side? Just brainstorming about ways to balance all these years of putting men on the currency.

gspencer said...

"Anyone here have change for a Tubbie?"

Iman said...

Where’s Rev. Al’s one thin dime?

Ceciliahere said...

Take Hamilton off the bill and put Lin Manuel Miranda on it. The Puerto Rican Hamilton. Problem solved.

rhhardin said...

All the women on the money is what's causing the devaluing of the currency and inflation.

rhhardin said...

I gave up on interest in it when they passed over the tornado and trailer park design for the NC quarter.

Drago said...

The answer is simple: George Floyd on all US currency....but it has to be a picture of him holding the gun to the pregnant woman's belly....in a "humanitarian" and "earthly messiah" way, naturally.

Perhaps borrow an obama "halo" the media used so often to deliver that effect.

madAsHell said...

They'll keep Hamilton, but add melanin to the photo. Win, win!!

gilbar said...

Production for new paper currency faces major holdups

primarily, the fact that they're Not Sure how many Zeros each should have
will the replacement for the $20, be a $20,000 note? a $20,000,000 note? or Larger?

PM said...

Having black people on money will not guarantee black people will have more money.

Michael said...

Maya! Dear God.

gilbar said...

Seriously, What's the point of making a bill that will be obsolete in two months?
Also, maybe we'll need to skip zeros, and just use letters?

"Hey, can i buy a pack of joints, for a $20m(eg) note?"
"No WAY man, what do you think this Is?? last week? A pack will cost you $20t(er)

tim maguire said...

I'm fine with the revolving door of people on coins--the quarter has been an etch-a-sketch for decades; there probably 100 different versions in circulation.

But why Maya Angelou? If it weren't for Bill Clinton, she'd be just another forgotten liberal arts professor beloved by publishers of poetry books with a circulation suspiciously similar to the number of poets inside.

Bilwick said...

That's DOCTOR Maya Angelou to you, peasants!

gahrie said...

Just brainstorming about ways to balance all these years of putting men on the currency.

Actually as far as coins go, women have been on American coins much longer than men. Prior to the civil war, all US coins had women on them, not men. (Various versions of Lady liberty)

The first men to appear on coins were an American Indian on the penny and the nickel.

Washington didn't go on the quarter until 1930.

MayBee said...

The representation of Maya Angelou looks so unlike her, they could just keep that likeness and every so often announce it's a different person.

Tom T. said...

Tubman wasn't shelved under Trump.

Paul said...

Our government is ran by a bunch of coneheads that spend money like it's being printed by the hay bale (which actually it is.)

No wonder we have so much inflation now...

FJB.

Lurker21 said...

Why not just cut out the middlewoman and put Kamala on the money?

Ficta said...

"But why Maya Angelou? If it weren't for Bill Clinton, she'd be just another forgotten liberal arts professor beloved by publishers of poetry books with a circulation suspiciously similar to the number of poets inside."

Schoolkids in vast numbers read her autobiography (and did before Bill Clinton, I'm pretty sure). She was nominated for the National Book Award in 1970. So she is, at least, very well known for that book; so much so that the Venture Bros creators could name an episode "I Know Why The Caged Bird Kills" and expect everyone to get the joke.

What's emanating from your penumbra said...

"She was nominated for the National Book Award in 1970."

Well, that explains it!

MikeR said...

Time to cancel Hamilton and Washington.
Does anyone else think that the Democratic Party is cancel-able? It was literally the slavery party, literally the party of Jim Crow. Granted, it's "evolved" and now all is sweetness and light. But its racist past still stirs up painful emotions in those of us who hate racism and care about decency.
I for one don't think that changing its name is enough. If the only solution for a big rock which once had an offensive name is removal and destruction, how much more so for such a party.
So you form a new party with a new name, and everyone needs to re-register for it. And we will notice if the same old people just register for the new party! You think we won't catch on to your games.

Andrew said...

@MayBee,
"The representation of Maya Angelou looks so unlike her, they could just keep that likeness and every so often announce it's a different person."

