Was the new $100 bill unveiled in Russia before debuted in the U.S.?
On Wednesday April 21, 2010, the United States Treasury department unveiled with pride the new $100 bill that is due to be widely circulated in February of 2011. The renowned note is known worldwide as the “Superdollar,” and is the most frequently used and counterfeited currency note in the world. U.S. Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner expressed his personal confidence at the official unveiling that this will be the hardest bill ever to duplicate.…
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— go to most recent comments26 - Ruvy
And, Ruvy, very little is being mentioned about the rocket which struck in Jordan.
First of all, Silas, thank you for you kind concern. We are all safe and far from where this missile fell. While war is expected here, for the moment, there appears yet to be peace. Second of all, I hope you are feeling somewhat better. I hope you experience a full recovery (refuá shlemá).
Finally, the missile was of Arab origin. According to the Jordanians, it was a Grad, a Russian import to Gaza for Hamas or one of the other terror groups there, and the Jordanian hit was an attempt to hit Israel - that failed.
Let's order another round of bread, humous and coffee for the Arabs working so hard to exterminate us! And make it quick, waiter!
shukra.....
27 - Jet Gardner
Any more problems, bub?
You obviously didn't read the piece above that I worked so hard on, because camel safaris for gay honeymooners is part of the article-NOT an ad.
Speaking of ads, why don't you click on one for me so I can make 23 cents?
28 - Jet Gardner
Oh I get it- silly me, knowing how easily confuseed I get, Ruvy"s commenting on my Gay Mt. Everest piece over here on my $100 bill piece.
duh? I should've figured that out... my app-a-low-gees
29 - Jet Gardner
Am I the only one losing comments during this spam attack?
30 - Ruvy
You obviously didn't read the piece above that I worked so hard on, because camel safaris for gay honeymooners is part of the article-NOT an ad.
I guess when I read a money article, Jet, I concentrate on the uh money. Can't help it, you know, being Jewish and all.... The Camel safaris for gay honeymooners flew right by me. Were the gay honeymooners supposed to be smoking Camels - or riding them?
Sorry, dude. I'm gettin' fergetful in my old age....
31 - STM
Back to the subject ... I used US dollars and British pounds sterling in Moscow and Leningrad in the early 80s as de facto local currency. Almost every transaction was preferred in dollars or pounds over the rouble, which was near worthless outside the Soviet bloc.
Anything western, actually. A packet of English, American or Australian cigarettes was enough to get you tip-top service in areas where you wouldn't normally get it.
Cab drivers wanted western currency - at driver changeover time, or you'd have to indicate with your fingers how many multiples of the fare you were prepared to pay in roubles. What is is with cabbies and "change-over time" in every bloody big city on Earth??
I suspect you got a lot more for your buck back then in Russa, though (and not just bang, either). Moscow has since become the world's most expensive city.
However, the way things are going here at the moment, Sydney can't be far that far behind.
32 - STM
One of those US $100 buck superdollar bills would last about 10 minutes here at the moment.
33 - STM
It does, however, seem like a good idea to put colourn on the notes so that you can diffentiate between $1 and $100.
Last time I was in the US, I'm sure I ditched a couple of hundred by mistaking them for 10 dollar bills after one beer too many in a bar where the lights were turned down a bit too low.
One guy told me to use a money clip and put the ones at the front, and then the other denominations by value in order.
Too much fartin' about ... and when you've had a couple of cold ones, who remembers which end comes first?
34 - Jet Gardner
Thanks Dimas, I've been running into a lot of conterfeit $5s lately. I guess they think they'll fly under the radar. I've found that most were done on computer printers and the backs have more of a bluish tint than thay should.
A very easy test is to simply try to tear a corner. It shouldn't be easy as genuine currency is made of cotton. if you see white beneath the green it's fake-the color goes all the way through and is manufctured into the "paper"
35 - Jet Gardner
Stan, the best currency in Moscow is genuine American blue jeans. it's amazing what you can get for them.
36 - Jet Gardner
Ruvy, the camels are in my Mt. Everest article, not this one.
