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The Semiotics of Banknotes and Coins
Reading Contemporary Currency Design
The Semiotics of Banknotes and Coins
Reading Contemporary Currency Design
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Description
This book uses semiotics to study the design of a selection of banknotes and coins currently circulating in the American and European continents.
Its purpose is to argue how the iconography used to decorate them draws on pre-existing social discourses and meaning.
Moreover, it aims to show how currency design is an enunciative praxis and hence, an activity shaped by cultural conventions that can be approached as a specific discursive genre.
In a nutshell, the book demonstrates how, beyond their economic function, banknotes and coins serve as the material support for a visual type of cultural semiosis linked to the nation and the state. The units of any currency system can be approached as visual texts expressing contents linked with specific social discourses and ideas. Since these texts are created and regulated by the state, they convey meanings that relate to discourses about statehood and, with it, the nation.
Informed by analyses of the United States dollar, the Canadian dollar, the British pound sterling, the Swiss franc, the Brazilian real, the Uruguayan peso, the Argentinean peso and the euro, the book highlights the relevance of studying currency design in the scholarly efforts to understand the discursive construction of states and nations.
Table of Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
1. The Social Relevance of Currency, Or Why Studying Currency Design
2. Introducing Semiotics
3. Studying Currency Design using Semiotics
4. U.S. Dollar
5. Canadian Dollar
6. British Pound Sterling
7. Swiss Franc
8. Brazilian Real
9. Uruguayan Peso
10. Argentine Peso
11. The Euro
Conclusions
Notes
References
Index
Product details
| Published | 11 Dec 2025 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (PDF) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Extent | 288 |
| ISBN | 9781350451377 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Illustrations | 55 bw illus |
| Series | Bloomsbury Advances in Semiotics |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
About the contributors
Reviews
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A fascinating and insightful exploration of the hidden meanings embedded in currency design. Sebastián Moreno masterfully unveils the semiotic layers that shape our perception of money, culture, and national identity. A must-read for anyone interested in the intersection of art, national history, and finance.
Kristian Bankov, Professor, New Bulgarian University, Bulgaria
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With all the potential confusion people encounter over finance, it is a pleasure to read such a pellucid analysis of money's material tokens. Moreno's semiotic investigation of banknotes and coins is exemplary in its clarity, convincingly showing how the often unconsidered items of quotidian economic exchange are bound up with issues of nationhood, heritage, memory and culture. The volume should be read by anyone who ever uses currency.
Paul Cobley, Emeritus Professor in Language and Media, Middlesex University, UK
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In addition to money serving as the language of commerce, Barreneche shows how throughout history the iconography of coin and paper money has played an important role in shaping our collective conceptualization of culture, politics, and society. In impressive detail, he vividly explains the meaning of the symbols decorating monies from across the globe. This is a fascinating, illuminating, and sometimes surprising book.
Carl Wennerlind , Professor of History, Columbia University, US
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This book is a challenging and amusing reading of a surprising object: banknotes and coins reveal in the subtle semiotic analysis of the author a complex world of sense, that can show us unexpected sides of a culture, proving to be a valuable source for its future memory.
Patrizia Violi, Professor of Semiotics, University of Bologna, Italy
























