The Changing Color of Money: European Currency Iconography and Collective Identity

Abstract

This article investigates currency iconography as an indicator of the content of collective identities in Europe. Using an original database of the human figures on European paper money since the 19th century, the article finds a combination of iconographic similarity across space and iconographic difference across time. This finding suggests that rather than using the currency to indoctrinate the public with a set of specifically national values, European state elites have traditionally tried to use the currency to enhance their public legitimacy by embracing the values currently fashionable in pan-European society. The article then draws out the implications of this argument for understanding the iconography of the euro and the prospects for a European 'demos'.

Trust in the Euro: Exploring the Governance of a Supra-National Currency

“…Banknotes and coins have often featured imagery designed to affirm feelings of trust. Even the shift that Jacques Hymans (2004) observes in the evolution of banknote imagery from depictions of political figures and historical heroes over that of artists and scientists toward postmodern designs fits this mimetic assumption. The historical evolution of banknote designs expresses the need to reaffirm trust in a manner that reflects pervasive cultural forces of the time.…”

The Representation of Science and Scientists on Stamps

“…As an extension to Scott's (1995) supposition that in the early part of the twentieth century European countries sought to establish national icons through their representation on stamps, Hymans (2004) explored the idea of the creation of national icons in the case of celebrities celebrated on European paper money, finding iconographic similarity across space and iconographic differences across time. Hymans did not look solely at scientists, but his conclusions have a lot in common with this study.…”

Spectacle and Space in the Creation of Premodern and Modern Polities: Toward a Mixed Ontology of Collective Identity1

“…In particular, several scholars have suggested potential points of identity construction stemming from practice and materiality. In an insightful article, Hymans (2004) argues the Euro has reflected the attempts by European elites to construct an identity truly transnational in breadth, one inoffensive to any particular nationality. Forgoing replication of national heroes on the currency, states have opted for the generic styles of columns and bridges or for natural symbols from the material milieu of society, such as flowers in Holland.…”