Lots of new notes from Mujand

I received a thick package from Texas last week with lots of new fantasy notes from Mujand. For those that never heard of Mujand: it's a fantasy banknote company publishing notes designed by the artist Celsus Solar. The biggest project from Mujand are the notes from Blissdane Naive but there are also smaller side projects. To explain what Blissdane Naive is, I'll just quote from the website:

"Nine planets orbit the Mujand Sun. The planet Blissdane Naive has life. It's a world where the fantastic is common and time has become yesterday, today and tomorrow... all at once. What may appear true today, changes within years, months, days, or hours. No one is sure. A time anomaly has hit Blissdane Naive and no one was aware or prepared until the past, present and future became in doubt. It's a mystery yet to be solved. Each country has its Story. These stories can be myth or history. For the people of Blissdane Naive it's getting hard to tell which is which. The Blissdane Naive time anomaly mystery is being revealed one banknote, one story at a time..." There is even a newspaper, the Mujand Investigator, to follow the stories.

All of this background makes it incredibly fun to collect these fantasy notes and read the sometimes bizarre stories. However, besides writing fun stories designer Celsus Solar is also a very skilled banknote designer who produces some of the best looking fantasy notes I ever saw. They are for sale in several eBay-stores but I would recommend visiting the shop on the Mujand site first because not all notes are for sale elsewhere.

But let's dive into it and see what the content of the surprise package from Mujand was. First of all there were three new series, the M-, N- and O-series (I call them that for the first letter of the serial numbers). The M-series, or officially called the 'Lia Antootica Pirates series', consists of 4 notes of 5-, 10-, 25- and 50-sivar. The front of the notes show the so-called Founding Pirates, while the back of the note shows murdered members of the Royal family. To understand the design choices and what the implications were of this design, I recommend you read the short history of Lia Antootica. See if you can draw some parallels with our own time and world. Security features on the notes include a transparent hologram strip and unique serial numbering.

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The second series is the N-series, or officially the Amotekunia Birds & Bees series, consists of two notes of 50- and 100-nemaz. The front of both notes show Bee-Eater birds. The back shows scientific research and the modification of bees. The security features are the same as the Pirate notes: a transparent hologram strip and unique serial numbering.

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The third new series from the Blissdane Naive world is just a single note so far: the 20-lixo note from Toroguay. The front shows scienteer / explorer Sergi Fonte. The back, which has a vertical orientation, shows a luminescent frog (they exist in our own world as well) and the daily life of the Dera people. This is the third series with the same transparent hologram strip and unique serial numbering as security features.

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One last note from Blissdane Naive and that is a new Tobacco note from the Poneet Islands. We already had one Tobacco note issued in 2016 but here is its brother. Or should I say sister? Like the first note we can also admire a naked lady on this new note who is enjoying a walk with her pig. Nothing wrong with that right? I really like the colorful design of the series. The design elements are more or less the same as the previous note in the series but it does have a different security strip. You could argue that this is a bit of a missed opportunity to keep the notes the same but I like the second strip more to be honest.

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Last but not least, the final two notes exist outside the world of Blissdane Naive but in a whole world of their own. These are the two MAGA-notes, where MAGA of course stands for 'Make America Great Again'. The 1-dollar note has the official portrait of President Donald Trump in front of the White House on it, the American eagle and the text E Pluribus Unum. The back shows a portrait of First Lady Melania Trump with the Washington Monument in the back.

The 5-dollar note has the official portrait of Vice-President Mike Pence in front of the United States Capitol building, the text Declaration of Independence and an image of the signing of this document which you can also see on the regular 2-dollar note from the United States. The back shows Second Lady Karen Pence with an aerial shot of the Lincoln Memorial.

Both notes have a transparent security strip and unique serial numbering starting with the letter T (for Trump I suppose). I'm not a huge fan of the security strip which has been used in these notes since it doesn't feel integrated into the note but more pasted on. The design of the notes is understated on the front but more lustrous on the back. The use of one or two colors with different tints and shades adds to the understated design regular American banknotes also have. This is something I always admire in Mujand banknotes: the thoughtful design and use of colors which add significantly to the overall appearance of the notes.

Well, so far I've managed to write about the MAGA-notes without making a political statement so kudos to me. I don't know if people would criticize these notes because they don't like the people depicted. If that's the case, I have to ask if they also don't like collecting banknotes from Iraq, Iran, North Korea and so on? And no, I didn't just compare Trump to Saddam Hussein.

I have understood that the usual sites which sell Mujand notes don't sell this particular series. So if you want them, you can visit the shopping section of the Mujand site.