"They were new money, without a doubt: so new it shrieked. Their clothes looked as if they’d covered themselves in glue, then rolled around in hundred-dollar bills.” ~ Margaret Atwood

December 17, 2011 6:04 AM

Note Worthy: [guardian.co.uk] Global economic meltdown, the euro crisis and Occupy protests – this year has been dominated by financial issues. But what is money anyway? We invited writers and artists including Jonathan Franzen, Margaret Atwood and Naomi Klein to invent new currencies and banknotes for a changed world.
posted by Fizz (13 comments total)

Wait, Atwood plugged the name of her book including a byline on her "what is money, anyway" bill? Does that strike anyone else as unbelievably ironic?
posted by nathancaswell at 6:18 AM on December 17, 2011 [2 favorites]

Get your comment shovels here! You never know what's in yer grey matter unless you dig.

Best price guaranteed whilst stocks last.
posted by panaceanot at 6:18 AM on December 17, 2011

Neato agitprop; very cromulent.
posted by Renoroc at 6:19 AM on December 17, 2011

I like the cheeky one with Tintin and Snowy.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 6:23 AM on December 17, 2011 [2 favorites]

Will people fucking just STOP distracting Atwood with cutesy little projects until after she's finished her MaddAddam trilogy? Thankyouverymuch.
posted by hermitosis at 6:32 AM on December 17, 2011 [4 favorites]

This could have been such a better project if they'd invited more people who actually knew how to execute their ideas visually. Some of them are great but there are too many blah ones.

For its next project, the Guardian will invite banknote designers to write novels about the coming apocalypse.
posted by oulipian at 7:05 AM on December 17, 2011 [5 favorites]

Atwood put her own face on the notes? Along with the tagline "Atwood is on the money"?

Heh.
posted by delmoi at 7:14 AM on December 17, 2011 [2 favorites]

When I was in grade seven we were given an arts assignment where we had to design a three dollar bill, and the class clown (who was also a talented artist) came up with a drawing of Brian Mulroney (the Prime Minister at the time) being shot by firing squad below the words "IN NO-ONE WE TRUST." That kid ruled.
posted by The Card Cheat at 7:59 AM on December 17, 2011 [3 favorites]

So I never heard of Paul Mason and thought it was some physics thing w/the Higgs reference, and uh... Google images shows that there is apparently another Paul Mason.
posted by symbioid at 8:43 AM on December 17, 2011

I like the Franzen one. Unfortunately, it's not because it makes me think of the real value of 10 dollars when the environmental cost is factored in.

It's because it reminds me of Portlandia.
posted by You Can't Tip a Buick at 12:59 PM on December 17, 2011

I favor bank notes that promise and actually deliver one dollar on demand. I didn't see any of those.

For reference, a dollar is traditionally 371.25 grains (24.056 g) of silver, or 23.22 grains (1.505 g) of gold. Usually those values are part of a 90/10 mix with Copper, resulting in slightly heavier coins.
posted by MikeWarot at 2:09 PM on December 17, 2011

Is it true that England stopped using money after the Romans left? Seems highly unlikely. They may have stopped making coins, and weren't getting any new ones from Rome, but they must have used something besides direct item-to-item barter.
posted by kestralwing at 5:38 PM on December 17, 2011

but they must have used something besides direct item-to-item barter

Virtual Roman coins? As in written down in a ledger somewhere? According to David Graeber in Debt: the Last 5000 years, the ancient Greeks used virtual cows for money (because cows had universal value, since you needed them for sacrifices).
posted by subdee at 3:58 AM on December 18, 2011