The Art of Money: The History and Design of Paper Currency from Around the World

I own a copy of this book and I must say that it makes for a good coffee table book. If you appriciate paper money for the different kinds of artwork, then this book is worth having in your library.

Probably not the venue to launch into a tirade against the stultified, diploma/stock certificate-like house design style of the American treasury. But when you see the variety, color, flare and adventuresome spirit of other countries' currency designs, it is enough to make you positively ill. This is an old complaint, of course. This books visuals make a totally convincing case for the plaintiffs, however. There WAS one brief shining moment when American money designers put something better, a real world-class moolah design, in our wallets. --See the gorgeous 3 bill "Educational" series of the 1890's or the Buffalo dollar from the first decade of the 20th Century (with, yes, a full body engraving of a buffalo in the usual bureaucrat spot on front, and two bonus spots on the left and right bearing likenesses of Lewis and Clark). After this frolicking fist full of dollars, American currency design "went corporate"; there hasn't been a really fun or cool bill in almost a century now. The US post office has dolled up their issues to the point people accuse them of tackiness or pandering to populist taste. This is how we can see that stamps are alive as a design vehicle. When everything is august and handsome and tasteful, it is precisely as dead as...well, as American money design.

Money money money. We all want it. We all need it. We all have it. But how much do we know about the heart and soul of this powerful paper? In The Art of Money, David Standish expands our world by exposing money's role in politics, industry, commerce, nature, art, and sex - yes, even sexy money - "...an appreciation and celebration of the human form, an admission that we are flesh, after all..." This beautiful book is a masterpiece of what it means to truly work outside the box. Of all the people I know, I am the least interested in (or good at) understanding the mechanics of money. All I know about money is that when I have some of it in my pocket, I can eat. When I don't have any, I go hungry. I never looked at its colors, pictures, history, and certainly never considered it art. Art? Human nature? Intrigue? Those were the things I was interested in....and The Art of Money contains all these subjects and more. Much more. The Art of Money captured my interest from the very first page with an amazing reproduction in full color of a 50-Gulden bill, displaying a detailed sunflower and bee: "In indirect but bright homage to van Gogh, the image says, simply being placed on the bill, that they value art and beauty in the Netherlands." This was especially relevant to me because of my Dutch ancestry and my fondness for the Dutch impressionists. But my main interest is animals - what could possibly be written about animals and money? Standish includes an international zoo with four exotic sections on nature, includingwild birds and an African safari. No nature lover will be disappointed in these pages. Standish takes off full speed from there, guiding us around the world as only a knowledgeable and friendly tour guide could. The exquisite color pictures and stories behind the pictures are as captivating as their countries of origin. The graphics alone make this book worth its weight in gold. But the bonus is in the words which transported me effortlessly into an exciting realm of which I had been totally unaware. My 20 dollars spent on this book bought me a larger, brighter, more interesting world. A bargain any way you look at it.Cathie Katz, Melbourne Beach, Florida

"The Art of Money" is a great book, very informative and beautifully designed. I give it 5 stars even if some critics criticise it, but I think as an introductory publication to the world of paper money it's a great book. The book has two sections: International and United States. There are lots of beautiful illustrations of banknotes world-wide and in categories such as banknotes with trains, ships, heroes, wild animals or even nudes (nude women) on them. It's a great book to start your knowledge in a world of money and I strongly recommend it to a reader. Imagine if you had to buy all these banknotes and payper money yourself to enjoy them you would spend thousands of dollars and now you can have the book for less than twenty bucks......

Bright-colored graphics and imaginative layouts enhance the pronounced visual appeal of this informative book. The text, irreverent but incisive, provides a commentary on the art of paper money from its invention by the Chinese around 810 AD up to the Euro of the 21st century. Author David Standish divides his colorful material into sections according to the content of their illustrations, e.g., "National Heroes," "Queen Liz," or "African Safari," and his entertaining remarks upon them range from the fields of biography and history and sociology to aesthetics and entertaining trivia. Standish's tone conveys that of a slightly scruffy college instructor addressing a roomful of grad students--which is what he does in real life. Granted that I may be slightly biased by an almost lifelong friendship with David, but I would give his book an A.