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Christos Zagkos, Argyris
Kyridis, Ifigenia Vamvakidou, Nikos
Fotopoulos University
of Western Macedonia Abstract Money is the foundation of any national
economy, but also the mark of national sovereignty, reflecting the state
which issues it. Its symbolic role is one of its essential characteristics,
and the name of the currency its salient feature. Policymakers recognize that
currencies can act as important carriers of nationalist imagery, particularly if its supply is monopolized. Money would indeed seem
a perfect locus on
which a state can construct an ‘ordinary nationalism’ that is all the more powerful
for being part of the seemingly unremarkable fabric of daily life. In this
paper, using a semiotic methodology, we shall analyse the symbols of the
state produced banknotes of Albania, Turkey, the Former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia and Bulgaria, in an attempt to read the underlying meanings of the
symbolisms selected by each state, in the geographical area of Balkans that
is synonymous with nationalism, since the foundation of the modern
nation-states on the region. Introduction If we search for a national symbol that
everyone comes into touch with every day we encounter those represented on
the official banknotes of a country. At that point it is worth noting that the Balkan region has
long been associated with the concept of maximal nationasism, and has even
been identified in the media with violent conflict, decay, political
violence, ethnic unrest and the fragmentation of states (Mazower, 2000, 5),
particularly since the partition of the Ottoman Empire and the so called
“Eastern Crisis.” The reputation of the region as the European “powder keg”
(F.S. Larabee, 1994, xii) is based on the fact that no fewer than seven wars
took place in the Balkans during the twentieth century: the First and the
Second Balkan Wars, the First World War, the Greco-Turkish War, the Second
World War, the Civil War in Greece and a series of wars of the Yugoslav
succession in the 1990s. It is also worth pointing out that the “unsettled
national issues” and the attempts for establishing nation-states have been
the most frequent casus belli in the Balkans (Simic, 2001, 21). Thus, for
many centuries, the Balkans, being situated at the border between empires,
religions and civilizations, has frequently paid the forfeit of its
geopolitical position and has been involved in perennial warfare (Zagkos et
al, 2007, 342). The banknote produced by the state is a semiotic genre of material culture
that can be particularly effective in shaping ideas about the past. The
commonly- held view in economics that money "merely serves to transfer
economic energy between independent agents" ignores the fact that money
also has "value function" (Dyer 1989: 504-5). We see money every day, but we rarely observe
it. Yet the money we use has symbols and images on it. These serve to
communicate information. Some of the elements of a banknote describe its
history and identity: the decree authorizing its production, the name of the
issuing institution, the names of the artists involved, identifiers of the
series to which it belongs and its serial number (Mugnaini, 1994, 67). Some, such as those
that convey the denomination, are essential to its function. Others such as
intricate geometrical figures and the like are primarily devices to impede
counterfeiting. Lastly, money often
carries on it images of people, places or things. These too serve to impede
counterfeiting, and the issuers of money could (and on occasion do) pick them
arbitrarily, looking simply for attractive pictures. But the images are
rarely arbitrary. Instead they are often symbolic and didactic (Tschoegl,
2002, 1).
As a medium of mass communication, physical circulating money is often taken
for granted; it is ubiquitous and prosaic to the point of invisibility (Lauer
2008, 109-110). It is thus not surprising that communication scholars, including eminent figures such as McLuhan (2001) and Habermas (1987), have tended to overlook or minimize the mass communication function of money even while addressing the subject. One notable exception is Peters (1999, 119), who contrasts money’s interpersonal and mass communicative dimensions and observes, “money, after all, is a kind of medium—and not only a medium of exchange, but a medium of representation as well”. It is true that state produced money has the potential to be an especially effective tool of state propaganda because, while many people simply have little taste for military parades or for education, everybody wants money (Hymans, 2005, 6). Money is the foundation of the national economy, but also the mark of national sovereignty and it mirrors the State which issues it. The symbolic role of money is one of its essential characteristics, and the name of the currency its salient feature (Brozovic, 1994, 12). Policymakers recognized that currencies could act as important carriers of nationalist imagery, particularly if their supply were monopolized (Gilbert and Helleiner, 1999, 8). Money would indeed seem a perfect site on which the state could construct a ‘banal nationalism’ that is all the more powerful for being part of the seemingly unremarkable fabric of everyday life (Billig, 1995). Furthermore, according to Helleiner (1998,1414), whose seminal work provides a conceptual framework for understanding the historical and cultural significance of such financial mass media, “National currencies may foster national identities not just at the propagandistic level through cultivating a collective memory and nationalist culture,” but also by creating “a common economic language with which to communicate”. Finally, it has to be mentioned that as durable objects, official bank notes have the capacity to communicate information over long periods of time and over great distances (Galloy, 2000,483). The Greek
word ‘symbol’ refers to the ‘putting together of that which has been
divided’, or in more descriptive terms, ‘the production of two halves of a
token which had been broken and given to a pair of friends so that they would
share the same mark of identification. Conversely, this token served to
differentiate them from other people who had no such proof’ (Firth, 1973,47).
