US Polymer Notes?

closest I'm aware of is a plastic credit card. I've used them world wide, except in some REALLY out of the way places. I'd be OK with them though. I've seen enough of them from other countries that I'm sure it would be no big deal for us to migrate to them-from the public point of view. Now changing the printing presses over is another thing that I'm sure the BEP and Fed reserve banks would like to put off for as long as possible.

Polymer notes take some getting used to, but yes, in general, they do last longer than paper, or the cotton-linen mixture used to make US banknote "paper".

The cotton lobby fights hard to kill off any efforts to replace the $1 note with a $1 coin. They would fight even harder to kill off any efforts to remove cotton from circulating money entirely.

that's interesting, thanks for that guys. I always did wonder why the US never switched over. So your notes now have cotton in them? That would make them more durable?

thanks for that. I do remember the various paper money we had, they didn't last too long, the worst was the last series of $5 note that had the metallic security strip weaved into it, it kept coming loose through use, even out new $5s don't fare so well, a $5 coin would be a nice addition

All we need is to (massively) redenominate, put gold and silver back in our currency, and keep denominations and sizes the same...except change out the dollar coin for a good Morgan/Peace sized one. Let the PM's stabilize the currency and economy, and render paper notes something rarely seen in circulation (save for maybe the 1's and 5's)

I prefer the classic $US made from classic material.
The plastic money from Australia, Canada, New Zealand or Romania looks colorful and cheap.
New Zealand bills were at the £ times a so beautiful Currency. Perhaps, the most beautiful paper money in their time.
Australia and Canada had nice money too.
Today, the money there has the charm of play money for kids.
Maybe even uglier than our Euro, and this is not easy.

Hi DoubleEagle,
I would never say anything against Sir Edmund Hillary.
I do not like the colorful playful bills. It does not have the charm of real money.
Who can blame me that my taste is somewhat conservative? My main field of collecting are old US Dollars. :-)
The Americans were never particularly progressive in the graphic design of money. And that's what I like.
I see many things differently because I am only collector.
It's not the money with which I'm going shopping. I also like the portraits of Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, Hamilton, Jackson, Grant and Franklin. My favorites are the portraits of Grant and Cleveland. This two portraits are the nicest for me. I am not an American therefor I rate only pictures, not the people. Franklin always looks strangely.
But I would rate Mr. Franklin as a person.
He was a brilliant man. He was much more than a politician. The theme of space would not be enough personally American for me. The space is a theme for all humans. Americans, Europeans, Russians and Chinese are involved in aerospace. The collaboration will in future also increasingly close. No one wants or can it alone pay. On US military payment bills, the space has already been shown. By the way, the space shuttle was on the first European polymer banknote. The bill is from 1999 and comes from Northern Ireland.
That's all a matter of taste.
I like the American bills as they are;
Classic, somewhat minimalist and simply beautiful.
Minimalist is actually not very American but by the money, that underscores the claim to a world currency. For the foreseeable future, the US dollar will remain the dominant world currency. The euro is difficult to calculate due to many different countries. In the United States already come the strangest decisions from Washington DC. At the Euro are 28 capital cities crucial. We are not the United States. We speak different languages, have totally different cultures, flags and above all still national interests.
The only country that could be important for money is China. They are not so communistic and they are not stupid. They have still millions of migrant workers and vast tracts of land which is underdeveloped. The Chinese will keep the yuan remains weak and continue to flood the world with cheap products. Other alternatives I do not see. Logical consequence, the US dollar remains for at least another 30 years the first world currency.
I could very well imagine on a new American bill the Statue of Liberty and scenes from typical US land lines. The Rockies, farms in the Midwest, snow-capped mountains, a desert scene, marshes in the south ... your have a big, beautiful country with so many facets.
Bills are like business cards, they will show you who you're dealing with.
Here are images on the subject of space on bills.
Sorry for my bad English.I hope that you can understand everything well. My English is bad...