The career prospects of banknote designers have taken a big hit in recent years with the steady spread of the euro across the continent. Slovenia ditched its own banknotes in favour of the euro last year and both Malta and Cyprus followed suit in 2008. Slovakia will abandon the Slovak koruna in January 2009 to adopt the euro, so consigning to monetary history a currency that is only fifteen years old. (The Slovak koruna, you will recall, was born out of the disintegration of Czechoslovakia).
Look west
The West is inscribed on our imagination. It is where we watch the sunset, and thus the cardinal point that ushers in the evening, bringing promise of rest and sleep. And yet the West means other things too. For generations of Americans, the West ...