LOL.
"Generic black woman, with wings like eagles."

NorthOfTheOneOhOne said...

"A plan announced in 2015 to replace Founding Father Alexander Hamilton on the $10 bill was reversed a year later, due in part to the massive success of Broadway musical 'Hamilton.'"

One wonders if the majority of people who have seen 'Hamilton' know that Alexander Hamilton is on the ten dollar bill?

John henry said...

Remember when they put Susan B Anthony on coins?

Anyone ever seen one? Received one in change?

Probably not, unless you've been to Ecuador. They use the us$ as national currency and apparently got a good deal on Susie's.

I never saw a dollar bill but got Susies every time I bought something

When I got home I got $20 worth from my bank and had fun getting McDonald's clerks to accept them.

They often had to ask the manager if they were really money.

John LGBTQBNY Henry

CJinPA said...

A nation obsessed with promoting its historic inadequacies is not long for this world.

This is truly sick. Women and minorities will achieve such celebratory status in time, honestly, if you just ensure equal opportunity and don't try to artificially engineer it.

John henry said...

North,

I wonder if the majority of people who have seen Hamilton realize he was not black?

That he was a white man

John LGBTQBNY Henry

John henry said...

Fiesta,

Which autobiography?

Wikipedia says she wrote 7.

n.n said...

That [Hamilton] was a white man

A Person of [All] Colors, dispersed, distributed, and destroyed under the Rainbow model of diversity, inequity, and exclusion.

cubanbob said...

Instead of this woke garbage rather put portraits of posthumous of Medal Of Honor recipients. And bring back the thousand dollar bill and ten thousand dollar bill. Enough with presumption that everyone who pays with cash is a criminal. Free people do not need to justify how and to whom they spend their money on provided it isn't for illicit purposes.

n.n said...

A nation obsessed with promoting its historic inadequacies is not long for this world.

Not the nation, but several unscrupulous parties for leverage and profit. They think that they can abort the baby, cannibalize her profitable parts, sequester her carbon pollutants, and have her, too. Time will tell if they will not self-abort while playing with the double-edged scalpel.

n.n said...

Xhosa vs Zulu. Hutu vs Tutsi. Kenyan elite vs deplorables. Hmm.

n.n said...

Maya Angelou was a whore and a madam. She manipulated young women into selling themselves to men.

#HerToo, yes. 50 shades of Weinstein and Oprah, Epstein and Maxwell, Brown and Harris, Clinton and Clinton, et al.

Conrad said...

"Does anyone else think that the Democratic Party is cancel-able? It was literally the slavery party, literally the party of Jim Crow. Granted, it's "evolved" and now all is sweetness and light. But its racist past still stirs up painful emotions in those of us who hate racism and care about decency."

Yes, I have thought about that and I agree. If it's no longer tolerable to commemorate American figures who were slaveholders or who fought for the CSA, the Democratic Party should obviously change its name. You don't need to go back any further than the 1960s to find plenty of Dems in good standing who were outright segregationists. I believe all of the Southern states throughout the entire era of Jim Crow were solidly Dem. And if the party itself has essentially cancelled its own founders (Jefferson and Jackson), why keep the name? They should change it to the "Woke Party," the "Socialist Party," the "Anti-Free-Speech Party," or some other name that's more in line with their present goals and outlook.

Scot said...

They put women on the "tails" side.
The joke writes itself.

Joe Smith said...

'I wonder if the majority of people who have seen Hamilton realize he was not black?

That he was a white man'

But he 'identified' as black, and that's what matters.

He was the Shaun King of founding fathers...

Steven said...

I wonder how they came up with the women to be on the quarters? An actress, an author, a political activist, the third woman in space, and a not-so-famous suffragist. This is the best they could come up with? If the goal is to highlight the influence of women, these choices seem to have rather the opposite effect. Sacajawea, Susan B Anthony, and Harriet Tubman make a lot more sense.

tim maguire said...

Ficta said...She was nominated for the National Book Award in 1970.

