I began collecting currencies as a way to remember my travels. The currencies’ various colors, sizes, and names were alluring. At first, I collected only a few varied bills—whatever I found in my wallet after a trip. Over time, though, I tried to collect an entire sequence of bills to a specific amount. I determined this amount as being the point when the currencies’ value exceeded what I was comfortable spending to obtain all of them.
To collect an entire sequence, I often visited local banks or bars. At first, comparing the U.S. greenback to “foreign” currencies amused me; for example, the way Mexican pesos (MXN) are shorter than U.S. dollars (USD), Jordanian dinars and Korean won are longer, and Norwegian krones have a hole in their center.
While organizing my collection, I took a closer look at the themes, faces, and designs. At that moment, I realized that the messages, themes, and propaganda had become clearer. I felt as though these currencies were trying to reveal a perspective that was uniquely that of their then-current government and their national pride.
I decided that I wanted to know more about the people and places depicted on countries’ legal tender, but, more importantly, if these depictions were actually affecting people now or if were they of no consequence at all.
Cuba—Cuban Pesos (CP) and Cuban Convertible Pesos (CUC)
Visit La Habana Vieja (Old Havana) and you will be greeted by attractive women wearing Santeria white dresses and offering flowers. They are available for photos and will direct you to various restaurants and entertainment.
The sounds of Afro-Cuban music blare out of speakers as improv dancers rise from their tables and capture the mood of the moment. Men and women dance a simple Danzon (official dance style and music), Rumba, and other styles, depending on the musical selection.
Vendors puff Cubanos and claim to know Castro’s favorite cigar. Some people sip Hatueys (national beer), while others go right for Authentic Habana Club rum and their laughter and energy ignite the setting. CUC flowed from wallets and purses and, with what I perceived as a ratio equal to the U.S. dollar, I could easily remember their value.
What I did not notice at first was that, unless a local was there for work, he or she was not allowed to be around visitors to the island. Not a topic often brought up. While making my booking, I did notice the restrictions on where to stay and where to visit and nothing more.
Bordering Habana Vieja is La Malecon (seawall). During the day, I found men in Plaza Vieja repairing and fine-tuning their 1950s style vehicles so that visitors could request rides up and down the main road. The La Malecon turns into a blur as they wave their hands and take photos of themselves.
In the evening, I saw many kinds of Habaneros standing or sitting along the wall. Couples, families, friends, and individuals were enjoying the environment
On a few evenings, I was also there watching the cruise ships pass by on the horizon. My lack of understanding a few words outed me and caused some concern about my presence among the locals. An officer came towards my group and advised us to move away and pretend not to know each other. When the officer saw me standing alone, I made use of the most American accent I could think of for stating in broken Spanish, “No comprende. English.” His annoyance and signaling that I move on offered an opportunity for me to walk away and then return after the coast was clear.
Upon my return, a conversation began, and I offered to buy a few cervezas from a vending machine. As I pulled my CUCs from my pocket, I asked for an exchange to pesos. One gentleman responded to my request by saying, “You can have all of mine. They are trash.”
The Convertible Peso (CP)
This CUC was issued from 1994 to late 2021 in response to the dissolution of the Soviet Union ( referred to as Special Period), as the country entered into a financial crisis. Over time, the peso’s rapid loss in value and the collapse of various economic sectors have led to inflation.
An influx of U.S. dollars (USD) were brought in through remittances, foreign investments, and the burgeoning tourist sector. Soon, the dollar became an informal currency readily accepted throughout the country, which culminated in its legalization as tender. The CUC, CP, and USD were used concurrently.
Although the USD brought stabilization, it also brought confusion. In reality, the dollar became the dominate currency, prompting former President George W. Bush to intercede and make the CUC the primary currency.
Enter into La Habana airport and you will find currency stations behind immigration. The same goes for when you are ready to depart as CUCs are not allowed outside the nation. It is at that point you must make an exchange for CUCs since the USD is not accepted anywhere.
