Penguin Money - CC 319

CC 319

Antarctican Bill

Origin: Canada

Unit: $1 USD

This is one of my favorite pieces in the museum, mostly because of its obscurity and that no one seems to ever think about it. You may notice some oddities in the little description above of the specimen, namely that it's an Antarctican dollar but it's from Canada and worth American, which I shall clear up in a bit. Today's piece from the museum is indeed an Antarctican dollar bill. The obverse has a picture of some mountains, because Antarctica is a continent which means there is rock and ground just like all the others even though there are miles of ice piled on top in some places; this is in comparison to the North Pole which is just ice over the ocean. The reverse features penguins diving into the water, along with the Antarctican flag in the upper right hand portion of the bill. 

I'm sure you all are asking yourself, why is there money in Antarctica, no one lives there? Well first off for half of the year there are scientists down there in a variety of different fields studying climate, astronomy, paleontology, ecology, etc. And there are places down there to spend money, though few and far between such as some research stations have bar facilities. Now how this money works is an independent company called the Antarctica Overseas Exchange Office, LTD. mints these commemorative bills every so often and sells them to collectors, and the vast majority of the profits go towards funding further research in Antarctica. The company is based in Canada, but in trying to keep with it being as close to a real currency as possible they will honor the bill for it's face value, i.e. 1 Antarctican dollar = 1 US dollar (though they do impose time limits on exchanges). However, it is fun to note that some of these bills have turned up in Antarctica so I'm sure a few have been used down there by some playful folks. 

It's a very interesting piece to be sure, and the company really puts a lot of effort into making their bills look great. The Antarctican series comes in $1, $2, $5, $10, and $20 denominations, and they print out new issues with different pictures every few years. You can order yourself one to help out research at the Antarctica Overseas Exchange Office's website and learn more about life in Antarctica at the British Antarctica Survey's website here. Also, you may want to note that this is the same place that made the Galapagos Islands bill that I posted last year.