9 ms·

Why is the US one of the few countries that can't keep a consistent design across their bills and still does not have a way for blind people to identify which n

Why is the US one of the few countries that can't keep a consistent design across their bills and still does not have a way for blind people to identify which note they have. They are all the same size and have no embossed markings.

ternnoburn 2y ago
[flagged]
- saturn8601 2y ago
  But the US has some of the best disability friendly infrastructure. The whole ADA compliance is taken very seriously here.
  - ternnoburn 2y ago
    I work in accessibility. The ADA is barely acknowledged. Every automatic door, curb cut, and accommodation is still a tough fight.
    - kube-system 2y ago
      ADA compliance is always a struggle in the US, but if you travel around the world, the US is leaps and bounds ahead of many places that don't even have the equivalent of the ADA to fight for.
      - ternnoburn 2y ago
        Does "other people do it worse" mean we do it well? Because I only put forward the claim that the US does it poorly. Whether others do it worse seems to have no bearing on whether we should strive to improve or not...
        kube-system 2y ago
        Of course, disability rights and accessibility is a struggle for people all around the planet.
        toast0 2y ago
        If the US is the best at accommodating mobility impairments, that's got to count for something. Maybe it's not handling it well, but if it's the best than anywhere is doing, keep asking for better, but set reasonable expectations. IMHO, there's a lot more room to improve accommodations for non-mobility impairments however, and there's examples of other countries doing better in some aspects to compare to. On-topic, accessibility of currency is clearly a US weakness, although the upcoming bill designs are supposed to address this, although we'll have to wait and feel if it works as announced.
- khazhoux 2y ago
  Please cite some examples of how the U.S. treats disabilities as personal failings, compared to specific other countries.
  - Freedom2 2y ago
    Pre-existing conditions, which as far as I'm aware, is a US-only concept. I'm happy to be corrected for that, though.
    - JumpCrisscross 2y ago
      > Pre-existing conditions, which as far as I'm aware, is a US-only concept Most of the world's population has no concept of socialised heath insurance. Pre-existing or novel. Someone in a wheelchair, or who is blind or mute, is much better accomodated in America than in most of Europe. (In part because the former is richer.)
      - Freedom2 2y ago
        If we're comparing the United States against third-world countries and not against their peers, then this isn't really a discussion worth having. > Someone in a wheelchair, or who is blind or mute, is much better accomodated in America than in most of Europe. I find that hard to believe given the lack of public transport, lack of funding for widespread public facilities, lack of empathy from insurers, lack of governmental social safety nets for those who come under unexpected hard times.
        atq2119 2y ago
        As a European, I can confirm that wheelchair accessibility is traditionally better in the US than in Europe. I suspect it's a combination of getting relevant laws earlier (don't know that, just guessing), having less old infrastructure (building new with accessibility is easier than upgrading existing buildings), and having more space (so adding a wheelchair ramp is less of a deal). Europe is generally catching up, but I'd say it's still behind the US. At least the places I know. But of course, that's not the whole story, as another commenter illustrates with some concrete examples for the cost of wheelchairs and wheelchair maintenance.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- scarface_74 2y ago
  Absolutely no political party in the US is railing against the disabled. The ADA was championed by Bush - a Republican candidate. Especially seeing how many people in “rural America” are claiming disability benefits that could work. But don’t have the necessary skills to get the jobs available are a willingness to move to where the jobs are. Yes I realize that moving somewhere without the extended family support system is an issue and it’s failing of the government and job training services https://projecte3.com/rural-americans/ https://projecte3.com/rural-americans/ Edit: I see I just got accused of being “ablist” in a now dead comment. I have cerebral palsy https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42611512 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42611512
  - ternnoburn 2y ago
    I'd argue neither political party is helping people with disabilities, and both are pretty strongly neglecting them. I don't think any of the current slate of politicians care at all. Bush I was a generation ago.
    - scarface_74 2y ago
      What exactly should the government be doing that it isn’t doing? I’m speaking as someone with a slight disability https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42611326 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42611326 More details, it’s more of an irritation for me than a life altering issue - my CP is such that I can only grab things with my left hand and I have a slight limp because of weakness in my left foot. But properly conditioned, I can run a 10 minute mile (not great. But not bad). So this is an honest question, I (or my parents) really haven’t needed much government help even though I did go through various therapies until I was 12 when my “therapy” became lifting weights.
      - ternnoburn 2y ago
        Read some of the items here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42611374 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42611374
  - 2y ago
supernova87a 2y ago
It is already big a deal to change the images on currency (no matter what country). Given the US dollar is viewed as somewhat of a standard, you can imagine that to change its size/shape would be quite difficult to generate enough political enthusiasm for.
- H8crilA 2y ago
  The US has last partially defaulted on its currency in 1971, surely a change of the design is possible too.
  - JumpCrisscross 2y ago
    > surely a change of the design is possible too It's changed plenty of times [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_dollar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_d...
    - rtkwe 2y ago
      The printed design has remained the same but the form factor has been pretty static for the last century or so. Things like bill readers are a big reason for that once they appeared it became a lot harder to swap around bill shapes.
      - supernova87a 2y ago
        I remember hearing that the Susan B Anthony dollar coin failed because there was no extra position in the coin drawer of cash registers to put it in. Can you image if every cash drawer now has to be redesigned to have different sized bills? (I know, I know, it's not actually that big a deal. The drawers have removable inserts, but you get the point of it.) (actually, on second though, automatic bill readers in vending machines, etc. would need a big retrofitting, that's probably much more a big deal).
        rtkwe 2y ago
Aeolun 2y ago
The thing I cannot fathom is why quarters are so huge, considering they’re nearly valueless. Then you need whole stacks of $1 bills to pay anything relevant. I find both constantly cluttering up my wallet.
- bmitc 2y ago
  They weren't always valueless. That's the reason.
- encomiast 2y ago
  I think I’ve had the same $23 in my wallet for four years. Can’t remember the last time I carried a coin around.
- Cthulhu_ 2y ago
  Nah, you need a credit card to pay anything relevant, and have done so for decades.
- scarface_74 2y ago
  The question is why are you using cash? Even my 82 year old dad is now using Apple Pay and both of my parents mostly use credit cards/debit cards. The only time I keep cash is for tipping, my wife and I travel a lot.
  - inetknght 2y ago
    > The question is why are you using cash? I use cash because it contributes to the local neighborhood economy more than not using cash. I use cash because I do not want to risk a banking app being broken by a non-banking app. I use cash because I do not trust banking apps to keep to themselves instead of infecting the whole device with spyware to "verify who you are". I use cash because not using cash charges extra (often-hidden) fees while using cash often comes with extra discounts. I use cash because the modern economy is a give-business-money-for-nothing-because-fuck-you economy and I don't want to contribute to that. There are many reasons to use cash. Pick one or many but stop thinking that cash is worse than a tech solution.
bradley13 2y ago
The US is so weird about its currency. The repeated attempts to get rid of the dollar bill (dollar coins, two-dollar bill, etc.) have all "failed". I put "failed" in quotes, because all it requires is for the government to do it. Take the one-dollar bills out of circulation, no discussion, done. At this point, take the two-dollar bills (no one will notice) and the penny as well.
- chii 2y ago
  The metal producers for those pennies cry foul at the US gov't taking away jobs!
- OutOfHere 2y ago
  A lot of people rely on the bills. You are completely out of touch with the people with your attempt to sabotage the printed currency.
  - bryanlarsen 2y ago
    Rely on what that couldn't be better served by $1 coins?
    - api 2y ago
      Coins are horribly inconvenient compared to bills.
      - bryanlarsen 2y ago
        Do you have any experience in countries with large denomination coins? Anything smaller than a quarter is super annoying, even the quarter is borderline. It says something when a countries largest coin is too small to be useful. A 500 Yen (~$4) coin OTOH, is super nice.
        shawabawa3 2y ago
        I'm in the UK which has £1 and £2 coins and the smallest note is £5 I'd much rather have £1/£2 notes instead
mike_d 2y ago
LOL. The lack of a consistent design is a core accessibility feature. Most "blind" people have some amount of vision. So starting in 1997 they began adding the very large numerals on the back and visual inconsistencies to the front so you can tell them apart with limited sight. Have a look at the bills side by side and you can see how they vary the background gradients and layout for easier identification: https://www.uscurrency.gov/denominations/100 https://www.uscurrency.gov/denominations/100 With the 2020s series refresh (Catalyst) all the denominations will get a tactile area to assist the completely blind. The government also provides free of charge to any legally blind person a small device that reads special markings on the bill and will audibly announce or vibrate the denomination. They also funded iOS and Android apps that use the camera.
