Tag: Funny Money

Canadian Satirical Political Note / Funny Money

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Political $2 Note Vanderzalm

  Here’s a Bill (William) Vander Zalm, satirical political note, over-written in blue ink on a genuine Canadian $2 bank note.  One bird appears to be thinking or talking to the other, “WHO’D VOTE FOR AN IDIOT LIKE VANDERZALM”.  Probably issued as a protest note during the 1986 provincial election. The same year the bird series notes came out. In 1986, then Premier Bennett announced he was retiring. Vander Zalm, local businessman and political activist attracted considerable attention as he considered whether he would run for the leadership of the Social Credit Party. He generated more press out of the race than…

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Funny Money Introduction / Diefenbaker dollars

Diefenbaker - 92-1/2 cents.

Funny Money is seldom funny and rarely money. The phrase “Funny Money” was first coined by the Social Credit movement in the 1930s. Collectors now use the phrase to refer to any piece of paper with a political message and a loose resemblance to currency. Occasionally the message supports but, more often, opposes a political party. Many examples of funny money are highly scurrilous; especially those issued by private, often anonymous, individuals. The amateurish designs, often caricatures plagiarized from newspaper editorial cartoons, seem to represent a genuine form of folk art that falls in the numismatic category known as “Exonumia”…

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