What Coins And Notes Tell Us About The Politics Of A Country

Gearóid Ó Loingsigh ☭ Numismatics, the collection of coins and notes, is not the type of hobby you would think revolutionaries would be drawn to.

But it has a lot to tell us about how regimes see themselves. I must confess from the outset that I collect coins and notes. Though a small part of my collection is on the basis of the aesthetics of the notes and coins themselves, most of my collection is of figures that I think have contributed positively to humanity, from Hemingway to Marx, Guevara, Amilcar Cabral and figures such as Maria Skłodowska, known more commonly, thanks to French racism as Marie Curie (more about that later).

We generally think of the notes and coins of a country as just curiosities. The ruling class don’t think so. The notes and coins reflect the history of the country and more importantly the view the elite have of that history. So perhaps it would surprise no one to see that France has included such figures as Voltaire, De la Croix (the painter of the famous Lady Liberty painting with one breast exposed), Victor Hugo and others. More importantly, who do they exclude or when do they decide to include figures who were once upon a time Verboten is also telling.

Ireland is a good example of this. The founding of the Irish Free State following the Civil War presented the new state with a problem as to who it should represent on its currency. So, it opted for no one. The newly founded Irish Free State produced very beautiful notes, with Lady Hazel Lavery on them and also bucolic scenes from the countryside. The state was unwilling to deal with its past. It eventually put historic figures on its notes, but was very careful on who it chose and took a long to get round to it.

Irish Note.

One of its first adventures was with Johannes Scotus Eriugena, for the five-pound note. He was, apparently, a very important historical and theological figure. But he was of no relevance to the modern Irish state and its population, a safe choice. They followed that up with a series of notes with the founder of the child abusing Sisters of Mercy and finally some real Irish literary heroes such as Joyce and also W.B. Yeats.

How cowed they were can be seen in that it was not until 1995 that they dared acknowledge the first president of the Irish Free State Douglas Hyde. One exception they made to this was in 1966, when they issued a 10 schilling coin of Patrick Pearse, with the famous Cú Chulainn statue on the reverse side, to mark the 50th anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising. In 1971, they recalled the coin, and smelted 1.250.000 of them. The excuse was the introduction of decimalisation. However, most Irish people can recall using Floríns and old Schillings well into the 1980s. The real reason was the outbreak of The Troubles in the North. The southern government was always ashamed of its past and embarrassed feeling itself to be inferior never dared celebrate it.

Patrick Pearse Circulating Commemorative Coin 1966

Likewise, Lebanon is a country with no agreed upon national heroes and so its notes carry images of buildings, ruins etc. The notes are beautiful but they tell you little about the history of the country, unlike the notes produced by many post-colonial African countries. African revolutionaries adorn the notes of many countries. Amilcar Cabral the famous charismatic leader murdered some months before Cape Verde and Guinea-Bissau were freed from the yoke of Portuguese domination is featured on the notes of both countries along with other leaders. Strange cases crop up as well, Guinea produced a note in honour of the Yugoslav leader, Tito. It also honoured Patrice Lumumba with a circulating note of ten Syli in 1971, just after the short experiment in the DRC itself that hypocritically placed his image on a note.

Other African nations are less problematic on the surface it would seem. Kenya has its first president, Kenyatta, on almost everything, notes and coins. He was no revolutionary, a lot closer perhaps to a figure like John Hume, than Bobby Sands. He was jailed by the British but was not part of the Mau Mau rebellion. Kenyatta is to be found on everything, part of the denial of the Mau Mau and partly as a justification for the current set up in the country.

South Africa, unsurprisingly has now got Mandela on its notes. They are quite nice notes, but no comparison to the beauty of some of the Angolan and Nambian notes which though paying homage to leaders, manage to combine some beautiful elements and designs with the history of the country. Though part of the intricacy of the notes has to do with discouraging forgers. It is clear that in South Africa, how to present Mandela was a key concern and can be seen in the notes. Though due to the ANC’s sectarianism there are no notes of other figures such as Biko, whose Black Consciousness Movement was once considered to be a threat to the ANC.

A similar situation occurs in other countries that went through liberation struggles. Mao is omnipresent on almost all notes. Only on occasion does he share the honour with other leaders such as Zhou Enlai on a 100 Yuan note which has now been replaced with a space station, the cult of the personality is strong in China, as it still is and always was in Vietnam. The first Vietnamese notes had the image of Ho Chi Minh at a time when the Viet Minh had not yet won. The first note with his image appeared in 1948, with the battle of Dien Bien Phu that would turn the tide against France taking place in 1954. North Vietnam was established shortly after. The notes issued prior to 1954 were really a type of revolutionary voucher, as no formal state existed prior to that.

Surprisingly this cult of the personality did not exist in its birthplace Eastern Europe. The Stalinist regimes did, with one exception, have a cult of the personality, but it was reserved for its martyrs and not living leaders. Following his death Lenin, appears on Soviet notes, as do scenes of soldiers and workers. Stalin, the man who did most to promote this cult, did not get much of a look in, himself. Only Czechoslovakia bothered with a coin with his image and the USSR didn’t bother at all. In fact, most Stalinist regimes were decidedly nationalistic in their numismatic iconography. So, Bulgaria, put Dimitriov on all its notes, with bucholic scenes with almost parody like buxom peasant women on the reverse side. He was the person Hitler tried to frame for the Reichstag burning. He studied the German legal system on remand, fought his case and won. After his victory, the Nazis deported him to the USSR where he died in 1948. He is deserving of recognition, of course, but he was everywhere. Likewise figures like Yuri Gagarin turn up on lots of coins, both commemorative and circulating.

