it’s sunday morning and far from expelling the money changers from our temple, i’ve decided to celebrate the one and only omni-denominational abstraction which all humanity agrees to place its faith in, our favorite diety, cash. now i for one am not a high priest in the church of money, nor a pecuni-logian, nor even an alter boy really. in point of fact if i can be considered in the flock at all i am closest to being the guy on line at the church of money’s soup kitchen. but from the filthy layman’s perspective, all functional realities aside, i think money is aesthetically gorgeous and culturally fascinating. with that in mind let’s do some casual web-based numismatics. presenting: a currency related hodgepodge for your pleasure…
one of the evils of money is that it tempts us to look at it rather than at the things that it buys. -E.M. Forster
Money is like sex. Some people believe that the more sexual experiences they have, with as many different people as possible, the more fulfilled they will be. But even great quantities of money and sex may not satisfy the craving. The problem lies not in having too much or too little, but in taking money literally, as a fetish rather than as a medium. If wealth is found by rejecting the experience of poverty, then it will never be complete. The soul is nurtured by want as much as by plenty. -Thomas Moore
The money complex is the demonic, and the demonic is God’s ape; the money complex is therefore the heir to and substitute for the religious complex, an attempt to find God in things. -Norman O. Brown
Money is human happiness in the abstract: he, then, who is no longer capable of enjoying human happiness in the concrete devotes his heart entirely to money. -Arthur Schopenhauer
Money is the worst currency that ever grew among mankind. This sacks cities, this drives men from their homes, this teaches and corrupts the worthiest minds to turn base deeds. -Sophocles
Money is better than poverty, if only for financial reasons. -Woody Allen
Money doesn’t mind if we say it’s evil, it goes from strength to strength. It’s a fiction, an addiction, and a tacit conspiracy. -Martin Amis
Money, which represents the prose of life, and which is hardly spoken of in parlors without an apology, is, in its effects and laws, as beautiful as roses. -Ralph Waldo Emerson
Having money is just the best thing in the world. -Madonna
Liking money like I like it, is nothing less than mysticism. Money is a glory. -Salvador Dali
Unlike art and sex, money always arouses interest. -Mason Cooley
If you’ve ever been without money, or food, something very strange happens when you get a bit of money, a kind of madness. You don’t care. You can’t remember that you had no money before, that the money will be gone. You can remember nothing but that there is the money for which you have been suffering. Now here it is. A lust takes hold of you. You see food in the windows. In imagination you eat hugely; you taste a thousand meals. You look in windows. Colors are brighter; you buy something to dress up in. An excitement takes hold of you. You know it is suicide but you can’t help it. You must have food, dainty, splendid food and a bright hat so once again you feel blithe, rid of that ratty gnawing shame. -Meridel Le Sueur
We’re in the money,
the skies are sunny;
old man depression,
you are through,
you done us wrong!
-Al Dubin (the gold digger’s song)
In any country where talent and virtue produce no advancement, money will be the national god. Its inhabitants will either have to possess money or make others believe that they do. Wealth will be the highest virtue, poverty the greatest vice. Those who have money will display it in every imaginable way. If their ostentation does not exceed their fortune, all will be well. But if their ostentation does exceed their fortune they will ruin themselves. In such a country, the greatest fortunes will vanish in the twinkling of an eye. Those who don’t have money will ruin themselves with vain efforts to conceal their poverty. That is one kind of affluence: the outward sign of wealth for a small number, the mask of poverty for the majority, and a source of corruption for all. -Denis Diderot
But it takes a lot of money to live freely by the sea. -Albert Camu
To cook a pig, apply heat; to win a lawsuit, apply money. -Chinese proverb.
if you can actually count your money, then you are not really a rich man. -J. Paul Getty
cash rules everything around me.
cream, get the money,
dolla dolla bill yall.
-the wu tang clan
just a tiny taste but gorgeous stuff huh? anyhow, now for some heavy linkage.
galleries
the american currency exhibit, where many of the paper money images above were culled from, has many interesting things to see. l
likewise the u.s. bureau of engraving and printing’s moneyfactory site has some interesting stuff, like the fractional currency bills which i didn’t even know existed.
to expand beyond the greenback into the incredible currencies of the world check out ron wise’s world of paper money, tom chao’s world banknote collection, or banknote.com, all three of which offer a staggering amount of the gorgeous, foreign, and out of circulation. really beautiful stuff.
as for antique coins check out the roman numismatic gallery (which also offers some earlier greek stuff), doug smith’s ancient greek and roman coins, edgar l. owen’s early world coins, or the smithsonian’s national numismatic collection which offers a host of digital galleries.
for a breakdown of modern bill making check out nova’s anatomy of a bill.
and finally, for all things money stroll through either the money museum or the fantastic museum of money and financial institutions.
history
a very interesting outline of paper money history. which though translated a bit strangely includes many tidbits like this technically pre-money tale: in china, in 120 A.D., under the reign of Wu Ti, the Princes gave the Emperor, to honour him, some squares of deer skin of approximately 30 cm. in length, with embroidered borders. When the noble men went to court, the Emperor gave them these embroidered pieces of leather. in this way they became honorific signs. In the ancient Chinese history texts, it is written that these pieces of deer leather, strongly desired by the Chinese notables, circulated like money, following well defined quoted values. it would take 687 years and a copper shortage to precipitate a return to “flying money.”
a comparative chronology of money from 9,000 b.c. to 2002 a.d.
the origins of money and banking. addressing such questions as what is money? what is its function? and what are the causes for its development?
sovereignty and money past, present, and future.
the very interesting, illustrated, history of money and religion.
a nice bite sized short history of money.
benjamin franklin’s paper a modest enquiry into the nature and necessity of paper currency from 1729.
carl menger’s on the origin of money from 1892.
adam smith’s of the origin and use of money from, the wealth of nations circa 1776.
the origin of world currency names. (Dollar, from 16th century German: “Thaler” a short for of Joahimsthaler, coin made from metal mined in Joahimsthal, a town now in Czech Republic) or if you’d like to brush up first currencies of the world via the university of british columbia.
origins, history and geography the word dollar and the dollar sign.
and finally a global history of world currencies from global financial data, inc.
dolla dolla bill yall.