- jdietrich 2y ago
  The accessibility of USD notes is notoriously poor. EUR, AUD or CHF banknotes have a consistent visual theme, but each denomination is a different size, has a bright and distinct predominant colour and they've had tactile features for decades. Sure, they look like monopoly money, but that's a good thing. https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/visually/html/index.en.html https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/visually/html/index.en.html
- Symbiote 2y ago
  The US dollar notes are 7 different shades of nothing much, with a man's face in the middle, a near-identical fancy border, and a circular stamp on each side in black and dark green. The numbers are in a decorative font, and merged into the border. On the reverse, there's a building and a similar decorative border. Your link even describes the "subtle background colors"! Only the $5 and $100 have a bold, contrasting number. All the banknotes are the same size. I challenge you to find a circulating currency with worse accessibility.
gwbas1c 2y ago
Learn more about US politics, and how hard it is to change simple things. You can start by looking up how hard it is to discontinue the penny.
- BobAliceInATree 2y ago
  apropos: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/01/magazine/worthless-pennies-united-states-economy.html https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/01/magazine/worthless-pennie...
  - Kon-Peki 2y ago
    > I hoped to watch the birth of a new cohort of pennies in person, but a Mint press representative insisted to me that he and other Mint professionals had “no idea” when or where the Mint would ever be making pennies — that these people could not narrow it down by day, or even week, at either facility. Did this mean, I asked, that it was standard procedure at the largest coin-making operation on Earth (Philadelphia), which last year minted more than two billion pennies, to decide “day of” which of six possible denominations it was going to produce? “Yeah,” he said — though, to be fair, there is vanishingly little proof he was paying attention to what either of us was saying. Dear me.
NoMoreNicksLeft 2y ago
There's no need to go to the trouble of making these changes. Cash money has been illegal in the United States since before most here were even born. If they discover you have cash, it can be confiscated (and charged with a crime... not you, but the cash can be charged). If you deposit more than $10,000 at a bank, the banks are deputized to snitch on you. If you deposit exactly $10,000, they snitch on you. And, because some criminals might deposit less than $10,000 to try to avoid consequences, if you deposit less than $10,000. Not just banks, if you bought a new car (or new RV, or new tractor, etc) at a dealership with cash, they'd have to report that too. Social norms have been subtly manipulated to convince you that people who have cash or pay with cash are shady.
toast0 2y ago
When was the last time the $1 bill changed meaningfully? You can't get more consistent than that. The $20 changed significantly in 1998 and had a refresh in 2004. 20 years of consistent design since then though. And all the bills are the same shape, size, and color, other than war issues. Can't get more consistent than that.
xenadu02 2y ago
To actually answer the question: The redesigns were mainly about preventing counterfeiting. That's also the reason for continuing to change them periodically. In some places outside the US money shops and banks won't exchange the old style notes after a certain time. Changing the design resets counterfeit operations back to square one. Then they added the embedded strip. Color doubles or quadruples the number of printing plates and steps needed and truly large (or state-sponsored) operations may have to start over when that happens. However someone in Congress got a bee in their bonnet about the changes and passed a law that prohibits Treasury from redesigning the $1 bill so it will continue to remain disjointed. That irks me tremendously. There never were any plans to redesign the $2 which also irks me. As for bill size Treasury/Fed has this philosophy not to stray too far for the appearance of stability. The US doesn't demonetize currency unlike many governments so your grandma can redeem an ancient $20 for a modern one without question. The cotton rag paper, identical size, etc is part of that stability. Also why the color changes were so subtle. The secondary reason is the huge chaos it would create as millions of bill acceptors will not or even cannot take a firmware update and would need complete replacement to handle a new size. You might not _agree_ with the reasons. They may not be _good_ reasons. But stability/tradition, Congress being idiots, and expense are the reasons the bills don't change much (or at all for $1/$2).
- bombcar 2y ago
  There's another reason - I suspect most blind people can see "well enough" to distinguish if they really need to. And they rarely do, because they likely pay for most everything with credit or phone these days. Then all you have to do is make sure you only have one size of bill in your wallet and you've solved most of it.

ternnoburn 2y ago

[flagged]

saturn8601 2y ago
But the US has some of the best disability friendly infrastructure. The whole ADA compliance is taken very seriously here.
- ternnoburn 2y ago
  I work in accessibility. The ADA is barely acknowledged. Every automatic door, curb cut, and accommodation is still a tough fight.
  - kube-system 2y ago
    ADA compliance is always a struggle in the US, but if you travel around the world, the US is leaps and bounds ahead of many places that don't even have the equivalent of the ADA to fight for.
    - ternnoburn 2y ago
      Does "other people do it worse" mean we do it well? Because I only put forward the claim that the US does it poorly. Whether others do it worse seems to have no bearing on whether we should strive to improve or not...
      - kube-system 2y ago
        Of course, disability rights and accessibility is a struggle for people all around the planet.
      - toast0 2y ago
        If the US is the best at accommodating mobility impairments, that's got to count for something. Maybe it's not handling it well, but if it's the best than anywhere is doing, keep asking for better, but set reasonable expectations. IMHO, there's a lot more room to improve accommodations for non-mobility impairments however, and there's examples of other countries doing better in some aspects to compare to. On-topic, accessibility of currency is clearly a US weakness, although the upcoming bill designs are supposed to address this, although we'll have to wait and feel if it works as announced.
khazhoux 2y ago
Please cite some examples of how the U.S. treats disabilities as personal failings, compared to specific other countries.
- Freedom2 2y ago
  Pre-existing conditions, which as far as I'm aware, is a US-only concept. I'm happy to be corrected for that, though.
  - JumpCrisscross 2y ago
    > Pre-existing conditions, which as far as I'm aware, is a US-only concept Most of the world's population has no concept of socialised heath insurance. Pre-existing or novel. Someone in a wheelchair, or who is blind or mute, is much better accomodated in America than in most of Europe. (In part because the former is richer.)
    - Freedom2 2y ago
      If we're comparing the United States against third-world countries and not against their peers, then this isn't really a discussion worth having. > Someone in a wheelchair, or who is blind or mute, is much better accomodated in America than in most of Europe. I find that hard to believe given the lack of public transport, lack of funding for widespread public facilities, lack of empathy from insurers, lack of governmental social safety nets for those who come under unexpected hard times.
      - atq2119 2y ago
        As a European, I can confirm that wheelchair accessibility is traditionally better in the US than in Europe. I suspect it's a combination of getting relevant laws earlier (don't know that, just guessing), having less old infrastructure (building new with accessibility is easier than upgrading existing buildings), and having more space (so adding a wheelchair ramp is less of a deal). Europe is generally catching up, but I'd say it's still behind the US. At least the places I know. But of course, that's not the whole story, as another commenter illustrates with some concrete examples for the cost of wheelchairs and wheelchair maintenance.
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]
scarface_74 2y ago
Absolutely no political party in the US is railing against the disabled. The ADA was championed by Bush - a Republican candidate. Especially seeing how many people in “rural America” are claiming disability benefits that could work. But don’t have the necessary skills to get the jobs available are a willingness to move to where the jobs are. Yes I realize that moving somewhere without the extended family support system is an issue and it’s failing of the government and job training services https://projecte3.com/rural-americans/ https://projecte3.com/rural-americans/ Edit: I see I just got accused of being “ablist” in a now dead comment. I have cerebral palsy https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42611512 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42611512
- ternnoburn 2y ago
  I'd argue neither political party is helping people with disabilities, and both are pretty strongly neglecting them. I don't think any of the current slate of politicians care at all. Bush I was a generation ago.
  - scarface_74 2y ago
    What exactly should the government be doing that it isn’t doing? I’m speaking as someone with a slight disability https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42611326 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42611326 More details, it’s more of an irritation for me than a life altering issue - my CP is such that I can only grab things with my left hand and I have a slight limp because of weakness in my left foot. But properly conditioned, I can run a 10 minute mile (not great. But not bad). So this is an honest question, I (or my parents) really haven’t needed much government help even though I did go through various therapies until I was 12 when my “therapy” became lifting weights.
    - ternnoburn 2y ago
      Read some of the items here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42611374 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42611374
- 2y ago

supernova87a 2y ago

It is already big a deal to change the images on currency (no matter what country). Given the US dollar is viewed as somewhat of a standard, you can imagine that to change its size/shape would be quite difficult to generate enough political enthusiasm for.

H8crilA 2y ago
The US has last partially defaulted on its currency in 1971, surely a change of the design is possible too.
- JumpCrisscross 2y ago
  > surely a change of the design is possible too It's changed plenty of times [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_dollar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_United_States_d...
  - rtkwe 2y ago
    The printed design has remained the same but the form factor has been pretty static for the last century or so. Things like bill readers are a big reason for that once they appeared it became a lot harder to swap around bill shapes.
    - supernova87a 2y ago
      I remember hearing that the Susan B Anthony dollar coin failed because there was no extra position in the coin drawer of cash registers to put it in. Can you image if every cash drawer now has to be redesigned to have different sized bills? (I know, I know, it's not actually that big a deal. The drawers have removable inserts, but you get the point of it.) (actually, on second though, automatic bill readers in vending machines, etc. would need a big retrofitting, that's probably much more a big deal).
      - rtkwe 2y ago

Aeolun 2y ago

The thing I cannot fathom is why quarters are so huge, considering they’re nearly valueless. Then you need whole stacks of $1 bills to pay anything relevant. I find both constantly cluttering up my wallet.

bmitc 2y ago
They weren't always valueless. That's the reason.
encomiast 2y ago
I think I’ve had the same $23 in my wallet for four years. Can’t remember the last time I carried a coin around.
Cthulhu_ 2y ago
Nah, you need a credit card to pay anything relevant, and have done so for decades.
scarface_74 2y ago
The question is why are you using cash? Even my 82 year old dad is now using Apple Pay and both of my parents mostly use credit cards/debit cards. The only time I keep cash is for tipping, my wife and I travel a lot.
- inetknght 2y ago
  > The question is why are you using cash? I use cash because it contributes to the local neighborhood economy more than not using cash. I use cash because I do not want to risk a banking app being broken by a non-banking app. I use cash because I do not trust banking apps to keep to themselves instead of infecting the whole device with spyware to "verify who you are". I use cash because not using cash charges extra (often-hidden) fees while using cash often comes with extra discounts. I use cash because the modern economy is a give-business-money-for-nothing-because-fuck-you economy and I don't want to contribute to that. There are many reasons to use cash. Pick one or many but stop thinking that cash is worse than a tech solution.

bradley13 2y ago

The US is so weird about its currency. The repeated attempts to get rid of the dollar bill (dollar coins, two-dollar bill, etc.) have all "failed". I put "failed" in quotes, because all it requires is for the government to do it. Take the one-dollar bills out of circulation, no discussion, done. At this point, take the two-dollar bills (no one will notice) and the penny as well.

chii 2y ago
The metal producers for those pennies cry foul at the US gov't taking away jobs!
OutOfHere 2y ago
A lot of people rely on the bills. You are completely out of touch with the people with your attempt to sabotage the printed currency.
- bryanlarsen 2y ago
  Rely on what that couldn't be better served by $1 coins?
  - api 2y ago
    Coins are horribly inconvenient compared to bills.
    - bryanlarsen 2y ago
      Do you have any experience in countries with large denomination coins? Anything smaller than a quarter is super annoying, even the quarter is borderline. It says something when a countries largest coin is too small to be useful. A 500 Yen (~$4) coin OTOH, is super nice.
      - shawabawa3 2y ago
        I'm in the UK which has £1 and £2 coins and the smallest note is £5 I'd much rather have £1/£2 notes instead

mike_d 2y ago

LOL. The lack of a consistent design is a core accessibility feature. Most "blind" people have some amount of vision. So starting in 1997 they began adding the very large numerals on the back and visual inconsistencies to the front so you can tell them apart with limited sight. Have a look at the bills side by side and you can see how they vary the background gradients and layout for easier identification: https://www.uscurrency.gov/denominations/100 https://www.uscurrency.gov/denominations/100 With the 2020s series refresh (Catalyst) all the denominations will get a tactile area to assist the completely blind. The government also provides free of charge to any legally blind person a small device that reads special markings on the bill and will audibly announce or vibrate the denomination. They also funded iOS and Android apps that use the camera.

jdietrich 2y ago
The accessibility of USD notes is notoriously poor. EUR, AUD or CHF banknotes have a consistent visual theme, but each denomination is a different size, has a bright and distinct predominant colour and they've had tactile features for decades. Sure, they look like monopoly money, but that's a good thing. https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/visually/html/index.en.html https://www.ecb.europa.eu/euro/visually/html/index.en.html
Symbiote 2y ago
The US dollar notes are 7 different shades of nothing much, with a man's face in the middle, a near-identical fancy border, and a circular stamp on each side in black and dark green. The numbers are in a decorative font, and merged into the border. On the reverse, there's a building and a similar decorative border. Your link even describes the "subtle background colors"! Only the $5 and $100 have a bold, contrasting number. All the banknotes are the same size. I challenge you to find a circulating currency with worse accessibility.

gwbas1c 2y ago

Learn more about US politics, and how hard it is to change simple things. You can start by looking up how hard it is to discontinue the penny.

BobAliceInATree 2y ago
apropos: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/01/magazine/worthless-pennies-united-states-economy.html https://www.nytimes.com/2024/09/01/magazine/worthless-pennie...
- Kon-Peki 2y ago
  > I hoped to watch the birth of a new cohort of pennies in person, but a Mint press representative insisted to me that he and other Mint professionals had “no idea” when or where the Mint would ever be making pennies — that these people could not narrow it down by day, or even week, at either facility. Did this mean, I asked, that it was standard procedure at the largest coin-making operation on Earth (Philadelphia), which last year minted more than two billion pennies, to decide “day of” which of six possible denominations it was going to produce? “Yeah,” he said — though, to be fair, there is vanishingly little proof he was paying attention to what either of us was saying. Dear me.

NoMoreNicksLeft 2y ago

There's no need to go to the trouble of making these changes. Cash money has been illegal in the United States since before most here were even born. If they discover you have cash, it can be confiscated (and charged with a crime... not you, but the cash can be charged). If you deposit more than $10,000 at a bank, the banks are deputized to snitch on you. If you deposit exactly $10,000, they snitch on you. And, because some criminals might deposit less than $10,000 to try to avoid consequences, if you deposit less than $10,000. Not just banks, if you bought a new car (or new RV, or new tractor, etc) at a dealership with cash, they'd have to report that too. Social norms have been subtly manipulated to convince you that people who have cash or pay with cash are shady.

toast0 2y ago

When was the last time the $1 bill changed meaningfully? You can't get more consistent than that. The $20 changed significantly in 1998 and had a refresh in 2004. 20 years of consistent design since then though. And all the bills are the same shape, size, and color, other than war issues. Can't get more consistent than that.

xenadu02 2y ago

To actually answer the question: The redesigns were mainly about preventing counterfeiting. That's also the reason for continuing to change them periodically. In some places outside the US money shops and banks won't exchange the old style notes after a certain time. Changing the design resets counterfeit operations back to square one. Then they added the embedded strip. Color doubles or quadruples the number of printing plates and steps needed and truly large (or state-sponsored) operations may have to start over when that happens. However someone in Congress got a bee in their bonnet about the changes and passed a law that prohibits Treasury from redesigning the $1 bill so it will continue to remain disjointed. That irks me tremendously. There never were any plans to redesign the $2 which also irks me. As for bill size Treasury/Fed has this philosophy not to stray too far for the appearance of stability. The US doesn't demonetize currency unlike many governments so your grandma can redeem an ancient $20 for a modern one without question. The cotton rag paper, identical size, etc is part of that stability. Also why the color changes were so subtle. The secondary reason is the huge chaos it would create as millions of bill acceptors will not or even cannot take a firmware update and would need complete replacement to handle a new size. You might not _agree_ with the reasons. They may not be _good_ reasons. But stability/tradition, Congress being idiots, and expense are the reasons the bills don't change much (or at all for $1/$2).

bombcar 2y ago
There's another reason - I suspect most blind people can see "well enough" to distinguish if they really need to. And they rarely do, because they likely pay for most everything with credit or phone these days. Then all you have to do is make sure you only have one size of bill in your wallet and you've solved most of it.