"Ugly Money Coming in 2003"

06/22/2002
"Ugly Money Coming in 2003"

Technicolor Abe

The U.S. Treasury plans to combat high-tech counterfeiting by adding subtle background colors to our bank notes, with fall 2003 as the target date for brighter bills. The $20 will roll off the government presses first; $50 and $100 bills will sport new looks 12 to 18 months later. There are no plans to alter the rarely-faked smaller denominations.

I figure they'll just dye the paper it's printed on and make it look ugly. What they need to do is turn bills into works of art.

Do you remember an artist named J.S.G Boggs? He was repeatedly raided and taken to court by the Secret Service in the late 80s and early 90s because he'd draw his own currency. For example, at a restaurant the bill might be for $47.23. Boggs would draw a $100 bill, beautifully, but with differences from our usual bill, sign it, and offer it to the waiter. The value of the artwork was $100, said Boggs. If the waiter didn't want to accept it, Boggs would give him real U.S. money. But almost always the person took the art, which looked like counterfeiting to the U.S. Secret Service. Interestingly, collectors started following Boggs, so it wasn't uncommon for that waiter to be offered $25,000 for that $100 bill piece if art.

I always wanted to meet Boggs so I could try to buy one of his bills with one of mine that I had drawn. Someday...