‘Ornamenting the Facade of Hell’: Iconographies of 19th-Century Canadian Paper Money

In this paper I explore the iconographies on 19th-century Canadian paper money. Drawing upon the recent debates regarding the intersection of culture, society, and economy, it is argued that the form of paper money conveys not only economic but social and cultural values. The paper is divided into three parts. The first section situates Canadian paper currency in terms of the consolidation of paper monies more generally in the 18th and 19th centuries, but with particular reference to Britain and the United States. I then turn to a more specific analysis of the design and production of paper money, illustrating how monetary images were transferred among artistic media. A third section focuses on some of the spatial aspects of paper money by exploring national and imperial monetary narratives which are in turn related to specific monetary practices. In a brief conclusion the importance of an historical analysis to our contemporary understanding of paper and other kinds of monies is outlined and points to our complicity in economic, social, and cultural networks.