Original scientific paper

Identification of the Persons Shown on the 5000 Kuna Banknote from the Issue of 1 September 1943

Vedran Krušelj *

* Corresponding author.

Abstract

Motifs depicting people in a banknote design are not necessarily always reserved for important individuals from the history of a nation or state. Banknotes of the Independent State of Croatia, from the issue dated 1 September 1943, have on their reverses depictions of people dressed in various Croatian national costumes, as the main ethnographic motif on the banknotes. The question that has arisen is whether the people on these
banknotes are imaginary characters and the result of the designer’s artistic freedom and artistic skill, or whether they were real people, captured at a certain moment with a camera or a brush. Today we can confirm with certainty that these were real people, who ended up on the banknotes as unsuspecting ethnographic models, considering that the banknotes’ designer’s basic idea was to emphasise and present the appearance of
a particular costume, as a historical and ethnographic treasure of the Croatian people. One of the banknotes from the issue of 1 September 1943 is a 5000 kuna banknote, which on its reverse has a graphic representation of a girl and a man dressed in the Croatian folk costume of the Vrlica region. In this research paper, we will reveal their identity and explain the circumstances that led to that couple in folk costumes becoming the motif of a banknote. We also reveal their sad and tragic life stories, as well as those of their family members, mostly caused because the post-war state authorities knew that these persons had adorned the banknote of the former state. Although these
were ordinary individuals, “from the people”, whose way of dressing and presenting the national costume was caught at one moment by the lens of a camera, they and their loved ones had to bear the burden of being exposed on the banknotes.

Keywords

Hrčak ID:

320712

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/320712

Publication date:

1.8.2024.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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