Noney--rhymes with money--is cultural tender for the payment of any amount, anywhere. The scrolling image above shows Noney's ten front faces. Hold your mouse over it to see their shared back face. In 2003, Rhode Island artist Obadiah Eelcut began releasing 10,000 Noney notes into worldwide circulation. Each note is a hand-drawn, hand-printed and hand-signed piece of art. Each note can also be traded for things. The result is a combination of performance, public art and printmaking. Interested in buying uncut sheets of Noney? Order from a special limited edition: Hand screenprinted on archival polyethylene fiber, each uncut sheet of Noney is numbered, signed and dated by Obadiah Eelcut in pencil. The front depicts all ten Noney note faces in two ink colors, while the back features a pass of red ink unique to this edition. Each order includes $5.00 shipping for USPS Priority Mail or First-Class Mail International. Edition of 200   Double-sided   11"x14.25" $100.00 per sheet via PayPal Over the course of human history, almost everything has served as money--from stones and shells to grains and molasses. Precious metals were an early trading standard because of their consistent weight. Paper currency was another step in trading. As tiny legal documents, paper notes guaranteed specific amounts of precious metal--even though, physically, the notes themselves had no value. They merely represented something else that did. Eventually, banks and governments started issuing more paper currency than their metal reserves could back. They printed more and more notes. Though, in reality, nothing backed the whole supply. The system generally functioned as long as everybody redeemed their notes at different times, while paradoxically believing their notes could be redeemed anytime. Currency today is more abstract than ever. The concept of a guaranteed standard is gone. Money--in your pocket or your bank account--only has value because everybody believes it does. (Read what Obadiah thinks of the new $5 bill.) Noney returns a standard to currency notes. But instead of metal, tobacco or rum, Noney's standard is the aesthetic value of the note itself. It's an economic system backed by art--art that also serves as the system's currency. While Noney notes have the same basic dimension, look and feel of government-issued money, they don't resemble any other currency. Noney is a unique design. Ten different faces show people of Rhode Island with their favorite bird and favorite vegetable. These people entered a contest to appear on Noney. They represent a variety of lives and professions. Among them are a painter, a community advocate, a librarian, a photographer, a waiter and a trio of musicians. The illustrations on Noney are hand-drawn, then hand-screenprinted onto archival, acid-free sheets of polyethylene fiber, a material that's lighter and tougher than paper. After printing, each note is editioned by hand in red ink with a number indicating its print order. Each note is then signed in black ink. Noney's total print run is 10,000 notes: 1,000 of each face. Each Noney note has the same denomination: zero. This doesn't mean each note has no value... just relative value. There's no fixed exchange rate or location of operation. Noney's worth as both art and currency is something to negotiate through each individual transaction--anywhere in the world. Send Noney stories: obadiah-at-noney-dot-net Partial funding for Noney's production by the LEF Foundation Studio assistance by If'n Books + Marks