• Hey Guest. Check out your NeoGAF Wrapped 2025 results here!

Andrew Jackson was a true jerkface. Who should we replace him with on the $20?

Status
Not open for further replies.
Wait another 40 years and then replace him with Obama.
So you want a token black guy on your money? Id rather go with accomplishments so MLK is a much better choice (though I like the idea of putting scientists or intellectual figures).
 
Crosby Stills & Nash. Neil Young on the reverse side.
 
We need to stop putting past Presidents on *all* our bills and replace most of them with leading scientists, or movement leaders for peace, equality, or justice.

Now granted, a few Presidents more than qualify in regards to progress, like Lincoln or Teddy Roosevelt.
 
Short Answer: Sitting Bull. Jackson was responsible for the "Trail of Tears", a forced migration of indigenous peoples to the west. Replacing him with a Native American would be amusing.

We had a thread not that long ago when New Zealand unveiled their new currency. They have Edmund Hillary (first to climb Everest) on the $5 note, Kate Sheppard (Suffragette movement) on the $10, Elizabeth II on the $20, Apirana Ngata (Māori politician) on the $50 and Ernest Rutherford (physicist) on the $100. On the reverse there are New Zealand flora and fauna. They're drop-dead gorgeous.

The current US denominations have presidents, a Secretary of the Treasury and a Founding Father. Nobody born after the Civil War, none female, none minority. In the entire history of the US issuing paper currency, we've had one woman (Martha Washington), one minority (Running Antelope, Sioux Chief), two Inventors (Samuel Morse and Robert Fulton), and two explorers (William Clark and Meriwether Lewis). Everyone else is either a politician or soldier.

I say, keep Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson and Franklin right where they are, free up the $10, $20 and $50. Put Susan B. Anthony on the $10, Sitting Bull on the $20 and Martin Luther King Jr. on the $50. I would suggest dropping Jefferson from the $2 bill (which are still being minted, as far as I can tell, in short batches), but whoever replaces him has to deal with the weird superstitions people have about $2 bills. Either Neil Armstrong or the Wright Brothers would be a strong candidate.

I also wouldn't mind seeing more artists like Frank Lloyd Wright or Ansel Adams in there, but you take what you can get. I'd also like to see notes with more American landscapes (Great Plains, Grand Tetons, Yosemite, etc.), it seems such a shame that the country has such a huge number of different landscapes and ecosystems but our currency is restricted to Washington DC (with the exception of Independence Hall on the $100).

I'm here to tell you this is a great post.
 
2995261_3381520196_tumbl.jpg
 
Here's an idea: don't put faces on money.

Well that's another good idea, one of the category potential was symbols of some kind, abstract or otherwise.

What symbol would you think would make a good spot on money? DNA?

Martin Luther King Jr.

It will never happen.

I actually like to go Frederick Douglass as I mentioned on the second page if we're going that route. He represents the start of so many civil rights paths, and he was active in the abolitionist movement and underground railroad, so I think he's the best symbol we have for that purpose. He also wrote some of the most eloquent and painful words on the subject of slavery in this nation's history. Plus I mean that dude had some rad hair, perfect for money.

Short Answer: Sitting Bull. Jackson was responsible for the "Trail of Tears", a forced migration of indigenous peoples to the west. Replacing him with a Native American would be amusing.

We had a thread not that long ago when New Zealand unveiled their new currency. They have Edmund Hillary (first to climb Everest) on the $5 note, Kate Sheppard (Suffragette movement) on the $10, Elizabeth II on the $20, Apirana Ngata (Māori politician) on the $50 and Ernest Rutherford (physicist) on the $100. On the reverse there are New Zealand flora and fauna. They're drop-dead gorgeous.

The current US denominations have presidents, a Secretary of the Treasury and a Founding Father. Nobody born after the Civil War, none female, none minority. In the entire history of the US issuing paper currency, we've had one woman (Martha Washington), one minority (Running Antelope, Sioux Chief), two Inventors (Samuel Morse and Robert Fulton), and two explorers (William Clark and Meriwether Lewis). Everyone else is either a politician or soldier.

I say, keep Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson and Franklin right where they are, free up the $10, $20 and $50. Put Susan B. Anthony on the $10, Sitting Bull on the $20 and Martin Luther King Jr. on the $50. I would suggest dropping Jefferson from the $2 bill (which are still being minted, as far as I can tell, in short batches), but whoever replaces him has to deal with the weird superstitions people have about $2 bills. Either Neil Armstrong or the Wright Brothers would be a strong candidate.

I also wouldn't mind seeing more artists like Frank Lloyd Wright or Ansel Adams in there, but you take what you can get. I'd also like to see notes with more American landscapes (Great Plains, Grand Tetons, Yosemite, etc.), it seems such a shame that the country has such a huge number of different landscapes and ecosystems but our currency is restricted to Washington DC (with the exception of Independence Hall on the $100).

Andrew Jackson's interesting. He has some strong good points, and also serious bad ones.

On the good side:

- Jackson changed the nature of American democracy. He was the first president to focus on the "common man", instead of the elites. (I use "man" purposefully, of course, but for his time that was progressive.) Jackson was the president of all the poor and middle-class people in rural America. He stood for them, even if he was himself quite wealthy. This was something new, and something which afterwards would be common because the idea caught on.

- Jackson created the modern Democratic Party. While the party's origins are in the Democratic-Republican party of Jefferson, that party is different from the people-focused party that followed it, in name ("Democratic" instead of "Democratic-Republican") and in focus (the common man, instead of the often-wealthy farmer).