CUCs became acceptable almost everywhere, whereas pesos where hit or miss. Understanding their unequal value also became an issue. CUCs were pegged at a higher value, making them highly sought after, while Pesos remained at a lower value. This became confusing when making or accepting payments as you could pay in CUCs, receive pesos, and not know the actual value of what you received. The only fact you can rely on was that CUCs are stronger than pesos.
Imagine you decide to pay 5 CUC s for a cerveza. In pesos, the price could be 100. You walk three blocks over and that same beer is 1 CUC, but in pesos is 50. Buying anything becomes a matter of negotiating the perceived value of the currency.
As for the economy, the country became dependent on the importation of goods since the local currency fluctuated in favor of items at stable rates. The result was a slow halt of producing internally as long as tourism and remittances kept coming along with USDs.
Issues arose when the CUC was eventually no longer backed by the USD. Yet the Cuban government kept producing CUCs. Over time, it became known that, regardless of what the current values were posted, the CUC and the USD were no longer related in value.
Eventually, the government’s agenda was to launch a hard reset on the currency titled, “Day Zero,” and this was supported by former President Raul Castro and current President Miguel Diaz-Canel. The wait for Day Zero went on for over five years, which caused the re-installation of the USD as one of the three currencies. The only difference on the USD’s reemergence is that the currency could only be used to purchase high-end goods, such as appliances and vehicle parts. CUCs were quickly downgraded since their perceived value dropped and stores stopped accepting them, which decimated the lives of people who had a lot of them.
At the time, the CUC’s perceived value was equivalent to $0.50. The CUC’s final year in circulation was approaching as Zero Day was on January 1, 2021. This change ruined many businesses and sparked new protests about the inequality of life on the island. The promise of merging the CUC and peso into a single currency contrasted with the ready acceptance of the USD.
While I was still visiting, the CUC was in its final life cycle. The sight of CUCs brought a glimmer to the viewer’s eyes due to their value. My pockets became stuffed with pesos as I readily traded CUCs to acquire a few more pesos for my collection. Yet looking back to that night on the Malecon as I purchased a few beers for the group, the gentlemen who offered to exchange with me described the two currencies succulently.
“CUCs are for the wealthy. Pesos are for the poor.”
United States—Southern Currencies
Most travelers to Charleston, South Carolina, will visit the City Market. This downtown area is filled with the smell of praline pecans and Gullahs and other vendors selling cookbooks and various items from postcards to local foods to Charleston-branded favorites.
The guided horse carriage tours roll through downtown, as the guides point out historical sites and add colorful details. On one of my trips, I heard a guide remark about the controversial Confederate Museum, supported by the Charleston Chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy. Opening its doors in 1899, the museum is now often referred to as The Museum at Market Hall in response to increasing protests against its existence and its numerous donors.
On one of my trips to Charleston, I decided to visit. As I waited, a staff member walked out to hang the signage directing traffic inside. Her response to my presence was almost cartoonish. Dropping her sign, she went back inside, closing the door behind her. After a minute or two of murmuring, she re-opened the door and inquired if I was in the right place. After I explained that I was interested seeing the museum, a look of jubilation spread across her face as she opened the door widely to welcome me in.
As the guide proudly showed me around, I inquired about the various relics and their importance in the past. Although a number of items, such as slave military badges and various flags, caught my attention, another interesting find was Confederate currency.
Prior to the Civil War and throughout the Jim Crow era, various depictions of Black and Brown people have been printed on Southern currencies. The initial iterations portray slaves as being happy to live under the patronage of their masters. Smiling field hands held onto baskets of various items. Well-clothed slaves worked on their own volition. As the war got closer, bills such as the $20 Banknote of the Bank of North Carolina (1859) portrayed national heroes such as Ben Franklin, George Washington, and Chief Justice John Marshall, along with depictions of slaves, thus sending a subliminal message that to enforce slavery is American and is reinforced by these heroes. Funny enough is that all three did have slaves, but Franklin was the only one to condemn slavery towards the end of his life.
These images not only served to project a specific image of the South, but they also reinforced Southern sensibilities and ideas that Blacks’ livelihood depended on Southerners. This was also reinforced by various texts in the New Testament where Paul speaks of slavery’s legitimacies.
