Iconography of the Economy on the Banknotes of Central and South America

Banknotes are more than just currency. As a medium of mass communication, banknotes have always conveyed a message through their iconography. When a state issues its own paper money and imprints it with its national emblems, this is invariably a sign of its sovereignty - and not only in matters of economic policy. Especially for the fledgling nations of Latin America at the beginning of the 19th century, the issuance of their own money played a crucial role in shaping their self-image.

As the design of paper money became more complex, the desire to include a greater variety of symbols of national identity in the visual scheme of the banknotes also began to emerge in Central and South America. In Latin America, it was often scenes from economic life that adorned the paper money and acted as a "business card" of their issuing country. It was not without pride that prosperous economic sectors - above all sectors of the ever-dominant export economy - were depicted on the banknotes. These motifs not only served to propagate the individual prosperous economies of these countries, but also to demonstrate their arrival in the club of the modern and developed nations of Western Europe and North America. The fact that aspiration and reality were not always aligned seamlessly in the individual nations is made clear by the introductory exhibition chapters on Latin America's economic history.

The exhibition features banknotes of Central and South America from the mid-19th century to the end of the Second World War. The selection of objects intentionally centres on the major lines of development and economic sectors in Latin America and illustrates the richness of images on the banknotes of those years.

About the exhibition

Bibliography

Versión en español:

Iconografía de la economía en los billetes de Centroamérica y Sudamérica

Versão em português:

Iconografia da economia nas notas bancárias da América Central e do Sul