I like the concept of the vertical bills. It makes SO much sense.
The design I care less about. I do agree putting obama on a bill is insulting to the money itself. The founding fathers and the major achievements of the nation should be on the bills not a media-hyped president.
The image along with the quote is just perfect. It fully represents the nation and its ideals when read to anyone not from the US.
In fact, if it were me i'd make the bills be varied per bill type. That is, assign each bill denomination a theme and print different variations of it.. just like there are different Quarter coins, one per state.
$1 bill: Founding Fathers (self explanatory)
$5 bill: National Monuments (white house, etc)
$10 bill: Images of the Nation (landscapes)
$20 bill: Notable Americans (historic..aka Martin Luther King JR,Einstein,Tesla,JFK,R.Waldo Emerson,Native american notables, etc)
$50 bill: Achievements of the Nation (Independence,Emancipation, moon landing,First in Flight,breaking the sound barrier,etc)
$100 bill: United States (one bill per state, each bill showing its location in the US)