ABSTRACT

The central aim of this chapter is to examine the ways in which the dramatic transformations that have taken place over the last decade in Central and Eastern Europe have been reflected in the restructuring of financial instruments. It focuses particularly on the creation of new currencies, and the ways in which banknotes have been used to express a renewed interpretation of national identity in the region during the 1990s. The crisis it addresses is thus the dramatic upheaval in banking systems following the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the collapse of the command economy; the renewal is reflected in a renewed search for national identities in the wake of the introduction of so-called liberal democracies. The chapter begins with an overview of the context of political and

economic ‘transition’ within which the introduction of new financial instruments has played such an important role. This is followed by a brief discussion of the significance of the new currencies and series of banknotes that have been introduced in the region, and a broad analysis of the imagery depicted on the notes that have been issued therein since 1989. The second half of this chapter focuses on particular case studies which illustrate the variety of ways in which banknote designs have reflected the diversity of crisis and renewal experienced in Central and Eastern Europe over this period, and the consequent re-emerging national identities.