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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;kaparthy, post: 963, member: 57463&quot;]<b>THE ART OF MONEY</b></p><p><br /></p><p>Book Review:</p><p>THE ART OF MONEY by David Standish. (Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 2000. $19.95).</p><p><br /></p><p>This is a delightful book, richly illustrated in full color and organized with an intuitive appreciation for money and especially for paper money.&nbsp; Standish confesses to being at first unable to take foreign money seriously.&nbsp; You hear this a lot from Americans who think that anything other than a Federal Reserve Note is &quot;Monopoly Money.&quot;&nbsp; In truth, of course, it is our own currency that looks like it came from Parker Brothers.&nbsp; the book starts off with the &quot;Sunflower&quot; 50 Gulden and gets even better.</p><p><br /></p><p>Standish&#039;s narrative is concise, correct, well-researched, a good presentation for the novice and nice re-telling for the expert.&nbsp; His introduction, his history of money and the chapter discussions are all written with the controlled passion of a new collector.&nbsp; Standish is enthralled with his subject.</p><p><br /></p><p>From Queen Liz to Topless Money, from the International Zoo to Inflation and the Euro, the pictorial presentation is breathtaking.&nbsp; The second half does for US paper money what the first does for the world scene.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;Happily, most countries recognize that there are areas of significant human endeavor beyond politics and government ... Artists, writers, scientists, explorers, inventors, musicians, architects -- in short a great range of people whose achievements have been considered positive contributions to what passes for the human condition...&quot;&nbsp; The illustrations here include James Joyce, Alophe Saxe, Le Corbusier, Gustaphe Eiffel, and (my favorite) Antoine de Saint-Exupery,&nbsp; with Kirsten Flagstad, Selma Lagerlof, and Maria Montessori in &quot;the women&#039;s division.&quot;&nbsp; Planes, trains and automobiles, folks, folk art, and birds, the book delivers a nice spectrum of modern world banknotes in all their glory.</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;What must people from other countries think when they see that enigmatic, glowing eye, balanced on a pyramid on the $1 bill?&nbsp; That the United States traces its origins back to visitors from outer space who purportedly founded Egypt?&quot;&nbsp; However, Standish does present the pride and glory of US Paper: the colonials, the wildcats, and those big horseblankets with their immense vignettes of Americana.&nbsp; </p><p><br /></p><p>If you like looking at paper money in full color, if you like reading about it, you will find this little book to be the gift you deserve.&nbsp; You might even buy another and give it to someone. I found mine on Amazon used for about half of retail including shipping. (In fact, I bought three: one used for me and two new for gifts.)&nbsp; Interesting, it has already been remaindered and one copy I found was already deacquisitioned from the Denver Public Library. So your local Half Price Books or similar retailer might have some in a table or on a shelf.</p><p><br /></p><p>(C) Copyright 2002 by Michael E. Marotta[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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