TO PROTECT THE CURRENCY. Sean Hackbarth doesn't like the new five.

Our currency continues to get uglier and uglier. The new and “improved” five dollar bill is now in circulation. “Enhanced security features” fail to give the bill any elegance. It sports a big, ugly, purple “5″ on the back. Is Barney now living in the Federal Reserve?

The 5 is a high-visibility feature. (More evidence of aging Baby Boomers who vote?) It's purple because that was Mary Todd Lincoln's favourite colour.


I can claim advance knowledge of the new design, as it was revealed to Illinois and Iowa schoolteachers at the Lincoln Presidential Library as part of an Illinois Council on Economic Education and Federal Reserve effort (for the Fed, a joint effort of St. Louis and Chicago) to enhance civics and economics in the schools.

There are additional security features on the new note.


Those security features are to make it more difficult for an artist to buy things without earning money, as Mr Lincoln is here explaining to some Springfield fifth graders (I didn't see Bart Simpson) who will have the honour of spending the first new notes. (It was for show: the new notes were sent back to St. Louis after the festivities.)


Here Mr Lincoln and State Treasurer Alexi Giannoulias compare notes. The high-visibility feature is at work.