A note to Australians...

The good thing about Aussie money is that every time I open the cash register, it's like looking at a happy funtime land of ... colourfulness. That, and it's easier to tell the real stuff from the fake stuff. Recycled sandwich bag is a hard feel to forge.

As for the goofiest bill, I think the one you chose pretty much takes the cake. Although there's always something inherently childish about a bright yellow fifty dollar note.

"Look at me! I'm yellow! Isn't that neat? Let's be friends!"

In Response to JoeGui (#41827):

JoeGui - you beat me to it! But yes, here in Australia, we do like to notice colours other than green, and green... and well, green. Is there a shortage of other ink colours in American mints? Or was it a bargain bulk buy at the time and they now refuse to purchase any more until they finish with that lot?

Cheers from Oz.

Greetings From down Under!
If you look at the $50 the people are almost smiling, though the 100 is my favorite most likely because i don't have any lol
Oh and feel free to poke fun at Australia any time you like, its always good to laugh at ourselves or others perceptions of us!

PS - Dave, Fosters, really???? Is that the only beer we're known for there?

(Cheers from an ex-pat Queenslander, where beer is spelt XXXX [xxxx.com.au] which is probably why I drink Becks [becks.com]....)

Oh man

so I was all curious and had to go look up pictures of Australian currency -- why can't American money be all cool and fun looking like that? I would buy stuff all the time er.

Okay, maybe, on the other hand...

Hah! Nice one.

At least with OzBucks you can tell how much you have in your wallet when you're at the bar. When I lived in the USA it all looked the bloody same - didn't know if I had a stack of $1s or $20s in there :(

Umm, dude - no offense, but I have *no idea* what you are getting at.
There are smiley happy faces on our money?!? News to me!

... you do know we have a thriving export trade in printing bills for other countries, right?

"This bill good for one Fosters", haha.

I always get a small thrill when I see real British stuff (although the sterotypical stuff's funny too) in American things. Like the chocolate Hob-Nobs strip you did.

I was looking through some Australian notes - in terms of design and typography they are so similar to the new notes in circulation here (not sure if they're English or Scottish ones though). I hope to see Liz or whoever else giving it some jazz hands soon!

Seriously a Fosters? No one really drinks Fosters in Australia.

I spent 4 months in Australia touring the country and hanging out with a bunch of college students and not once did anyone ever have a Fosters in their fridge.

Fosters - Australian for piss

Personally If we are going to make fun of a country's money. I would say we should make fun of the Zimbabwe dollars. The inflation of the money is so high that they actually have to print expiration dates on them to estimate when the money will lose it's value. It's like an entire economy based on gift certificates.

In Response to Falcon124 (#41832):

Yeah, I just looked up a set of pictures of Australian money. The larger denomination bills are actually larger than the smaller bills. So when somebody asks if you have anything larger, they really mean something physically larger.

In Response to NightOwl (#41840):

That goes for the EU (and Denmark too).

If I'm not too mistaken the bredth is the same but the length increases by 1 cm for each denomination.

And yes, US dollars look and feel like toy money (and lets not get into its value compared to Monopoly money). No wonder the $100 note is the most popular piece of currency among forgers.

So, because I have no idea what Australian money looks like and Dave forced me to find out today, I ran across this site: Freaking News [freakingnews.com] I know it has nothing to do with Sheldon, Australia, or Foster's, but it's just as fun. Gotta love Google and it's ADHD searches.

On the British note in the cartoon, the queen looks like she's either glaring at her son, or has eaten too much cheese...

Now I collect foreign coins and money. I have an Australian coin from a friend (it's a dollar coin with a Kangaroo on it). But I've never seen Aussie bills before. Now I can't seem to find images of the smiling face ones. All I've found are of the Queen, a cowboy, and some other various folk with some serious expressions on their faces.

As for Fosters. Yeah...I've heard from all my Aussie friends that they've never had a Fosters or some had never even heard of it.

I love the AU ten dollar note (it's the only one I could find at short notice). On one side is two serious people and the other, a man rounding up horses! Nothing says serious, proper man's money like wild horses.

Actually, the different sizes of our notes are of great help to the blind. I've seen a little contraption that you wrap the notes around when you want to know what the denomination is. It's very handy and helps the sight impaired gain just a little bit more independence and helps prevent them being "accidentally" given the wrong change.

...And I'm an Aussie who's never touched beer, since my grandfather invited me to have a taste when I was seven. Did not like it at all. I don't drink anything else alcoholic though, so...

I can't believe no-one's pointed this out yet, but the $5 - the regular $5 - has the Queen on one side, and Parliament House on the other. There was a different $5, the one in the comic, printed in 2001, as a commemorative deal. Centenary of Federation, and all that. It was quite a bit brighter than the other notes.

Also, that little 'pow' panel is a security feature that's pretty neat, it's a clear window basically, to make it harder to forge. (That's also what all the 'pretty colours' are for, and my favourite feature - somewhere, a different place on each denomination, if you get a magnifying glass, it says the denomination over and over in very tiny text)

All the 'faces' tend to be of people of note (if you'll pardon the pun) from the Queen, to Banjo Patterson, to Dame Nellie Melba.

My personal favourite is the $50, and not just because it's the largest note the ATMs will spit out. On one side, it has David Unaipon, described as the Australian Leonardo da Vinci. On the other, Edith Cowan, first woman to be elected into the Australian parliament, as well as one of the key campaigners to give Australian women the right to vote. And, finally, the little security window has the southern cross, which, in addition to being on our flag, is one of the very few constellations I can recognise at a glance.

Further reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banknotes_of_the_Aust ralian_dollar

Nobody in Australia drinks Fosters. In fact the only time I ever did was on a dare overseas. I should have just piked.

I was in europe late last year and all I heard was American's complaining about their dollar. It was still worth more than the Aussie.

ok, long time comic reader, first time poster here...

if you want some nuclear bright coloured money, you couldn't really go past the Dutch Guilder notes they used to have before they swapped to the Euro (which has its bright moments as well)

and what about the *original* Aussie $10.00 plastic fantastic Mk 1 note? It had an Aboriginal and the 'First Fleet' arriving on it, which upset just about every indigenous person in the land. It was withdrawn because once it creased it was almost impossible to uncrease it so it wouldn't sit flat in registers etc, plus the ink rubbed off.

Heh... I remember being in a backpackers hostel in London in 1992 when the (then) new $5.00 notes came into circulation. One guy arrived at the hostel with the story he'd been arrested and detained in Paris because he tried to change a $5.00 note at Thomas Cook. They thought it was a fake and so locked him up for 24 hours until the embassy could verify it was a *real* note...! :+P

cheers
Sean

They have a smiling Edmund Hilary on the New Zealand fiver!
plus happy pictures of native birds on the backs! maybe i'm biased because I love New Zealand and too much of Australia looks exactly like Southern Utah, but i think Kiwi Currency is much more exciting. plus it has TWO see through-spots on the notes, instead of just one!

Australia looks like Southern Utah??? Not really...Southern Utah has more trees and hills. Plus there's Bryce and Zion National Parks (the northern part of the Grand Canyon).

Having mainly grown up with the plastic, it's not something I really think about (though I do remember all the hoopla in school when the $2 coin and the $10 note were introduced).

What I like about the Australian money, though, is how all the colours and patterns match up along the edges when you roll it..

Haha, you know, our money up in Canada here is actually pretty colourful as well. 5's are blue, 10's are purple, 20's are green, 50's are red, and 100's are a goldish brownish colour. I'll admit, though, our money is still paper, haha.

In Response to ledi (#41861):

Like you, I had one sip of beer that threw me off alcohol for life.