Alternative bank notes

Writers and artists design money fit for modern times - in pictures

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

guardian.co.uk, Saturday 17 December 2011 00.43 GMT

Jonathan Franzen ‘Adorned with edangered or extinct species in denominations such as $6.66, the real value of $10 with environmental costs factored in.’ Photograph: Joseph Sohm/Jonathan Franzen

Margaret Atwood. Banknote Design for Sat Review. Photograph: Margaret Atwood

Naomi Klein and Kyo Maclear (this wording is actually on the note but might not be readable What you hold in your hands is a Hole Earth Note. It is a memorial note but also a cautionary note. It recalls our time “in the hole,” where our old currency landed so many of us, while acknowledging the debts we continue to run up with nature and each other as we consume. It is also a play on holiness, since money used to be our religion, until we evolved The hole at the centre, which at its most literal represents everything money cannot buy or repay, might also be seen as an open window for the non-material and uncountable to re-enter our lives. Generosity. An attitude of abundance. The rich inner life. Deep community. The ability to be content. It stands as an invitation to redefine worldly success. Photograph: Naomi Klein

Tracey Emin Banknote designed for Sat Review. Photo Tracey Emin.

Alisdair Gray Banknote design for Sat Review. Photo Alisdair Gray.

the cover/ Will Self (drawn by Martin Rowson) The cover picture shows the Douglas, a currency conceived by Will Self and drawn by Martin Rowson. The note confers upon the bearer ‘the right to a ritual of some unspecified kind’, and bears a picture of the social anthropologist Mary Douglas, a quote from her book, Purity and Danger, and an assortment of indigenous peoples’ fiscal clutter, such as cowrie shells and spirit boards. Photograph: Will Self and Martin Rowson

John Gray ‘A £50 note showing five noble beasts facing extinction in the wild, to remind users of the loss of natural wealth that no amount of money can replace.’ Photograph: John Gray

Anne Enright ‘I thought the new money in Ireland might look a bit like this: which is to say like the old punt, but with Yeats’s line “We had fed the heart on fantasies” written up the lefthand side.’ Photograph: Anne Enright

Jeanette Winterson. Banknote Design for Sat Review. Photograph: Jeanette Winterson

Paul Mason Banknote design for Sat Review. Photo Paul Mason.

Peter Carey Banknote design for Sat Review. Photo Peter Carey.

Posy Simmonds design for Sat Review. Photo Posy Simmonds.

Robert Harris Banknote design for Sat Review. Photo Robert Harris.

Sebastian Faulks (writing is one the note) I promise to pay no more than one per cent tax on a one-year profit of ten billion pounds. I promise to use all possible double-dip tax avoidance loopholes in all possible jurisdictions. I promise to pay a salary of up to £60 million pounds a year to Mr Roger Jenkins or similar fixer to help me and my bank avoid paying tax Yours most sincerely Bob Diamond, Chief Executive, Barclays Bank. Photograph: Sebastian Faulks

William Boyd ‘It is designed for our new neo-Swiss, isolated, non-EU life. Deliberately ersatz, already grubby, the £ has been replaced by the more universal X.’ Photograph: William Boyd

Octopii London Banknote design by Audrey Niffenegger. Photograph: Audrey Niffenegger

John Lanchester (the Celtic coin) Money is, by general consent, one of humanity’s most remarkable inventions. Because it makes all goods interchangable – you can swap any one thing for any other thing, via an exchange of money – it makes all human goods soluble and fungible and interchangable. That’s what is wonderful about money, and what is terrible too. This makes it all the more amazing that, as James Buchan points out in his book Frozen Desire, Britain is the only country in the world that had money for a long period, under the Romans – and then stopped using it, for many centuries. It’s as if we said, ‘Money? Well, it’s alright, but it’s not really worth the faff, is it?’ When we did go back to using it, it was in the form of the Anglo-Saxon coins which are still, to me, the most physically appealing money this country has ever had. Photograph: Ian Nicholson/PA Archive/Press Association

OWS This ‘No Dollars’ note designed by Stephen Barnwell won the Occupy Movement’s protest currency competition. Photograph: Stephen Barnwell

...and not, of course, forgetting...


200 dollar bills- Andy Warhol.