When I first saw this picture of a folded $5 bill showing LOLzy modifications of Abe Lincoln, I thought it was a fake.
But of course I had to try it myself, and, sure enough, it worked. You just make one crease right down the middle of the bill, bisecting Abe’s nose, and then two creases in the opposite direction through Abe’s eyes. Then, viewing it from different angles, you get the effect.
The bill, flat as usual:
Happy Abe:
Sad Abe:
Now you too can be the life of the party!
Snowed in down in Chicago?
Happy then sad … Result of a theatre visit?
I didn’t have a fiver handy, so I tried it on “Old Hickory”. He looks like a miserable cuss from every angle.
Jackson works well on the $20 bill with only two folds: one through the middle of his nose, and the other through the middle of his right eye (left side of bill).
Does it work with your other Presidents, or with our Darwin?
Works well with the Queen. Darwin’s a bit too side on on the £10 note to get the full effect. Adam Smith on the £20 is *way* too side on, but then as an economist you’d be nervous if you saw him smile anyway.
Like so many things I saw this first on QI (probably on YouTube somewhere)
P. S. If you do happen to search for this on YT watch out for Julian Clary
I tried it on Washington, but injured my fingers on his wooden teeth.
I cannot tell a lie – it was my identical twin brother what cut it down!
I assume the teeth were cherry…
$5 Lincoln, Sad or Happy — unequivocal evidence that perspective DOES count!
[hunts through wallt….]
Sort of works with Wilfred Laurier ($5); works really well with John A. MacDonald ($10) and Betty Windsor ($20).
Calling her Betty Windsor and creasing her face…no Order of Canada for you!
… because everyone knows that she’s a Brenda ( Eyes passim).
(Sorry, I should have enlinkificated that.)
Eyes passim.
As an actual Brian I slightly resented this (former) habit of the Eye
I knew there was a reason I subscribed to WEIT!
I’ve never seen that. In middle school we used to make George Washington into a mushroom by folding a one dollar bill a certain way.
You know, not all of us are wealthy enough to have ever seen a $5 bill in person, let alone actually own one….
b&
P.S. Works with Hamilton. b&
I wonder if anybody ever tried this with Salmon P Chase.
It doesn’t work too well with the Scottish notes which I happen to have in my wallet ( £10.00 Mary Slessor – missionary & £20.00 King Robert Bruce)
However, on another tack, will Americans ever overcome their resistance to coins replacing the $1.00 bill and maybe even the $2.00. At current £ exchange rates that’s only £0.66 & £1.32 respectively. In the UK there’s quite a bit of agitation to add a £5.00 coin to our £1.00 & £2.00 coins because £5.00 notes are becoming bedraggled (There becoming of so little value that people are tending to stick them in pockets rather than wallets or purses!!)
We already have a £5 coin in general circulation. I’ve been in the habit of picking up a couple whenever I’m in the Post Office for some other reason, and releasing them into the retail coin flow (they cost £10 for two). They’re actually quite nice (well, I like them!), about 6cm in diameter, “silver”, very “valuable looking”. Just the thing for doing a coin toss that you’re not going to have a dispute over.
When did they come out? I recall liking them for being able to get a 2-pint round with one coin … so it can’t have been much after 2000, possibly before.
I thought these were just commemorative issues: legal currency but minted in relatively small numbers. I think I have a Charles / Diana wedding one somewhere inherited from a grandparent.
Nope, they’re general currency.
Come to think of it – they’re lacking from the coin collection that I maintain for (slight) interest when I go to foreign climes. I’ll have to correct that.
And we thought it took only a pair of cowboy boots.
So ‘Honest Abe’ is more than merely two-faced.
One might suggest that he’s a multi-faceted individual….
b&
There used to be a similar trick with an older English banknote. I forget who the character on the back was, but you could fold over a triangular corner such that his forehead covered the Queen’s crown and the resulting composite character looked just like a young John McEnroe.
Oh, OK then.
You canNOT be serious!
You set ’em up ; I’ll knock ’em in!
I Abe-preciate the tip!
My first thought was that he looked happy when you folded ‘In God we trust’ away.
Ummm, shouldn’t that be “Lighting” Franklin, or … sorry my memory of USian non-believing presidents and currency is failing … Jackson?
Abe works quite well, methinks. (esp see the bit about about the Nicolay Draft of the Gettysburg Address, halfway down the page)
It works niceley with Jomo Kenyatta too, so I can now justify to my better half the years of hauling around foreign banknotes!
Don’t try this in southeast Asia. There are several countries where US$ bills are the de-facto currency, and they are not accepted if there’s the slightest sign of a crease or any other defacement. Some people won’t even accept them if they feel fuzzy rather than crisp.
There was a Bank of England £10 note that could be folded to make it appear our gracious sovereign lady was giving a blow job. Sadly it (the bank note at least) was withdrawn long ago.