Future dollars: Is it time to rebrand the buck?

Through the Dollar ReDe$ign Project, artists envision the currency of the future

“When it comes to paper money, the Swiss franc is a beaut, one denomination featuring the art of the modern Swiss sculptor Alberto Giacometti. Hong Kong’s dollar is vibrant and futuristic, cash as Cubism; New Zealand’s five-dollar bill depicting adventurer Sir Edmund Hillary is like a dreamy magazine ad; the old Dutch guilder is also a knockout with a palette of colors that is more Kandinsky than currency.

By comparison, the mighty American dollar is staid, dour and bloodless, based on a design that has not changed in 80 years. Even the money of poor nations like French Polynesia, the Maldives and the tiny African island republic of São Tomé and Príncipe are works of art compared to the American dollar. The U.S. economy might still be the biggest in the world, and its currency still the paragon of stability, but the mighty greenback is not about to win any beauty contests, or inspire deep reverie.”