Why Is Liberty Not On US Paper Currency?

I believe the original reason LIBERTY was put on US coins was to identify the person on the obverse, much as GEORGIUS REX did on the British coins of the time, with BRITANNIA to identify the lady on the reverse. By the time the greenbacks we recognize today were being printed, the bill would only have said LIBERTY if Liberty was pictured.

Seems kinda scatter-brained on coins.

No, it made sense until they put the word LIBERTY on the new Lincoln Cent. I'm sure there were a few folks in 1909 turning their new pennies over and over, thinking, "Where? Where's Liberty? Did they draw her on here real small somewhere?"

Not sure why Liberty isn't there. However, E Pluribus Unum can be found in the ever-so tiniest font on the "scarf" thing in the Eagle's mouth.

I am going to butt my head in here for just a second and say again that I do not understand why we have the word "Liberty" on our money instead of "WE THE PEOPLE."

. . . actually, I do, and it's for reasons King George and Louis XVI could expound on if their heads were still attached to their bodies, but still.


Which isn't to say I have anything against Liberty. It's a very beautiful word and most of its models sorry lady Barber are also beautiful. It's just, well . . . I'm more a fan of WE THE PEOPLE, is all.

What? "We the people..." is not a motto; it's just the first three words of the first sentence of the preamble of the Constitution. I like the Declaration of Independence too, but I wouldn't put WHEN IN THE COURSE OF HUMAN EVENTS on a coin!

There is one piece of currency that has the word "Liberty" on it, but you need a magnifier to see it. It's in the Preamble to the US Constitution found on the right side of the $1 Educational note. If there are any other instances I'm not aware of them.

HA!! See, there IS a precedent for WE THE PEOPLE on our money!!

As for why I'd put it there, philadelphian, I'd actually use it to replace either "In God We Trust" (because that motto, by excluding polytheistic/maternalistic/godless religions and also atheism, violates the first amendment) or "E Pluribus Unum." I feel like it expresses the same general sentiment as the latter statement, but it does so in a way that takes the power out of the passive and into the active (what people? WE the people!). We are the first nation on earth to stand up and say "uhhh, ex-CUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUSE me, King George, we don't give a rat's tail what you think, we're going to govern OURSELVES now, thanks" (possibly with the 18th-century version of a sassy fingersnap included) and then set out a treaty from ourselves, to ourselves, with ourselves that means anyone born on US soil can run for President; anyone born on US soil has an equal say, at least in theory, in the government (barring felons, and even in some states they are allowed to vote); anyone born on US soil has, at least in theory, equal protection under the law. At the time we were founded, that was a totally unique setup*, in which it was a "people's government" as opposed to a "noble's government" or oligarchy/aristocracy/monarchy (depending on which other country you were talking about). I feel like "We The People" expresses something that no other nation has--something that's unique, unlike "Liberty."

As for the word being on US paper currency, isn't that the purpose of having the Great Seal on the bills? I could be wrong especially as I don't have anything bigger than a one in the room with me, but I'm pretty sure something in the Latin refers back to the concept of liberty.



*Someone is going to ask "what about ancient Greece?" and to that I say that in ancient Greece, only males who owned land and were citizens of their city-state could vote; if you moved from Sparta to Athens to help your sick brother and you were there for twenty years, you still couldn't vote because you were not a landowning citizen. In the US to begin with, all white males regardless of class and land-ownership status could vote, and the only thing you needed was to be born here (or naturalized in via oath of loyalty); in theory, free black males could also vote (although we see how well that worked out, since the Fourteenth Amendment was necessary). For that time period, that was pretty darned liberal.