Hungary went for historic nationalist figures, and notes whose design is only barely more interesting than that of US notes. The nationalism of the Stalinist regimes can be seen in that surprisingly Marx and Engels only appear on the notes of East Germany. The reverse side of the notes was often more interesting, as it portrayed how the country saw itself, industrial images, advanced agricultural machinery. The Stalinist regimes were not the only ones to do this, many former colonies put infrastructural projects on their notes, as a kind of boast about what they had achieved and where they were going.

Soviet and Post Soviet Polish note of Maria Skowaldska

One of the exceptions to this is Poland. Its notes were always well designed and had a wide and varying span of historical figures on them. Even in Soviet times, Poland had notes with a king on them. Another with a nationalist general, Tadeusz Kościuszko, who following the defeat of the Poles went to America to fight alongside George Washington and is honoured in that country with various streets named after him. They put socialists on their currency, but also musicians like Chopin, scientists like Maria Skowaldska, thanks to French nationalism known more popularly outside of Poland as Marie Curie.

The Poles unlike the French produced notes and coins without the need to include the man who made her coffee, Pierre Curie. This independent and artistic flair continued after the fall of Eastern Bloc, though some of the figures are more reactionary such as the extreme right-wing pontiff, Karol Józef Wojtyła aka John Paul II. But the quality and beauty of its currency continues and by and large the switch over is not as noticeable to outsiders, you have to look closer at some of the past figures for that.

All of the Eastern Bloc countries experienced this, some producing very beautiful notes with explicit religious imagery, such as Armenia with an amazing note, that shows Noah’s Ark on the mountain they believe it landed on. Others stuck with the nationalism of the Soviet era and even produced notes with leading Communists who played a key role in the founding of the state, Ukraine and Uzbekistan being two notable examples.

Post Soviet Armenian note with heavy religious influence.

By far the most diverse region of the world, in my opinion is Latin America. All of the countries include various historical figures from their wars of liberation, Simon Bolívar appearing on the notes all the countries he liberated except Peru. They apparently don’t like the fact that he didn’t give them Bolivia to boot. But they also include an array of cultural figures, with Mexico being to the fore in this regard with notes of classical writers such as Sor Juana de la Cruz, Diego River, Frida Kahlo and they twice produced notes of Zapata. Though the second time they did that was in 1994 unfortunately coinciding with the Zapatista rebellion of the EZLN. They didn’t make that mistake again, though coins continue to be produced with his image.

Zapata Diego Rivera

Nicaragua is a case in point as during the 20th Century we got to see three different or perhaps four in action. Under Somoza the notes depicted a 16th Century indigenous cacique, a habit many countries in the region have of denying that their states came into being through genocide, one which they celebrated with the 50 Córdoba note of the Spanish conquistador F. Hernandez Córodoba but also included important figures such as Larreinaga who negotiated Nicaragua and four other republics independence from Spain.

Also making an appearance was the writer Rubén Dario who survived Somoza and the Sandinistas on its currency. When the Sandinistas took power they quickly produced a whole series of notes of revolutionary figures such as Sandino himself and also figures from the FSLN who had fallen in combat such as its founder Carlos Fonseca and even older revolutionary figures such as Zeledón who had fought against a US invasion of the country in 1912. They also included on the reverse side of their notes images of their literacy campaigns. Needless to say Somoza couldn’t do that, though he did put himself on a note for a time.

Neither could the government of Violeta Chamorro who defeated the Sandinistas in the 1990 elections. After that they reverted to type. When Ortega came to power as the corrupt leader of a degenerated FSLN he did not go back to the 1980s. How could he? He had abandoned the revolution. Instead, Nicaragua produced some boring notes with safe historical figures for a period and now produces pretty folklorical notes, that say nothing, or say everything through what is now absent. Sandino’s house made a comeback, but not Sandino himself. A safe figure murdered by Somoza, the journalist Pedro Chamorro, got a look in as well.

Occasionally, as was the case with Ireland in 1966, countries feel they have no choice but to celebrate a figure from its past. The East German Stalinists did not like Rosa Luxemburg one bit and so she only appeared on one non circulating coin to mark 100 years since her birth. To lessen the celebration of her life, they included another figure that doesn’t crop up much either Karl Liehknecht, who was murdered by the German state during the abortive revolution.

Coins are of course another matter, they are often used to celebrate “lesser” figures on low denominations. So, in India whilst the racist Gandhi who history mischaracterises as the man who led India to independence gets his face on everything. His sparring partner, Ambedkar, a Dalit (untouchable) appears on just two low denomination coins and they took a long time to getting round to doing so. Hindu nationalism has no time for a man who, unlike Gandhi, fought against the caste system, even though he is the prime author of India’s Constitution. Hindu nationalism, which is utterly reactionary, cannot bear the idea of a Dalit looking up at them. Thankfully, they don’t have to look at his visage on high value notes.

Notes and coins are a fascinating look in on the history of a country and how it sees itself now. When you see a right-wing government celebrating a famed trade union leader you know the unions have been neutralised. When revolutionary governments celebrate or stop celebrating its heroes, you know what the state of the revolution is. When antisemitic governments like Poland celebrate on its two Zloty coin the Warsaw Uprising, the stench of hypocrisy is overwhelming, but it also means the antisemites’ victory is partial. I, for my part, will continue to explore the progressive history of humanity through its representations on notes and coins.

⏩ Gearóid Ó Loingsigh is a political and human rights activist in Latin America.