Are you suggesting this disproves my statement? (I'm going to need evidence on the schoolkids prior to Clinton claim. I'm one of them, was well read, and never heard of her.)

tim in vermont said...

"Heads or trim?"
"Bro or ho?"

exhelodrvr1 said...

Bros before hos

Andrew said...

Hamilton was Jewish.

StephenFearby said...

Since George Washington also was a slave owner, he also should be canceled.

Message to the Biden Administration: What part of Full-Blown Woke don't you understand?

Bart Hall said...

.
The US Mint has long had a case of numismatic diarrhœa. Most of the "commemorative" silver half dollars [first half of the 20th c] were quite well done and usually meaningful. Many of them actually circulated, especially in the '30s. The Bicentennial 25c, 50c, and 1$ were all well done and appropriate.

It began to fall apart in the late '90s with the "state" quarter series, spewed out for a decade, though some of the designs were excellent. Many, however, were busy, confusing, and pointless. The revised Jefferson portrait for the Lewis & Clark nickels is atrocious, as are nearly all 3/4-profile rendition. Unfortunately, the Mint continued the practice, repeatedly with the Presidential dollars beginning in '07.

Now we're at the point of putting Angelou on the back-side of a quarter. If they wanted an American poet, many more were vastly superior to Angelou, but she checks TWO boxes on the diversity list. Oh,, yes, and we get an Indian and an Asian amongst the five, as well -- the wokester trifecta may be popular with certain small sectors of society, but for me, and any serious collector ... it's pointless pandering.

Too much of it. Too often. And quite frequently, too poorly done to attract any interest beyond fringe identity groups.
.

Narr said...

"Hamilton was Jewish."

True story. My late mother (grad hs 1944) used to dance with servicemen at the USO and Officers Clubs here, and one of the men she met was Hamilton Fish, Jr [sic]. (Must have been HF IV.)

Some friend of hers asked her how she liked that New York Jew.

Andrew said...

@Narr,
That's very funny!

@Bart Hall,
"It began to fall apart in the late '90s with the "state" quarter series, spewed out for a decade, though some of the designs were excellent. Many, however, were busy, confusing, and pointless."

If you have some time to kill, here's a great list of the worst quarters, with commentary:
http://edrankseverything.blogspot.com/2020/07/ed-ranks-50-state-quarters-part-i-worst.html?m=1

Excerpt:
"The last of the original five 1999 coins, representing the first five states to join the United States via ratifying the Constitution, was Connecticut. They put a dumb, old oak tree on it. With no leaves. This coin is lame. This is about as bad as a coin can get. They only chose it because the tree is sort of round from the one angle and coins are round, so they thought it would fit. At least I assume. You have a big tree. Whoop-dee-doo."

gahrie said...

Yes, I have thought about that and I agree. If it's no longer tolerable to commemorate American figures who were slaveholders or who fought for the CSA, the Democratic Party should obviously change its name.

Actually, their argument is that in the 1970's and 1980's, the parties changed places. All of the racists left the democratic Party and became Republicans, and the Republicans became Democrats. Seriously, this is the best they can come up with.

In any case, the Black vote switched from Republican to Democrat is the early 1930's when the Democratic Party was enforcing Jim Crow on the South.

Andrew said...

One more quote, re the Michigan coin:
"This is the textbook definition of a poorly designed state quarter. It's dumb and looks ugly. It tries to focus both on the state itself (filled in) and the Great Lakes (hollow, and including Lake Erie - which has no phsyical contact with the State of Michigan at all). In the end, the outline of the lakes (as depicted here) looks like a horn-nosed, angry horse with a penis that took two large dumps on the ground behind it. Seriously. It looks like that. Don't you see it? The state itself is almost an afterthought. And there is no need to write "Great Lakes State" on the coin. We get it. This is, simply put, a poorly thought-out coin design."

Jupiter said...

Just FYI. The tribes that Jackson "removed" still exist. That was his stated intention, and he was very proud of the result. Those that were not "removed" ceased to exist within his lifetime, as he had predicted.

Lurker21 said...

