Hello Coin Talk -- I'm a reporter at the Ideas section of the Boston Globe, and I am posting here because I'm looking for some help with a story about the history of currency design. You can see my author page here. What I'm interested, specifically, is the process that governments go through to decide who will appear on their currency. My story was occasioned by the news I'm sure many of you heard, about Darwin being replaced with Jane Austen on the British 10-pound note. I'm curious about instances around the world and throughout history in which such changes have sparked debates or controversies. I'm also curious to learn about campaigns promoting a particular change -- along the lines of North Carolina Congressman Patrick McHenry trying to get Grant bumped from the $50 dollar bill in favor of Reagan. I'd be grateful for any insights or help you can offer. And if you can recommend any specialists for me to reach out to, that would be tremendously useful as well. Thank you, and sorry for barging in on this board -- Leon lneyfakh@globe.com / lneyfakh@gmail.com
Cannot really contribute anything useful here, sorry - but one aspect of the Jane Austen (preliminary?) design I found amusing: The quote from Pride and Prejudice is a somewhat odd choice. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/shortcuts/2013/jul/25/jane-austen-quotation-10-note Christian
Not about paper currency specifically, but Franklin was bumped in favor of Kennedy on the half dollar shortly after his assassination. I wasn't around to know if it started any controversy, but I'm sure that more than a few had something to say about the change to our change. A strange side effect was that half-dollar pieces suddenly stopped circulating. It is fairly difficult to find a well circulated Kennedy half.
Most countries change designs frequently and without controversy. Only in the US where everything is political would this be an issue.
From a historical perspective, you'll find some interesting information in "U.S. Essay, Proof and Specimen Notes" by Gene Hessler.
But the Fry/Churchill/Austen "debate" is a UK thing. Not really political in the sense of your-party-my-party but focusing on gender balance - which is something you have on many European banknotes but not on the BoE issues. Christian
I have to say, this sounds absolutely crazy. P.S Welcome to the forum Ineyfakh! We hope you stick around a bit.
The ones that pop out in my head are the presence of FE Spinner and especially Spencer Clark on fractional currency that led to Congress passing a law requiring images on currency to be of people dead 25 years plus (though Lincoln appeared on early US currency while alive, it wasn't as controversial). And then the US Educational series silver certs, the $5 had boobies on it (oh no!!) and that caused a kerfuffle.
Thanks to all of the people who replied. I saw the Gene Hesser essay cited elsewhere, and it seems like an excellent resource. And I will take a look at the papers from when Kennedy replaced Franklin on the half dollar. I'd be interested in finding out how other countries determine who ought to be on their currency, even (especially, perhaps) if it doesn't cause controversy there. Thanks again for the warm welcome! If other folks have more suggestions I'd be eager to hear them.
In Europe it's ... well, if the term "design by committee" did not have that negative meaning, I'd say that is usually it. But usually artists/historians/designers are somehow involved too. Sweden for example is about to introduce a new banknote series. The country's central bank decided, two years ago, who or what should be depicted, then artists submitted suggestions, then a jury picked the "best" series. The Swedish central bank had one problem, by the way, that had nothing to do with people (dis)liking the designs but was copyright related. In many cases the works of the participating designers were based on photographies, and the bank asked the people who had taken the photos whether they could be used provided some royalty fee was paid. Fine in all cases - except for the planned portrait of (former UN secretary general) Dag Hammarskjöld. So a different photo had to be found that will now be on the 1000 kronor note. More here (PDF, English); see section "5. Remuneration". Side note: Who made that "new photo"? Yousuf Karsh ... who also took the photo of Winston Churchill which will be used on the new Bank of England's £5 note. Seems his heirs were OK with the use of Karsh's Hammarskjöld photo too. Gender balance on notes makes sense to me. If you have, say, six denominations, finding three men and three women who should be honored is not that hard. Germany did that with the last pre-euro series, Sweden does it, Norway does ... One thing that many people here in Europe did not like about the euro banknotes (let's leave the political comments aside please) is that they did not depict any people, just bridges and windows and arches. Well, the new series has a small image of the ancient goddess Europa - on the other hand, what do the new Danish notes depict? Bridges (and prehistoric art) but no humans. The future Swiss notes, still in the works, seem to go away from portraits too ... Christian
Well, one of the main reasons why banknotes typically feature portraits is as an anti-counterfeiting measure. Humans are very good at recognizing faces, so a counterfeit note with a badly-engraved portrait will stand out right away. Of course, nowadays almost nobody makes counterfeits by hand-engraving a printing plate. Portraits probably aren't much trouble for high-tech counterfeiters; today's currency has a whole raft of new modern security features for that purpose. Thus if portrait-free notes are less controversial, it's no surprise to see movement in that direction....
Hi again, Coin Talk. In case any of you are interested, here is the story I came up with based in part on your help: http://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/20...cy-makeover/RFVjgRtAZpbdYiIjm0uJhM/story.html Many thanks to those of you who made suggestions. Leon
Ah, thank you for letting us know about the "result"! Quite a few issues and aspects in there that I did not know about. Two observations and comments ... Then again, as you write yourself later in that article, there have been a few changes (yikes, colors!) to the dollar bills. I have read - no first hand experience though - that people in countries where the US dollar is not legal tender but more or less commonly used tend to prefer the latest issues and to frown upon older ones. Fear of counterfeits maybe. So that would actually be a reason to introduce new designs. Another thing is the question of who to put on US money instead of dead presidents. Well, the question should be "whom or what" in my opinion. Look at the state quarters for example - why not historical scenes or natural sites? Maybe you could even get the Boston Tea Party onto one of the bills. Christian
This question could lead to some interesting and valuable opinions and facts. Hope mine are at least interesting. Of course many countries shy away images of people for religious reasons. Common in most Muslim countries for example. Then there is the "put our great dictator and leader on every note we print" school of design. Quite a few countries have gone down that path - Kenya being one of the most obvious during the Moi years. Europe addresses the tricky issue of not favouring the notables from any nation by using iconic architecture - probably as good a solution as there is, given the constraints of 20 or so sovereign states using the same notes. And bridges are appropriate symbols. Without doing a scientific survey, I'd have to guess that symbols (plants, birds, architecture) are becoming more common in an era of political correctness. Somebody will always be offended by the choice of the other guy's hero, so just put the national bird on the notes and move on. And don't overlook the back of the notes. While the front page gets the headline ( you write for The Globe, right?), the back page usually has more intimate imagery. One of my favourites right now is the last-gen Canadian $5, which had little kids playing hockey on an outdoor rink. That's a symbol nearly all Canadians can identify with.
... and some national heroes are almost above debate. NZ put Sir Edmund Hillary on a note long before his death. India (Ghandi) and South Africa (Mandela) put one image on all their notes, however their choices are obvious and probably would be difficult to argue with. In Mandela's case, again before his passing, which is a bit unusual for a political figure, and quite an honour.
Leon, I'm so glad you were able to get a quote from Gene Hessler! He's a genuine icon in the paper money field.
