Designing The Money - Bank Note Designs From Past

What is money ? Before cryptocurrencies it was just a paper. I am giving you a paper and in return you are giving me a good or service. My cousin is a designer and his PhD thesis is about bank note design. When he showed his works, I really loved it and started search bank notes from past to present. How they changed ? Is political situation affects to bank note design ? First things first, for quick overview this Youtube video will give you an introduction about design & production of bank notes. It's so short, but there are couple of long documentaries about bank note production, you can find them in Youtube

So, in this post I want to show you some bank notes and their journey according to countries. Actually, I chose the countries just according to my taste. However, in the future post, I want to write about bank note and political situations of this countries and it's quite interesting for me.  Let's get start it! By the way, please note that, when I searched about it I found World Paper Money Catalog and it's quite impressive. You can buy the ebook from Amazon. 

ARGENTINA

5 Pesos, 1960 - 1969

In front, Genaral Jose De San Martin

Who is this ?

José Francisco de San Martín y Matorras (25 February 1778 – 17 August 1850), known simply as José de San Martín was an Argentine general and the prime leader of the southern part of South America's successful struggle for independence from the Spanish Empire who served as the Protector of Peru. Born in Yapeyú, Corrientes, in modern-day Argentina, he left his mother country at the early age of seven to study in Málaga, Spain.

50 Pesos, 1997 - 2000

Domingo Faustino Sarmiento at right.

Who is this?

Domingo Faustino Sarmiento (February 15, 1811 – September 11, 1888) was an Argentine activist, intellectual, writer, statesman and the seventh President of Argentina. His writing spanned a wide range of genres and topics, from journalism to autobiography, to political philosophy and history. He was a member of a group of intellectuals, known as the Generation of 1837, who had a great influence on nineteenth-century Argentina. He was particularly concerned with educational issues and was also an important influence on the region's literature.

BRAZIL

OK, It's a weird design I guess

1981- 1985, 200 Cruzeiros

Princess Isabel

During her father's absences abroad, Isabel acted as regent. In her third and final regency, she actively promoted and ultimately signed a law, named Lei Áurea or the Golden Law, emancipating all slaves in Brazil. Even though the action was broadly popular, there was strong opposition to her succession to the throne. Her gender, strong Catholic faith and marriage to a foreigner were seen as impediments against her, and the emancipation of the slaves generated dislike among powerful planters. In 1889, her family was deposed in a military coup, and she spent the last 30 years of her life in exile in France.

1989 - 1 Cruzado Novo on 1000 Cruzados

J. Machado on the right

Joaquim Maria Machado de Assis often known by his surnames as Machado de Assis, Machado, or Bruxo do Cosme Velho (21 June 1839 – 29 September 1908), was a pioneer Brazilian novelist, poet, playwright and short story writer. Widely regarded as the greatest writer of Brazilian literature, nevertheless he did not gain widespread popularity outside Brazil in his own lifetime. He was multilingual, having taught himself French, English, German and Greek in later life.Machado's works had a great influence on Brazilian literary schools of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In 1941, the Brazilian Academy of Letters founded in his honor the Prêmio Machado de Assis (Machado de Assis Prize), the most prestigious literary award in Brazil. José Saramago, Carlos Fuentes, Thomas McGuane and Susan Sontag are among his admirers, and Woody Allen has expressed enthusiasm for one of Machado's novels.

ESTONIA

1991- 92- 500 KROONI

J.R Jakobson on the right

Carl Robert Jakobson was an Estonian writer, politician and teacher active in Governorate of Livonia, Russian Empire. He was one of the most important persons of Estonian national awakening in the second half of the 19th century.

Between 1860 and 1880, the Governorate of Livonia was led by a moderate nobility-dominated government. Jakobson became the leader of the radical wing, advocating widespread reforms in Livonia. He was responsible for the economic-political program of the Estonian national movement. Jakobson urged Estonians to demand equal political rights with the region's Germans and an end to privileged position of the Baltic-German nobility.In 1878, Jakobson established the Estonian newspaper Sakala. The paper quickly became a vital promoter of the cultural awakening. He also had a central role in the establishment of the Society of Estonian Literati, which was an influential Estonian association in the second half of the 19th century.

