Historical proto-Al Jaffee hides trenchant commentary in design of US Dollar Bill

The other day I noticed that on the back of the one dollar bill, there is a phrase: The Great Seal of the United States. It is split into two circles. When you fold the dollar so that the two half circles meet exactly, a new phrase is revealed.

The Great Seal of the United States (Thanks, Terry!)

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: Funny • money • usa usa usa

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Eurovision 2013: An American in London

The technology that links taxonomy and Star Trek

http://goodsharer.com/ Aloisius

This was floating around kooky websites a few years ago along with the world trade center burning on the 20 and how the masons practice devilry and were fortunetellers. Also the top in that $1 will say THCA which apparently is some kind of tetragram which says we are all ruled by Jews or aliens or something.

If you’re feeling brave, feel free to read this batch of craziness “explaining” it all: http://enlightenedawareness.wetpaint.com/page/Alchemical+1%24+Bill+Symbology
- http://tryingsense.blogspot.com/ R_Young
  
  It’s JEW ALIENS man, get it right. If you don’t know their true name, you can’t them except during an eclipse.
jonnyslime

The plot of National Treasure 3 is revealed.
http://twitter.com/ClaudioBonifazi CokePlusMentos

first thing i noticed was the batman symbol under the phrase.
- snagglepuss
  
  ”BATMAN” ? That’s a SPIDERMAN symbol, you blind fool.
  - http://twitter.com/ClaudioBonifazi CokePlusMentos
    
    wut? where?
  - http://vincenzoravina.tumblr.com/ Vincenzo Ravina
    
    You’re both wrong. It’s clearly Kraven the Hunter.
    - snagglepuss
      
      Nah – See the webbing ?
Peppermint

No idea whether this was intentional or not, but it’s still pretty fun.

Euro bills look so boring in comparison… (Honestly I don’t know who designed them but they’re really freakin’ bland.)
- http://redesigned.com redesigned
  
  yeah, because multi-coloured money with holograms is way more boring then drab-green. in almost every country i’ve visited, which is quite a few, people always comment on how ugly US money is. the flip side is people from the US almost always comment on how foreign bills look like monopoly money because they aren’t used to seeing colours on their money.
  
  http://mindmillion.com/images/money/euro_notes.jpg
  - Peppermint
    
    Actually I’m French ^^ And I agree that the colours and holograms on euro bills are way cool… I was talking more about the engravings. I just think it’s a shame that they chose to represent generic European architecture rather than specific monuments… Of course you wouldn’t be able to represent all countries in the Euro area, but I’m sure those bills could have been used to showcase the architecture of countries whose art history is not as well-known.
    
    (Though I’m a sucker for the 20-euro’s gothic windows, I have to say.)
    - Antinous / Moderator
      
      I just think it’s a shame that they chose to represent generic European architecture rather than specific monuments.
      
      Oh, is that why I just spent five minutes trying to figure out what they were?
    - http://redesigned.com redesigned
      
      True the engravings could have been a lot more interesting. Not sure which is more boring though…generic architecture or old white men. :-)
      
      you can’t do this with a euro though:
      http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3410/3290565387_a387d4d059_z.jpg
    - D Wyatt
      
      Learn from history, here is a useful fact since we will all be paying for milk with thousand dollar bills soon enough…..
      The more outlandish/flamboyant money becomes the less it and its government have worth. I have a few million dollars, its very bright colorful its just not from this country so its worth around 0.22 cents American.
      
      Recap-If your money is purple pink and orange its barely worth the paper its printed on. The American penny costs 3 pennies to make….Talk about pissing into a canyon to fill it. If I remember right the American dollar is worth exactly 4cents on the dollar, not the paper being worth 4cents but its actual worth in REALITY.
      - http://vincenzoravina.tumblr.com/ Vincenzo Ravina
        
        I don’t know, Canadian money is colourful and tends to hover around par with US money.
  - noah django
    
    [as Homer Simpson's Brazilian kidnappers peruse the briefcase containing their ransom demand]
    Kidnapper 1: Look at all that pink and purple!
    Kidnapper 2: Yes, our money is… really gay.
sockdoll

Jaffee would have made the pictures match up better.
- niktemadur
  
  Yeah, just who was Novus Ordc, back in 1700?
niktemadur

Damn. Remember Slater, the cool stoner on “Dazed & Confused” back in 1993?

