Between Visual and Digital Tokens: A Look at the Abstraction of Money

Abstract

While a cashless society has been predicted, it has not occurred. This article examines money’s rivals in terms of their benefits and deficits in relation to paper currency. The impending redesign of American currency, driven by a need to improve its security function, is contrasted with the lasting iconography of the money, which was originally designed in the mid-nineteenth century. A limited edition book from 1932, by American type designer W.A. Dwiggins, in which the typographer criticizes the currency design, serves to focus the discussion of national representation for this ubiquitous vehicle. The author finds that Dwiggins’ critique remains viable today, and that along with improved security measures, American money should be reconceived in order to better represent a nearly twenty-first century democracy.