Both symbols and signs are distinct elements in the individual’s perception
of society. The founder of semiotics, the study of signs in society,
Ferdinand de Saussure noted that language is the most important framework through
which individuals share common signs. In his opinion, language is not the
same as human speech but ‘a system of signs that express ideas, and is
therefore comparable to a system of writing, the alphabet of deaf-mutes,
symbolic rites, polite formulae, military signals, etc’ (in Lagopoulos &
Lagopoulou 2003, 9). Saussure stated that a sign is the union between a
signifier and a signified, where the signifier is the sound or the image and
the signified is the concept associated with that signifier. On the one hand,
the relationship between image and concept, between signifier and signified
is arbitrary while, on the other hand, the signifier produces meaning only in
relation to other signifiers. Saussure
was focusing on the linguistic sign (such as a word) and he
'phonocentrically' privileged the spoken word, referring specifically to the
image acoustique ('sound-image' or 'sound pattern'), seeing writing as a
separate, secondary, dependent but comparable sign system (Saussure 1974, 15,
16, 23-24, 119). Some people may wonder why Saussure's model of the sign
refers only to a concept and not to a thing. An observation from the
philosopher Susanne Langer (who was not referring to Saussure's theories) may
be useful here. Note that like most contemporary commentators, Langer uses
the term 'symbol' to refer to the linguistic sign (a term which Saussure
himself avoided): “Symbols are not proxy for their objects but are vehicles
for the conception of objects... In talking about things we have conceptions
of them, not the things themselves; and it is the conceptions, not the
things, that symbols directly mean”. (Langer 1951, 61). What
Saussure refers to as the 'value' of a sign depends on its relations with
other signs within the system – a sign has no 'absolute' value independent of
this context. Saussure uses an analogy with the game of chess, noting that
the value of each piece depends on its position on the chessboard (Saussure
1974, 88). The sign is more than the sum of its parts. Whilst signification –
what is signified – clearly depends on the relationship between the two parts
of the sign, the value of a sign is determined by the relationships between
the sign and other signs within the system as a whole. The notion of value shows us that it is a
great mistake to consider a sign as nothing more than the combination of a
certain sound and a certain concept. To think of a sign as nothing more would
be to isolate it from the system to which it belongs. It would be to suppose
that a start could be made with individual signs, and a system constructed by
putting them together. On the contrary, the system as a united whole is the
starting point, from which it becomes possible, by a process of analysis, to
identify its constituent elements ( Saussure 1974, 113). Cohen (1998) argues that from the Treaty of
Westphalia (1648) on, we have seen the diffusion of the idea of the sovereign
state with its symbols: one army, one flag and one currency. However, the
creation of national money coterminous
with the national territory is really a creation of the 19th Century
(Helleiner, 1997). National
symbols provide perhaps the strongest, clearest statement of national
identity. In essence that they serve as modern totems – sings that bear a special
relationship to the nations they represent, distinguishing them from one
another and reaffirming their identity boundaries (Cerulo 1993, 244).
National symbols project a message. That message is purposively, meticulously
constructed, with leaders of national governments consciously picking and
choosing its elements. Since the inception of nations, national leaders have
embraced and adopted national symbols using them to create bonds, motivate
patriotic action, honour the efforts of citizen and legitimate formal
authority (Crampton 1990). Since the
national symbols are so important to the political modernisation process,
national leaders will want to project the most effective, most appealing
symbols possible. In essence, leaders are attempting to link symbolic forms
to social forms, choosing the symbols that are most appropriate to the state
of their target audience, the national population. National symbols, in
Smith’s interpretation, mainly have a social, external function. They unite
individuals under the same flag, oath, anthem, and so on, both inducing a
general feeling of belonging to a specific community and using forms which
already existed in the nation (Kyridis et.al, 2008,56). The transformation of
symbols has a double impact on the individual’s perception of the nation:
firstly, he accepts a conversion at the personal level recognizing that some
symbols have acquired new symbolic functions; secondly, he insists that
particular symbols have a desirable effect on his social vision of the community
(Smith, 1998,8). According
to Cerulo (1993, 246), we can analyse a national symbol’s message in two
ways. On the one hand we can examine the content of the symbol: the colours
or emblems used in a flag or a banknote. In so doing we could decipher the meaning
of each component of the symbol. Such an approach represents a semantic analysis of a symbol. A
semantic analysis isolates the symbols elements and focuses on the meaning of
each of those elements. A second alternative would have us study the design or
configuration of a symbol: the colours the emblems occupying adjacent
positions in the flag; the number of sections containing in the flag etc.
When focusing on elements such as these, we are undertaking a syntactic analysis of symbols. A
syntactic analysis examines the meaning conveyed by a symbol’s structure –its
design or configuration and the relation between its parts (Scholes, 1982,
24). In
attempting to draw up a chart to distinguish various symbols and their
interactions, Karl W. Deutsch (1955, 38) divided symbols as follows: 1.
abstract symbols, such as words, ideas, slogans, works of literature, or
songs; 2. pictorial symbols, such as flags, statues, relics, historic
objects, buildings, animals, flowers, and the like; 3. personal symbols, such
as heroes, kings, leaders, saints, prophets, or poets; 4. symbolic places,
such as capital cities, historic sites, national shrines, centres of
pilgrimage, battlefields, tombs of martyrs, or places of scenic beauty or
grandeur; 5. symbolic organisations or institutions,
such as congresses, church synods, political parties, legislatures, law
courts, universities, bureaucratic or military organisations, in so far as
any of these acquire symbolic function in addition to their primary
activities; 6. religious symbols – this is a category that cuts across the
other five in many instances, but it is perhaps not exhausted by them. SAMPLES AND ANALYSIS
In the field of modern political and social history we analyse the
banknotes as pictorial symbols in the field of historic objects from the four
contiguous countries of Greece (Albania, Bulgaria, Turkey and the F.Y.R.O.M.)
in order to analyse the symbolisms represented on their official state
produced banknotes and to investigate the potential nationalistic or other
background of the choice of those symbolisms. For our research we analysed all the official banknotes that are in
circulation nowadays. From Albania we analysed the banknotes of 100, 200,
500, 1000 and 5000 Leke. From Bulgaria we analysed the banknotes of 1, 2, 5,
10, 20, 50,100, 200, 500 and 1000 Levs.
From F.Y.R.O.M. we analysed the representations on the banknotes of
10, 50, 100, 500, 1000 and 5000 Denari and from Turkey we analysed the
banknotes of 1, 10, 20, 50 and 100 Liras. At this point we have to point out that the reason we did not include
in our investigation the Greek banknotes is that why since the entrance of
Greece in the euro epoch the state produced symbolisms on the national
currency are limited to the one side of the coins, thus the euro banknotes
are common for the countries using the European currency. The Albanian Banknotes In Albania
as in all the countries of the ex-Eastern block, where communistic regimes
were set up for several decades, is obvious the difference between the banknotes,
that were in circulation before and after the collapse of the “dictatorship
of the proletariat”. Such on the
banknotes of the communistic era we could identify a plethora of symbolisms
emphasize to the power of the working
class, the military strength of the country and several other nationalistic
symbolisms. Concerning the banknotes of that era, when Albania
was a completely “closed” society, nationalistic symbolisms we could find,
among others, on the Albanian banknotes of 100 Leke (issue 1957), where a soldier coexist with the Albanian
double-headed eagle aiming probably to lay emphasis on the military
strength of the country. In addition in some of the depictions of the
Albanian banknotes there are evident the symbolisms of a united working class where men and women working hard aiming to their
country’s prosperity (see banknotes of 500 Leke issue 1957).
Characteristic also of the banknotes of that epoch is the representation of working
women, in an attempt of the regime to praise the feminine contribution to
the country’s progression as well as to emphasize to the enacted isonomy
between the two genders in Albania (see banknotes of 500, issue 1957 and 10
Leke issue 1976). Talking now, about
the banknotes that are in circulation nowadays (issue of 1991,
1992,1993,1994,1995,1996 and 1997) the Albanian government through these
national banknotes emphasizes less on the values of the communistic regime
and gives priority to the showing off of the cultural heritage of the country
in association of course with some national symbolisms. However, one of the
common characteristics of the Albanian banknotes of the two eras is the
representation of the Albanian national emblem, of the black double-headed eagle, which we described above, on
several banknotes (500 Leke issue of 1996). The use of the national emblem on
the banknotes, aim to the national unity and to the raising of the national
morale of the Albanian people. Besides
the national emblem of the double-headed eagle, in the banknotes of 5000 Leke
(1996 issue) we come across Scandeberg,
probably the most important national
hero of the country, while on the back side of the banknote are presented
the Kruja Castle, the helmet and
the sculpture of Skanderbeg on his horse. Moreover, on the 1000 Leke banknote we can
identify the portrait of Pjeter
Bogdani (1625-1689), writer and priest,
is presented, taken from the front of his book "Çeta e profetëve",
(The prophets’s file), while on the back side of the banknote the Catholic
Church in Vau i Dejës and his vision of the heliocentric system is
represented. Additionally, on the 500 Leke banknote (issue of 1997) is
presented the portrait of Ismail Qemali (1844-1919); leader of the Albania National Movement and Prime Minister of
that time in composition with the two headed independence flag and the pen
with which Independence was signed, while on the back side of the 500 Leke
banknote we can distinguish the House where the Independence was proclaimed,
the office where this important event took place and the telegraph, by which
the notice had been transmitted. Furthermore, on the banknote of 200 Leke
(issue of 1997) is presented the bust of Frasheri, one of the most prominent
personalities of the so-called period of national reborn of Albania. Frasheri
was a dignitary of the Ottoman government in the region and he was also one
of the best Albanian poets. Frasheri represents the educated elite of Albania
and that because except of a great poet Frasheri also wrote plenty of school
books and translated in Albanian a plethora of very important works of the
international intelligence. To sum up, Frasheri aimed to awaken the national
conscience of his compatriots through the path of education and culture
(Fisher,1995,28-31). Last, on
the front side of the100 Leke banknote (issue 1997) the observer can see the
portrait of Fan S. Noli (1882-1965), politician,
writer, one of the most popular figures of the National Movement, and on
the back side we can see a combination of the logo of Albanian Federation
"Vatra", the building of the first Albanian Parliament (now the
building of the Academy of Sciences) and the logo of the newspaper
"Dielli" (the Sun) run by Fan. S. Noli.
Bulgarian Banknotes Bulgaria
is a country with long history which the government, through the symbols of
the official banknotes, wants to protect and display. It is apparent that the
symbolic contents of the Bulgarian banknotes are based mostly on Bulgarian history and tradition. As
any other nation-state, Bulgaria analogically of its regime promotes
different images on the official banknotes. Such, on the monarchy era of the
country predominated the images of the
king and his family. For example on the banknote of 500 Leva (issue 1943)
we could discern the face of King Symeon II, who was the last King of the
country and governed Bulgaria from 1943 to 1946, although he was not an adult
yet. On the
other hand, images of the Bulgarian economy, as well as those of Bulgarian
products or of the portraits of the ringleaders of the communistic revolution
were presented on the banknotes of the communistic era of the country. Such examples are the procedure of tobacco harvest represented on the 200 Leva
(issue of 1951) banknote and the portrait of Dimitrov, the leader of the
Bulgarian communistic regime on the banknotes of 10000 Leva. Nowadays, the
national Bulgarian banknotes have a remarkable variety on the representations
used on them. The Bulgarian government has chosen images from Bulgarian history, and from the religious,
political and cultural life of the state as well as representations of great
personalities of the Bulgarian history and intellect. Such, the obverse
of the 1 Leva banknote shows a 1789 icon depicting of Saint Ivan Rilski from
the Uspenie Bogorodichno (Assumption of Our Lady) Church in the Pchelino
Postnica (Hermitage) near the Rila Monastery. Bulgaria
adopted Christianity as a national religion in AD864, and Ivan of Rila
preached Christ's doctrine in mediaeval Bulgaria. Canonised soon after his
death, he became patron of the monastery which emerged on the spot where he
ended his earthly span. Today the Rila Monastery, over a thousand years old,
houses the Saint's relics. On the reverse of the banknote shows the main
Monastery church set off by the cloister's open-air walkways. Furthermore on
the 2 Levs banknote we can see Pagisios
of Chiliandar (1722 - 1773), the man who kindled the spark of the
Bulgarian National Revival, served in Holy Orders at the monastery of
Chiliandar on Mount Athos. He authored the "Historiae
Sclavo-Bulgaricus": the first work of modern Bulgarian letters and
harbinger of Bulgarians' spiritual emancipation and national reawakening
(Gonis, 2001, 113-116). Moreover,
on the 5 Levs banknote is presented the portrait of Ivan Milev (1897 -1927), painter, avant-garde stage
designer, and one of the circle who defined the fin-de-siecle in Bulgarian
art. Gifted with the potent imagination and strong stylistic sensibility, he
sought inspiration and models in village life and folk songs, legends and
beliefs to create supple images rich in Bulgarian tradition and spirit. On
the reserve of the banknote we can observe fragments from his paintings
"A Woman Harvesting", "The Bulgarian Madonna", and
"Wedding of the Dragon". The obverse side of the 10 Levs banknote
carries an engraving of Doctor Peter Beron, a National Revival scientist, Renaissance
Man, reformer and sponsor of Bulgarian learning, this linguist with nine
languages authored the first secular instruction book in Bulgarian, and
encoded modern Bulgarian grammar. He contributed greatly to the modernisation
of education and establishment of contemporary Bulgarian culture, while the reverse side shows sketches taken
from Peter Beron's treatises in astronomy, and his personal telescope. In
addition the front side of the 20 Levs banknote
features symbolic elements of the BNB: stylised elements from the BNB
building, the BNB emblem, and other multi-coloured background nets of
appropriate structures, vignettes, rosettes, analogous to the banknotes of
the first BNB issues. The back side of that specific banknote features a
replica of the first Bulgarian banknote of BGN 20, issue 1885, the old BNB
building, the sculpture image of a seated woman used for the banknotes of BGN
1 and 2, issue 1920, and the coat of arms of the Principality of Bulgaria. Moreover, Pencho Slaveykov (1866 - 1912) is presented
on the front side of the 50 Levs banknote, whose contribution to the
convergence of Bulgarian to world letters make this poet, columnist,
translator and literary critic on of Bulgaria's most enduring literary
classics. His character and writings left a powerful and enduring impression
on Bulgarian intellectual development, while the major theme of the
banknote's reverse side are
Slaveykov's poems: the national epic "A Song of Blood", and a set
of plates from his anthology "Epic Songs”. Besides,
on the 100 Levs banknote is presented the image of the writer Aleko
Konstantinov, while the back side features items from the life and works of
Aleko Konstantinov. Likewise, on the 200 Levs banknote Ivan
Vazov is portrayed. Vazov belonged to the Bulgarian cultural elite and his
treatises were characterised by patriotism and love about the simple, poor,
Bulgarians who lived on the countryside. Continuing the heroical portraits of
Bulgarian persons, the Bulgarian state has put on the 1000 Levs banknote the
face of Vladimir Leva, one of the leaders of the Bulgarian struggle for
freedom and independence against the Ottoman Turks. However,
as in every other balkanian country, the military symbols can not be absent
from the Bulgarian banknotes. So, on the banknotes of 50 and 20 Leva a lion
with a crown is presented, like the lions on the Bulgarian coat of Arms. The
Coat of Arms of the Republic of Bulgaria is a state symbol of the sovereignty
and independence of the Bulgarian people and state. The Coat of Arms is a
crowned rampant golden lion on a dark red background with the shape of a
shield. Above the shield there is a crown modelled after the crowns of the
kings of the Second Bulgarian kingdom, with five crosses and an additional
cross on top. Two crowned rampant golden lions hold the shield from both
sides, facing it. They stand upon two crossed oak branches with acorns. Under
the shield, there is a white band lined with the three national colours. The
band is placed across the ends of the branches and the phrase "Unity
Produces Strength" is inscribed on it.
The present Coat of Arms was adopted by the National Assembly on July
31, 1997, following almost a decade of bitter acrimony over the new symbol.
The end result is similar to the ceremonial form of the 1930-46 coat of arms,
though much less ornamental and more stylized. If interested in the heraldry
of the Bulgarian Coat of Arms, this site traces its development from the
end of the 14th century to the present.
Turkish Banknotes The
examination of ten Turkish banknotes led us to the inference that the
ethno-centric and nationalistic feeling is very dominant to the Turkish
social and political life and that is obvious from the immoderate bringing
out of the “mythical” founder of
Turkey, Mustafa Kemal “Ataturk”. On the sample of our investigation the face of Kemal is presented on all of
them. It has to be mentioned that
Kemal besides his thesis as the founder of the modern Turkish state, he was
also the person that envisaged of a more Europeanised Turkey, and struggled
for a homogenous national identity for the Turkish people based on all the crucial foundations of the
Western modern nation-states, such as common language, religion and history.
On the other hand Turkish government through its banknotes, wants to show and
one more western face in her attempt to become a member of the European family
of E.U. So on the 1 Lira banknote (version 2005), besides the portrait of Ataturk which is represented in every Turkish official currency, we can see a gravure of the dam made on the Euphrates river close to the cities of Sanliurfa and Adiyaman. This project which called the “Ataturk Dam” is one of the world’s largest earth and rock fill dams and is represented on the 1 Lira banknote in order to emphasize to the progress the country has made in the fields of and Architecture and mechanics. Furtermore on the 10 Liras banknote is represented the “Piri Reis Map”, which is a famous pre-modern world map created by 16th century Ottoman-Turkish admiral and cartographer Piri Reis , drawn on gazelle skin. The map shows part of the western coasts of Europe and North Africa with reasonable accuracy, and the coast of Brazil is also easily recognizable. Various Atlantic islands including the Azores and Canary Islands are depicted, as is the mythical island of Antillia. The map is noteworthy for its depiction of a southern landmass that some controversially claim is evidence for early awareness of the existence of Antarctica. And that representation as well aims to highlight the history of Turkey on the fields of sciences, and more specifically on geography and astrophysics. Moreover, on the 20 Liras banknote the Turkish government in order to interpose the historical monuments of the country and its acme on the Hellenistic and Roman period choose to represent the Library of Celsus in Ephesus which was built for Tiberius Julius Celsus Polemaenaus an completed in AD 135. On the other hand on the 50 Lira banknote we can see the rock formation in the area of Cappadocia, which was shaped before 60 million years and almost 2000 years ago, Christians carved their first churches into these stones. That specific representation probably gives emphasis to the antiquity of the Turkish region, as well as to multicultural past of Minor Asia. Finally, on the 100 Liras banknote is represented the Ishak Pasha Palace which is a semi-ruined palace and administrative complex located in the Doğubeyazıt district of Ağrı province of Turkey, whose construction was started in 1685 by Colak Abdi Pasha, the bey of Bayazit province and was completed by his grandson Ishak (Isaac) Pasha in 1784. The selection of the exact image probably aims to punctuate the high aesthetic architecture of the Ottoman period and the extravagance characterised that historical period.