37 - Jet Gardner
Stan, you if you really want to have fun, try distinguishing between a quarter and a dollar coin in the dark.
38 - roger nowosielski
Ruvy's quite shaken up from the beating he took on another thread, Jet. He's trying to recover.
39 - Jet Gardner
Thanks Roger, that explains his lack of conspiracy theories about how the new currency is a plot against Israel
40 - roger nowosielski
BTW, I didn't forget the Digg thing, still got to retrieve my password.
Meanwhile, this spam attack, going into the second day now (as you have noticed), makes it difficult to navigate here.
41 - Jet Gardner
It's unusual that it's lasted this long, they must be using multiple ISPs. My heart goese out to Chris and Doc who must have their hands full.
42 - roger nowosielski
Under control finally.
43 - alpha male
Surely technology changes really fast these days.
The art of counterfeiting can get really advanced and technical, but I think that we can always think of better ways to protect sensitive things.
For example, with computers and internet, it's somewhat easy for anybody to do all kind of automatic information gathering and spamming.
We came up with the captcha technology where someone has to type crooked text and numbers that appear in a box.
I can see this technology working for many years until someone finds a way to break it, so I hope we'll have the same effect with this new $100 bill.
On a related note, Canada is supposed to have all plastic bills also almost impossible to copy getting out by next year.
Will be interesting to follow!
44 - Levi
@Silas
Man oh man, I hear you! So, I am in Idaho now, not a noted cultural bastion I know, but just the same I find the current situation the purest insanity. Get this....My child recently brought home a letter explaining that the there will be no more field trips unless parents will drive the children to the location of said field trip, because the State has cut that out of their budget. MEANWHILE back at the ranch, the State is suing the Federal government and planning to spend millions to do so, despite it clearly being a token gesture and a quixotic and idiotic gesture.
So sorry school systems, you can't have money for educational trips to facilitate the intellectual growth of our children, that money is slotted for more "important things".
I am sure there will be plenty of these new super-bills thrown down that toilet.
45 - STM
"On a related note, Canada is supposed to have all plastic bills also almost impossible to copy getting out by next year."
We already have them in Australia; the first ones were introduced in 1988, and by 1996, the entire range of banknotes was made of plastic (polymer).
They are harder wearing than paper but are not indestructible, and are extremely hardto counterfeit (near impossible, apparently).
Although they are extremely pliable, one thing you do have to watch out for with brand new fresh banknotes is the "sping effect". Shove 'em in your pocket and they have a tendency to want to unravel and spring out. It doesn't take much digging in the pocket for that to happen.
I always fold my new notes very carefully and put a crease down the middle of them.
The older notes, once they're a bit worn, don't behave in the same way.
On my last trip to Europe, I pulled a roll of Aussie currency out in a taxi looking for euros and the cab driver asked to see one. He spent about five minutes turning a $10 note over, upside down, holding it up to the light, cracking it back and forth, before giving it his nod of approval.
I do miss the paper money though, especially the $1 and $2 bills, which have now been replaced by coins.
The pale pink $5 note is now the smallest denomination and the only one with the Queen's head on it. It's euphemistically known as a drinking voucher, along - now -with the $10 blue note.
That'd only be in a cheap pub, though.
46 - Jet Gardner
Is there a danger of your money melting in the sun?
47 - Jet Gardner
We used to have an "Eisenhower" silver dollar coin that was about 6cm/2 inches in diameter. I'd love to give up the dollar bill for them, but all of our dollar coins over the years since the late seventies were too much in similar size to the quarter coin so they never caught on, as people would spend a dollar thinking it was a quarter.
48 - Jordan Richardson
Plastic bills? Hmm, first I've heard of this. But then again I haven't paid for anything in cash in years.
49 - Jet Gardner
It is indeed an interesting concept Jordan. You'd think people would be afraid of breaking them in half or damaging them somehow by repeatedly folding the things in half.
Maybe they're flexible carbon fiber?
50 - STM
Jet: "You'd think people would be afraid of breaking them in half or damaging them somehow by repeatedly folding the things in half."
They're the thickness of paper but much stronger.
But like I say, they're not indestructible.
