The Art of Money: The History and Design of Paper Currency from around the World

#323
Title: The Art of Money: The History and Design of Paper Currency from around the World
Author: David Standish
Photographers: Tony Armour Photography, Joshua Dunn
Year: 2000
Publisher: Chronicle
144  pages

Despite some reviewers' impressions, there is plenty of text as well as beautiful color plates of world currency. The tone is a little flippant but the content is good. There are many interesting examples of how countries portray themselves through the images and symbols on their bills. Part II, which is an essay on U.S. currency, is interesting but does not seem to be of a piece with the rest of the book. It has the feel of a thesis-turned-chapter.

I found a couple of errors but they are not critical. For example, when describing the botanical imagery on colonial bills, the author comments that "henebit" is now such an "obscure" plant that he can't finds it in the OED or 6 botanical reference works. One wonders why he did not see the entries that I presume were there for "henbit," an extremely common weed and the spelling suggested by Google upon entering "henebit." It still returns over 200 results for "henebit." The OED online also refers "henebit" to "henbit," though to be scrupulously fair, I don't think the author could access this in or before 2000.