As most of you know by now, this here Penguin has recently been to the States. It wasn´t that difficult getting there, I took a left on Snow-Drift Road and basically just went South West from there until my paddle hit American soil. Looked like average soil to me, so I moved my flippers onto it.
But a penguin is easily confused and I think I don´t need to regurgitate the toilet-pandemonium to remind you of my difficulty to adjust to the novelties that greeted me upon arrival. And don´t even get me started on how fries come with everything, even if you don´t order them!
The perplexity I want to discuss today, however, is the good ole American Dollar. One hears these rumors of the Dollar not being as strong these days as it used to be. You thought economy was to blame, I am here to tell you it is color. No really! So much diversity- Lincolns, Franklins and Jeffersons, all in green and rolled up in my pockets and each time I had to pay for something…there it was: Confusion multiplied by the speed of light with a bit of sweat on my flippers, as somebody was anxiously awaiting for money to change aehm … limbs. All the bills basically look the same, with different old guys minimally differentiating the obverse if you happen to have a magnifying glass near-by. And before you know it, you have set up camp for Mr. Grant in some tip jar at a local Starbucks.
I am also sorry to tell you this, but Iceland seems to be light-years ahead of American currency. Now would you look at the array of colors, pictures and layouts of these our most precious Kronur:
The 500 KR bill depicts Jon Sigurdsson at his writing desk. An MP at the Icelandic Althing and an extraordinary scholar of history and the Icelandic Sagas. His birthday, 17th of June, is Iceland´s national holiday.
The 1000 KR bill depicts Brynjolfur Sveinsson and his church at Skalholt on the reverse. A Lutheran Bishop who is famous for his collection, study and dedictaion to Old Norse literature.
The 2000 KR bill depicts Johannes Kjarval and Kjarval’s painting Yearning for Flight and his drawing “Woman and Flowers” on the back. One of the most famous artists in Iceland he is the newest addition to our banknotes and was distributed in 1995. My favourite bill and the hardest to get!
The 5000 Kr bill depicts Ragnheidur Jonsdottir and her husband with his other two wives on the front and her instructing two girls in embroidery on the reverse. I can´t tell you why she is depicted on the highest banknote, nor what great accomplishment she has manufactured, but by golly, she´s a woman. I have mentioned this before, but Iceland had the first female president in Europe. It bears repeating, I feel…what with us being ahead and all!There you have it, everything from writers to painters, through clergymen all the way to some chic doing needlework. We have it all and in color no less!
Cool, ey?!
Now get with the programme and excuse me while I get back to eating my rotten shark meat.
~Penguin out!
The cost of reading at Humor-blogs.com? Zip. The cost of having a beautiful and brilliant friend like teh PENGUIN do another prize-winning post? Priceless. ~snuppy
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Central Snark 
hmmmm. i’m pretty sure Ragnheidur Jonsdottir is on that 5000 kr bill because of her fashion-forward sensibilities (that hat… oy). 😉
Penguin! loveloveLOVE this informative-yet-funny post, my friend! *breathes sigh of relief* and, since i’m still a bit “under the weather”, please let me say once more, for the record, how much i appreciate the fact that you did one! and EARLY! (for it was, indeed, cued up in the queueueueue Monday night!)
and thank you thank you thank you for letting us feel even more inferior to all things Iceland than we did before you wrote this wonderful post — such an interesting and/or progressive country you live in, my friend. and a FEMALE president (woot!) and, on top of that, cute (okay, articstic) money, to boot? ah well — with currency like that, it would be hard to spend it — i’d be more inclined to frame some of those bills, and hang ’em up on the wall! maybe in the office, so i could look at ’em while paying bills. 🙂 xox
(hope you don’t mind that i linked this post to Humor-blogs… i figured we needed to share it with as many folks as possible!) 😉
Comment by One Hot Puppy Wednesday, 2 May 2007 @ 8:56amAhhhhhh!!!!!Love it, then you know I love all things Icelandic…do you think our friends know this??! 🙂 Should I tell them?
Comment by Mo'a Wednesday, 2 May 2007 @ 9:22amWell I will be there in two weeks…save me some shark ;)…see you there 🙂
Hi snuppy…
I linked this post to my post over at the Frozen Lands too. Feel free, everybody, to come and visit me. Don´t be scared…I have hot chocolate 24/7! and whiskey…gotta whiskey 😉
Glad you liked it snuppy…I sorta like Wednesdays and will try to pull my weight with a weekly contribution, TRY!
now you guys:
in case this post leave syou without words…ponder this:
If you had a say in it…which you won´t…who or what would you put on the American bank notes??? And pulling out your crayons…how´d you color them?
