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22 Responses to Curious Lucre: Eh?
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Sts. Cyril and Methodius were the missionaries who converted the Slavs to Christianity. The Cyrillic alphabet was also thier invention, hence the whole church/alphabet thing on the money.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saints_Cyril_and_Methodius
Every time I see the word “Slovenia”, I can’t help but think of Andy Capp’s Upper Slobovia, buried waist-deep in snow.
Oops. It was Al Capp, and LowerSlobbovia! Well, they say, after the elbows the mind is the first thing to go.
RebeccaH, you mean Al Capp, and Lower Slobbovia.
No need to thank me.
GoogleFruit :
1) The overprint “VZOREC” just means “Specimen”.
2) Slovenia is now on the Euro.
Joe Bftsplk
The two guys on the fifty? That was an unsuccessful tie-in to the 1950s Japanese shock film The Manster (yes, it’s a real movie; look it up).
Naw, I was just kidding. Those guys don’t look a thing like The Manster.
They’re actually the Smith Brothers. Glued together.
KOMEDY!
Trade and Mark?
A rather depressing batch of bills, I must say. The last one is from Slovakia, though, not Slovenia.
“I’m guessing it’s not a one-for-one-swap with the dollar.”
Don’t be too sure.
Andy Capp is too busy beating uyp his wife to draw comic strips.
Vzorec seems to mean “sample”
You’ve just committed the original geographical sin, James! The last two bills are from Slovakia, a country that, in an effort to confuse everyone even more than they’re already confused, calls itself “Slovensko”. It gets weirder: “Slovensko” also also happens to mean “Slovenian” in, well, Slovenian (or “Slovene” as some people insist on calling the language). I have a feeling even Lance Lawson would give up on this one.
Back to the money: Yes, the first bills are in fact Slovenian. They were actually temporary bills introduced just after Slovenia’s independence, a few months before the country got its official money. In fact, they were formally called “vouchers” rather than “bills” to emphasize their temporary status.
These tolars (same etymological root as “dollars”, by the way) may be ugly and flimsy, but I still remember the immense joy I felt on that rainy day in late 1991 when I finally got my hands on the first-ever currency of an independent Slovenia. No more Yugoslav Commie bills for us — even if the design wasn’t much of an improvement.
I wasn’t long before Slovenia got some real, better-looking tolars. Of course, they’re also history now; Slovenia officially adopted the euro in 2007, the first post-communist EU member to do so.
And, yes, “vzorec” does mean “sample”.
Does four notes represent a heap? Oh well still one of my fave sections. Slovenia after democracy seemed to do the best economically, and the msot stable.
Slovenia was the nice part of Yugoslavia.
Those strange runes on the back of the 50 turn out to be the “glagolitic alphabet”.
Quote:
The Glagolitic alphabet was invented during the 9th century by the missionaries St Cyril (827-869 AD) and St Methodius (826-885 AD) in order to translate the Bible and other religious works into the language of the Great Moravia region.
More at http://www.omniglot.com/writing/glagolitic.htm
In reference to my comment above: I meant that the bills themselves were depressing rather than the commentary, which was enjoyable as always. Though I guess you can’t blame them. When you’re completely overhauling a government banknote design isn’t too high on your to-do list.
I have a Darth Vader PEZ dispenser made in Slovenia. Must be among their major exports.
And I spent my honeymoon up the street from the Slovenian embassy in Washington DC.
You’ve just committed the original geographical sin, James! The last two bills are from Slovakia, a country that, in an effort to confuse everyone even more than they’re already confused, calls itself “Slovensko”. It gets stranger: “Slovensko” also also happens to mean “Slovenian” in, well, Slovenian (or “Slovene” as some people insist on calling the language). I have a feeling even Lance Lawson would give up on this one.
Back to the money: Yes, the first bills are in fact Slovenian. They were actually temporary bills introduced just after Slovenia’s independence, a few months before the country got its official money.
These tolars (same etymological root as “dollars”, by the way) may be ugly and flimsy, but I still remember the immense joy I felt on that rainy day in late 1991 when I finally got my hands on the first-ever currency of an independent Slovenia. No more Yugoslav Communist bills for us — even if the design wasn’t much of an improvement.
I wasn’t long before Slovenia got some real, better-looking tolars. Of course, they’re also history now; Slovenia officially adopted the euro in 2007, the first post-communist EU member to do so.
And, yes, “vzorec” does mean “sample”.
Once again a foreign currency plagued by a distinct shortage of yaks and tractors. Feh!
It’s a so-called Slovene payment note, which acted as a bridge between the Yugoslav dinar and the new Slovene tolar, of which your “curious lucre” is the first run version. The “1″ note was issued on October 8, 1991 and went out of circulation on June 30, 1993. The 1000 payment note on the next page was also issued October 8, 1991 but removed from circulation on November 6, 1992, as the new tolar was pegged against the impending euro, which supplanted the tolar outright on January 1, 2007.
These notes can still be exchanged for euros at the Bank of Slovenia.
Thanks to RebeccaH, I just realized that Al Capp’s Lower Slobbovia was the inspiration for Scott Adams’ Elbonia. Doh!
The Engraveyard index is running behind the times…
BTW, i was looking at the Peruvian money…. and seems like the Ricardo Palma wikipedia entry has been modified to include the book he wrote about Monty Python. No one expected that.