On Money : Art in Print
On Money Among his other virtues, Albrecht Dürer was a meticulous book- keeper. His travel diaries are chock- a-block with tallies in now arcane currencies—“8 thaler” for wine, “5 white pfs” for a Lutheran tract, “20 stivers” for an elk’s foot—as well as payment in units still perfectly familiar: a St. Eustace to a servant; a Melencolia I to a secretary; an engraved Passion to a goldsmith. Dürer prints, then as now, were valued as masterpieces of art, not just markers of exchange, but Dürer understood that reproducibility brought fungibility with it. Though banknotes ...
Source: artinprint.org