MONEY: Pictures and Stories of Currency from Around the World

Money: Pictures and Stories of Currency from Around the World is a collection of full-color reproductions of 90 banknotes issued by 45 sovereign nations and two multi-national monetary agencies, accompanied by explanatory texts and an eleven-page introduction.This is a book about money, paper money, whose origins lie in medieval China but has become a universal object in every country.The currency in his collection depicts heroes and heroines,one queen, two kings, two grand dukes and at least two of the world’s most notorious dictators. There are scientists, scholars, poets and nine presidents, two of whom served in more than one country! One presidential candidate was assassinated during his campaign and honored on a banknote.Portraits of British monarch Elizabeth II appear on seven of the items in this collection. In all, 31 portraits of her have been utilized on currency, starting in 1935, before she assumed the throne.The illustration on the cover is of the Zimbabwe one-hundred-trillion-dollar note, issued in 2008, the culmination of hyperinflation in that country. But it’s not the largest-denomination banknote ever conceived. That dubious honor belongs to Hungary: in 1946, during the worst hyperinflation ever recorded, the country printed a banknote in the amount of one sextillion pengős: that’s a one followed by 21 zeroes.This book will appeal to anyone who is interested in money—which is everybody—and will offer fascinating lessons in the history, culture and economics of many countries around the world.Large print for easy reading. Read more