Comment by Penguin Wednesday, 2 May 2007 @ 9:26amIf I had my say I would put the following on all American currency…
“Pay to the order of BoBo”
Shocking though it may be, I happen to agree with your argument. American currency is boring and definitely not user friendly. I’m all for a more colorful approach.
Comment by BoBo Wednesday, 2 May 2007 @ 9:50amGreat post, penguin! Icelandic money sure is beautiful. How many dollars is a Kronur worth?
Comment by Doug Wednesday, 2 May 2007 @ 10:13amAnd can you get fries with it?
Comment by Doug Wednesday, 2 May 2007 @ 10:14amMóa…see you here and bring a 5000 Kr bill…we need them.
Bobo, by the end of the trip I had developed a system of always sorting the bills from higher to lower, so when I would pull them outta my pants, the 1 Dollar bill was on top, the hundred on the bottom…it helped a little 🙂
Doug, why are you doing this to me, what have I ever done to you?! “It´s a small world after after all!” You had that coming!
Comment by Penguin Wednesday, 2 May 2007 @ 10:25amAfter using Lire, and then Euros for a while coming back to the US made me think the same thing, why all the same size? Why all the same color?
Comment by logo™ Wednesday, 2 May 2007 @ 10:35amCould we possibly MAKE it harder?
I remember my first sight of Commonwealth money (Canadian; later Australian and New Zealand). My reaction: “How come these people are using monopoly money? And not only are the bills different colors, they’re different sizes! What have these folk got against numbers …?”
Americans are nothing if not conservative. American bills have been green since the Union first printed greenbacks during the Confederate Revolutionary War … ok [grumble], the American Civil War. At least the dollar bill lost the picture of Salmon P. Chase, who (as Secretary of the Treasury under Lincoln) used the dollar bill as surreptitious advertising for his (unsuccessful) campaign for the Republican Presidential nomination in 1864. Dead Presidents don’t campaign for office.
There’s also the issue of the penny, which is a nearly useless coin, and the dollar bill, which for economic reasons should long ago have been replaced, without option, by the dollar coin (as in the aforementioned Canada, Australia, and New Zealand). But no can do. American citizens who sail docilely through Iraq, Darfur, and the tens of thousands of deaths annually on its highways, erupt in politically-devastating fury if anyone messes with the penny or the buck. Go figure.
Comment by oceallaigh Wednesday, 2 May 2007 @ 11:10amLOgo…I knew I wasn´t the only one. How about we draft soemthing nice and send it to the White house.
I bet a Harley would be awesome on one of those bills.
OC, you should teach, you really should. Oh wait a minute, you will and soon too 🙂 There are a lot of old habits and commandments in the US I would like to see amended. I don´t have anything against your Dollars really, I just remembered how dissapointed I was when I held my first ones and they were, well sorta green and that´s about it! If you want tourists to spent money when coming over…make it easier for us to do so 🙂
Comment by Penguin Wednesday, 2 May 2007 @ 11:22amForeign countries have to use different colors because the names of all the people on the bills sound alike.
I figure we’re just a couple years from making Visa our national currency anyway, so why start messing with the bills?
Great post, Penguin.
Comment by Diesel Wednesday, 2 May 2007 @ 11:35amvery nice money Monika. don’t bring it to the States, they will tease you mercilessly. Canadian money is forever being called ‘play money’ just because its color coded. We don’t have such a variety of people on our money, just politicians and the queen.
hey, didn’t you guys convert to the euro?
Comment by kyahgirl Wednesday, 2 May 2007 @ 11:47amhey, I thought it was Sherlock Holmes in the 2000 Kronur. 🙂
Comment by ariel Wednesday, 2 May 2007 @ 12:35pmI think the penny costs more to produce than it’s worth. I’m no economist – all together now, “But I do play one on television”, but if we didn’t have the penny, change couldn’t be issued in pennies and thus prices would go up proportionately to issue change (because they sure wouldn’t be going down). Of course Diesel’s right, our new currency will be VISA and this will all be moot.
I do like your colorful currency though! I am particularly fond of the HatLady (surprise). Fun post my dear Penguin and easy on the shark meat, that can’t be good for cholesterol! xox
Comment by Lampsha Wednesday, 2 May 2007 @ 12:46pmI am also cracking up at your response to Doug’s seemingly innocent question on the exchange rate. Haha.
Comment by Lampsha Wednesday, 2 May 2007 @ 12:47pmMinka, I surrender. *covers ears*
Ariel, I think Sherlock Holmes is on the 100 HUF note. Try to find one.