Over time, more images depicted slaves as being happy, which served as a moral boost during the war to promote a sense of doing what’s right in a noble institution. What also became evident was the further dehumanizing of the caricatures to emphasize the differences between the “races.”
Other attempts to subvert the efforts of the North, as well as portray the South as thriving and producing and transporting many crops were also portrayed on some of Confederate banknotes.
For a time, Great Britain favored the South over the North, but sensing an impending blockade, they began to stockpile cotton in case the war started. This caused the Southern economy to tank. The Confederacy slowly lost its ability to purchase weapons and other items needed to continue and effectively wage war. The North attempted to further destabilize the Southern economy by distributing fake $20 “Female Riding Deer” notes printed in a similar style to what was distributed at the time.
A New Beginning?
Reconstruction offered an opportunity for the United States to right itself and began anew, albeit against the still-prevailing negative view of Black people. For example, this quote by Dr. Josiah C. Nott (1866):
“The Negro, on the contrary, is imitative, social, easily domesticated, and, as long as kept in subordination to a higher race, will ape to a certain extent its manners and customers. But the Negro rises only to a certain point of imitation—his intellect permits no approach to civilization but that of imitation.”
The 13th to 15th amendments created opportunities for Black and Brown peoples, but this would not last long. After a short climb to improved lives and efforts to move up in class, including involvement in politics, banknotes, such as the State of Mississippi’s $2 bill (1870), still portrayed slaves working in disheveled clothing.
As sharecropping became pronounced, images of sharecroppers began to appear on various notes, with some even reusing old imagery from prior to the War that was subtly edited to show the new conditions, such as the signature of South Carolina’s State Treasurer Francis L. Cardozo, who happened to be the first Black man to be in that position.
Although all Southern currencies were ordered to be destroyed, a number of bills found their way into personal collections and eventually into museums. This currency still serves to undermine and portray an inaccurate version of the past in that it reinforces the thought that slavery was positive and entirely justified. It reinforced the notion that the Confederacy was upholding truly American ideals and patriots, such as Washington and Franklin.
While I walked around the now named Memorial Hall, I did not notice a shred of embarrassment or shame. Children being guided by their parents pointed out various items in the display cases, as the docents happily educated me on which flag went to which regiment at a specific time.
As my old Southern University teacher stated to the students on our first day of class, “This is the flag I was born under and I am proud of it. Deal with it!”
Perhaps he was raised on teachings based on propaganda, such as that on the banknotes, and the ideals of superiority and pride. I do not know. No one ever discussed or brought it up. These days, it’s rarer that someone professes their love of the Confederacy. Yet the imagery that was often depicted on notes still reinforcing negative stereotypes and that Southern pride that still exists in today’s culture and monuments.
Bosnia & Herzegovina—Konvertible Mark (KM)
My visit to the capital of Sarajevo began with the hallmarks of travel: eating, drinking, and the exploration of an exotic destination. Refreshing water fill the cisterns in the Ottoman architecture that wraps around the Bascarsija (Old Market). Small groups of travelers wander the wide walkways, while old men play oversized chess in one of the squares. Old women sit and gossip on benches, and younger audiences bop by to the music of both local and American pop.
The setting is quaint and remarkably deceiving. This would not become apparent until a drive outside of town to the border of East Sarajevo. I remember the lingering pause of one of my compatriots as he remarked that war criminals live in the vicinity. Serbs had murdered his father and were allowed to live free. Confused by his comment, he detoured and took us to the former Olympic Village (1992). It was at this site Serbs held the high ground during the Siege of Sarajevo. They used bobsled tunnels as protection while throwing incendiaries and firing weapons into Sarajevo below.
After that revelation, I could not help but notice the red splotches on the sidewalks of Sarajevo that are reminders of where the incendiaries landed and destroyed families and the surrounding area.
April 6, 2022, marks the 30-year anniversary of the start of the Bosnian War. Unfortunately, it may also coincide with a continuation of the dispute and the dissolution of the Dayton Accords (1995).
