In honor of the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, a famous British museum will be opening a Gallery dedicated to the currencies of Communist countries, among which will also be the famous thousand dinar bill with the face of the worker Arif Heralic from Zenica.
Posters, medals, coins, bills and bonds that show large industrial development and unparalleled military strength will be displayed at the gallery, according to the Guardian.
The curation Tom Hockenbull is delighted with the gallery.
“The pieces are terrific. Especially if you compare them with Western bills. Even if many say that the bills are worthless, they have on them some of the most beautiful designs to ever be put on paper,” he said.
Helped by finances of the Art Fund, Hockenbull researched and searched for Communist currencies in order to fill hole in the museum’s currency gallery.
“I think that the more a country’s economy is stable, the currency is more boring,” he said, adding that the U.S. dollar hasn’t been changed since 1962, which also isn’t very different from the one in 1862.
The most interesting one is certainly the Yugoslav bill with the face of the smiling and diligent Arif Heralic, photographed in 1954. He was a worker in ironworks in Zenica.
He was photographed by Nikola Bibic, a news photographer for Brobe, in 1954 and that photograph found its way to the 1,000 Yugoslav dinar bill, which printed from 1955 to 1981, but which was reprinted into 10 new bills in 1965.
“The process was fascinating. I’m an Englishman and I grew up in a capitalist country. I wanted to find out how money “existed” in Communist countries. According to Marx’s theory, money shouldn’t exist. However, not one country was able to successfully eliminate it. This was a winder into an entirely new world for me,” concluded Hockenhull.
Arif Heralic:
Arif Heralic in reality had a hard life. Of 11 children, only seven survived. As an invalid of the war, he died in extreme poverty in 1971. Belgrade’s Vecernje novosti published a short article about his death on June 17, 1971:
“Arif Heralic, a worker in the Zenica ironworks and soldier, died yesterday in Zenica. His face was on the 1,000 old dinars. He worked hard jobs in the ironworks and got sick several years ago. He was pensioned because of that.”
(Source: Raidosarajevo.ba/ photo blog.hr)
