Money itself is a work of art, which thus has literal face value. Perhaps because currency is so tightly con-trolled, it is easy to forget that artists create the designs for it. To contextualize money as art, curators often emphasize that the design, use, and value of money is decided by people—with all their idiosyncrasies and flaws. The result of these creations is fiat currency. Issued by governments but unbacked by a commodity such as gold or silver, fiat currency requires that people have confidence in it to serve as legal tender.
Historically, this was no easy feat, and artists were thus charged to make detailed engravings that were difficult to forge. Nonetheless, many artists subverted the system with inauthentic currency. In some cases, such currency was not widely accepted. Two key historical studies are Bank Notes and Shinplasters by the historian Joshua Greenberg and A Nation of Counterfeiters by Stephen Mihm. Greenberg’s book is particularly useful for showing how the artistic qualities of currency persuaded (or failed to persuade) its users of the value and credibility of money at a time when the United States was known for its currency chaos.
One of the reasons that people collect coins and banknotes as a hobby or retain them as souvenirs is that they have aesthetic appeal. The qualities of a specific banknote or coin can then lead to a valuation above (or below) face value. Some of the best books exploring the history of coins and paper money as works of art in and of themselves include The Value of Money by the Smithsonian curator Ellen Feingold; All the Money in the World by the Curator and Museum Director at the American Numismatic Association, Douglas Mudd; When Money Talks by the historian Frank Holt; The Art of Money by the journalist David Standish; and The Banker’s Art, edited by the British Museum curator Victoria Hewitt. The notorious curator James A. Mackay, who was fired from the British Museum for theft, wrote The World Encyclopedia of Coins and Coin Collecting, which is also notable. For a more technical approach to the craftsmanship of paper money covering topics like color-changing inks and specialized paper, see the unauthorized treatment Moneymakers: The Secret World of Banknote Printing by journalist Klaus Bender. An authorized treatment of banknote design and printing was also produced by the European Central Bank as the catalog for its Euro Banknote Design Exhibition.
Artists also make fake money for a range of purposes. The anthropologist Julie Chu has discussed how fake US dollars and other currency, often referred to as “spirit money” or “hell money,” is used in Chinese culture to venerate ancestors on personal altars by burning it to send to the ancestors for use in the afterlife. Her book Cosmologies of Credit is an excellent ethnographic study of the significance of money in global transnational culture. Other artists have designed fake currency for use in films or as educational tools
The World Encyclopedia of Coins and Coin Collecting
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