Siver Certificate 5$ 1896

http://www.frbsf.org/currency/metal/show.html

The History of Money by Jack Weatherford, 1997

Symbolically, the growing state control over money can be seen in the changing designs used to embellish coins and notes. Early in our history, all U.S. coins bore the image of an Indian, a deity, an animal, or an allegorical figure symbolizing freedom, liberty, or some other abstract ideal. Beginning in 1909, however, the government abandoned the Indian-head penny in favor of the Lincoln penny. Thereafter, each coin in turn was changed to bear the image of an American politician. Paper bills that had carried scenes from American history and allegorical images similar to those on the coins also switched to portraits of politicians.

Abstract societal ideals are poorly represented by political deities; however, political deities do ideally represent Legal Tender. In fact, political deities who promote economic growth are perfect, as China is proposing to do.....

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4801486.stm

China may remove Mao Zedong's image from its mixed range of banknotes to make room for other heroes, according to the state media.

Delegates to the parliament's advisory body proposed that Deng Xiaoping, architect of China's economic reforms, should grace the new bills. The delegates say China owes its decades of economic growth and rising international status to Deng Xiaoping's reforms of the late 1970s.