this post was submitted on 06 Sep 2026
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Explain Like I'm Five
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Infrastructure costs would be notable. Vending machines, ATMs, and other money-receiving machines are calibrated for current cotten/linen bills.
Impetus. Changing to polymer bills would take political will and we can't manage anything productive atm.
Personally, I don't want Trump to drive the change because he would end up putting himself on the bills, and other distasteful characters from history.
The closest example of this is from the Chinese Yuan, where Mao Zedong is depicted in all denominations. (So, it'll be the same if Trump decided to replace current issued $ into a new series with him on it).
It's not the same as with the dollar and US presidents. Mao kinda is the face and father of the modern China. (While Trump is most likely the face of the end of America as a superpower) Also neither PRC (nor ROC) are not putting fucking Emperor Pu Yis face on their bills, since everybody alt least agree to make that much of a break from from the old empire. Who do do they really have? Sun Yat-sen? All the chairmen after Mao, even Xi are kinda a smalltimers compared to him. Mao is also a symbol as much as he was a leader. It's literally the 'people's money'. The party, the people and the ideology have a tight grip on the balls of capital.
Up to 1990, PRC banknotes had different portraits. I suspect many of them were "representatives" for different types of labourer or ethnic groups rather than idolizing a single figure.
For example https://en.numista.com/211574
The 100-yuan of the series features Mao with three other early leaders of the republic, but the lower notes are representatives.
I don’t remember for certain and I’m not taking the time to look it up, but I think there are some legal restrictions as well? I’m guessing that is included in your Impetus paragraphs, since it would require congressional direction to change things.
The Treasury or whoever has actually redesigned the bills quite a bit in my lifetime and they’re more colorful than they used to be, but I think they’ve done what they can while sticking within legal parameters. Given how much some people refer to other nations’ currencies as “Monopoly Money” despite some obvious benefits I’m not holding my breath for significant changes for a while yet.
I’m glad we’re finally getting rid of the penny at least. I used to be a proponent of the $1 coin, but having spent some time in Canada and Europe I actually find $/€/£ coins annoying and heavy in actual practice.