European Journal of International Relations 10(1) citizenry.States'legitimacy claims are especially important-and especially fragile -in the matter of money,whose value utterly depends on the general public's willingness to suspend disbelief and accept the alchemical process by which the state turns paper into gold (Carruthers and Babb, 1996).Moreover,states seek legitimacy not only domestically but interna- tionally as well.The alternative hypothesis,then,is that in a bid for contemporary relevance and legitimacy,the state will select currency iconography that reflects the transnational spirit of the times. What sorts of iconographic shifts might reflect this desire to give currency'to the currency?Ronald Inglehart and John Meyer are two main proponents in the social sciences of cultural shift'theories-theories that argue that with the passage of time,certain ideas and values have risen and fallen internationally (Inglehart,1997;Meyer et al.,1997).Although Inglehart and Meyer use different language and methods in elaborating their theories,there is clearly a family resemblance in the shifts they describe First,Inglehart and Meyer can both be said to trace an overall trend toward the dispersion of legitimate social power and initiative-from the state to society,and then to the individual.Second,Inglehart and Meyer can both be said to trace an overall trend in the perceived meaning or goals of life from the devotion to tradition,to the modern quest for material goods,and then to the post-materialist and/or postmodern idea that the journey is at least as important as the destination.3 How might we observe the impact of these broad values trends on money?One need only glance at any banknote to recognize how dense a network of symbols and ideas money can contain,and moreover how sophisticated a student of a given national culture one needs to be in order to grasp the significance of these various choices.It is clearly impossible for any one scholar to have this depth of knowledge about all the nations of Europe,much less be able to synthesize the rich detail into general conclusions.Therefore,this project does not focus on the details of the iconographic choices that may have inflamed societal passions at any one moment in time.Rather,it looks for broader shifts in the basic parameters of the choices being made.This strategy,apart from making possible a study of wide temporal and geographical scope,allows us to focus on the big identity picture rather than narrower factional cleavages.For instance,Maurice Agulhon and Pierre Bonte have meticulously traced the great 19th century debates in France over the symbol of the French Republic,'Marianne', notably whether she should be depicted wearing a Phrygian bonnet and whether one of her breasts should be exposed (Agulhon and Bonte,1992). The debates were heated,but in the long sweep of history,the left-right conflict they reflected was not as deep a philosophical split as people thought at the time.In wider historical perspective,it becomes clear that the two 6 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner.Further reproduction prohibited without permission.Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission