This is all great feedback. Thank you. I was actually leaning toward the money tree/plant idea too (someone else brought up the idea of adding water/watering can which I really liked). Your point about drawing and making it look nice when it's small is an excellent point. The idea of a coin with an upvote inside is brilliant and would be much easier to make/use for small situations. I'll ask someone to draw a mock-up of that.

I'm very much interested in finding a UI expert to help with the project.