1999 - 2000 , 100 KROONI

On the left, L. Koidula

Lydia Emilie Florence Jannsen, , known by her pen name Lydia Koidula, was an Estonian poet. Her sobriquet means 'Lydia of the Dawn' in Estonian. It was given to her by the writer Carl Robert Jakobson. She is also frequently referred to as Koidulaulik – 'Singer of the Dawn'.In Estonia, like elsewhere in Europe, writing was not considered a suitable career for a respectable young lady in the mid-nineteenth-century. Koidula's poetry and her newspaper work for her populist father, Johann Voldemar Jannsen (1819–1890) remained anonymous. In spite of this, she was a major literary figure, the founder of Estonian theatre, and closely allied to Carl Robert Jakobson (1841–1882), the influential radical and Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald (1803–1882), writer of the Estonian national epic, Kalevipoeg (The Son of Kalev).

GREECE

1995-98, 5000 DRACHMAES

T. Kolokotronis on the left

Theodoros Kolokotronis was a Greek general and the pre-eminent leader of the Greek War of Independence (1821–1829) against the Ottoman Empire. Kolokotronis's greatest success was the defeat of the Ottoman army under Mahmud Dramali Pasha at the Battle of Dervenakia in 1822. In 1825, he was appointed commander-in-chief of the Greek forces in the Peloponnese. Today, Kolokotronis ranks among the most revered of the protagonists of Greece's War of Independence.

1978- 1000 DRACHMAI

Zeus on the left

Zeus is the sky and thunder god in ancient Greek religion, who ruled as king of the gods of Mount Olympus. His name is cognate with the first element of his Roman equivalent Jupiter. His mythologies and powers are similar, though not identical, to those of Indo-European deities such as Indra, Jupiter, Perun, Thor, and Odin.Zeus is the child of Cronus and Rhea, the youngest of his siblings to be born, though sometimes reckoned the eldest as the others required disgorging from Cronus's stomach. In most traditions, he is married to Hera, by whom he is usually said to have fathered Ares, Hebe, and Hephaestus. At the oracle of Dodona, his consort was said to be Dione, by whom the Iliad states that he fathered Aphrodite. Zeus was also infamous for his erotic escapades. These resulted in many godly and heroic offspring, including Athena, Apollo, Artemis, Hermes, Persephone, Dionysus, Perseus, Heracles, Helen of Troy, Minos, and the Muses.He was respected as an allfather who was chief of the gods and assigned the others to their roles: "Even the gods who are not his natural children address him as Father, and all the gods rise in his presence." He was equated with many foreign weather gods, permitting Pausanias to observe "That Zeus is king in heaven is a saying common to all men". Zeus' symbols are the thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and oak. In addition to his Indo-European inheritance, the classical "cloud-gatherer"  also derives certain iconographic traits from the cultures of the ancient Near East, such as the scepter. Zeus is frequently depicted by Greek artists in one of two poses: standing, striding forward with a thunderbolt leveled in his raised right hand, or seated in majesty.

ISRAEL

1973-75, 500 Lirot

David Ben Gurion on the right

David Ben-Gurion , born David Grün; 16 October 1886 – 1 December 1973) was the primary national founder of the State of Israel and the first Prime Minister of Israel.Ben-Gurion's passion for Zionism, which began early in life, led him to become a major Zionist leader and Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization in 1946. As head of the Jewish Agency from 1935, and later president of the Jewish Agency Executive, he was the de facto leader of the Jewish community in Palestine, and largely led its struggle for an independent Jewish state in Mandatory Palestine. On 14 May 1948, he formally proclaimed the establishment of the State of Israel, and was the first to sign the Israeli Declaration of Independence, which he had helped to write. Ben-Gurion led Israel during the 1948 Arab–Israeli War, and united the various Jewish militias into the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Subsequently, he became known as "Israel's founding father".

2008 - 200 Sheqalim

Zalman Shazar at the bottom

Zalman Shazar  was an Israeli politician, author and poet. Shazar served as the third President of Israel from 1963 to 1973.

More to come...

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