Alternative designs for U.S. currency
Elvin Wong's design for a U.S. $10 bill featuring civil rights advocate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., submitted to the online website Dollar ReDe$ign Project.
Richard Smith conceived of the Dollar ReDe$ign Project in 2008, out of his curiosity about why American currency has not markedly changed in a century. He launched a design competition in 2009, and again in 2010, with such issues to consider as size, color, imagery and functionality.
By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan
Lincoln & King
Edward Burczyk's design for a $20 bill logically pairs two iconic figures - Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr.
Dollar ReDe$ign Project founder Richard Smith told CBS News he contacted the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing about his ideas, and got a "real response" -- that the U.S. government is interested not in redesigning currency, but in improving anti-counterfeiting measures.
George Washington
Edward Burczyk, of Tampa, Fla., wrote that he tried to create currency notes that were "modern and colorful," while maintaining many of the traditional aspects of U.S. paper money.
Each of his bills has a general theme: government, independence, conservation, civil rights and progress.
Teddy Roosevelt
Conservationist President Theodore Roosevelt is paired with a bison in the American West.
Neil Armstrong
America's great human achievement of landing a man on the moon is commemorated in currency designs by Elvin Wong (top) and Edward Burczyk (bottom).
Earhart & Parks
Redesigning currency would require not only huge political hurdles to overcome (think of what goes into honoring someone on a simple postage stamp!), but in infrastructure changes, like vending machines and ATMs.
Left: Chicago-based designer Magen Farrar wrote that she wished to pay tribute to some of the most influential women of the past century, including aviator Amelia Earhart and civil rights trailblazer Rosa Parks.
Marilyn Monroe
Marilyn Monroe, one of the women celebrated in Magen Farrar's currency bill designs.
Andrew Jackson
Boston University student Elvin Wong rebranded President Andrew Jackson's appearance on the $20.
Nicola Tesla
Elvin Wong's design featuring scientist Nicola Tesla.
Innovators
Another set by Elvin Wong submitted to the Dollar ReDe$ign website is titled "We Seek …"
"It's based on what I think we should pursue everyday as Americans," wrote Wong. Through daily use, money will serve as a reminder to us "to seek those ideals like how the heroes we immortalize on our currency had done."
Beginning With Liberty
Gardiner Moody, of Maine, submitted his currency designs to the Dollar ReDe$ign Project.
He writes, "My idea was to enshrine on our money the concepts that have made America great: Liberty, Equality, Justice, Human Rights, Creativity and Science.
"Having liberty as the 'basic' principle seemed fitting," said Moody, so he assigned it to the $1 bill. "From my perspective, without liberty there could be none of the latter."
Consequently, each bill's theme sets up the next, higher bill: liberty begets equality, which begets justice, etc.: "This metaphor even goes so far as to say, 'Without creativity there could be no science.'"
Martin Luther King
Noting that the $100 bill is the most widely-used form of U.S. currency abroad, Vancouver-based web designer Richard Winchell gave prominence to icons of freedom: on the front, Martin Luther King, Jr., and on the back, the Statue of Liberty.
The vertical designs of Winchell's currency reference Swiss Francs and old Dutch Guilders. Winchell did not submit a design for a $1 bill, saying that paper money of that denomination should be phased out in favor of a $1 coin, as a cost-saving measure.
Cesar Chavez
Vancouver-based web designer Richard Winchell quoted the Declaration of Independence in each of his note designs, and featured portraits of Americans who were advocates of life, liberty and equality: civil rights advocate Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., human rights proponent Eleanor Roosevelt, President Abraham Lincoln, suffragist Susan B. Anthony, and civil rights advocate Cesar Chavez (left).
Notables
Currency by Adriana Hurtado, of San Antonio, Texas, uses figures not just from politics, but also those who made a significant impact on the nation's culture. Her designs feature 20th century luminaries like Frank Lloyd Wright, Lucille Ball, Walt Disney, Helen Keller and Frank Sinatra.
Lady Liberty
Edward Burczyk's design featuring the Statue of Liberty.
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By CBSNews.com senior producer David Morgan