My Security Engravers Presentation- a different approach

Here is my presentation. Enjoy this one guys because it will be my only one.

So far, the presentations have focused on the engraver...I am going to take a different approach, and focus on the engravee (which may be a word I came up with for this post).

One of the greatest things about Numismatics, be it coins, currency, tokens, whatever you may find, is the ability to learn about people and places that you may not have heard about before. That situation is the basis of this report. I purchased this note a few months back and in trying to figure out when it was issued, I learned a little about the man on the note.

Here is the note, Argentina's 100 Australes note of 1985-90. The note is undated.




The subject of the note is Domingo Faustino Sarmiento, the seventh president of Argentina, serving from 1868-1874.



Here is a photo of the man: (credit Wikipedia)


He was born 2/15/1811 and died on 9/11/1888.

He had 14 siblings, but nine of them did not reach adulthood, he was the only male of the family to reach adulthood. He grew up very poor, to a veteran father and a weaver mother. He was taught to read at age four by his father and an uncle, he would spend much of his life reading, writing and teaching others to do the same. Another uncle was instrumental in bringing dictator Juan Manual de Rosas to power. Sarmiento would gain national acclaim, when, as a newspaper writer, he campainged against the dictator.

He spent much time as a teacher, both in his home of Argentina and in Chile, where he was exiled to multiple times because of his political beliefs. He founded multiple schools and his ideals on education were very modern, even forming a school for girls in 1840. He was also a dedicated writer, penning dozens of books on a wide variety of subjects.

During 1845-1847, Sarmiento traveled to 12 different countries studying their education systems. Most important, in his opinion, was the United States of America, which he would strive to emulate while as president.

In 1855, after returning to Argentina from Chile, where had chosen to move to, he entered the political arena, first as a member of the municipal government, then as a senator, then as governer of San Juan, his home town. He made it law that all children had to go to school, and under his administration many new buildings for the public good were erected.

However, he soon came into conflict with another politician, and stepped down. He then ran for, but lost the presidency, and so he traveled to the USA again, this time as the Argentine Ambassidor. While here, he also further educated himself, earning a degree from the university of Michigan, where a bust of him still stands. There While he was in the USA, he was asked to run for president, which he accepted. This time, his bid was successfull. He officially became president on 10/12/1868.

While as President, he had many progressive ideas, and worked to make Argentina similiar to what he considered enlightened USA and Europe, modeling the then modern Argentina on New England, Boston in particular.

One of his great causes was education, which he overhauled as much as he could, which was a substantial amount, as he established nearly 800 educational institutions. He also modernized the train system, the postal system, installed a telegraph system and conducted the first census of Argentina in 1869.

However, not all was good with Sarmiento. For one thing, he was a dedicated racist, with ideals to kill all black citizens of Argentina, or at least hopes that they would all die. He also led his country into war with Paraguay, (which saw his adopted son die in battle) and did little when there was a massive Yellow Fever epidemic. In fact, he was so unpoular, he survived an assasination attempt in August 1873. The country was near the brink of civil war. When his term ended, he did not attempt to run again.

After his unpopular term as president, he continued to serve in public capacity, mostly in the education realm although briefly as Interior Minister. He left Argentina in May of 1888, and died in September of the same year, ironically in Paraguay, of a heart attack.

However, despite his racist views, and his unpopular presidency, he is today regarded as the "Teacher of Latin America", and it is without doubt that his efforts in the field of education are matched throughout history by few, nor have many been as dedicated to the ideals of higher education then he was. Today, there are sculptures and states of him in the aforementioned University of Michigan, Brown University, Boston, Buenos Aires and there is a plaza that bears his name in Argentina, as well as appearing on multiple issues of Argentine currency, and has been honored with at least one commerative coin, issued in 1968 at the 80th anniversary of his death.

Before I purchased this note, I had never heard of this man before, but now, thanks to numismatics, I can say that I now know exactly who he was, his ideals, his family, and his legacy, which is considerable!

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domingo_F._Sarmiento
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Afro_Argentine#Domingo_F._Sarmiento

 

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Billy,

Thank you for sharing your story about this man and his past. I had not heard of him either and while he sounds very controversial he also sounds like he did a lot to help Argentina. It was a very well written post and I appreciate you taking the time to share it with the members of Coin Talk.

Best Regards ~ Darryl

 

Nice presnetation Billy, I really enjoyed learning about this man.
Also your approach for the presentation was cool as well. Thanks for being part of the Group, too bad this is your last and only one, it was a nice piece. :thumb:

Hope you reconsider.

RickieB

 

Very informative presentation from a different persepective,the person rather then the engraver.I also never heard of him and that's the best part of the engraver's group,every week a new piece to the puzzle of life,nice job Billy,sad to see you go.
Who was the engraver ?
connor1

 

Very interesting writeup. I like your direction and choice of subject. I think that he's a frightening looking gentleman. The engraver certainly did not attempt to idealize the portrait.

 

Very nice, And informative!!

 

Very nice, Billy, thanks very much for this. It's always interesting to see this blend good and bad attributes in a person. Seems very odd in retrospect, but during his lifetime, something drove him in his own direction.

Dave

 

Thanks for the comments!

I don't know who the engraver is. I couldn't and can't afford The Engraver's Line and I wouldn't know where to look elsewhere for the info. That's one of the reasons I chose to do it this way

 

The way you did it makes complete sense to me, especially for modern issues. From what I can see from the images you posted, it looks like the portrait of Sarmiento on the face was generated by computer to a lithograph. The abstract design on the right looks to be engraved, but I'm not familiar enough with these burelage (is that the word used for these patterns on banknotes?) patterns to know how they're set up and engraved. Possibly they're done on computer as well. I guess my point is that there may be no hand engraving this note, it may be done on computer, and it could be the names of those involved aren't available.

Dave

 

Dave,is this the future of banknotes ? Computer generated lithographes ! Invisible engravers ?

 

Unfortunately it seems yes, in many cases. You can look at the close-up scan Billy presented. Those squiggly lines are not at all something a human being would have engraved. They are something a computer did. By the same token though, I suppose you could argue that such a realistic rendition of a face wouldn't be possible with human engraving, so perhaps there's some good to be had in it. You can see many foreign banknotes today that virtually have photographs on them - something that only happened since this transition.

And yes, "invisible engravers" is probably about it as well. Do they need to list the guy that Photoshopped up the image to feed into the computer that prints banknotes? Probably not.

Dave

 

Well done Billy. :thumb: