Your thoughts on the new $100

I believe I always give me reasons. It's not merely resistance to the new, as I've never liked the designs for the most part over the last 100 years or so. My biggest reason is simple...there is no creative aspect to paper today, or coins for that matter. It looks like a child sat down with the free version of Printshop and had a go at it. Security, then like now, is obviously of utmost concern, I agree. But thats no excuse to diminish the aesthetics of the notes. The simple fact is it's cheaper to pay a non artist to computer generate a design than to have a trained sculptor engrave a plate, thus we are left with, what is in my opinion, a flat, lifeless, cluttered design. It has little to do with cutting edge technology as it does with saving a buck.

Getting right down to brass tacks here, how many here can look at the new $100 compared to a note of the 19th century and with all honesty say they like the new notes? That should say enough to anyone who appreciates art and history why we need to abandon the increasingly disheartening designs for the more traditional designs while still allowing for relevant security devises that don't detract from the overall appearance of the note.
Guy~

 

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Well, thanks for expanding on your reasoning Guy. Too few do and I truly appreciate that.

Getting right down to it, I for one can say that I like the new with the old and I will be adding one to my collection when I can acquire one. I believe it is the crux of my entire point. That in time, while the new note may never become a favorite, it shall enter the greater fold of numismatic history and appreciation, which is a core tenet of numismatics.

It really is much more than just picking favorites for one's personal collection and battling over opinions about subjective ideals of beauty.

I know it may seem a huge leap for many to make, but 'creativity' is not just something within the realm of the artist and crafts-person. It is also a necessary trait of the technologist employing the latest tools of the trade for which currency is primarily designed for. Numismatists' favor is NOT the primary reason, which must be understood.

Quite simply, a child alone could never just sit down with a graphics application and create such a thing. No matter how rudimentary the bold and/or subtle (simplistic) design appears to many who dislike it, this is the expression of the digital prescience in design. We may place aside the clutter of past eras who needed such intricacy to thwart counterfeiting. What seems like cluttered stuff now is far from the clutter of numerous interlaced plates, color overlays, fiber embedded papers and nested vignettes drowning in dizzying swirls that were then necessary to employ but would now only serve to distract as an application of pure decoration. The function of the note no longer demands the elaborate application of such intricate handiwork.

While this may seem an afront to behold the, simple yet busy, new design, notes new and old, all the way back to late Colonial paper currency, are far from the hand of any one artist, even in the current so called 'streamlined' digital age. Appearance alone belies the fact that it now may take even greater numbers of skilled technicians and artists (or artist-technicians), specialized in this field to deliver us new secure notes.

The concerns over aesthetic beauty that most respond to are skin-deep and must be overcome for a true appreciation of security engraving and currency design. Design goes beyond the visual thing as a whole and is a part of every aspect, seen and unseen, that creates the whole. In an ever existing complex world, not that the past was any less complex in which to exist or design bank notes in, the demand for advanced currency design is tantamount to security and you cannot have the liberty to design freely without security firstly.

I know I'm long-winded, but I simply wish to urge everyone to look beyond the surface of the new, and to consider expanding ones reasoning when declaring distaste. :thumb:

 

I appreciate your insights, Krispy. Though I probably won't add one to my collection, I would like to see one when they come out just for the fact that of all the new aspects, the blue strip containing the tiny lenses has me intrigued.

Though it may not appeal to me personally, I can see why it may to others. Art is very subjective in nature, and no one piece will ever satisfy everyone.
Guy~

 

i will most likely add a few of them to my collection. i will do some strap searchin to see if i can find something good right away.

 

And isn't it true that the BEP announced they'll redesign our currency every seven years or so? I'd much prefer some consistency, personally. I guess it's great for notaphiles, but if the concern is counterfeiters, why all the fuss if all currency remains legal tender.

 

I think I'll need a couple of thousand to compare at the same time before I can really know for sure. You know, wallpaper the house, thrash around in a large pile of them just to get a true feel for the bill. I think in sufficient quantities of 1000 or more at a time they should look just fine.

But the kicker here is, like it or not, we will never have the wonderful artwork bills of the past, and I hate to say it, but it's to help out the people, like me, with disabilities. The bright colors and huge size font will help me SEE what I have in my hand. I'm lucky in that I have glasses and contacts that help me see almost as well as anyone else, but without corrective lenses, I couldn't tell an old 10 from 100. The new $100 is for the people that can't wear glasses to correct their vision to a point that they can tell what bill they are using and we all know that no one would try to cheat a legally blind person out of $90 bucks if they thought they could get away with it. If I don't have my glasses I have to hold the bill about an inch from my eyes and maybe I can tell what it is.

It's not like we have a it's up to us now. They are coming. Soon all of us will have them in our hands and I know I've always loved a crisp new $100 bill, no matter what the design was. I will need the huge 1 0 0 and less than attractive colors so that I have no doubt that I have $100 because as I get older, my eyes are getting weaker. So this bill is for me and I don't like the design, but I do need it.

Ben

 

@ Pablo: Upon the release of the new $100 note, all modern circulating notes, since 1995 onward, except for the the $1 note, will have had major redesigns within the greater look-and-feel of these 'new designs'. They are keeping up with both consistency and redesign accordingly. The increments of time with which new notes are redesigned is an attempt to keep counterfeiting problems at a minimum (see FAQ at newmoney.org). It could be as frequently as seven years or much, much less depending on the threat of counterfeiting down to the point in time when there will be no difference or the cost to keep up with fakes makes printed notes totally obsolete, in which case something else will replace notes as a form of money to transact with.