Didja ever look at a dollar bill, man? There’s some spooky shit goin’ on there. And it’s green too.
- noah django
  
  Slater, you fuckin’ hippie! Gimmie drugs, man!
  - D Wyatt
    
    No? It’d be a lot cooler if you did maaan…
Mister44

If this doesn’t prove we are being controlled by Reptillian overlords, I don’t know what does!
http://www.facebook.com/jude.quin Jude Quin

call me a spoilsport but I find it more interesting as meaningless coincidence than a conspiracy which might suggest the rich are secretly out to rule us all. I thought we already knew that?
- http://www.facebook.com/kevin.m.79 Kevin M
  
  If its intentional, I don’t think is a conspiracy from the rich so much as the designers having a little fun. Why would the rich want to send this sort of message? No, no, this was definitely done for the lulz.
- 3eff_jeff
  
  Still cannot see the Fnords, eh?
  - http://boingboing.net/ The Life Of Bryan
    
    I’m pining for them.
jimh

Da Grinch-y Code?
BombBlastLightingWaltz

I for one welcome our reptilian overlords. *engages Kundalini*
http://thisisonlya.blogspot.com robcat2075

“GRETED” is what it really says if you really make the two half circles meet.
- http://jere7my.livejournal.com jere7my
  
  Indeed. It’s pretty easy to fold the Great Seal in half — you want six and a half stripes left visible on the shield. The fold above only shows four and a half, which means it’s not folded down the center. A proper fold leaves most of the “T” visible.
technogeekagain

The silver certificates, my father told me, had the “legal tender” text aligned slightly differently, such that a simple fold gave you “gal tender and private” — a discovery of great amusement to adolescent boys of that more innocent time.
- frogmarch
  
  By the 1980s, fourth-graders had discovered that a couple of more-complicated folds could turn The unITed stateS OF AMERICA into TITS OF AMERICA.
  
  And that if you cover G.W.’s face with your thumb, the outline of his lapel, collar, and neck ruffle looks (kind of) like a big veiny weenus.
  
  Yeah, we didn’t have the internet then.
  - Robert
    
    We used to fold Washington so that he looked like a mushroom. Oh, and for us it was ERICA, not AMERICA.
http://www.facebook.com/KJSpiller Kyle J Spiller

I’m seeing that NEON is the secret message.
bolamig

“THE GREED STATE” has 13 letters to match the 13 steps, 13 arrows, 13 leaves, and 13 olives. Making it plural with an S was clearly a way to throw off the conspiracy theorists.
- http://imcravingpresidency.tumblr.com/ SedanChair
  
  breaux you just blew my mind
  
  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O5mSWLnJXY0
  - http://boingboing.net/ The Life Of Bryan
    
    Wow. That is… uhh…
- SamSam
  
  And the 13 letters in “ANNUIT COEPTIS” and the 13 letters in “E PLURIBUS UNUM” and 13 letters in “ONE DOLLAR BILL” and the 13 stars above the eagle’s head, and the 13 dollar bills in $13.
  
  Oh, sorry, did I just blow your freekin mind??
adamnvillani

People always harp on American currency’s lack of color or wacky lenticular designs or whatever else they’re putting in European money these days, but the Euro bills are aggressively bland. Apparently the architecture they used for designs doesn’t even represent specific places, and are instead just typical styles of architecture. That just screams “lowest common denominator” and “design by committee.” The engraving work on American bills is also really nice.
- http://twitter.com/frederikvdz Frederik
  
  Being able to use the currency across multipell cultures, being difficult to counterfeit and be usuable by people with visual handicaps rated a bitt higher on the list of “things to do” rather then looking flashy.
  - noah django
    
    Hey, man; spelling and proof-reading are rated a bit higher on the list of “things to do” for a lot of people. This just puts you–like American money–closer to the ideal of the American Maverick. God bless you, sir.
pushmonk

I HAD to go try this, and it’s wrong. If you fold the right circle, that says “the united states”, you will still see most of the “T” in “united”. It’s pretty funny, but is not perfect, and if I was to put something on the U.S. currency, I’d damn well make sure it was perfect.
Petzl

Keep Jaffee-ing it until you get “THE GOD STATES”
http://twitter.com/xraydelta1 John T.

To paraphrase Lou Reed, some people like to fold dollar bills and make snarky commentary about America, other people, like us, we gotta work.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  Recursion – u haz it.
benfission

Five Dollar Blow Jobs here:
- noah django
  
  the pearl necklace is a nice touch
http://www.madziabryll.com Cefeida

The most annoying thing about this is that now I have to google a picture of an unfolded dollar to compare. If you do an after, y u no do a before?
Ethan Taliesin Houser

This is Mad I say, Mad!
Quiche de Resistance

So Who’s responsible for this?
- http://twitter.com/blindeschildpad Blinde Schildpad
  
  /b/, obviously.
- http://boingboing.net/ The Life Of Bryan
  
  Beavis.
D Wyatt

I saw this first.
“Novus Ordo
The Greed State”

New order-The Greed State.
Mission Accomplished!
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=704469108 Daniel Lewis Finn

It was Roosevelt who placed the words “The Great Seal” and “of the United States” under the obverse/reverse imprints of the Great Seal on the first copy of the 1935 one dollar bill. You can see his original handwritten instructions on the alteration here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:1935_Dollar_Bill_Back_Early_Design.jpg