Stemming from a lawsuit that has gone on for several years, a recent Court of Appeals ruled that the U.S. government must make bills with distinguishable tactile features to benefit the blind. While the U.S. government disagrees, the judges say: "The government might as well argue that, since handicapped people can crawl on all fours or ask for help from strangers, there's no need to make buildings wheelchair accessible." Not all blind people agree with the decision. [more inside]
posted by jabberjaw on May 20, 2008 - 74 comments

Inflation in Zimbabwe recently reached 160,000%. Get in on the ground floor now by purchasing a $50,000,000 bill (currently selling for 20,000x its value). Dare to become a millionaire!
posted by splatta on Apr 7, 2008 - 93 comments

On Tuesday, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates by 0.5%. Wall Street aggressively demanded the cut to stop the sub-prime mortgage contagion from triggering a credit crisis among large US and foreign investment banks and the collapse of their over-leveraged hedge funds, which ultimately threatened to drag the US economy into recession. The market rallied this week in response to the Fed's move. But there is no free lunch. [more inside]
posted by Pastabagel on Sep 20, 2007 - 99 comments

Australian art student Nicholas Manion has hit upon a clever idea: delicately cut paper currency forming the skyline of major cities. Via.
posted by jonson on Aug 3, 2007 - 10 comments

Online coin generator. Sure, it's in German, but you can figure it out.
posted by mr_crash_davis on Aug 1, 2007 - 29 comments

Banknote art by Justine Smith. Alternating currency: by Marshall Weber, portraits in money by Mark Wagner, a Ganesh out of Rupee notes by CK Wilde (a spectacular previously). Beautiful banknotes at the World Paper Money Image Gallery. Unusual coins. Unique banknotes, like the 100 Million Dinara note from Croatia. U.S. currency and the pictures behind the portraits. Mildenberg's Dream Collection of Greek Coins at the Money Museum.
posted by nickyskye on Jul 11, 2007 - 19 comments

"I'm all outta dollars, you got any Berkshares?" Several Great Barrington, Massachusetts businesses have developed a local currency to promote local business.
posted by Brandon Blatcher on Jun 21, 2007 - 34 comments

Proof that artistic inspiration can come from any walk of life, Anthony White has turned his former life as a stockbroker into inspiration for a series of Stock Code paintings. Also available - paintings depicting different values of British, American, Australian, and Euro currency.[via ArtNews Blog]
posted by grapefruitmoon on May 19, 2007 - 29 comments

Moneygami is origami made from U.S. currency; the subtle genius lies in the way the artist incorporates the prints on the dollar bills into the facial characteristics of the finished figures. More moneygami here. Via.
posted by jonson on May 6, 2007 - 14 comments

An online gallery of Colonial American Currency. You can browse by colony. They also have images of early lottery tickets. Plus brief and informative essays on subjects such as The Value of Money in Colonial America. You can also relive the Copper Panic of 1789-1799.
posted by marxchivist on Nov 7, 2006 - 7 comments

Art Money is an alternative, worldwide currency in the form of original works of art. The Bank of International Art Money is an independent organization directed by artists and free from any form of government financing.
posted by fandango_matt on Oct 15, 2006 - 7 comments

Ever wondered what old amounts of money would be worth today? Or what you could buy with your current salary if you went back 200, 400, or 600 years? Now you can find out with a tool that converts English currency from 1270 onwards into today's prices. Based on Treasury records, it tells you that Mr Darcy's £10,000 a year would now be worth nearly £350,000, or that your house would only have to be worth the equivalent of £500 now to qualify for the vote after 1832.
posted by greycap on Jun 28, 2006 - 22 comments

Currency Collages from CK Wilde of Artichoke Yink Press [via]
posted by peacay on Apr 20, 2006 - 27 comments

It's all about the Hamiltons. The new US $10 bill makes it's debut on March 2nd, 2006. How will it 'stack up' against other nations' works of art?
posted by afx114 on Feb 10, 2006 - 73 comments

A cool idea, and a fun allegory: Bird and butterfly collages made with old bank notes (two pages, horizontal scrolling). Click the images to view larger versions and see the notes that were used (scroll down). More here without the note source info.
posted by taz on May 10, 2005 - 4 comments

