Already a controversial figure<\/a>, Spencer Clark\u2019s moment of vanity triggered Congressman Russell Thayer to ban the appearance of living celebrities on U.S. currency \u2013 or, in his own words, \u201coff with their heads!<\/a>\u201d To make sure of it, congress also banned the issue of banknotes under the value of 10\u00a2. (These low-value notes were introduced because folk kept melting down nickels and dimes for the metal.)<\/p>\n A country\u2019s banknotes and coins are almost a personality test for the country itself. At NetCredit, an online lender offering personal loans<\/a> and lines of credit<\/a>, we\u2019re passionate about cash as a cultural artifact, and not just a tool for living<\/a>. So, we\u2019ve counted the faces on the world\u2019s currencies to find the types of people each country chooses to represent on money \u2013 and even how much each celebrity type is worth.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n We built a list of all coins and notes currently in circulation around the world, using only currencies from countries that feature a person on the obverse or reverse side. We researched the people on each banknote and assigned them an “honor” category (e.g., artist, monarch, politician) based on their role in society.<\/p>\n To calculate the average value of honors across the world, we converted all currency into dollars and averaged the value of each currency for each honor.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Start by playing with this interactive tool to rank the countries by how many of each profession they have on their cash. And then scroll on for the rest of our money nerd charts and graphs.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Monarchs are the clear favorite choice for currency celebrities \u2013 and Queen Elizabeth II<\/a> is the clear favorite monarch. Top royals appear on 29.86% of all currency that features people, according to our analysis.<\/p>\n English currency has starred a living monarch since Henry VII\u2019s gold sovereign in 1489. Before then, only generic king and queen illustrations were featured. Today, Queen Elizabeth holds the world record for \u2018most currencies featuring the same individual\u2019 \u2013 including Australia, Bermuda and Canada.<\/p>\n Click here to see this image in full size<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n There aren\u2019t many places where you’ll see military figures (8.23%) and poets (5.13%) shoulder to shoulder, but these are the fourth and fifth most common types of people to appear on national currency. In fact, the wordsmiths are giving the generals more than a \u2018run for their money\u2019 \u2013 when you combine poets with authors (2.26%) and other writers (1.51.%), the scribes overtake the militants with a combined share of 8.91%.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The U.S. has among the most diverse sets of currency figures. While two-fifths of U.S. currency features a politician and another two-fifths features presidents, 12 other celebrity types make up the remainder. These include a mountaineer (John Muir), a poet (Maya Angelou) and a native American explorer (Sacagawea<\/a> \u2013 Shoshone interpreter for the William Clark) on the dollar.<\/p>\n Click here to see this image in full size<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n There is a definite military bias on Venezuelan currency, which has become so devalued that some notes are worth more as a crafts material<\/a>. But in Norway, the humanities have their day: writers, artists, singers and authors occupy a combined 57.16% of currency, with King Harald V on 28.57%. Non-human celebrities on the Norwegian krone include Ulv\u00e6r Lighthouse, a Viking ship and a cod. Sadly, Norway\u2019s Conservative party has pledged to discontinue<\/a> paper money by 2030.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It\u2019s a world where mathematicians are worth more than monarchs<\/a>. The latter is spread over such a variety of currencies that their value is dragged down to a mediocre $31.21, while mathematicians feature only on paper currency, worth an average of $41.02.<\/p>\n But historians take home the bacon. Appearing on just 0.45% of the world\u2019s peopled currency \u2013 and no small coins \u2013 historians rack up an average of $176.56 across Peru, Switzerland, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkey and Ukraine. The clue is Switzerland: historian Jacob Burckhardt<\/a> features on the 1000-franc ($1068) note of this wealthy country.<\/p>\n Click here to see this image in full size<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Spare a thought for the philosophers, though. They still can\u2019t make a buck. Philosophers feature on the currency of just three countries: Nicaragua, Tajikistan and Venezuela, on notes to a value of $0.63. Nicaragua’s green C$10 note features the philosopher, lawyer and poet Miguel Larreynaga, a \u201chero of Central American independence<\/a>\u201d who was among the party sent to Spain to negotiate for independence.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The Spencer Clark 5\u00a2 remained in print until 1866, and Clark eventually resigned over book-keeping issues<\/a> in 1868. But his face remains better known than that of the average civil servant because it achieved that rare honor of gracing a national banknote.<\/p>\n Becoming a currency celebrity is one of the surest ways of staying in the public eye. Notes and coins occupy pockets and are handled daily; discontinued, they become collector\u2019s items for decades or centuries. A coin is more durable than a history book, and a meaningful banknote will be illustrated in multiple history books. Which tech moguls, social media influencers and reality TV stars do you think will get the dollar bill treatment in years to come?<\/p>\n <\/p>\n First, we built a list of all coins and notes currently in circulation around the world, using only currencies from countries that feature a person on the obverse or reverse side.<\/p>\n We built them using these Wikipedia lists: people on banknotes<\/a> and people on coins<\/a>. We excluded countries with only one coin or note that featured a person.<\/p>\n We then researched the people on each banknote and assigned them an “honor” category (e.g., artist, monarch, politician) based on their role in society, allowing us to calculate the split of honors within each country’s currency.<\/p>\n To calculate the average value of honors across the world, we converted all currency into dollars and averaged the value of each currency for each honor.<\/p>\n The data was gathered in March 2022.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Whose face would you put on a new dollar bill if the decision was yours? Maybe\u2026 your own? It sounds …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":29,"featured_media":14079,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[626],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14072","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-improving-finances"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","pp_post_mime_type":"publish","yoast_head":"\nWhat We Did<\/h2>\n
<\/h2>\n
Key Findings<\/h2>\n
\n
Famous Faces: Around the World In Every Currency<\/h2>\n
Queen Elizabeth II Leads Monarchs to Front of One-Third of World\u2019s Currency<\/h2>\n
![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.netcredit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/06\/01_People-on-Currency_Ring-Chart_World_Hi-RES-1.png\")
<\/p>\nU.S. Currency Among Most Diverse of Major Countries<\/h2>\n
![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.netcredit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/06\/02_People-on-Currency_Pie-Chart_12-Major-Countries_Hi-RES-1.png\")
<\/p>\nAverage Ballerina-themed Currency Outvalues that Featuring Nationalist Leaders<\/h2>\n
![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.netcredit.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3\/2022\/06\/03_People-on-Currency_Chart_Value_Hi-RES.png\")
<\/p>\nA Place in History You Can\u2019t Buy<\/h2>\n
METHODOLOGY AND SOURCES<\/h2>\n