Nice currencies around the world

Iceland (Kronurs)
"Now, that's a hat! It even seems to require a neck brace to hold it up. The model for this striking fashion statement is Ragnheiour Jonsdottir. She lived 1646-1715 and was most noted for being the wife of not one but two successive Icelandic bishops, though she was also a celebrated seamstress as well. That's Ragnheiour teaching a couple of students on the back."




Hong Kong (Hong Kong Dollars)
"In Hong Kong, they seem to have gone just about as far as you can go, money-design wise. But then Hong Kong often seems to be cheerfully humming along in the 23rd century. It makes New York City feel kind of sleepy and slow. So the futuristic money fits perfectly. And as a practical matter, it's an example of a trend in paper currency toward major-league complexity, the better to thwart would-be counterfeiters."






The French Pacific Territories (Franc)
"Hard to get much lovelier than the one-two of the face and back of this note from French Polynesia. But then the islands encompassed by the territory pretty much define paradise: Tahiti, Moorea, Bora Bora, Hiva Oa, Nuku Hiva, made part of our imaginative landscape by artists and writers such as Paul Gauguin, Robert Lewis Stevenson, Somerset Maugham, Herman Melville, and even Jimmy Buffett."






Faroe Islands (Kronurs)
"Okay, maybe it's not that beautiful, although the asymmetrical design and the somehow come-hither claws are pretty fetching. But the Faroe Islands, in the far North Atlantic about halfway between Iceland and Norway, have a bleak windswept beauty, and the people have great character. You gotta love a place that puts a crab on its money







Cook Islands (Cook Island Dollars)
"Hard to say why this woman seems so tranquil and happy, since she is riding a giant ferocious shark, but it's probably just the vibes from living in the Cook Islands, which are still in the middle of nowhere. The islands are about halfway between New Zealand and Hawaii, with no high-rise hotels or resorts, and mercifully few tourists to junk things up. Come to think of it, that shark looks sort of blissed-out, too."