F.Y.R.O.M. Official Banknotes The F.Y.R.O.M. constitutes a
peculiar case of Balkan country for two main reasons. Firstly because it was
made from dismemberment of Yugoslavia and secondly because it has the
shortest history from all the countries that we mentioned above, as it was
came into existence on 1945 from General Tito as the Federal Republic of
Macedonia. That particular “lack” of national history is more than obvious on
the symbolisms used by the government on the official national banknotes that
made their appearance for first time not earlier than 1992. Such the majority
of the themes represented on the banknotes of FYROM are related to nature and
religion and on the other hand the historical personalities are totally
absent. So on the front side of 10 Denari banknotes we can notice a statue of
the Goddess Isida from III century B.C., found in Ohrid and an earring discovered in Berantsi, Bitola, in a
grave dating from the IV century B.C., while on the back side of the banknote
we can see a peacock, a detail from the floor mosaic from the baptisteries of
the Episcopal Basilica in the ancient city of Stobi from the V-VI century.
A.D. The peacock, a bird of paradise, drinking water from the source of life
(cantaros) symbolizes the believers craving for the Christian religion,
mental peace and tranquillity. Moreover the government’s effort
to give emphasis on the multicultural and multireligional character of the
country is more than evident on the images used on some of the banknotes.
Therefore, on the 50 and 1000 Denari banknotes correspondingly are presented
two of the major symbols of Christianity such as Archangel Gabriel and Virgin
Mary, while on the other hand on the 20 Denari banknote we can observe a
Turkish bath on the one side and a Muscleman mosque on the other.
Analytically, on the 50 Denari banknotes is presented Archangel Gabriel from
the scene of the Annunciation on the east wall of the church of St.Ghiorghi
in Kurbinovo on the Lake Prespa. The church dates from 1191. The frescoes
were painted by the outstanding artist, Pictor I and on the 1000 Denari
banknotes we observe
an icon with
the “Madonna Episkepsis” from the church of St.Vrachi-Mali, Ohrid, early XIV century The Icon of
the Madonna Episkepsis is depicted in its true dimensions, with an image of
the Christ Child in the right. The presence of tow angeles in the upper
corners of the icon symbolize the depiction of the Sorrowful Virgin. On the back side of the 1000 Denari banknote
is presented a detail from
the church of "St. Sofia" in Ohrid, built in X-XI centuries. Moreover, on the front view of the 100 Denari
banknotes is depicted a
ceiling rosette in deep relief in Albanian town house in Debar, whereas on
the back side we can see an engraving of Skopje made by a Holland printer
Jacobus Harevin in 1594. In addition, on the front side of the 500 Denari
banknote is presented a death mask,
found in Trebenista made of fine gold tin and was discovered in nobelmen`s
gravers dating from the VI century B.C, while on the back side of the
banknote is represented a Poppy, a flower that was
introduced to land of FYROM in 1835.
Finally, on the front view of the 5000 Denari banknote we can
identify the Tetovo Maenad of the VI century B.C. The Tetovo Maenad is a
bronze figurine, an archeological discovery, unearthed in a rich grave
discovered in Tetovo and constructed in the last decades of VI century B.C.
The figurine represents a character playing and dancing with her partner, a
satire, in honour of the cult of the god Dionysos. It represents the artistic
expression of the beginnings of the ancient era in FYROM. On the reverse view
of that particular banknote we can see a mosaic representing Cerberus tied to
fig tree, of theVI century. This
mosaic taken from the floor of the Nartex in the Great Basilica in Heraklea
represents the Christian Universe. The landscape is depicted by trees laden
with fruit, around which birds are flying and between which are animals and
bushes in flower. Cerberus the Dog is tied to the fig tree, representing the
watcher of Heaven. Concluding, remarkable is the fact
that in none of the banknotes of
FYROM is a nationalistic symbol presented, as it happens on the
banknotes of all the other Balkan countries that we investigated.
