MONEY DON'T GET EVERYTHING IT'S TRUE: What it don't get, I can't use

 |   |  2 min read

MONEY DON'T GET EVERYTHING IT'S TRUE: What it don't get, I can't use

In a Mumbai bar a guy from Amsterdam tells me (from New Zealand), about an American television programme. Despite the cultural collisions of that, he's got a good story. Apparently the host – Jimmy Kimmel or maybe Conan O'Brien, he couldn't remember – went into the street and asked passers-by whose face was on the dollar bill. Rather than admit they didn't know – it's George Washington – people would just throw out any name.

We laughed and I said there'd be no such problem in my country. It would be an unusual person or a recent migrant who didn't know Sir Edmund Hillary is on our lowest piece of folding, the $5 note.

Indian rupee notes have Mahatma Gandhi on them, the unifying figure in what the poet Rabindranath Tagore called “the idea of India”, a nation where pluralism comes in multiples. How plural is India? Notes have their denomination written in 17 different languages, “each encoding a distinct, sophisticated, ancient and proud literary culture,” says writer Ramachandra Guha.

“Since rupee notes are an artefact of everyday life we do not see or sense their significance,” he adds.

And it's true, this thing we value is often something we barely pay attention to. As with most people I suspect, when traveling I glance quickly at the paper money and register the amount rather than the artwork or symbolism embodied in it.

Our $5 and the Indian rupees have parallels: both illustrate humble heroes, and neither were politicians. Would you like to live where the Great Leader, some medal-bedecked general or a hero of the revolution was on the currency?

When I went to China in the late 80s a companion warned me of “the five brave tractor drivers”, his code for a note with an enormously high number on it but of little worth. I returned with lots of Chinese folding.

The Cook Islands boasts a rare denomination, a $3 note which tourists invariable carry home as souvenirs. It's a good earner I guess, they print money that tourists buy but don't spend. The note we brought home ended up on the fridge for a while. They should also have $7 and $21 notes, the logical and amusingly collectable multiples.

Vietnam's currency is the dong, which means it's hard to take seriously – especially when you throw 1.7 million of them across a bedspread and know back home that still wouldn't buy dinner for two in a mid-range restaurant.

I like big currency like that: the wonderful old Italian lira which was worth its weight in dong; Argentinean pesos (divide by four and you're close to their New Zealand value); the Moroccan dirham (divide by seven); the Mexican peso (divide by 10); Indonesian rupiah (an impressive 800,000 to our $100) . . .

This is real money, you feel like Tony Soprano carrying so much of it. Even if you get rid of a large chunk when you buy a rice dish and coffee.

Next time you get a $100 bill, look carefully. It has someone on it who's not a politician.

That's comforting . . . and says as much about who we are as those 17 languages on Indian notes.

Share It

Your Comments

post a comment

More from this section   Something Elsewhere articles index

FIVE FOR FEWER THAN FIFTY: Picking up homeless albums from the rescue shelter

FIVE FOR FEWER THAN FIFTY: Picking up homeless albums from the rescue shelter

There are websites and online pages dedicated to the serious art of collecting vinyl records from secondhand shops, junk bins and so on. Most people are looking for rarities and items of value,... > Read more

WIRED FOR SOUND: Electronic music for the mind and body

WIRED FOR SOUND: Electronic music for the mind and body

When composer Douglas Lilburn left New Zealand at the dawn of the Sixties, it was because he felt he had been isolated from developments in contemporary music, and he was curious about electronic... > Read more

Elsewhere at Elsewhere

The Martin Drew Band w. Brian Smith: Child is Born (1977)

The Martin Drew Band w. Brian Smith: Child is Born (1977)

For many decades Martin Drew - who died in 2010 -- was the go-to drummer in Britain. A partial list, which he drew up himself, of the people he'd played with included Lee Konitz, Woody Herman,... > Read more

LOCUS AND LOCATION: THE SOCIO-GEOGRAPHY AND POST-COLONIAL DISCOURSE IN DON McGLASHAN'S DOMINION ROAD

LOCUS AND LOCATION: THE SOCIO-GEOGRAPHY AND POST-COLONIAL DISCOURSE IN DON McGLASHAN'S DOMINION ROAD

Don McGlashan is one of New Zealand's most respected and successful songwriters. He been awarded the Apra Silver Scroll for songwriting 47 times and has been given honorary doctorates from many New... > Read more