Interview with Dr. Harcourt Fuller on the Black Money Exhibit
Featuring more than 300 notes, the Black Money Exhibit examines African and Diaspora history through the stories depicted on currency.
All photographs are courtesy of Dr. Harcourt Fuller.
As many numismatists understand, currency can tell a lot about a country. Whether from the past to the circulating pieces today, a coin or bank note can show significant historical moments, well-known faces of celebrated public figures, and cultural items and art that reflect a people.
All of this and more is on view at the Black Money Exhibit, which celebrates currencies from African countries and the worldwide African Diaspora. The issues on display show a vast assortment of images from an equally diverse selection of nations, such as the ruins of Great Zimbabwe to the oil industry in Equatorial Guinea to soldiers serving for colonial French West Africa, and are curated in themes that address Black art, historical, economic, cultural, childhood, and modern perspectives.
The Black Money Exhibit was conceived and curated by well-known scholar, numismatist, and former member of the Citizens Coinage Advisory Committee (2021–2025), Dr. Harcourt Fuller. Also assisting with the development of the exhibition was the expertise of artist and exhibit coordinator Irvin Wheeler, curator Tracy Murrell, and managing director and former Hammonds House Museum executive director Myrna Anderson Fuller, alongside interns and assistants. It was first displayed at the Auburn Avenue Research Library on African American Culture and History in Atlanta, Georgia, and is now featured online at blackmoneyexhibit.com. The show is currently available for exhibition at museums and related institutions and is open to finding a permanent home. Organizations interested in hosting the exhibition can reach out on the Black Money Exhibit’s website.
To learn more about the origins of the Black Money Exhibit and the currency it displays, Bank Note Reporter spoke with Fuller.
On the beginnings of the Black Money Exhibit
Dr. Harcourt Fuller* (HF): Around 2015, I had a massive collection of bank notes from all over the world, and also around that time, there were discussions about putting a Black woman on a (U.S.) bank note, Harriet Tubman. I decided I was going to create an exhibition which highlights people of African descent, Black people, Africans on bank notes.
When it left the museum, I brought it home, and ever since, I’ve been writing grants and working on getting funding to redesign the exhibition and have it in another space.
On the exhibit’s themes
HF: We had over 300 pieces of currencies in the exhibitions, 10 categories and each category had about 30 bank notes. Each one of those bank notes had an image where (we wrote) a narrative.
I teach world history, what you call black history: African American, African diasporic, African. I wanted as a historian to use the currency to tell a story or history of Africans and people of African descent from ancient times to the present. There is this thing that we, as historians, talk about that our history did not begin from the transatlantic slave trade because Africa had great kingdoms and empires and rulers.
The first theme is called “African Civilizations;” we would use (notes) if it had a certain ruler. Then I think I went to Africana art, in a lot of civilizations, whether it’s Roman, Greek, et cetera, art is always used as a measure of civilization. Then we went through other things like colonialism, where I would use bank notes issued by European countries that had colonies before the 1950s.
Another category was independence; I would look for bank notes that had the first independence leaders of certain countries. There was also a category on Africana music and dance. We have bank notes showing all different kinds of drumming, dancing, and musical instruments.
There is a category called “Black Women on Money.” I put that in there so we could have discussions about the lack of Black women on American money, even though we had about eight other countries, Nigeria, Ghana, Haiti, Jamaica, Brazil, and even Canada, that had a person of African descent (on currency).
One of the categories had to do with children in different countries, but they also depict a variety of animals. We sourced books, went on Amazon, looked up children’s books. And then we got those books, and we had days when authors would come in and read books about (animals) that were depicted in currency.
The last category is the modern Africana world, because again, oftentimes when we think about African or Caribbean countries, there’s this notion that they are third world and they’re less developed. So, I looked through currencies from Black majority or African countries, Caribbean as well, that showed science and technology. I wanted to end by showing that in the Black world, in the African world, there is technology.
On how this exhibition challenges myths or misconceptions
HF: If you think about money in general, nations put their most important historical actors, archeological sites, the things that we hold most dearly on bank notes. That’s why in the United States, we have the Founding Fathers.
When people of whatever background start to see that other countries depict other kinds of things on bank notes that are not just founding fathers…their mind’s open to the possibilities in this country also of how we can democratize our currency. They will discover people, places, events from Africa and the diaspora that they never really gave much thought to or didn’t know existed.
On the goals of the Black Money Exhibit
HF: Particularly today, where people are so divided, I feel like we increasingly live in a world where people don’t value the contributions of others or they don’t know what people have achieved, because we reduce large swaths of people as Third World. I think the Black Money Exhibit puts a particular spotlight on the histories, cultures, and achievements of people in Africa, the Caribbean, Latin America, and North America. Even though we started with bank notes, because the United States has not yet issued a bank note with a non-white male, (in the future) we will include coins from the American Women’s Quarters.
I think that when you understand the contributions and the history of other people, hopefully that can lead to more mutual respect and people getting along. I think as human beings, we will always have conflict, but I just think that on a very basic level, when you understand other people and what they’ve been through and what they’ve contributed, that might help lead to more peace.
For more information about the Black Money Exhibit, visit blackmoneyexhibit.com.
*Interview has been edited for length and clarity.
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