- Jackson helped keep the nation together. While president, South Carolina threatened to secede over the slavery issue. While Jackson as from Kentucky, a southern state, he was a unionist, and threatened to invade South Carolina if they tried to secede. They were sufficiently scared by the threat to hold off on further secession agitation until after Jackson was safely dead. They didn't give Lincoln the credit they had Jackson, to their eventual sorrow...

There may be more, but those are some of the main ones.


On the other hand, the major bad point is obvious:

- Jackson was a serious racist and HATED American Indians. He wanted to kick them all out of the American South and send them to "Indian Territory", where they could all be contained. He didn't care that some of the Indians he evicted were starting to Americanize, or about the people who died on the "trail of tears" to their new prison-camp of a home; he wanted all the Indians dead or gone. When the Supreme Court told him that it was illegal to kick all of those Indians out of the South and send them to Oklahoma, he ignored the Supreme Court and did it anyway, and the Army obeyed his orders over the court.


So yeah, how do we square this? On the one hand, he was a populist who focused on the issues of the common white man more than any president before him. He changed American democracy mostly for the better, and helped hold the country together. But on the other hand, he was a horrible racist who indirectly killed quite a few innocent people. Overall I do think the good slightly outweighs the bad, but American Indians today would surely disagree. Really he was most both; he was a great president who also was a violent racist. Sadly, hating Indians was far from uncommon; he may have gone farther than most, but the sentiments were everywhere. George Washington ordered a scorched-earth campaign against Indians in upstate New York during the American Revolution that led to the burnings of over 40 villages, for instance; yes, they were supporting the British side, but the tactics were overly harsh. And of course the slavery issue is another pretty major moral issue which most presidents from before Lincoln failed at, either by owning slaves themselves or by not opposing slavery.

Also wanted to highlight these posts as good food for thought posts. Interesting perspectives. My issue on the Andrew Jackson analysis though was that I don't think he kept the Nation Together. He just delayed the inevitable fracturing through various form of appeasement and compromise, and he missed tackling the true disease. To me I always have trouble giving him any merit on that subject, because if he had accomplished something of note on this score we would not have had the Civil War when we did. I would have rather have had the Civil War earlier than later, probably would have saved lives.

As to the other elephant, I know people love to say we need more minority and female representation, but we REALLY do on our currency. Given the amount of history in this country that is off the back of females and minorities, it feels like a crime that they're not represented in a better, more extensive fashion.
 
So you want a token black guy on your money? Id rather go with accomplishments so MLK is a much better choice (though I like the idea of putting scientists or intellectual figures).
Lol. First black president who also happened to pass the 100 year old progressive goal of universal healthcare. Not really a token black guy.

MLK is a good choice though.
 
Susan B Anthony on the 20 (because it lines up with 1920, works perfectly)
A notable Native (there's a lot) on the 1, because they were the First peoples here
Jonas Salk on the 50 (his work came to fruition on the 50s)

Bills left where they don't line up nicely with dates
MLK on the 10
Douglass on the 5
Daniel Inouye on the 100

Keep the presidents on their current coins because why not, keep Sacagawea on the dollar coin, and make a two dollar coin and put a notable woman on that.

Rotate other notable people through the Quarter. I'd just rotate people through the bills but people are a bit more confused when you change those than when you change coins.
 
God damn at some of these answers. Teddy Roosevelt? Learn something about the Philippine-American War. There is nothing I hate more than when monsters get remembered as heroes.
 
Lol. First black president who also happened to pass the 100 year old progressive goal of universal healthcare. Not really a token black guy.

MLK is a good choice though.

More of a conservative plan, although it is better than the horrors before that.
 
This.

Fucking Brits have Darwin on their money. I want something like that.

We could put Einstein, Feynman, Carl Sagan, Edison, Tesla, or some other great scientist/engineer/inventor on money.


Edison, man. half of those aren't even American
 
God damn at some of these answers. Teddy Roosevelt? Learn something about the Philippine-American War. There is nothing I hate more than when monsters get remembered as heroes.

Would they name a fluffy cotton bear after a monster? I think not. Teddy Roosevelt by all means is one of the greatest Presidents.
 
So who would you go? Some category ideas:

Prominent American Scientist
Some President that has not yet been on major currency
Religious Figure
Some sort of abstract symbol
Civil Rights Leader
Woman's Suffrage Leader

Clearly Muhammad is the best choice.
 
John Brown? Peaceful means?
haha yeah John Brown went down a true G, he wanted to start an actual slave revolt and ended up a martyr :P

Haha, I added that part to see who knew their history!

I know of the violent means both men used (or tried to use).
All the same, despite my more pacifistic leanings, a part of me supports their revolting against the tyranny of their era.

I feel John Brown should get on alone simply for creating the alternative to the Underground Railroad, The Subterranean Passway.
 
John Brown went more than a little too far with his first murders though he committed with his sons, where he literally hacked his victims to pieces. He wanted to scare the pro-slavery Americans into submission.
 
John Brown went more than a little too far with his first murders though he committed with his sons, where he literally hacked his victims to pieces. He wanted to scare the pro-slavery Americans into submission.

An eye for an eye, like the good bible tells us.
 
John Brown went more than a little too far with his first murders though he committed with his sons, where he literally hacked his victims to pieces. He wanted to scare the pro-slavery Americans into submission.

As I said, a very small part :P.
 
Here is an idea, how about instead of having just MLK on the $20 bill, we have all of the civil rights leaders from the 60's? As great as MLK was, he didn't do it alone. They should all be honored. We could just do a "crowd shot" of them.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom