Before the United States produced the Hudson River School or paintings of the American Frontier, the new country proved its artistic might on banknotes. Images of Value: The Artwork Behind U.S.Security Engraving, 1830s-1980s at the Grolier Club chronicles 150 years of this history, with over 250 paintings, drawings, etchings, banknotes, and stock certificates, along with currency from 15countries. Mark D. Tomasko, who collected most of the works on view, notes in an introduction that security engraving "was one of the first arts in which the United States became a world leader."

Tomasko explained to Hyperallergic that his interest in security engraving spawned from collecting coins, which he started doing at the age of 10. "Within four or five years, I became interestedin banknotes." At the time, "three different kinds of paper money were circulating": green-seal federal reserve notes that survive today, red-seal US notes, and blue-seal silver certificates. "Stilllater, when my grandmother gave me some stock certificates of the Marmon Motor Car Company [1920s-30s], I discovered securities, as they were the largest format for banknote engraving. By the late1960s I was interested in the engraving on the banknotes and securities - who did it, how was it done, and where the artwork came from."

There were several factors that contributed to the success of this financial fine art in the US, including the quality of engraving firms in Philadelphia and New York as well as a system thatallowed nearly all American banks to issue their own notes. And the more expertly executed the security engraving, or "vignette," the harder to counterfeit the note or bond. The exhibition at theGrolier Club begins with early 19th-century pastoral scenes, including work by Asher B. Durand, who worked in banknote art before concentrating on landscape paintings, and progresses up to the1960s-80s, when artists like Robert Lavin were modernizing allegorical figures to represent new technology and industry.

To read the complete article, see:
How Art Secured American Banknotes for 150 Years (https://hyperallergic.com/366073/grolier-club-images-of-value/)

To read the earlier E-Sylum articles, see:
NEW BOOK: IMAGES OF VALUE (www.coinbooks.org/v20/esylum_v20n09a03.html)
NEW YORK TIMES REVIEWS IMAGES OF VALUE EXHIBIT (www.coinbooks.org/v20/esylum_v20n09a21.html)