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The World's Coolest Currency

UGO presents a list of The World's Coolest Currency.


Even though the United States leads the rest of the world in many areas (rap music, snack foods, et cetera), there is one thing that we´ve fallen shamefully behind on: the aesthetic appeal of our money. For most of the last century, our paper money was a set of nearly identical drab green slips, with dismal portraiture of some of our best Presidents and other historical figures, introduced in 1923. From the father of our country George Washington on the humble dollar to semi-obscure Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase on the ten large, these bills were the best we could do until 2004. A new series was introduced that year, with a number of innovations - bigger portraits, new watermarks, and most importantly, splashes of color. But other countries had been doing all that and more for many years. In this feature, we take a whirlwind tour around the globe to look at the money of many nations, giving props to the Earth´s Coolest Currency.

by K. Thor Jensen

South Africa
South Africa

South Africa

South Africa

Most countries use their money to provide portraiture of their country´s great political leaders. Unfortunately, the extremely turbulent history of South Africa would make doing that a pretty terrible idea, as many of the country´s leaders were responsible for the inhuman practice of apartheid that kept the indigenous African population cruelly oppressed for decades. Once the corrupt system fell, the nation´s currency had to be quickly redesigned to clear out the face of the Dutch colonial administrator Jan van Riebeeck from the bills. The designers of the South African Rand managed to skirt the issue pretty cleverly, instead decorating their paper money with awesome images of the continent´s indigenous wildlife, including lions, white rhinoceroses and zebras. Couple that with the awesome symbols of science and progress on the back and you have an awesome banknote.

See More: cool | design | South Africa