“I don’t really like to buy anything that’s less than $10 million,” the collector said. “It just doesn’t elicit the validation I crave.”
money
227-Year-Old Prototype for First US Dollar Sold at Auction
The experimental dollar from 1794, featuring Lady Liberty with flowing hair, laid the groundwork for the first silver dollars, coined the same year.
Canada Releases World’s First Glow-in-the-Dark Coin in Circulation
The Royal Canadian Mint unveiled a Northern Lights–themed luminescent coin to commemorate the country’s 150th birthday.
The British Pennies Defaced in Protest by a Suffragette
A 1903 penny on view at the British Museum features the words “Votes for Women” letter-stamped by a suffragette over the face of the king.
How Art Secured American Banknotes for 150 Years
The Grolier Club is exploring the overlooked art of American security engraving, in which the strength of an artwork correlates to the security of the banknote or bond it’s printed on.
J.M.W. Turner to Light Up the British £20 Note
J.M.W. Turner, the great English landscape painter who obsessed over light, will be featured on the new £20 banknote in the UK.
Harriet Tubman Bumps Slave-Owning Andrew Jackson Off Front of $20 Bill
The president who signed the Indian Removal Act, which pushed thousands of indigenous people off their land through events like the Trail of Tears, and owned over 100 slaves, will finally get his own removal from his central place on the American $20 bill.
Which Artist Will Grace the UK’s New £20 Bill?
The Bank of England has announced that a visual artist will grace the new £20 bill.
What Happens When You Try to Photoshop Money
When I was editing our story about Canadians “spocking” their $5 bills, I discovered something curious: you can’t Photoshop money.
Bank of Canada Asks Citizens to Stop “Spocking” Money
Canadians have been mourning the death of Star Trek’s Leonard Nimoy by transforming $5 notes into portraits of Spock — or “spocking” them.
Shredding Currency in the Name of Art
In 1991, Alberto Echegaray Guevara was an advisor to the Argentinian economic minister who pegged the country’s currency at a 1:1 rate with the US dollar. Now it seems Echegaray has come full circle. His artistic debut at the arteBA fair last month took on inflation as its subject.
Where’s the Money? US Arts and Culture Economy By the Numbers
An unprecedented survey of the role of the arts in the larger economy, last week’s breakdown of the GDP contribution of America’s creative industries in 2011 is illuminating and depressing, if not entirely surprising in its conclusions.