Pass it along, if you wish
30 Responses to Curious Lucre: Fun with Inflation
Host with the Most
So why did communist countries have the evil filthy lucre?
that many zeroes? has to be Grover Cleveland on the rarely-printed $10,000.
I have seen a couple of (ancient, not in issue) $100,000 bills, and iirc they have the statue of liberty, or some other Symbol on them. no pictures.
the only reason the obscure Grover Cleveland is on a big bill is… that was his price.
Yikes–as soon as the inflation hit, the artistic quality took an equally-serious dive. The bust on the 50,000,000 dinar note looks like it was drawn for a cheap paperback book, with heavy lines that bleed through. Did all of the good engravers flee to America?
Sorry, but that isn’t “Milan Obrenovich, King Serbia from 1868 to 1889″ on the 50 Gazillion Ulanbaturs note, as you can tell from the dates on left of the note — “1783 – 1860″. So, it must be “Milos Obrenovic (1783-1860, prince from 1815 to 1839 and again from 1858 to 1860)”. I’m suprised somebody with James’ international elan and sophisticaiton would mistake Milos for his grandson. I think he’s the grandson. It is hard to tell with all the changes going on over there.
P.S. Interesting note — the “Last King of Yugoslavia” (good movie title, don’t you think?) is buried “at the St. Sava Monastery Church at Libertyville, Illinois, the only European monarch buried on American soil.” — Yugo Wiki
P.P.S. The 50 Billion Dinara bill, in addition to being worth about $1.50 on the market, would in 1993 get you one brand spanking new Yugo hatchback! Tires extra!
Oh, my source, along with Wiki, was http://www.serbianunity.net/culture/history/Hist_Serb_Culture/chb_Rados_Ljusic.html
Ah yes. Yugoslavian Hyper-inflation:
http://tinyurl.com/qwsh6b
“The brightly colored bill was worth approximately $6 yesterday morning when used to pay the thousands of retirees who lined up outside post offices across the country to collect their monthly pensions. But by the time most of them had hurried to the markets it was worth only $5. By evening its value had dropped to less than $3.
I think there’s a lesson here.
Wow. The dude on the Fifty Billion note became king eight years after he died? (See dates at upper left.)
Glad you got in some pre-inflation, ’70′s-ish Yugomoney. The evidence is indirect, but two data suggest to me that particular money was spent merrily: (1) in an open-air market in Ljubljana in 2002, I saw, but regrettably declined to purchase, a Yugoslavia road map dated 1972. It was well-produced and made the country look fun to drive in. In what other eastern European country could one plausibly whoop, “Road trip!” (2) an album by the Bosnian supergroup Bijelo Dugme, a collection of their singles from 1976-1980, has as its last track (I think I’m translating correctly) “In the Back Seat of My Car.” What with the two alphabets and the three languages in evidence on these banknotes, it isn’t easy, at least not for me, to be an expert on the place, so I can’t say for sure whether the word “groupie” appears anywhere in that song. I also can’t say, but wouldn’t be surprised to hear, if people, Serbs in particular, look back fondly on those times. Until very recently Serbian websites’ domains ended in “.co.yu” – the Internet had scarcely come into existence when all Yugoslavia, the place and the name, went out of it, so this gesture sure sounds like nostalgia to me.
The constipated-looking man above is Jovan Cvijic, whose
occupation was, of all things, a geographer. I learned
the Cyrillic alphabet years ago so always looking for
those rare occasions when I can use it!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jovan_Cviji%C4%87
Somewhere at home we’ve got some Weimar Republic 100,000 Mark bills. Very pretty, and pretty worthless when they were printed.
The king on the 50 billion-whatever note looks uncannilly like Bob Keeshan (Captain Kangaroo). Perhaps Mister Greenjeans was Minister of Agriculture. And Bunny Rabbit Minister of War…
swschrad, President Wilson is on the $100,000 bill. Those were never released into the wild, only used for Federal Reserve transactions and the like. I’ve seen specimens in numismatic museums, but the largest I’ve personally seen in private collections is the $1000. I have a $500 in my collection.
See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Large_denomination_bills_in_U.S._currency
And Bunny Rabbit Minister of War…
Would that make him a Gunny Rabbit?
Ah, the Tesla statue back in my home town! How cool that would be to get those in the gift shop there (it’s right near the entrance to the “Cave of the Winds” on the US’s side (Goat Island as you state).
Park rangers like to point out that his lap has been polished shiny by many a tourist/child getting up there for a photo.
“I have a $500 in my collection.”
Woohoo everybody — party at Will’s house this weekend!
Yawn.
I am the proud possessor of a 100 quintillion pengo note from 1946 Hungary.
And I love my new 100 trillion dollar Zimbabwe bill.
Compared to those guys, the Yugoslavs are pikers.
Actually Grover Cleveland was on the $1000 bill, Salmon B Chase on the $10,000 bill, Woodrow Wilson on the $100,000 which was not issued to the public, but as only as transactions between banks. Didn’t have any images on it besides Wilson on it, the rest was just the fancy designs and numbers.
Thank you for participating in MikeH’s nerdy info of the week.
I believe that “Salmon” was of the “P” variety, and not the “B” variant.
Can we expect to see Obama portrait on the $1,000,000,000,000 note?
How, oh, how can this be the penultimate Curious Lucre, as James says in today’s Bleat? Do we need to pass the hat for obscure, devalued currency?
I have in my own personal collection a Yugoslavian 500,000,000,000 dinar note from the period of hyperinflation after the fall of the Communist regime. It is the largest number written out ever to appear on a banknote issued by a country (some banknotes had higher denominations- such as Hungary after WWII), but they didn’t have the amount written out.
On the 500 dinera note Tesla looks like he’s reading the newspaper on the toilet.
Maybe a candid sculpture. And it’s kind of a communist thing. All people, even the great Telsa, poop. And here, conveniently, is the note you use to wipe your communal butts with.
I was just striken by a case of empathy. Imagine your money devaluating at hyper-speed. Your work, your value, your ticket to ride the 21st century bus, running through your fingers and becoming nothing.
You know, fifty billion dinars just doesn’t buy what it used to.
The “rustic lass” in he 5 bill looks like Ashley Judd.
on the 5 bill…
Don’t forget the Zimbabwe Dollar. Makes the Yugoslavia money look like it’s worth something. And more pleasing to the naked eye.
Love the translations, especially “courtial”(as in, one would guess, “You are courtially invited to appear at State Security HQ, at 8 of the clock, AM.
Actual crime and next of kin, optional.”
I suspect our $50 billion bill will have Maya Angelou or some slam writer on it. Never, ever, ever, ever put poets on your money. Tractors are better. (Yaks are, of course, pretty nifty.)
Wasn’t Bunny Rabbit always scamming for carrots? I see BR as Secretary of the Treasury; Mr. Moose, with his ping-pong balls (“Death from Above!”), for SecWar.
“People’s Bank of Yugoslavia.” I didn’t know their currency was dinars.
> The king on the 50 billion-whatever note looks uncannilly like Bob Keeshan (Captain Kangaroo). Perhaps Mister Greenjeans was Minister of Agriculture. And Bunny Rabbit Minister of War…
And if anyone ever attacked them, they’d send Mr. Moose to tell a bad joke and dump ping pong balls on them. Needless to say, the tactic wasn’t all that effective.