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California Republic banknotes

After the last presidential election, there was a lot of talk about the feasibility of a California secession. For what I can tell since I've been in this country, it's something that comes up again and again with spikes of interests tied to specific events. At the time, I was frustrated by the whole affair and wanted to do something, however silly. One weekend, I designed these banknotes for the spurious California Republic.

California Republic 20 dollars

California Republic 50 dollars

California Republic 70 dollars

Comments

Hi F!

Love the entries...and I really love these bank notes. You are truly an artiste!

yarn traveler

The bank notes are beautiful! Who are the people? Are they figures from California's history? Or just old photos you had around?

See you Friday!

--Kathy H.

Those are actually old family photos. The ideas was to represent the ethnic diversity of California, but I didn't have any photos handy to show other ethnic groups, so I cheated. If California ever secedes for real, I'll do a better job. ;)

Ciao Francesca,

I would like to know who designed the beautiful banknotes? We have a project to design local currency in Silver Lake and are looking for a designer. Great site I love it.
Thanks,
David

Hi David, I designed the banknotes and it was more fun than a lot of the stuff I do for work. :)
I'll email you my business contact info.

ciao

Beautiful idea and design, by the way Fifty in spanish is Cincuenta. Regards

Juan, thank you for pointing out the typo. It's cincuenta now (what was I thinking?)

Dear Francesca probably you´re thinking in italian, cinque-cinco are close latin friends. I found the mistake because I´m a banknote collector and look carefully. Also yesterday I remember a funny phrase from my wife´s grandmother: In questa casa siamo tutti nervosi, anche il cane. Regards from Buenos Aires.

Very pretty indeed! Oh, to be our own country!!!

One thing though, an indie CA probably would not have a printing and engraving operation connected to its central bank immediately, thus currency would probably be printed by Wells Fargo & Co. (just as HSBC prints Hong Kong currency.) So you might want to add their logo to the bills (and of course, this would enhance the CA heritage on the bills.)