WHY BANKNOTES LOOK AS THEY DO

 

Once upon a time, banknote iconography was a vitally important means of anti-counterfeiting security. Today, however, note issuers have much more sophisticated anti-counterfeiting technologies, so banknote iconography is no longer necessary for that purpose. According to neuroscientist David Eagleman, banknotes are jam-packed with decorative features that have nothing to do with security—the trees, the patriots, the birds, the flags, the swirling colors. No one notices the security features because of all the distractions. Eagleman argues that in order to maximize the efficiency of cash transactions, the ideal banknote would be a blank white piece of paper with a single hologram in the middle.

The fact that no monetary authority has ever followed Eagleman's advice indicates that banknote iconography is not just for anti-counterfeiting. Eagleman himself suggests as much, lamenting that currencies are supposed to impress the viewer with the regal power and artistic talents of a ruling body. Apparently, no government wants to appear un-regal and un-artistic when compared with another government. In other words, Eagleman's hypothesis is that political regimes are using banknote iconography to glorify themselves.

Some regimes certainly do treat their banknotes as vehicles for blatant political propaganda. For example, the longtime Haitian dictatorship of François Papa Doc Duvalier and his son Jean-Claude Baby Doc Duvalier placed their portraits front and center on various denominations of Haitian gourde banknotes. Both the father and the son actively involved themselves in the design process. For example, having hired the New York-based American Bank Note Company to design a new 10 gourde note in the 1970s, Jean-Claude Duvalier caused production delays with his repeated requests to alter the portrait. Banknote historian Mark Tomasko writes that Duvalier's requests were particularly to make him appear younger and less heavy. The final portrait was very complimentary to ‘Baby Doc' .

 

Banknote iconography is intended to be meaningful as well as beautiful. Ever since the consolidation of the global one nation, one money norm approximately a century ago, states have especially leveraged banknote iconography to remind consumers of their pride and sense of belonging in the national community. By priming people's collective identity, the iconography both channels and supports the generalized social trust that is crucial for the smooth functioning of the money economy. Supranational monetary authorities can play this game, too. For the 2002 launch of the euro banknotes and coins, the European Central Bank (ECB) explicitly invoked European identity with its official slogan the EURO. OUR money.

To read the complete paper, see:
It's All About the Benjamins: Why Banknotes Look As They Do, and Why You Should Care (https://bjwa.brown.edu/29-2/its-all-about-the-benjamins-why-banknotes-look-as-they-do-and-why-you-should-care/)

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