Dirty cash
You'd have thought that with the amount of eulogising that goes on about the great American dollar that it would be something the money men of the US wanted to cosset and cherish. After all, the US, with its constantly changing landscape and culture, has very little else to actually hold on to. But apparently the need for change that oozes from America's soul is felt even within the mighty Fed.

The US Treasury's introduction of the NexGen dollar involves significant redesigns of the various denominations of dollar bill. Essentially an effort to increase the security of the currency and counter counterfeiting, the Treasury is taking advantage of the process to increase differences between notes of different value. One of the measures to be used will be the introduction of subtle background colours across the range of bills, which they say will also help ease confusion over notes of different value.

All this makes me deeply unhappy. Despite the fact that it embodies all that is evil in the corporate world, I'm actually very fond of the dollar. You could almost say I loved it. Not so much its status as its physical form: the size, the texture, the colour, and the smell. Ah yes, especially the smell. Although I'm not a great worshipper of mammon, I can't deny a little buzz of excitement every time I get a whiff of a greenback. And the masochist in me actually enjoys having to pay attention to which notes I'm handing over, lest I pony up something far wide of the mark.

Maybe it's just because it's different from the boring old pound that does it for me, but I can't think of another currency that makes me feel the same way. I've no French fancy for the Euro, no desire to crown the Krona. Cold, hard cash doesn't tend to float my boat.

Much more likely are the good times in the States that the dollar brings back to me, and surely I'll always have those, no matter what the look and feel of the currency.

But I still can't help feeling that if they change the notes too much, they'll ruin all this for me, and many other who value it far higher than I ever could.

Or is that the point? Is Wall Street's respect for the country's cultural heritage so scant that it's even willing to forsake the icon upon which it was built? I hope not.

Big old chardonnay socialist that I am, I still can't help but love the dollar.

Please, boys, don't fuck with the buck.