With the support of the administration of President of Bill Clinton, NATO became involved to end the Bosnian War (1992–1995), which was a continuation of pent-up anger and frustrations after the end of Yugoslavia that had been unresolved for centuries. The resolution was titled the Dayton Accords because of the site where they were signed outside of Dayton, Ohio.
The solution was to create two “equal” societies (Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and Republika Srbska) and three ethnic groups: the Serbs, the majority Bosniaks, and the minority Croats. Each had their own leader who made decisions that had to be agreed upon by the separate governments, police, courts, and customs. Then the decision was made on a cohesive currency that would depict national heroes, names, and overall look.
Initial ideas, such as the Baher by the Bosnian Central Bank, were rejected due to difficult pronunciation for the Serbians. Serbs offered a depiction of a 14th-century battle and their national heroes. Eventually, what was decided were art pieces and various writers, a German look, and a Cyrillic text.
The currency unfortunately did not assist in the creation of a cohesive country. Excluded were the minority ethnic groups of Croats, Albanians, and Romanians, who now wanted similar representation. This request could lead to a re-writing of their constitution. If this were to occur, it would lead to new demands from the Serb and Bosnian sides that could lead to war. What would happen if Croat nationals called upon Croatia, a NATO member, to assist? The Serbs calling upon Serbia?
A regional conflict could destabilize the region.
On a side street up a hill in Sarajevo is the War Children’s Museum. In it is the Bosnian perspective of the war. The tattered clothing, diaries of various youth, and rusting American toys of kids who grew up in the 1990s sit in display cases. Off to the side of most items are stories of various families through the perspective of children wishing to play outside or suffering the sadness of a recent death.
I would later learn that most of the now adults around the ages of late 30s to early 40s had lost a parent or a close family member during the war. It would be horribly ironic if history was repeated.
Conclusion
When looking at banknotes, the focus usually lands on the denomination and not its meaning. I rarely find myself overhearing or engaging in a conversation over whose face is on a specific bill other than the Harriet Tubman $20 note or the reference to Benjamins as an alternative name for the $100 bill.
In both cases, my response is towards an accurate depiction of the United States rather than the seemingly throwing of the bone on a single bill. Why not a composite of multiple images that highlight several American themes and heroes in a redesign of all U.S. currency? I am sure the Indigenous, Hispanic, and Asian communities would also enjoy seeing parts of the American story relating to them on various bills. Black and Brown Americans shouldn’t mind seeing Martin Luther King Jr. sharing the spotlight with Franklin. The irony of Lincoln sharing a bill with Dakota Nation leaders, as well as Harriet Tubman, are all part of an overarching theme that both snapshots a part of our history and highlights the layers of it. George Washington with Ona Judge Staines, anyone? How about Hamilton with images of Chinatown and O.W. Gurley once known as the wealthiest Black man on “Black Wall Street”?
I think this same approach could apply to countries with multiple ethnic groups or various histories and perspectives.
Yet for many other nations, the solution is far deeper than representation. As in the examples of Cuba and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the issue is based on economics and nation building for which I do not have an effective answer.
While visiting the Cayman Islands, I paid a visit to the CIBC First Caribbean International Bank to make an exchange for various denominations. As I studied the bills, I noticed Queen Elizabeth II appeared on each note. Asking a Black Caymanian what it meant to not see a national hero represented, his response was, “What does it matter?”
Depictions on currency give snapshots of a specific time or place as a sense of identity. They also represent the financial strength and fortitude of said countries. While most viewers only care about the value, it is worth a moment to look at both sides of a banknote or coin. What a look reveals may be almost as important as the amount of goods and services the money can buy.
Fin
$20 Banknote, The Bank of North Carolina, 1859. Heritage Auction Collection
1 Cuban Peso (CP)
200 Bosnian Konvertible Mark (KM)
$10 Banknote Proof, The Bank of Hamilton, State of Georgia, 1850s. Heritage Auction Collection
5 Cuban Peso (CP)
$20 Eastern Caribbean Guilders