Feb- March: Play With Money!

We've played with stamps, which used to be used as a currency in mail exchanges -- let's take the opportunity to play with other forms of currency!

Our challenge: create an artist's currency that can travel by mail! Paper money, IOU's, and money orders are the logical choices ... but we are a creative group and I am excited to see what we come up with ... mini exchange books? Paper coins? Fabric bills?

A currency needs elements with accepted names and values ... and it is more accepted when it has a history that its users can connect to! Please give us (in the form of a letter, a brochure, a mini-zine , a ... ?) some history (real or imaginary) to connect the currency to events in your life or the life of your real or imagined country or local area of circulation!

Here are some web sites to help inspire ...

Mints, national banks, and currency museums ...

http://www.currencymuseum.ca/ Canada (international, too)

http://museum.bok.or.kr/english/main/index.jsp Korea

http://www.monnaiedeparis.fr/ France

http://www.museocasadelamoneda.org/ Spain

http://www.cmm.gob.mx/evolucion.html Mexico

http://www.royalmintmuseum.org.uk/ UK and international

http://www.imes.boj.or.jp/cm/english/ Japan

Artist and local currencies ...

http://www.artistreservenote.com/

http://weburbanist.com/2011/07/20/pop-cultured-currency-art-of-defaced-us-dollars/

http://interactiondesign.sva.edu/students/show/category/designinglocalcurrency

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/brooklyn/northern-brooklyn-artists-encourgage-local-spending-unique-currency-article-1.400664

http://www.madisonhours.org/currency_collectors

http://cascadiahourexchange.com/che_hours.htm

One currency (or part of a currency, with a description of some of the other elements of the currency), one written description of the currency in letter, mini-zine, or brochure form, and one partner (although if you want to make more copies, I am sure some of us would love to do individual swaps for more currencies and descriptions)!

Please let me know if there are any questions/ suggestions. I tend to get wordy and complicated sometimes :) Sign up and due dates will be Lucky Thursdays! How unusual for 2 months' calendar pages to line up like this!