Posted on 05/26/2003 7:08:16 AM PDT by eddie willers
CRITIC'S NOTEBOOK
sn't it a little weird that the United States government's campaign this month announcing the fall introduction of its new, colorful, counterfeit-resistant $20 bill — a bill with faint peach, turquoise and gold tones — is called "The New Color of Money"? Wasn't "The Color of Money" a movie about a pool hustler named Fast Eddie Felson?
In the spirit of patriotic gambling, I went to a cash machine and took out a whole lot of money, hoping that at least one bill that popped out would be a pre-1998 $20, the one with the little locket-size portrait of Andrew Jackson. I wanted to compare the old president with the current, big-faced Jackson and then compare them both with the new colorful Jackson. Lady Luck was with me. I got my bill.
On that bill, Andrew Jackson's hair is white. He looks remote, almost indignant, as if taken aback. His stern expression is exaggerated by the fact that his right eyebrow is overgrown. His white shirt can be seen under his chin and in the V of his coat's collar. A hint of Jackson's finger holds the coat closed. The whole portrait is framed in an oval topped by a swirling banner that says, "The United States of America." It's grand, ornate and austere.
The current $20, issued in September 1998, makes Jackson look considerably warmer and weirder. His head sits squarely in the oval frame. He doesn't look taken aback anymore. His hair is no longer white but a swirly mix of tones. His eyes are darker and so are his brows, or at least the left brow is. The overgrown, right eyebrow has morphed into a giant albino caterpillar crawling to the edge of Jackson's face. He seems to have acquired a double chin. And his tight-lipped glower has been replaced by a near smile. The glance is ambiguous. One eye seems to be staring almost ahead; the other darts right.
The coat has changed, too. You can no longer see where the collar ends, and there's no longer a finger holding the coat closed. Only a tiny bit of the white shirt remains in the current engraving, and that is the bit under Jackson's chin; it makes him look priestly. The whole portrait is encased in a large, nearly circular frame, a little off-center on the bill. It is less grand but more puppyish and friendly.
On the new bill the biggest change will be in Jackson's coat. Because Jackson's portrait will no longer be framed by an oval, his coat will run almost all the way to the bottom of the bill, like a cape. The coat will have a more complicated moiré pattern. Problem is, someone forgot to give Jackson a right shoulder. He has become a bobble-headed toy, a big head on a small lopsided base. He looks deformed and mournful up there on the pedestal. And maybe a tad worried.
You can see why. A pale turquoise eagle is about to attack him from the left. Jackson's tiny hand (a little white speck brought back from the old bill) appears to be emerging from his coat, as if poised to swat the bird. And the swirling banner that once floated above the small-faced bill will become a faint banner on Jackson's right side. It will say, in pale blue letters, "Twenty USA" and, stacked underneath, "USA Twenty." If you hold the bill to the light, you will see, under that banner, a second glowering portrait of Jackson, shades of the past.
The main point of the change, of course, is to foil counterfeiters through mind-boggling and (more important) computer-boggling color. Thus, the greenback's replacement, coming to a bank machine near you, will have a background that subtly shades from pale green on the left to peach and gold in the center and then to green again on the right. For those who hold the bill up to the light, there will be tiny gold 20's glistening on the reverse side.
But for those who don't plan to look too carefully, the striking thing will be the oddity of the portrait on the new bill. Jackson, once safely encased like a patriarch in a locket and now swelled to a friendly super-size, will become a mournful head ready to topple.
He doesn't look much like "Old Hawkface" now, does he? :)
Walt
LOL!
I was trying place where I had seen him.
Who next....Gandalf on the Hundred?
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