Occasionally, I get a dollar bill with something strange written on it. Â I haven’t seen this topic floated out there in the finance blogosphere, so I thought I’d opine for a bit and solicit your experiences. Â So, here’s a recent $5 bill I got which had some choice words:
This got me thinking about a few other things:
- Is it only a matter of time before our broke US government starts putting ads on dollar bills? Â Why not? Â I mean, they’re not putting ads on cars and even toilet paper!
- Is there anything that could be written on a bill that would render it useless?  For instance, what if your kid used permanent market and mangled it up?  What if it’s currency in a fundamentalist Islamic country and someone insults the Prophet Mohammed?  Would you be put to death for using the bill even if you didn’t draw the picture or write the slogan?
- What prompts people to write on dollar bills to begin with? Â I guess if you have nothing else to write on, a bill could serve as a reminder list or something, but usually it’s something stupid.
- Occasionally, I’ve seen a phone number written on a bill. Â Is this some sort of pickup ritual where you meet a girl at a club and she won’t give you her number but you give her yours on a bill? Â The bigger the bill, the more wealth is portrayed by handing out bills with phone numbers without knowing if she’ll ever call you (and surely, you’ll never get the bill back LOL)?
– What is the strangest thing you’ve ever seen written on a dollar bill?
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
‘In Silver Payable to the Bearer on Demand’.
Sure, I’m being funny. But I’ve got a few, and it’s definitely strange to see (also, ‘Silver Certificate’ vs. ‘Federal Reserve Note’).
I once saw “Straight Cash, Homey!” written on a bill. Got a chuckle out of that one.