Buried Treasure Found In Backyard. (Google cache) "The men were digging holes to plant trees in a friend's back yard when Crebase hit a wooden crate buried less than a foot below the surface. Inside were seven rusted cylindrical cookie tins, including one where 'National Biscuit Company,' and the word 'Ginger,' were legible through the thick rust. They flipped one of the tops, which was fastened with two hooks, and found it 'jammed' with the money."
posted by Joey Michaels on Apr 27, 2005 - 34 comments

Paper currency gallery. From Afghanistan to Zimbabwe.
posted by gwint on Feb 14, 2005 - 9 comments

Euro's rise raises 'catastrophic' fears The euro rose on Thursday, topping $1.35 for the first time ever, amid speculation that the United States would not act to counter the dollar's decline. . "If we remain in a situation without any coordination, we can imagine a catastrophic situation" for the global economy, Finance Minister Hérve Gaymard of France told manufacturers during a factory visit Thursday in Strasbourg
posted by Postroad on Dec 24, 2004 - 60 comments

New Nickels On The Way! My metafilter loving friend Jeff says, "Why bother." I'm excited about it though. I've got lots of change from everywhere. Am I barely qualified to do laundry around the world, or is it pretty neat that foreign money looks fake? Is Jeff right? Is small change a waste of time? Can you judge a state by its quarter?
posted by ewkpates on Mar 4, 2004 - 46 comments

Currency Den.
posted by hama7 on Feb 23, 2004 - 3 comments

Put MLK on the $20 Bill. Conservatives have clamored to put Ronald Reagan on the dime or the $10 bill. One outfit wants to name something after Reagan in each of the US's counties. Why not put one of "the greatest moral leaders of the 20th century" on one of our most commonly used pieces of currency instead? (Better to have King on the $20 than Andrew Jackson, whose unconstitutional Indian Removal policy created the "Trail of Tears.")
posted by Vidiot on Jan 19, 2004 - 59 comments

Behold the answer to the Canadian Change conspiracy.
posted by boost ventilator on Nov 22, 2003 - 23 comments

Some Action for Jackson A peek at the new $20 bill that will be dropped into circulation Oct. 9.
posted by FearTormento on Sep 9, 2003 - 18 comments

Ugly money : burnt bills, Santa singles, good time greenbacks, bodacious bum bucks and then some. On a related but cool note, conceptual currency.
posted by pedantic on Jul 6, 2003 - 7 comments

What if oil was traded in euros? "Even more alarming, and completely unreported in the U.S. media, are significant monetary shifts in the reserve funds of foreign governments away from the dollar with movements towards the euro. It appears that the world community ... seems poised to respond with economic retribution if the U.S. government is regarded as an uncontrollable and dangerous superpower." An analysis of the previous link. Apologies to those I
posted by Birichini on Apr 23, 2003 - 25 comments

The World Currency Gallery at Banknotes.com is excellent for old, new, and obsolete banknotes, and the dmoz.org currency result is enormous. [more]
posted by hama7 on Nov 26, 2002 - 7 comments

Hell Bank Notes are a chinese funeral custom of burning paper money in specialized cemetary ovens for use in the afterlife (Some even feature US Presidents JFK and LBJ). I have heard of instances where entire paper houses or cars are burned in tribute. Find out more about contemporary chinese funeral practices, such as funerary music like Mei Hua Ts'ao (Plum Blossoms) [3 meg mp3] and personal insightful interviews. What unique funeral practices have you witnessed or participated in?
posted by Stan Chin on Sep 7, 2002 - 33 comments

How geeks can do away with cash and be their own banks. We've been around the topic of alternative economics a few times before on MeFi, but this piece from the reliably clever Shift makes it all clear to me. How you can do it, and why. And it actually suggests that programmers are the best people to manage a new money system. There's even a Bay Area monetary guru to hand. Does this make as much sense to anyone else as it does to me?
posted by theplayethic on Feb 6, 2002 - 6 comments

This story about the penny seemed to me to be strangely beautiful, for reasons I can't quite define. Money is so interesting. Maybe I should become a numismastist.
posted by jammer on May 16, 2001 - 12 comments

The Wire has just posted an article about the new Sacagawea dollar coin and the Federal goverment's attempts to promote it through Wal Mart and boxes of Cheerios. These days, it seems, even money wont sell itself anymore.
posted by sixfoot6 on Feb 2, 2000 - 3 comments