The day is approaching when cold hard cash may disappear from your wallet and mine. I do not mean by spending but that the US Mint will stop production. They have already stopped producing new pennies for general circulation with the final batch being struck last November. I wonder what might come next… the nickel, the dime or the greenback paper denominations?

For the purpose of this column, try to assemble one bill of each available denomination and lay them out on the table in front of you. Let’s review…starting with the dollar bill and George Washington. Then comes the lesser produced two dollar with Thomas Jefferson. The fin or five dollar bill with Abe Lincoln and Alexander Hamilton is on the ten. The irascible Andrew Jackson’s face adorns the twenty then my favorite General of the US Army graces the fifty dollar bill. My buddy Ben Franklin makes the elusive one hundred dollar bill everyone’s favorite.

Money is not the only place we honor our presidents and other founding fathers. Teddy did not make it on a bank note, but he did make it to the face of a granite mountain. Each of those presidents on Mt. Rushmore represents a significant period or event in the birth and expansion of our nation regardless of party affiliation. The Department of Treasury’s criteria for appearance on U.S. currency includes not being the visage of any living person. I think it should be the same for any government edifice or building….not til you are dead. So, relax President Trump, please sit down and be patient.

Like Mt. Rushmore, our currency portraits represent men who made a significant contribution to our country, regardless of public opinion. A couple of them were “wannabes”. In my opinion, Hamilton would have been a disaster worse than anything current. I think he may have led us directly back to a monarchy. Ben would have been awesome with his sage-like wisdom and wit. It is unfortunate that he was a bit too aged and frail by the time his time may have arrived. I am not directly lobbying for any changes to either Rushmore nor our monetary choices. But just for fun…let’s discuss substitutions, not additions.

Who might you choose to replace one of the current faces with? And why? I’ll tell you mine, then you tell me yours.

I would keep Washington on the one dollar bill. It is the most common bill in circulation and unfortunately, the denomination I usually have the most of in my wallet at any given time. I like seeing stoic George’s face when I hand the cashier three or more of him just to buy a dang candy bar!

The Jefferson two dollar bill is probably most famous for being in every birthday card I ever received from my grandma Smith. My dad collected them and I am still in possession of 36 of them I found in his filing cabinet after he died. I see no reason to change the face on this one. Jefferson was the epitome of a walking contradiction, but a pretty cool architect and writer.

Abe has to stay on the five. He is far too important to be removed. He became the permanent fixture on the modern-style bill starting in 1928. Salmon P. Chase, Lincoln’s Treasury Secretary, advocated for Lincoln based on his leadership during the Civil War that preserved the union.

If I had the power, I would switch Alexander Hamilton off the ten dollar bill for someone else. He was too much a Federalist, where I would have been considered an anti-Federalist. Everything I have read about him suggests he was extremely intelligent. But he just had too much of an oppositional deviant personality for my liking. Not enough however to die at Aaron Burr’s doing, but not worthy of being on our paper currency. Maybe we give Hamilton the nickel, since Jefferson already has the two dollar bill?

Did you know that Andrew Jackson was actually in favor of abolishing paper money? How on earth then, did he end up with his face on the twenty? It’s a mystery. There is no clear answer or accurate documentation in my limited research capabilities to explain why his portrait was chosen to replace Grover Cleveland’s. This is the only substitution that has occured so far in our history. I am on the fence about Jackson. He was tough, aggressive and probably necessary for the times, but pretty rough on the native Americans.

My favorite military man graces the fifty dollar bill. Grant stays on it in perpetuity. He deserves the accolade. Our nation would not be the same without his existence. He may have been a business failure but was a raging success on the battlefield.

My fondness for Benjamin Franklin makes it obvious that the most coveted denomination should stay the way it is. I love it when I have in my possession, one or more “Benjamins.”

In summary, I am choosing to replace just two of the portraits. My suggestions are Teddy Roosevelt on the twenty and Ronald Reagan on the ten. Let us not forget that commemorative issues can be and have been made in an effort to honor many others who are historical contributors. This greatly expands our ability to show honor and teach history. I am interested in hearing any other proposals... good dinner table conversation.