Million Dollar Bill

Found Item. One Million Dollar Bill. Handed to me by some anonymous stranger on Fountain Square. The message in small print is that money does not buy happiness, God does.

..son tried to spend it at several stores:

OTR Dollars Next?

I want to throw an idea out there. I have been hearing about various communities that print their own money. I have heard that Jane Jacobs recommended that each city have its own currency. And some economists argue that currency should always be produced in the private sector since the private sector cannot produce currency which can be artificially inflated.

This USA Today story is just one of several articles I have seen lately:

...A small but growing number of cash-strapped communities are printing their own money. Borrowing from a Depression-era idea, they are aiming to help consumers make ends meet and support struggling local businesses.

The systems generally work like this: Businesses and individuals form a network to print currency. Shoppers buy it at a discount — say, 95 cents for $1 value — and spend the full value at stores that accept the currency.

... they encourage people to buy locally. Merchants, hurting because customers have cut back on spending, benefit as consumers spend the local cash.

...Under the BerkShares system, a buyer goes to one of 12 banks and pays $95 for $100 worth of BerkShares, which can be spent in 370 local businesses. Since its start in 2006, the system, the largest of its kind in the country, has circulated $2.3 million worth of BerkShares. In Detroit, three business owners are printing $4,500 worth of Detroit Cheers, which they are handing out to customers to spend in one of 12 shops.

During the Depression, local governments, businesses and individuals issued currency, known as scrip, to keep commerce flowing when bank closings led to a cash shortage.

There is also a book about this and related subjects called Going Local: Creating Self-Reliant Communities in a Global Age. I think something like this could work in maybe the OTR or Downtown Cincinnati community.

Austrian 20 Schilling

Portrait of Moritz Daffinger, artist: 

Little Prince 50 Franc Note

Antione de Saint-Exupery, 1900-1944. Beautiful: 

Food Stamp

I recently scanned a bunch of old money from various countries. Some are quite beautiful. I thought I would start this series with an out of print American staple: 

The engraving showing the signing of the Declaration of Independence is low quality.

Previous post in this category was the 500-million dollar bill from Zimbabwe.

Inflationary Money of Zimbabwe

A cousin of ours brought this $500,000,000 bill back from Africa for the kids:

 

Back of Bill:

 

Note that it has both an issuance date, and an expiration date. It also has watermarks that are not visible in this scan. I think this bill is worth less than one US dollar currently.

One a tangential note, the GAO just reported that the Bush administration is leaving the US $53 Trillion in debt (32 trillion more than 2000). The result of expensive wars while continuing to lower taxes.

The debt is about $455,000 per American household. The next generation will be paying dearly for our profligacy.