What to do with 400+ banknotes?

Muahahaha

Over the years through work and play I've been lucky enough to visit somewhere in the region of 90 countries. In everyplace I visited I always kept two of each of the two smallest banknotes and in some place I kept 2 of each of the 3 smallest. I've got some interesting ones such as a hundred trillion dollar note from Zimbabwe, a pre Iraq war Saddam Hussein note, some Che Guevara notes from Cuba and a couple of World war 2 era notes from Germany. But in the main the rest are pretty worthless but pretty nonetheless, most are from Asian and South and Central American countries and many are quite colourful.

So now I don't travel as much as I used to so decided that they need to stop gathering dust in a drawer and I need to do something with them to display them. The obvious thing to do is stick them all to some hard cardboard and then go about framing it but I'm looking for suggestions of other more innovative ways of presenting them. I'm not a very artistic person so am a bit stumped here. A friend suggested cutting out all the faces of the heads of state that are on the notes and make so e sort of collage of their heads. It's not a bad idea but I'm not all that keen on cutting them up as there is often nice colour on the back of the notes and like I said I have two of each note. I did think of sticking them all to my office desk and then getting a piece of glass made up to fit over it but I reckon my desk is nowhere near big enough to hold 400 odd banknotes. I would love to using one of those lacquering techniques to paste them all over the bathroom wall but I rent so that's not an option either.

So if anyone has any suggestions for displaying them then I'm all ears

TheIrishGrover

Muahahaha

Clever, very clever !

But how would you go about pulling something like that off and also knowing how big to make it to ensure most of the notes get used up? Seems amazing but might be beyond my admittedly limited abilities in arts and crafts

TheIrishGrover

Well, maybe you could lay your notes roughly on a board in or around their country's location. Then you could print out the country outlines or maybe a whole old style world map with lines of longitude/latitude etc. [Like this] (in 10 or 11 pages maybe). Then you could cut out the actual countries and discard them and lay the printed out pages-minus the countries, over the notes. That way you won't be defacing the notes themselves.

Or just buy a nice big fancy old-school world map and cut the countries out. Just a thought. I'm not handy Arts-&cCrafts wise meself.

fergal.b

If the average note is about 5"x2" you would need a board about 166 foot x 83 foot to lay them out without overlapping :eek: The desk with a sheet of glass or perspex would look good or you could just put them out on a table with a bag of flower or a toy gun I'm sure it would make an interesting talking point.:D

looksee

If your notes are all duplicated you will only have to lay out half of them, the rest could be kept wrapped up for future reference. I quite like the idea of displaying them under a sheet of glass on a coffee table; you would have to overlap them but you could rearrange them any time by just removing the glass.

Jellybaby1

Personally I would pop them into some kind of album. But if you really want to display them I wondered if decopatch might be an idea. Search for it on Google Images and you will get the idea. I'm not sure if the paper might be a bit heavy for this technique as decopatch paper is very thin almost tissue like. Anything can be decopatched:

https://www.google.ie/search?q=decopatch&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=LXGFUv3_EOyp7AaTlYHYBg&sqi=2&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1024&bih=604#imgdii=_

Sorry for long link.

Muahahaha

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

Personally I would pop them into some kind of album. But if you really want to display them I wondered if decopatch might be an idea. Search for it on Google Images and you will get the idea. I'm not sure if the paper might be a bit heavy for this technique as decopatch paper is very thin almost tissue like. Anything can be decopatched:

https://www.google.ie/search?q=decopatch&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ei=LXGFUv3_EOyp7AaTlYHYBg&sqi=2&ved=0CAcQ_AUoAQ&biw=1024&bih=604#imgdii=_

Sorry for long link.

I just looked at that and really like it. I was thinking of perhaps covering an entire coffee table with the bank notes, legs and all.
But I'm also wondering how practical it would be if a blob of tea or coffee got spilt it it (which it will!). Do you know if Decopatching puts some kind of protective layer on it? Or would a layer of clear varnish help to protect it?

Jellybaby1

Muahahaha wrote: »

I just looked at that and really like it. I was thinking of perhaps covering an entire coffee table with the bank notes, legs and all.
But I'm also wondering how practical it would be if a blob of tea or coffee got spilt it it (which it will!). Do you know if Decopatching puts some kind of protective layer on it? Or would a layer of clear varnish help to protect it?

I have never done any Decopatch myself but I have seen it demonstrated at Inspiring Ideas in Blanchardstown. There are lots of Youtube videos on it and they use the special Decoupatch glue and sealer which are expensive, but this video with Kirstie Alsopp shows you can use cheaper glue and varnish, but its sponsored by B & Q so they would recommend the DIY stuff anyway. She suggests a 'non-yellowing water based varnish' to finish. Looks very simple and doesn't need any special skills. Though I'm not keen on the look myself I do wish you good luck. If you try it, let us see the result.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFyddV7BxUI

Gormal

I would keep the originals in an album and just scan and print them for using in decor. I was going to suggest you paint a world map around your room and stick the notes on the countries. I like the idea of putting under glass/perspex on a coffee table or even laid out on the floor under perspex.

Jellybaby1

Under glass is a better idea - no damage to the notes and you could get to see both sides if you switch 'em around now and again. Also, before you do anything at all, are you sure that all the notes have no collectible value at all? Surely the WW2 notes would have some collector twitching for them. With so much geographic and political changes having taken place since some of those notes were printed I'd expect collectors would be interested in them, if not now, then at some point in the future.

aonb

I would wallpaper your downstairs loo, or a feature wall/alcove or the back of a wall of shelves with them! When glued to the wall, cover with a few coats of clear varnish. I have tons of old music books, that I intend to use as wallpaper in a cloakroom or some such place, one day!

You could line a tea-tray and varnish over. Use them to make some placemats with matching coasters?

Make a headboard covered in banknotes - a sheet of MDF the width of your bed - cover with the banknotes, then lots of varnish again.

If you have any non-panel doors in your house, paste them on and varnish over.

Oh, stop, enough ideas

Let us know what you finally do - with pics!

Muahahaha

Jellybaby1 wrote: »

Under glass is a better idea - no damage to the notes and you could get to see both sides if you switch 'em around now and again. Also, before you do anything at all, are you sure that all the notes have no collectible value at all? Surely the WW2 notes would have some collector twitching for them. With so much geographic and political changes having taken place since some of those notes were printed I'd expect collectors would be interested in them, if not now, then at some point in the future.

No, no value in them. The WWII notes from Germany are quite common with note collectors, might be worth a tenner each but not much more.