>>MESSAGE
BILLS<<
>>DOLLARS BY OTHERS<<
Overprinted
Bills can be marked (drawn on, stamped, overprinted, typed on, painted, etc.)
by anyone.
Marked currency is considered by numismatists and collectors to
be Overprinted.
Tracks,
Cause & Message Overprintings
A broad spectrum of people are engaged in writing on or marking money.
Individuals will stamp or write their initials; sometimes
small stamps refer to
political and religious affiliations, identify change-houses and promote
merchants. At times, the marking of money becomes a private ritual, engaging
the human need
to express
something
while
withholding identification of authors
and
releasing them from social and moral constraints.
The ‘adjusted’ bill conflates
ideology, passion and determination (of the political kind)
hoping to fuel
the imaginations of the receivers,
depositing advocacy, beauty, anger, fear, aspiration, feelings...
Bills are marked on both sides. The portrait's face is often grafittied with
beards, glasses, wild eyes, etc, recasting the stern official figure
into
a
clownish/carnaval
popular character,
both defying
and inverting his authority.
Folders and Tricksters: Origami Escapes
Bills can be folded into myriad shapes: from functional finger rings and minature
photo
frames
to
fancy
cranes,
geometric snakes and geodesic turtles.
Folders claim that they don't damage the
bill.
Also
without tearing or marking bills, aspiring magicians worldwide learn various
money
disappearing
and
appearing
tricks.
(that's one of my eyelashes for scale)
Dollar
Chain Letters: Bring Money Into My Hands
Chain letter bills attemp to prod their receivers into action. The mythical
promise of a symbolic exhortation promising 'windfall' cash becomes more poigniant
when inscribed on the note itself. Ethnic and cultural varations evolve like
the
St. Lazarus
chain, more related to Santeria than to the Catholic deity that is an avatar
for Babalu Aye.
Whether
dollar chain letters ever produce money, I’d like to know.
Dollars in Advertisement
The image of the dollar has become a universal symbol for prosperity and wealth.
At
the same time, in some countries, the dollar carries connotations
of invasion, imperialism
and political intrusion.
Numerous businesses and organizations
use images of
dollars in their printed matter to announce their trade, promote events and
connect their ventures to fortune.
My
Experiences with Marked Currency
I began to find bills with markings on them in the 1970’s. I was pursuing
the graffiti movement at the time and I sought both tags and venues. Finding
other art channels, I expanded my interest from painted initials on walls and
vehicles, to spray stencils on streets of urban centers, to bathroom notes
and drawings. Eventually actual money became a central part of a larger search
for esthetic expression (initially labeled “popular”; later “outsider”).
For various years I had treasured a note from 1969 with a large Peace
Sign stamped on it. Never understanding why, that image of the floating
peace
sign over Washington's portrait provided deep satisfaction. I misplaced
this bill in the precipitous
moves and re-locations I would begin after graduating from High School.
I had to re-create this lost bill for me and for you.
I was so attached
to this dollar because it contained a territory of
hope for world peace
and universal
freedom of expression.
Gender & GLBT
Money
As part of the community furor around the vote in Miami-Dade County at the
height of Anita Bryant’s anti-homosexual campaigns, circulating
currency became a territory for political expression. $1 and $5 Gay
Money dollars were ubiquitous
in South Florida; occasionally the $50 and $100 bills would also be
marked adding punch and credibility to the gay communities. One of
the strategies
of gay defense was to make visible its economic power. On a popular
level, stamping actual money to make the GLBT community’s economic
import visible, out-of-the-closet and closeted alike
began to print, write on
and circulate these propaganda
bills.
Miami
Reference: Lorenzo,
Battle of the Airlines
The embattled Eastern Airlines Chairman James Lorenzo, turned into a media
celebrity, became a subject and symbol of controversy reflected
in circulating money. I imagine disgruntled
stewardesses
and ticket agents stamping away in airplane galleys and in back offices
at the airport the LORENZO dollar. I secretly admired those people
who found pleasure
and empowerment in grabbing a stamp and sending
out a potent message into the world.
At that point I began to appreciate the esthetics of organized advocacy
of letter writing campaigns,
of unions, and I linked these types of expressions to
the changing meanings of currency.
I
grew hemp but didn't inhale
Illegal drugs are inextricably linked to one of the largest money pipe
lines around the planet.
Trading
Mo'
for
drugs are ubiquitous transactions in nearly all urban centers in Europe
and
the
USA. In
fact,
according to a source,
a large amount of circulating dollar bills are carrying cocaine crystals in their
porous fibers.
Cries for
help and attention have been written on bills openly.
PREZ,
PRINCE & QUEEN
The travails of Presidents and other heads of state, including those of Bill
Jefferson
Clinton
have
been
satirized broadly by artists.
In other countries, popular traditions also involve
playing with money, especially highlighting controversial and compromising scandals
while challenging
notions
of
blue
blood, class, priviledge
and
entitlement.
Bank of Hell
The Bank of Hell is probably the largest in the planet. Chinese funerals
require lots of money to appease the ancestors and fund their journies
in other realms.
Disney
Money and Play Currency
Children often play games related to and with money from an early age. Foldings
of bills yield new readings as TITS OF AMERICA or AIM AT IT (backwards). Parents
are eager to train their young in money's value, use and accounting. Beginning
with play-buying and escalating to allowance calculations, children also learn
to
connect money
to life through games like Monopoly.
TRACK YOUR BILLS
the top sociopolitical meta-geography post-cartography project to date !!:
www.wheresgeorge.com