Comment by Doug Wednesday, 2 May 2007 @ 1:46pmWOOH to Icelandic money FO SHO!!!! We once met an Icelandic family who were thrilled to hear of our Icelandic heritage and so gave us a 500 kr bill as a keepsake (which I have stored away with pride) seeing that Sigurdsson is my maiden name… Good to know more about the money and the people on the bills and behind the names! Faboo post my dearest Penguin! I applaud you nd thank you for more Icelandic tidbits, which I hunger for forever I tell you!
WOOH! And with that,
BoheMia out!
Comment by Catty Yummy Mummy Wednesday, 2 May 2007 @ 1:50pmOh… and for currency exchange aficionados, xe.com is a good place to check out for that… para ti hermanito!
Comment by Catty Yummy Mummy Wednesday, 2 May 2007 @ 1:53pmThose bills at the bottom of your post look like the stuff we use to put Houses and Hotels on Marvin Gardens and Baltic Avenue.
Comment by Al Wednesday, 2 May 2007 @ 3:53pm¡Gracias, gatita sabrosa!
Comment by Doug Wednesday, 2 May 2007 @ 5:19pmIt looks like funny money to me 😉
Comment by Claire Wednesday, 2 May 2007 @ 6:35pmDiesel, how many foreign countries have you been to?
But I guess you right Bill, Phil and Jill are so obviously different 🙂
Laura, no we haven´t yet. We are discussing it…but Icelandic pride keeps getting in the way 🙂
Ariel, It was the hat wasn´t? We are all about teh hats 🙂
Lampsha, thank you and please…will you put “The Economist” down while talking to me?
Doug, you gave up. No pictures of snakes or clowns sent to my birthday party??? That song must really hurt in you secluded ears 🙂
CYM, I actually thought of you when I typed Sigurdsson…I am glad you have a 500 KR bill, it´ll get you a cup of coffee these days 🙂
Al, you are referring to some game, aren´t you? Some of us don´t have time for that…we have to work and earn real monopoly money to buy that game 🙂
Doug, jhkf564735$%&/%$##!!! How about them apples?
Claire, well it is no joke earning it though 🙂
Comment by Penguin Wednesday, 2 May 2007 @ 8:30pmWow…I use a lot of smileys. Maybe I should stop doing that……
Comment by Penguin Wednesday, 2 May 2007 @ 8:30pmAre you afraid of clowns, too? 🙂
Comment by Doug Wednesday, 2 May 2007 @ 8:47pmDoug: have you NOT heard of my cookie jar collection? the one that’s made up of… clowns? of course, that said, maybe that’s why teh Penguin didn’t want to spend more time at my house when she was here. d’oh! (not to worry, Minka, i’ll put ’em all away before the next time you come to visit!)
xox
Comment by crazy aunt neva Wednesday, 2 May 2007 @ 11:22pmand by “crazy aunt neva” i meant, of course… me. yoiks. 😕
Comment by snuppy Wednesday, 2 May 2007 @ 11:23pmDoug, just a wee bit. They freak me out ok?! I don’t like masks on people too much and if I can´t read there facial expressions I am at a loss adn nervous. He could be frowning behing that big red smiley mouth, or worse…be a green seahorse for all I know!
Crazy aunt, we know who you are and you donæt have to put them away…I just won´t look diretcly at them. Thanks for the smiley!
Comment by Penguin Thursday, 3 May 2007 @ 3:42am🙂 smilies are great 🙂
I am guilty of smilie abuse too! 🙂
just try and stop me
Comment by kyahgirl Thursday, 3 May 2007 @ 11:05amKyah, join teh group? We could have so much fun…
Comment by Penguin Thursday, 3 May 2007 @ 1:14pmWell darn it I missed all the fun at this great post! Minka you are great – loved seeing the kronur again. I agree – the money is much more interesting in color… but I get all the thousands mixed up. I also really like your coinage – with fish on it. That’s the best.
Comment by Terry Sunday, 6 May 2007 @ 6:07pmHow much is my 2000 kr bill is worth? The date on mine is 1986.its in very good condition.
Comment by Joseph Sunday, 20 January 2013 @ 8:11pmI don’t know if it’s just me or if everyone else encountering issues with your
Comment by Tobias Tuesday, 21 May 2013 @ 7:31pmsite. It appears like some of the written text in your posts
are running off the screen. Can someone else please comment and let me know if this is happening
to them as well? This may be a issue with my internet browser because
I’ve had this happen previously. Appreciate it