And no Jet, they don't melt in the sun.
Since this is the hottest continent on the planet, I can say that with full knowledge.
They do seem to go a bit softer though if you leave them in the sun on a 45C day.
51 - Jet Gardner
No doubt!
Hey check out my new political editorial on the Tea Party just published an hour ago!
52 - STM
The substance is know as "polymer".
53 - Jet Gardner
I just took a look at Aussie money on Google Image search... pretty damned cool!
54 - STM
I'm at work. I'll read it on my break Jet, in a couple of hours. I can fart around posting comments but if I get spotted READINg blogcritics they get a bit narky.
On the plastic notes. They are really strong, which is why they made them I suppose ... stronger than the old ones, which I think were also of cotton-paper manufacture.
55 - Jordan Richardson
Apparently the Harper government is getting our polymer money from an Australian company. Well alright.
56 - Jet Gardner
Those... those... those capitalists!
57 - STM
Yeah, of course - the world's strongest economy produces the world's strongest banknotes ... whaddya youse expect??
58 - STM
And for all those Americans out there who can't bear to come sedcond at anything, notice I didn't say "world's largest economy" or the "world's most important".
For those who don't know, the Australian economy is regarded as the global economic "canary" ... according to the experts, if it keeps singing, no one else - the US, Europe in particular - goes completely down the gurgler.
If it carks it and keels over, every one else drops off the perch as well.
I think it's to do with booming sales of our commodities, mainly to China, Japan and lately, India, as we are largest shipper of coal, iron-ore and wool on the global market.
59 - zingzing
no joke here, but why are coal, iron-ore (which my grandfather mined in minnesota from the 1940s-60s or 70s) and wool still three of the biggest products on the market? seems we should have move beyond that... yet we haven't.
australia, if what stm is true, and i don't doubt it, has a market on the edge. where is the real tech market? is it america or is it china? or is it europe? shrug.
60 - STM
Our GDP is now higher than the US and Europe ... the GFC had an impact on everyone.
We didn't go into recession and our jobless rate is about 6 per cent, not 10.
It's the stuff in the ground. Our ecomony is now inextricably linked to China's as an exporter of commodities, rather than an importer of goods (although of course we do). Therein lies the key I suspect.
Don't know why zing, but coal can now be utilised in clean-burning technology, although not sure if China and India are doing that.
61 - Ruvy
I don't post on the Sabbath, boys and girls. As for polymerized currency, some years ago the smallest banknote here, the 20 shekel note was polymerized. The whole lot of them are supposed to be redesigned next year. I suppose they will all be polymerized as well. The polymerized notes do handle a bit funny, but if they can't be counterfeited, so much the better. You Americans really ought to get with the program. You guys are starting to fall behind technologically, and it is starting to show....
62 - Jet Gardner
I've been absent on and off for a while here, tell me has Ruvy said anything nice about the U.S. that I've somehow missed?
63 - Ruvy
Well Jet, you wouldn't have seen this comment - you do not belong to this group.... Neither does anyone else here.
Tomaso wrote at this yahoogroup: Excellent insight, easy for some, impossible for others.
Ruvy wrote at this yahoogroup:
"The cadet insisted: 'Would an airman like me ever be ordered to fire on an Israeli aircraft or personnel?'"
This reveals the real difference between the decent Americans who sign up for the military and the fascist bastards who command them.
Both commenting on this article. Adm. Mullen Evades Answer on Shooting Down IAF Jet. From the article:
The Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen, evaded a question Tuesday regarding the theoretical possibility that the US would shoot down IAF jets en route to attack Iran.
The Weekly Standard reported that in a town hall meeting on the campus of the University of West Virginia, a US Air Force ROTC cadet asked Mullen to respond to a hypothetical situation: if Israel decided to attack Iran, he said, its jets would need to fly through Iraqi airspace, which is considered a “no-fly” zone by the American military. Would US troops shoot down the Israeli jets, the airman asked, if they entered that zone?
Mullen evaded the question....
64 - STM
I tend to get ads suggesting I can easily get a US green card and become a citizen ... if I'll just hand over a bit of me hard-earned and pay someone.
