Jumping To Conclusions

I've always vastly preferred America's classic, understated, and sober paper money to the bright Monopoly-hued money other countries use. But the recent redesigns of the $5, $10, $20, $50, and $100 bills replaced much of the elegant etching with dull blank space, and removed the pleasing symmetry of the obverse side altogether. That was very disappointing to me. And I'm afraid I'm going to like the new redesigns even less:

The multi-hued design "makes a strong case that America is joining the rest of the world," says Andrew Nibley, chairman of Marsteller, which made the ads. "It's confusing for anyone, especially for those visiting the country, that all of our money is green."

Color? Horrors!! What next, the metric system?

Even if I do end up liking the new design once I have some of the bills in my hands (and I always like having money), I'm not going to get too attached. Apparently, we can expect a redesign every seven years or so to keep ahead of the counterfeiters.

(By the way, have you ever noticed that, unlike the coins of most other countries, American coins have no numerals indicating the denomination? It's just "ONE CENT", "FIVE CENTS", ONE DIME", "QUARTER DOLLAR", "HALF DOLLAR" and "ONE DOLLAR". That's gotta be more confusing to foreigners than monocrhomatic bills.)