Why is Alexander Hamilton on a $10 bill, while all Thomas Jefferson gets is a lousy $2 bill? Nobody ever sees $2 bills (at least I don’t), but I see $10 bills all the time. What's with that?
Sure, Jefferson gets a nickel too, but a nickel is five lousy cents. Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence for Christ’s sake. Was that chopped liver? A nickel and a bill that nobody ever sees? It’s a travesty!
Besides, Hamilton wasn’t even a President. Yes, he was the first Treasury Secretary (big deal), but he wasn’t even born in the United States. The rest of his resume includes having an affair with a married woman and losing a duel to Aaron Burr. So he gets the $10 bill for that?
What about Lincoln? He gets a $5 bill, which he deserves. But a penny? It's an insult! Pennies only piss people off and end up in drawers. Panhandlers won't even take them. Congress should probably get rid of them, but when was the last time Congress did something useful? Besides, without pennies, how would greedy retailers keep thinking we’re too stupid to know that $5.99 is 6 bucks?
And why is Ulysses S. Grant on the $50 bill? Sure, he won the Civil War and he was the 18th president, but he was also a fall-down drunk, a bore and a ruthless butcher.
Then there's Benjamin Franklin, who somehow got his mug on the $100 bill. Give me a break. He held no elective office. He didn’t write any great documents. He just made a kite with a key on the end of it. So what? Using that logic, how come there’s no bill with Alexander Graham Bell’s face on it? Not too many people fly kites anymore, but everybody uses a cell phone.
Here's where it really gets ridiculous. The large denomination bills aren’t in circulation anymore, but some Treasury Dept. dunderhead made the incomprehensible decision to put William McKinley on a $500 bill, Grover Cleveland on a $1000 bill, and Salmon P. Chase on a $10,000 bill.
Salmon P. Chase? Chase was Lincoln’s Treasury Secretary. He was so obnoxious Lincoln put him on the Supreme Court to get him out of his hair. What’s with that? And William McKinley? Grover Cleveland? McKinley’s claim to fame was getting shot. Cleveland was the only president to serve two nonconsecutive terms and that gets him a $1000 bill. It's unconscionable.
George Washington is the only one who gets a fair deal. The $1 bill and a quarter. You use the $1 bill a lot and the quarter is good for parking meters.
But what happened to Theodore Roosevelt, FDR (whose kisser is relegated to a lousy thin dime), Harry Truman, and IKE? Eisenhower gets a useless silver dollar that you only see in Vegas. He won World War II, folks. Now he’s getting plunked into slot machines by elderly ladies and usually losing. Same goes for the John F. Kennedy half dollar.
The Bureau of Printing and Engraving assures me that there are lots of $2 bills in circulation. Where? In Tibet?
To save Jefferson from this monstrous monetary oversight, I’m working on a petition to send to Congress. Anybody want to sign it?


Salon.com
Comments
And don't get me started on the idiocy of having bills that are the same size and colour. Who can see which president/politician is on it in the darkness of a bar?
Interesting topic. Think I'll use mine to pay for doctor bills that are coming in.
Cleveland wasn't the only bachelor president. The only president who never married was James Buchanan (and his bachelor state was popularly regarded at the time as evidence of his unmanliness). Cleveland entered office for the first time a bachelor, but he married Frances Folsom soon afterwards. Thomas Jefferson was technically a bachelor as well when he entered the White House. (The Martha Jefferson listed as his first lady was his daughter. Her mother, also named Martha Jefferson, had died some time before.)
http://www.travelblog.org/Photos/708268.html
http://farm2.static.flickr.com/1290/700362036_70db5321bc.jpg
Not defending Grant, just trying to correct a misconception about his drinking.
is Liberace on the three dollar bill?
Classic musings. I'm still going , "hmmmmmmm" as I write.
RATED
Great post. (Rated).
:)
Another one I hate are the Susan B coins. No one knows what they are if you unlucky enough to get one or more. You give them to a cashier and they just look at you like "what?". Sigh.
-Nikki-
I predict that in the future, we'll see a blog post (we'll call them 'brants' though) strikingly similar to this one, wondering why Jimmy Carter doesn't have his own card...
Does that make me a bad person?
Franklin was not an elected guy, he was chosen to preside over the continental congress which in my opinion makes him the real first president. Nobody put an asterisk by Fords name just because he wasn't elected.
Yes, adoption. Why not? Even when you pick your Presidents they marginalize you so why not choose your family...you crack me the fuck up. I want to laugh as much as possible for the rest of my days. And, when someone compliments you, proper reply is "thank you". No humility necessary among family...see how this works?
It was supposed to be a joke - like if you adopt me, can I please boss you around like a sister? Lame I know. No need to comment. :)
I'll stick to what I do best - anything but humor - damn it's hard!
~Kicking the ground~