Typophile - New US Five Dollar Bill - Comments

Russ, Have you seen the

dezcom — Fri, 23 May 2008 18:59:11 -0700

Russ,
Have you seen the South Park movie?

I think you would get a laugh from it :-)

ChrisL

Don’t worry, When Canada

russellm — Fri, 23 May 2008 18:38:59 -0700

Don’t worry, When Canada takes over you can use ours.

-=®=-

¡Only in the

rs_donsata — Thu, 22 May 2008 17:46:54 -0700

¡Only in the States!

Héctor

David - I’m not sure

pattyfab — Thu, 22 May 2008 11:59:36 -0700

David - I’m not sure changing the colors is really going to help the blind. I think more likely we’ll see either varying sizes/shapes or some sort of embossed element that can distinguish the notes - perhaps even braille.

Chris - it works backwards too - a penny costs 2¢ to make and a nickel costs almost a dime.

$20 worth $1; $1 worth one

dezcom — Thu, 22 May 2008 07:49:54 -0700

$20 worth $1; $1 worth one penny. They all should be in the red to show how much they have lost. Thanks, W!

ChrisL

Mmh, 1 dollar green

David R — Wed, 21 May 2008 23:57:27 -0700

Mmh, 1 dollar green (tradition), 5$ blue, 10$ red, 20$ yellow... rainbow is finally coming to america’s wallets :-)

We may see it go sooner than

eeblet — Wed, 21 May 2008 17:01:40 -0700

We may see it go sooner than we thought! Blind Win Court Ruling on U.S. Currency

—-
eeblet.com

I saw Stefan Sagmeister

Chipman223 — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 10:02:24 -0700

I saw Stefan Sagmeister speak last night. At one point, he began talking about the new five:

*unfolds the bill from his pocket*
“I mean; what the ****?” (“vot ze fock” with his austrian accent) Apparently the Helvetica movie has made its way even through national treasury. This is the typographic equivalent of Hurricane Katrina.”

I’m not sure that’s

canderson — Wed, 9 Apr 2008 16:40:13 -0700

I’m not sure that’s “little known.” I thought it was pretty standard near the border for a long time. Then, for a while it wasn’t when the buck was strong, and now it is again since they’re relatively close. The last time I was in Vancouver I ran out of Canadian money and used a greenback to buy lunch. That was a couple years ago though, when a Canadian would *definitely* accept an American dollar at 1:1 ratio.

Little know fact, many

sii — Wed, 9 Apr 2008 15:38:19 -0700

Little know fact, many stores here in Seattle accept Canadian notes - much nicer than the new US 2.5 pound note (pictured above) and the exchange rate is around 1:1 so no hard math.

I suppose I understand the 5

rectangular — Tue, 8 Apr 2008 23:11:57 -0700

I suppose I understand the 5 for people with poor vision… but is it really a big problem? I feel that if their vision is that bad, braille could potentially be the best solution as was mentioned above.

When one of my friends saw

canderson — Tue, 8 Apr 2008 09:25:38 -0700

When one of my friends saw the new lavender 5ive, he exclaimed, “It’s a five dollar bill for girls!”

American currency is

Chris Rugen — Tue, 8 Apr 2008 07:17:41 -0700

American currency is suffering from the perceived need to be slavishly respectful of the old designs, while desperately trying to incorporate modern security and accessibility features. I wish someone would just pull the plug on the old greenback and allow for a new legacy-free design, instead of these Frankenstein’s monster creations. I’m sure some people would howl about it (probably with a mouthful of “freedom fries”, but green American currency is being pushed into the multi-color spectrum already, so why do it so half-ass-edly?

Actually on the German

Katharina — Tue, 8 Apr 2008 06:06:37 -0700

Actually on the German currency there were Braille numbers, slightly elevated so you could feel them. Unfortunately this feature was given up with the Euro.

But i really can’t figure

Chipman223 — Tue, 8 Apr 2008 05:30:52 -0700

But i really can’t figure out the advantage to it, or how it would stop forgeries...

That same site you listed says a lot:
http://www.moneyfactory.gov/newmoney/main.cfm/currency/new5

It says the giant Helvetica 5 is for people with poor vision. I wonder if there’s any way to imitate braille on paper (that would stand wear and tear). Some of the high contrast numbers with ball serifs could get a little difficult to read, I suppose, depending on vision. I guess Gotham, or the likes were still too newfangled for them.

New US Five Dollar Bill

smarks — Fri, 4 Apr 2008 08:48:02 -0700

There have been a several comments about the design of the new US five-dollar bill. In particular, they’ve criticized the large Helvetica “5” on the back.

They’re right. This would have been much better:

Yuk, yuk, yuk. OK, easy target.