Sunday, January 19, 2014

Currencies of the World

In my youth,  my two aunts who had never married and spent much of their free time traveling all over the world, had regularly given me bills and coins of foreign currencies.  Later, when my brother started traveling he also kept paper bills for me. This continued with my own travels.  Whenever I came across nice looking notes,  I would try to find one in good condition and keep them in a book to add to my ever growing collection back home.   I would also pick some up now and then if I came across some coin and stamp collection shop that had some interesting bank notes.

Don Quixote on a Spanish Peseta

What I love about paper money from different  countries is that they are a reflection of each country's history, culture, environment or politics. Also, they keep changing them every ten years or so (sometimes faster if there is a huge devaluation of a currency). On the other hand, some countries have joined forces for one single currency.  Unfortunately for my collection,  the Euro has eliminated over a dozen such classic currencies as the franc, the mark, the peseta or the lire.  This has also happened in parts of Africa.  Conversely,  with the disappearance of the Soviet Union, a dozen new currencies were created.  There are many similar themes on bank notes. Often, in developing  countries,  you see imagery of progress with pictures of tractors or industry. Others would be historical or political personalities.  Images of local flora and fauna  is also very common.  I have some bills with long gone strongmen and tyrants such as Idi Amin Dada or Saddam Hussein.  Some bills are very colourful,  others more classic in design.  Others include the latest technologies to prevent counterfeiting.   Here is a sample of various bills that I really like from the beginning of the twentieth century right up to recent times. 


German marks from the 1920s




Greek drachma, 1944

Beautiful bills from Hungary. top 1941 bottom 1952


Two more Hungarian forint from the 1990s






Irish pounds  before the Euro.  This series of bills has some great calligraphy.





20 Francs,  1942



The last series of the Franc before the Euro, with a great ode to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry and "Le Petit Prince"


I love the simplistic graphics of this 1991 bill from Lithuania


a 1909 bill from Russia


A heroic figure from the Ukraine


Georgia 1990s


10 Kroner -  Denmark, 1936


50 Lire - Italy,  1951


The next series of currencies are from Asia.   The Chinese and Japanese ones are from the 1930s. I also included a few bills from French Indochina in the 1940s which have a typical "orientaliste" theme of native culture as seen through the eyes of Europeans.  Two bills from Cambodia reflect  different political climates,  one from the independent 'Royaume du Cambodge', the other from Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge communist regime in 'Kampuchea'. 


China 1935 (top) and 1930 (bottom)






China  1953



Japan  10 yen





Cambodia 1970 with Angkor Wat's famous temples and Khmer Rouge's revolutionary Kampuchea 1975 





Two bills from North Korea,  with the 'Great Leader' Kim Il Sung



I like this small, simple note from Indonesia  1964



Burma, 1970s


an unusual square commemorative note from Thailand



Nepal, 1990s


40th anniversary of the creation of Bangladesh after it's war and succession from Pakistan


Beautiful Islamic patterns on these notes from Uzbekistan



A traditional outrigger canoe from the South Pacific island state of the Cook Islands


Tahiti 1970s

Acknowledgment of Aborigines' culture on this commemorative Australian 10 $ note


Next are the Americas, Africa and the Middle East.   When I was a kid, the colourful Canadian bills with a young Queen and classic Canadian wilderness scenes on the back were my favourite bills.  I included the greenback from the USA.  For all its importance as a global currency, it is one of the most traditional and classic notes which, up until recently, has barely changed at all in its design and appearance.  




A series of this 20$ bill has a "demon" in the Queen's hair.  Do you see it? 






As an avid kayaker,  I love this scene of Inuit with their traditional boats.


"Real money is green" I once heard an American say.  I do like their classic one dollar bill,
even if they should discontinue it and turn it into a coin.  



One of the few bills from Cuba that show Fidel Castro














Nice symmetry of this 5 cruzeiros bill from Brazil (top) and an acknowledgement
of indigenous peoples in a later,much inflated cruzeiro of the 90s.






Classic bank note from Chile,  1961



No shortage of cultural imagery, fascinating portraits and geography for currencies from Africa.
The colonial and post-colonial bills are often colourful and represent daily scenes of people 
or animals. 



L'Afrique Occidentale Française et Togo,  1956



États de l'Afrique équatoriale, 1963



L'Afrique Occidentale,  1941

Belgian Congo, 1953

Banque de la République du Mali,  1960



Cameroon,  1962







The "leopard of Africa" Mobutu Sese Seko,  the long standing dictator of Zaire



Idi Amin Dada's Uganda 1970s





Guinée, 1960








The hyper-inflated note ( ten billion! ) of Mugabe's Zimbabwe


Education,  a common theme on bank notes,  this one from the ever-reclusive state of Eritrea.


An Ethiopian 100 dollar bill during Emperor Haile Selassie's reign,
with his classic "Lion of Judah" symbol. 1960s.



Egypt,  1940


Muammar Gaddafi's  Libya,  1980


Shah's Iran,  1970


A 1990s Iraqi bill with Saddam Hussein






One Riyal, Saudi Arabia



"dix livres" Banque du Liban



One shekel,  Israel,  1958



Turkey,  1970.  One of the few bills that do not have the omni-present
 portrait of Ataturk (founder of modern Turkey) but rather
a nod to their Ottoman past depicting one of the Sultans. 




Currency and paper money are fun to alter in an artistic sort of way.  Here are a few examples of some that I have done.














7 comments:

  1. wow very cool the graffics on the money so beautiful well done Andre!!!

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  2. beautiful collection. Like postage stamps, they reflect an artistic quality to currency. I regret their passing.

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  3. This is a great post Andre! Loved looking at your collection..thanks for sharing.

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  4. Hi Andre,

    Ohisashiburi!

    I sent an email and a Skype text in the last year, I think, when I didn't hear back, I just figured you were taking care of business. I hope everything you were telling me about worked out in the end, it was a while back now. Flipped on your blog to see if there was any news. Glad you are writing. Yeah I remember this collection. Nice photos ( /scans?).

    I got a new job a year ago. Went to Indonesia for a week last week. Surabaya- Bali- Gili. Free diving. Wild time. More to tell, maybe in a mail or Skype. Going home 1st time in like 6 yrs this summer.

    So... be in touch,

    From Shimogyo Ku

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  5. PS

    Hi, me again, and

    No I can't find the demon in Liz's hair. You going to point it out to us in a future post??

    It's really cool how some of these are like classical money-graphic feel, though with good design sense, some are like high art, like, this is money? and some are like just manga-esque.

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  6. Very, very cool.
    Beautiful :-)

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