DISCUSSION
We analyze the visual
data – the banknotes as an indirect document for the social and economical
life of the nation-country we examine. In the level of categorizing the icons
we remark a)
the variety of
historic periods (ancient, medieval, modern) b)
the section in the communist/post communist
period regarding to the choice of symbols that are changed and are orientated
to the religious icons and historic objects c)
the
emphasis on the 19th century accords well with the numerous arguments that
have been proposed concerning this critical period in the shaping of European
national identities (Hooson, 1994). Moreover, it is salient once again to emphasise the extraordinary significance
of banknotes in the creation of the new identities of states in Eastern
Europe. The replacement of their command economies with so-called free-market
liberal democracies has been fundamentally based on the establishment of new
economic and monetary systems. These in turn have required the creation of
new financial instruments of exchange in the form of paper money. Such
banknotes, though, provide means through which identity is not only produced,
but is also daily reproduced as this money is exchanged from hand to hand. It is a
means through which individuals constantly re-establish and reassert their
alliance to a particular identity. Moreover, these new banknotes also provide
a crucial insight for foreigners into the national identity of the countries
that they visit. Paper money is therefore not only a way of reinforcing
internal cohesion and identity, but it is also a way of depicting that
identity to the outside world in a very tangible, and often beautiful, form
(Unwin & Hewitt, 2001, 1026). In the iconographic level we remark that the field of
nationalism is dominated in most banknotes besides Fyrom’s. The men-heroes-governors
and the men writers, poets, painters have been preferred.
Nevertheless in the communist period the working groups including the
women workers have been chosen in the level of socialistic symbols. Reading the banknotes as a semiotic text we classify them as
a) the icons of the sacred and supernatural, the symbols for the
religion’s history regarding to ancient as well as to modern period, b) the
icons for the power and the protest in the portraits of fighters,
governors, rebellions, politicians as well as in the coat of arms, in the
motto-logo which represents stereotypes of power and locality, c) the icons
for the historic and the natural landscape in the scenes of monuments,
rivers, d) the aspects of social life in the portraits of women and
children as well as in the composition with workers and productions. According to the model of Gunther Kress & Theo van Leeuwen we can classify the banknotes in
the level of social semiotics: that means we are interesting for the social
context in which these banknotes have been chosen and established. In this
orientation we focus on the historic and the politic circumstances and we remark the different symbols in the
post-communist period for some countries (Bulgaria, Albany) as well as the
different symbols in the European Union (Greece) when we had to change the
national banknotes for the European one. In this
level we can apply the model of Gunther Kress (Kress & van Leeuwen 1996,
122)[1]
for the “icon’s action and the gaze”. We
notice that most persons in the portraits are looking face to face to the receiver which means the demand of
the sender, but in the compositions with many people or in the natural
scenery we notice the indirect gaze, as
the offer of the senders. Modality refers to the reality status
accorded to or claimed by a sign, text or genre. More formally, Robert Hodge
and Gunther Kress declare that 'modality refers to the status, authority and
reliability of a message, to its ontological status, or to its value as truth
or fact' (Hodge & Kress 1988, 124). In making sense of a text, its
interpreters make 'modality judgements' about it, drawing on their knowledge
of the world and of the medium. A modality marker is a marker representing
one facet of the naturalistic modality of an image. Together, these modality
markers represent the important aspects of an images naturalistic modality. In the specific sample we can focus on a) colour saturation, the
amount of colours used in an image, from full colour to the absence of
colour- in the banknotes the earths colours are dominated as well as the warm
colours- b) Representation: the degree of abstraction, from maximum
abstraction to maximum representation of pictorial detail, in the banknotes
we remark the pictorial detail. Each of the modality markers can be represented as a scale from zero
visual modality, to full visual modality. Taken together, the modality
markers determine an image’s modality configuration – how close a given
visual query is to the real world objects they represent. In
the sample that we analyse we find a high modality since the relevance
with natural, social and historic reality is also high. We can also
notice that the banknotes are a multimodal text since we can see
the icons-symbols as well as we can read the numbers and the words
that combine the composition. In this level we can “read” the information
about the elements in the left, which means the data-familiar and the elements
in the right which means the new message. As to the vertical axis for the
position (up-down) we can notice the information for the ideal/important
symbol (up) and the practical, terrestrial (down) as well as the meaning of
the central position (in the ancient/old representations) and the marginal
position where the depended elements-objects are posted. The type
of analysis we promote is relevant to visual literacy and stresses two
important points of intersection: active perception and diversity of sign
systems. We argue that an educational program with a semiotic framework would
change its focus from content to process, and that a visual literacy
component would enhance learning social history across modalities, fulfilling
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