The Color Of Money

When currency starts gaining colour, I get worried. Colourful currencies to me usually mean that the country producing the currency is somewhere in a tropical area, where the rich/poor line is tightly drawn, and the rich keep their money in other currencies. In countries like these, the American greenback has always been their favourite, since it signifies power - the power to buy stuff that their currency doesn't provide. Tourists bringing greenbacks always have friends in these countries.

Canada just released a pink ribbon coin to commemorate the fight against Breast Cancer. I think this is a great cause, and coloured coins are relatively new and different than colourful paper, since it is a technology relatively few governments have right now. However, when a country starts printing colourful money is inflation is around the corner? How about stamping colourful coins? Is this the same thing?

I think of my trip to Brazil a few years ago, and looking at the see-through window in the Real. When a currency has a viewfinder in it, you know they are trying to make it something worth collecting (or something hard to counterfeit). Back then I would stick with paying $0.80 worth of Canadian coins for a beer. I wonder how much it is now...

Perhaps my favourite financial blogger right now, Bill Cara, can tell us - he'll be setting up in warmer climates shortly.