Even though I don't want to live in the US. Go figure.
They've got two chances of siphoning any drachmas out of my bank account ... buckley's and none.
65 - Jet Gardner
Good for you Stan, stand your ground. From everything I've heard of Australia, I'd like to go there.
66 - STM
I wouldn't mind living in the US because I love it and really enjoy the company of Americans, and I've had the chance to move there and work there in the past.
However, apart from the novelty of living and working in another country, I don't see the point ... uprooting from a place I love to go, upsetting the apple cart and living with a bunch of foreigners I don't know, for a lifestyle that's virtually identical.
Sometimes I wish I'd done it, as I genuinely did have a great time on my visits there ... especially in regards to being part of the surf culture in California (I even spent a bit of time at Sebastian Inlet in Florida had some surf there the locals described as "all-time" ... and it WAS good".
But I love the number of uncrowded pointbreaks and perfect beachbreaks up and down the aussie east coast, and surfing in the US was like surfing with 20 busloads of people pretty much everywhere I went except for a couple of "secret spots".
So as a young bloke, I based the decision, ultimately, on that. Now I'm a lot older and not surfing that much anymore, I sometimes wonder whether I should have made the move.
Anyway, it's like another state of the US here ... with everything literally just a hair different.
Like driving on the proper side of the road, not the right-hand side.
I never got used to changing gears with my right hand and having the steering wheel on the left-hand side of the car.
So unnatural ... and at times, scary.
67 - STM
Also, Americans talk funny ... I could never understand any bastard.
Some of them told me I spoke good English, though, which was nice.
A couple even asked where I'd learned it :)
68 - Jet Gardner
Ahhhh Stan, memories of surfing in California. I almost moved to San diego myself. Australia on the other hand has less sensored television, hotter babes of both sexes, and a much more freer lifestyle than we do... and unfortunately box jellies.
We've got religious jackasses that want to return us to the "morals" of the Victorian Age.
Most Americans don't realize that the last two seasons of the famous "Mission Impossible" show were filmed in Auatralia as well. I always watched to see if they flipped the road scenes horizontally and parted everyone's hair on the other side. My absolute favorite actor back then was Aussie Tony Hamilton.
I've a friend in the TV industry named Dave I'd love to visit... alas
69 - Jet Gardner
In a way though I welcome Arch's remarks because, like Howard Stern, people tune in to see what brand of logic he'll use to justify his latest judgmental remark.
That brings in readers, and hopefully someone that'll click an ad and earn me 35 cents towards this evening's dinner.
70 - John Wilson
#60 STM: actually, there's no clean way to burn coal. The hope of Clean Coal is to sequester CO2 after burning, then pump it into the ground somewhere. That's the theory. They tried doing a pilot plant in Florida, but locals didn't like the idea of CO2 leaking out and suffocating mammals, you know, like themselves. There's talk of a pilot plant in Germany, which, unaccountably, seems to be less resistant to suffocating people with gas.
71 - Jet Gardner
It seems to me there's a successful plant in Canada that's sequestering CO2
72 - STM
Actually, John, there are technologies that make it cleaner than it used to be ... ash removal for a start. It might not live up to the warmenists' idea of what clean should be, but hey, you can't have everything. Some of the C02 is also recycled into the boiler.
I used to work for the New South Wales government in the 1980s, and we went on a trade trip to Thailand to try to sell them on clean-coal technology, so it's been around for a while.
Although like I say, it won't be clean enough for the warmenists.
Only somewthing that goes in filfthy and comes out with the purity of mountain spring water would be what warmenists' regard as "clean", in my experience.
73 - Jeff Forsythe
Ruvy, this preoccupation with anything anti-American is beginning to trouble me.
Rabbi Schneur Zalman is fond of a saying by the sages of the Talmud: "The greater a person is, the greater his evil inclination."
I propose that that can be carried over to a nation as well. Indeed, it stands to reason: otherwise, how could we say that G-d has granted every group of individuals absolute freedom of choice? Don't we see people who are challenged by addictions and temptations far greater than anything we ourselves are ever subjected to?
If the collective population of the U.S. has the power to control their own destiny, that means that they have also been fortified with spiritual strengths far beyond what the "average" democracy possesses.
The implications of this are twofold: If you see a truly great people, know that they have wrestled with demons more ominous and powerful than anything that Israel has had to deal with. And if you a people who have sunk to depths which you cannot even fathom, know that they are blessed with equally unfathomable potentials.
This, says the Lubavitcher Rebbe, is the deeper meaning behind a curious commentary by Rashi on the opening verses of the parshah of Toldot (Genesis 25:19-28:9). Toldot begins, "And these are the toldot ('generations') of Isaac, the son of Abraham." Rashi explains: who are these "generations"? "Jacob and Esau who are spoken of in the parshah." But isn't that obvious? Why does Rashi need to explain?
The standard explanation is that, in the Torah, the word toldot can have several meanings. It can mean "children" and "descendents," and it can also mean "products" and "deeds" (all of which are "generated" by a person). Since the account of Jacob's and Esau's birth does not immediately follow the parshah's opening verse, and since the parshah of Toldot also describes events and deeds of Isaac's life, there can be some doubt as to how to translate the word toldot in this context. So Rashi feels the need to tell us that, in this case, it refers to "Jacob and Esau who are spoken of in the parshah."
But, says the Rebbe, there is also another meaning implicit in Rashi's commentary. On a deeper level, Rashi is addressing the question: How do such righteous and holy parents as Isaac and Rebecca, and a righteous and holy environment such as their home, produce a wicked and violent man such as Esau? After all, Esau was Jacob's twin, sharing the same gene-pool and upbringing. Jacob makes sense. But where does Esau come from?
Indeed, says Rashi, the wicked Esau is not a "product" of Isaac and Rebecca, but a monster of his own making. Who are the toldot of Isaac? The Jacob and Esau who are spoken of in the parshah. The Torah's Esau is a man of great potential for good -- as great as the evil he allowed himself to succumb to.
To Esau this says: See what you could be. To us, this says: The next time you see an Esau, look again.
something to ponder?
Mr. Forsythe
74 - Jet Gardner
I was under the impression that Saturday was the day for Jewish sermons Jeff?
No offense intended
75 - Ruvy
Mr. Forsythe,
You evidently have some knowledge of the Jewish religion and of how Jewish religious thinkers have expressed themselves. I salute you for it.
Now I suggest you look upon the history of the United States (Eisáv). It arose as an attempt to be a righteous society, and achieved an immense blessing, and became the richest and most powerful society Man had seen for a very long time. In New York Harbor stood a New Colossus of hope, offering to take in the unwashed millions of Europe and turn them into a nation. And it did.
In my childhood, and in the childhood of the author of this article, the United States was the richest and most powerful nation on earth. Everyone owed America - not merely culturally, but financially as well. It had emerged unscathed from the Second World War while a good part of the rest of the planet was either devastated and weakened, like Europe, or heading into devastation, like Africa and Asia.
Eisáv was mighty. Eisáv was powerful. Eisáv saw himself as a force for good. I grew up in that land, and was proud to be part of Eisáv.
Once.
Looking at Eisáv from my little perch in Eretz Yisraél, I have seen the mighty fall. I have seen the good characteristics of this mighty nation overcome by evil, by selfishness, by an inability and unwillingness to see beyond its own borders, by a cultural sickness that has made a good portion of its population bastards by its own reckoning a generation or two ago. And I have been able to behold its evil in the way it has dealt with other nations as it has fallen. I have seen betrayal after betrayal. I have seen a pattern of bullying emerge that makes me ashamed ever to have lived in that once-great country.
In my writings, I have consistently condemned the government of the United States as evil - for it has been evil; and I have consistently praised the people of the United States as good - for unlike the government, they have been good.
That is what you see in comment #63.
But ultimately, even a good people is judged by its evil rulers - especially - and this is especially so in America's case - when the people claim to have sovereignty.
Ruvy, this preoccupation with anything anti-American is beginning to trouble me.
Now, Mr. Forsythe, you consider Eisáv.