"A plan announced in 2015 to replace Founding Father Alexander Hamilton on the $10 bill was reversed a year later, due in part to the massive success of Broadway musical 'Hamilton.'"


So Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson couldn't save Old Hickory, despite winning 2 Tony Awards in 2010?

The should have gone with an all BIPoc cast.

Lurker21 said...

As I understand it, the question of Hamilton's Jewishness revolves on whether his mother converted to the religion of her estranged first husband who was assumed by many to be a Jew. We don't know if she did. Hamilton wasn't Jewish by long ancestry (You know what I mean, I'm trying not to use words we aren't supposed to use).

He did go to a Jewish school growing up. Was that because he was a Jew, or because he was illegitimate in the eyes of the Christian community and thus an outcast? Could one have gone to an Orthodox Jewish school in 18th century St. Croix without keeping Jewish customs and being considered a Jew? Hamilton practiced the Christian religion in later life, but he was apparently never baptized.

The recent interest in Hamilton does raise a lot of questions about what it means to be Jewish (or non-Jewish or Christian). Talk of being "assigned" male or female at birth may be nonsense, but that phrasing might have some applicability when it came to young Hamilton. It does make him a more interesting figure, even without the rap music and the "non-traditional" casting.

Biff said...

The mint has a page with links to the "American Women Quarters" designs.

It probably is true that the mint makes a profit with so many new coin series, but I can't help but feel like the flood of "program coins" cheapens the currency by making it feel like coins are at least as much for souvenir purposes as for carrying out the business of the nation, i.e., more Franklin Mint than US Mint.

I used to be an avid stamp and coin collector, and there were a few small countries (often island or desert nations) that made a reasonable amount of profit by selling "souvenir" stamps and coins far beyond what their economies might otherwise require. The sheer number of these new US coin programs remind me of those "small country" coin series.

Of course, there's the added factor of modern coins continuing to get lighter and lighter, so they feel more like plastic coins than metal ones. The emphasis on style over substance for something as serious as our nation's currency is an apt symbol of the times, I suppose.

Narr said...

To clarify (again) about B/black voting. Almost no B/blacks voted in the South, for anyone D or R. There were Republican legislators, B/blacks, in the Congress during Reconstruction but that was over pretty quick.

The B/black voters that mattered the most were, by the 1930s, those who lived in the North and they voted Republican mostly. The shifts both North and South were complex and not reducible to single factors; the one in the North was largely a response to the Depression and Hoover's perceived failures.

One of the ironies of living here is that many proud "Yellow Dog Democrats" just look blankly when you explain the--wait for it--racist origin of the concept.

As Condi Rice put it, her family became Republicans because when her father went to the Ds in the 50s to become an activist, they slammed the door in his face. Of course, a lot of W/white Ds in the South--I don't know about elsewhere--still sound pretty racist behind closed doors.

Assistant Village Idiot said...

Maya me no Angelou's. There are a million American women who are more deserving. Who knew that the Civil Rights Movement and First Wave Feminism were going to result only in the institutionalisation of patronising behavior?

Static Ping said...

Seriously, they picked a woman named "Mankiller" for the first set? We live in parody world.

So these apparently will be circulating coins. I'm surprised, especially since they are changing the obverse. With the state quarters and the national park quarters it had the same obverse. I suspect this is going to cause a bit of confusion. That said, it is a nice Washington.

It is also notable how... unimportant these honorees are compared to what usually goes on the currency. If this was the standard for men, we would have coins for Mickey Mantle and Mark Twain and John Glenn and Humphrey Bogart and literally hundreds of other men who are at least as important or more so than any of these women. For that matter, there are a lot of women who are more important than any of these women. This is exactly the sort of thing that goes in the non-circulated collectors category, but here we are.

At least it is not Galaga. That got a coin from Niue last year.

Andrew said...

"At least it is not Galaga. That got a coin from Niue last year."

Oh, wow. Now that I could get behind. A series of arcade quarters. Frogger, PacMan, Asteroids, Centipede, Missle Defense. That would be something special, and I'm certain they would be more popular than "feminist icons."

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