Don't all raise your hands at once now.
You have to admit, "can you spot me a couple Kamalas" does have a certain ring to it.
And sure, while Ulysses S. Grant, currently on the fifty-dollar bill, did lead the Union army to victory over the Confederacy thus helping to free half a continent from the evils of slavery, Oprah had a highly rated TV show and gave away a bunch of cars.
We'll just call it a coin toss then.
The proposal was made by Merchant Machine, a UK-based information comparison website dedicated to reviewing payment systems for merchants, and while it's clearly a publicity stunt, we don't dare dismiss anything these days.
After all, a septuagenarian who can barely slur his way through a 5-minute speech is our President, men can compete in women's sports, DC might become the 51st state, and after years of being told President Trump is a fascist, only now that he's out of office do we have thousands of military troops occupying the capital.
The proposal Merchant Machine prepared is called, "The Future of Gender Equality on Banknotes" and includes a list of various countries' currencies and who appeared on which notes, which as the title suggests, consists almost entirely of men, particularly when you remove Queen Elizabeth II of England who appears on 35 different countries' banknotes, more countries than anyone else in history.
You go, girl! I mean, your majesty.
The list itself is fascinating to scroll through. For example, there were quite a few extremely high denomination notes around the turn of the century, including a Woodrow Wilson $100,000 note that was intended only for exchanges between Federal Reserve banks and cannot even be legally owned by collectors.
There were a number of higher denomination currencies in actual circulation prior to 1969 when they were recalled by Nixon over fears of money laundering, the largest being a $10,000 note which would be the equivalent of $73,392.41 today.
Almost all these notes had either presidents on them or signatories to the Declaration of Independence, with only a handful of exceptions including a $10,000 note that had Salmon P. Chase on it, Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury and a $500 note with John Marshall, the 4th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.
In comparison to other countries, the United States is rather stuffy about who appears on its notes.
Australia has had a poet, an opera singer, and a wheat breeder. Denmark has had actresses, sculptors, and poets. England has had an architect, North Ireland a footballer, and Scotland a doctor and a novelist. Iceland had several Lutheran Bishops.
Denmark had the daughter-in-law of Niels Ryberg, a merchant.
Yeah, I don't know either.
I guess it's the kind of thing you can do when you are not the world's reserve currency.
Merchant Machine mentions in passing that it is illegal under American law for any living person to appear on a US Bank Note.
Be on the lookout for Kamala Harris's sudden enthusiasm for "Biden Bucks."
Among the other giants of American womanhood suggested for our currency include Taylor Swift, without whom modern life would not be possible or at least worth living if you are a 14-year-old girl, and Serena Williams, a pioneer in playing tennis really well.
Given the the way things are going, we might as well lean all the way in, I say.
What do you think?
