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MULTIPLE IDENTITIES VIA SPIRITUALITY, HISTORIES AND CULTURAL RE-PRESENTATIONS 169educator) and FukuzawaYukichi (writer, educator,political theorist). The reverse of these banknotes andthat of the 2000 series were marked by an emphasis onCulture and thus featured significant cultural icons:Phoenix from Byodoin Temple, Irises from a screen byKorin Ogata, and Cherry blossoms with Mt. Fuji.Two decades later, to address counterfeiting a newseries was introduced in 2004 still with Meiji period“Persons of Culture”, namely Noguchi Hideyo(Scientist), Higuchi Ichiyo (Writer) andFukuzawaYukichi. When asked why Fukuzawa wasretained from the 1984 banknote series, the officialanswer is that the Printing Bureau had no time to do anew portrait. The unofficial explanation is thatFukuzawa was the founder of Keio University. Was itmerely a coincidence that the Finance Minister andPrime Minister in 2000 who were heads of bothauthorities responsible for the approval of the note,were alumni of Keio University?MALAYSIAOf the countries in this research, Malaysia has had theleast number of design series of banknotes issued bythe Bank Negara Malaysia. To date they have onlyissued four different banknote design series beginningin 1967. This simple design became the standardfollowed in succeeding issues. All bills carry a portraitof DYMM Yang D-Pertuan Agong, first King ofMalaysia, on the face of the bill. His portrait has gracedbanknotes of all denominations from 1967 to the2011. Since Malaysia has a system of rotatingmonarchs, the portrait of the first king is a practicalsolution to the challenge of printing new notes foreach king. The Bank has publicly announced thecoming of a new design series to be released in 2012,and during my research, no details were given.Since the face of the bill is basic and simple, it is onlyon the reverse that we can see an expression ofcontemporary times. SERIES II was issued in 1982 onthe theme of Malaysian monuments and historic sites,buildings, cultural artifacts, ornaments, woodcarving,etc. Series III first issued in 1996 was on the theme“Wawasan 2020” aiming to “reflect Malaysia’seconomic development and achievement towards afully developed country”. There are several categories:TELECOMMUNICATIONS is depicted by: KualaLumpur Telecom tower, MEASAT satellite, and amap of ASEAN; CONSTRUCTION andINFRASTRUCTURE is depicted by: Petronas TwinTowers, Kuala Lumpur International Airport and amap showing the location of Putrajaya and Cyberjaya;TRANSPORTATION is depicted by: MalaysianAirlines plane and a Putra LRT train; MINING isdepicted on RM50 represented by a [Petronas] centraloil drilling platform together with wellhead controlvalves and images of oil pipes; MANUFACTURINGis depicted on the RM100 bill by a car production line,next to which is shown a close-up of a Proton carengine, also gear wheel and cam-patterns.In 2007, Malaysia celebrated the 50 th anniversary ofMalaysian Independence and issued a RM50commemorative note. Later, RM50 notes have,basically, the same face but the reverse now carrieshibiscus and songket weaving designs. Following theWawasan 2020 theme on economic development,the RM50 note depicts AGRICULTURE with oilpalm and Tunku Abdul Rahman Puta Al-Haj, thefirst Prime Minister during the declaration ofindependence.INDONESIAIndonesia has the most numerous banknote series inthe countries visited for my fellowship with designelements just as numerous to be detailed in thisnarrative report. In 1953, Bank Indonesia issued itsfirst banknotes ante-dated to 1952 with designsreflecting Indonesian heritage. The portraits on thenotes were as follows: 5 Kartini, 10 Statues, 25 Clothdesign, 50 Wayang, 100 Sudirman, 500 Bas-reliefsculptures, and 1,000 Borobodur making classificationby theme difficult. In 1958, the series were onhandicrafts like wood-carving, weaving, fishing,spinning etc. and the portraits were the differentartisans at work on these Indonesian traditional crafts.In 1959, the “SerieBunga” depicted flowers and birds.In 1960, the theme was Dance and Dancers. The nextdesign series was the “Seri Hewan” or Animals serieswith portraits of Monkey, Crocodile, Squirrel, Tiger,Elephant, Monitor lizard, and Water buffalo. At themoment, I am still consolidating my notes and tryingto make sense of the frequent design changes inIndonesian currency.ConclusionFrom the data gathered in the above countries, one canclearly see that banknote design can be studied at facevalue for the images and history they depict but whenThe Work of the 2010/2011 API Fellows