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Photo: Partisan Pictures, Inc.
So, you think you know your Benjamins. Well, take a look at this one above and see if you can find anything wrong with it. It's a bit torn on the side (you can see that the pieces were a bit misaligned when taped back together), but otherwise it looks like a regular ol' $100 bill, right?
Wrong:
A $100 bill that began as $5 dollar bill, was bleached and reprinted illegally. The work of the United States Secret Service New York office extends far beyond the responsibility of protecting the President of the United States and foreign officials. The Electronic Crimes Task Force targets identity thieves, credit card fraudsters and counterfeiters worldwide.
via National Geographic - Thanks Minjae!
Fed up with the ever-increasing cost of higher education, University of Colorado student Nic Ramos decided to pay his $14,000 tuition in cash. Specifically, with $1 bills:
You don’t often get to go to banks and walk out with a suitcase full of cash … Nic Ramos said staff were ”not too pleased” at having to count $14,000 in single dollar bills.
Link [self-starting video clip]
Tired of the drab ol' greenback? I mean what self-respecting artist would limit him or herself to just hues of green? Why not re-design the banknotes and drag them kicking and screaming to the 21st century?
Richard Smith noted that when corporations get in trouble, they rebrand their image. So, the solution to America's economic doldroms is obviously to rebrand the buck:
WHY TAKE PART?
The American Dollar has not truly been redesigned since about the 1930s. The Dollar ReDe$ign Project is your opportunity to theoretically 'change' that. Yes, technically there are many limitations and complications when it comes to bank note design, but if the Swiss can do it on a regular basis, why can't we North Americans too. Besides our great 'rival', the Euro, looks so spanky in comparison it seems the only clear way to revive this global recession is to rebrand and redesign. Why not ? It seems to work for everyone else ...
Here are a few examples:
iMoney
by Raffael Hannemann
“My intention? There has to be a full-colored US flag on every bank note, and there have to be faces of some of the latest idols on them. Let's stop looking backwards and focus on the future. This is the time where we live. I've chosen Steve Jobs, but why not Zuckerberg, Larry Page or Michael Jackson?
The main aspect to me is the following: yes, we could choose a very stylish, fresh looking Dollar note draft, just because it's a pleasure to our eyes at the moment we see the bank note draft for the first time. But often the print designs are far away from being timeless. I've created a long-lasting composition of colors and shapes that avoids being fashionable and therefore never appears antiquated by focusing on the value of the note itself and the colors of the US flag. Because this is what the Dollar note all is about.”
Relative
Value by Dowling
Duncan
Why the size? – We have kept the width the same as the existing dollars. However we have changed the size of the note so that the one dollar is shorter and the 100 dollar is the longest. When stacked on top of each other it is easy to see how much money you have. It also makes it easier for the visually impaired to distinguish between notes.
Why a vertical format? – When we researched how notes are used we realized people tend to handle and deal with money vertically rather than horizontally. You tend to hold a wallet or purse vertically when searching for notes. The majority of people hand over notes vertically when making purchases. All machines accept notes vertically. Therefore a vertical note makes more sense.
"Despite representing half the human population, women have been struggling with discrimination and suppression for far too long. I wanted to take this opportunity to commemorate some of the most influential American women of the 20th century – Amelia Earhart, Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Rosa Parks, Eleanor Roosevelt, Marilyn Monroe and Maya Angelou – and attempt to bridge the gap between gender inequality. What better way to do so than with one of the most identifiable currencies in the world?"
Link: Dollar ReDe$ign - via kottke
Millions of US coins and bills are exchanged daily and billions of them are in circulation. Visual Economics put together a great graphic to compare the values and number of currency in circulation, and even looked at how long each stays in circulation.
Would you have guessed there are almost 6 times as many $100 bills in circulation as there are $20 given that most ATMs use only $20s? Would you have guessed the $5 bill has the shortest life expectency of any bill, or that there are 4 times as many pennies than any other coin?
From the Upcoming 
ueue, submitted by 
Tattoo artists rarely limit their canvases to the human body and generally express themselves in all kinds of mediums.
Critically acclaimed tattoo artist Scott Campbell is no exception. He has taken his technique and transformed ordinary, Washington-clad dollar bills, into things of beauty.
His laser-cut etchings (which aren’t limited to currency) are featured in his collection "Make it Rain" and is being showed the O.H.W.O.W. gallery in Miami, FL
Critically acclaimed tattoo artist, Scott Campbell, recently showed his work at the O.H.W.O.W. gallery in Miami, FL. The highlight of the evening was a series of laser-cut etchings, each on a stack of $1 bills. The collection is entitled “Make It Rain” and shows a sampling of the artist’s dark and beautiful undertones.
From the Upcoming ueue, submitted by 
Is this the beginning of the end of the dominance of the US dollar as the world’s preferred currency? The global economic crisis and the erosion in the value of the dollar has led China of all countries to call for a new "international reserve currency":
[People's Bank of China] Gov. Zhou Xiaochuan’s essay did not mention the dollar by name but said the crisis showed the dangers of relying on one nation’s currency for international payments. In an unusual step, the essay was published in both Chinese and English, making clear it was meant for an international audience.
"The crisis called again for creative reform of the existing international monetary system towards an international reserve currency," Zhou wrote.
A reserve currency is the unit in which a government holds its reserves. But Zhou said the proposed new currency also should be used for trade, investment, pricing commodities and corporate bookkeeping.
Beijing has long been uneasy about relying on the dollar for the bulk of its trade and to store foreign reserves. Premier Wen Jiabao publicly appealed to Washington this month to avoid any steps in response to the crisis that might erode the value of the dollar and Beijing’s estimated $1 trillion holdings in treasuries and other U.S. government debt.
Link (Photo: World Economic Forum [Flickr])
Could you survive if you only have $1 a day for food? That’s what Christopher Greenslate, 28, and Kerri Leonard, 29, wanted to find out. So the couple, both high school social studies teachers, did a month-long dollar-a-day diet experiment:
When we first started talking about doing this, we didn’t really have an agenda, or any developed sense of why we wanted to do it. It just seemed like an interesting challenge; one that would force us to see things differently.
We are interested in many of the strands related to this experiment; food choices, consumerism, waste, poverty, social psychology, etc., and this experience may provide insights that could help us better understand and teach about a variety of concerns (we both teach Social Justice in a public high school).
Here are the rules:
1. All food consumed each day must total $1 for each of us.
2. We cannot accept free food or “donated” food unless it is available for everyone in our area. (i.e. foraging, samples in stores, dumpster diving)
3. Any food we plant, we pay for.
4. We will do our best to cook a variety of meals; ramen noodles can only be prepared if there is no other way to stay under one dollar. (We have six packages and will buy no more)
5. Should we decide to have guests over for dinner they must eat from our share; meaning they don’t get to eat their own dollar’s worth of food.
The couple recorded their experience in their blog: Link | Their first day – Thanks Geekazoid!
