Defaced! Money, Conflict, Protest

Dosh, dough, readies, greenbacks, loot, bread, moolah, lolly, brass, spondulicks, the folding stuff . . . the list could go on, because there are few items of everyday use that are more freighted with meaning, excitement, and desire than money. At the same time, there are few items that we handle so readily that bear the symbolic insignia of the state, the establishment, in all of its many forms; we are, in one sense or another, reaffirming the authority of the state with every transaction. So far, so obvious, but I, for one, was unaware of the ways that money has been used to undermine the state, to deface its symbols, to ridicule its institutions, and to communicate illicit slogans of radical political views, transmitted as the monetary objects themselves are transferred from hand to hand. This onslaught on the material culture of money is the subject of a fascinating exhibition at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge, later to be shown at the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, in the summer of 2023. As the museum’s information states, this is the first exhibition of its kind to examine “the interplay between money, power and dissent over the last 200 years,” with a key strand of the show exploring the role of the individual in protesting for rights and representation. It is not a new phenomenon. The practice of defacing coins for political reasons has a long history. In the Roman Empire, damnatio memoriae (condemnation of memory) was an officially sanctioned means of removing the portraits and named inscriptions of a deceased “bad” emperor from public display, including his image on coins.