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Coin Cabinet >  Our programme >  Exhibitions >  The Blooming Language of Money

The Blooming Language of Money

Floral Motifs on Coins and Banknotes

22.05. - 31.10.2026

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Duration

22.05. - 31.10.2026

Opening

21.05.2026 19:00

Location

Coin Cabinet, Schloss Eggenberg

Curators

Karl Peitler and Marc Philipp Wahl

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About the
Exhibition

Flowers and plants were depicted on coins as far back as ancient Greece. The tradition of depicting floral motifs on coins can be traced through the Middle Ages to modern times. Flowers and plants are also popular motifs on banknotes.

 

The exhibition The Blooming Language of Money offers an overview of coins and banknotes featuring images of flowers and plants from ancient Greece to the euro, and deciphers the messages contained in these depictions. The exhibition focuses on coins and medals featuring lilies, roses, alpine flowers, palm trees and laurel wreaths as important elements of their design. The coins with floral motifs on display come not only from Europe, but also from America, Asia and Oceania. The exhibition offers a broad view of the fascinating diversity of the world of money. In addition, the show features an area in which the coins and banknotes are grouped thematically – from the construction of national identities, through uniqueness, to independence.

 

In the exhibition, the coins and banknotes enter into dialogue with works of art and interventions by the artist Ryts Monet, who repeatedly addresses the iconography of money in his works and examines the flower on banknotes and coins and its changeable appropriation and identification.

Glimpses

[Translate to English:] Viel Florales bietet der gesamte Standort Schloss Eggenberg im Rahmen des Jahresthemas BLOOM im Universalmuseum Joanneum und Kunsthaus Graz.

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Karl Peitler, Leiter des Münzkabinetts und Kurator der Ausstellung, Ryts Monet, Künstler der zeitgenössischen Intervention und Marc Philipp Wahl, Co-Kurator der Ausstellung

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Der Künstler Ryts Monet vor seiner Arbeit im Münzkabinett in Schloss Eggenberg

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Ausstellungsansicht "Die blühende Sprache des Geldes. Florale Motive auf Münzen und Banknoten" im Münzkabinett, zu sehen die zeitgenössische Kunstintervention von Ryts Monet

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Ryts Monet. In God We Trust. Digital collage printed on wall paper. 2015

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Ryts Monet. Frottage. colored crayons on paper. 21 × 29.7 cm. 2026

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Ausstellungsansicht "Die blühende Sprache des Geldes. Florale Motive auf Münzen und Banknoten" im Münzkabinett

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Ausstellungsansicht "Die blühende Sprache des Geldes. Florale Motive auf Münzen und Banknoten" im Münzkabinett

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Ausstellungsansicht "Die blühende Sprache des Geldes" im Münzkabinett, zu sehen die zeitgenössische Kunstintervention von Ryts Monet

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Schilling, groschen and cent

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Ausstellungsansicht "Die blühende Sprache des Geldes. Florale Motive auf Münzen und Banknoten" im Münzkabinett

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Ausstellungsansicht "Die blühende Sprache des Geldes" im Münzkabinett, zu sehen die zeitgenössische Kunstintervention von Ryts Monet "Fleur de Sal", 2026 (salt crystals and coin)

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Ausstellungsansicht "Die blühende Sprache des Geldes" im Münzkabinett, zu sehen die zeitgenössische Kunstintervention von Ryts Monet "Fleur de Sal", 2026 (salt crystals and coin)

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Ausstellungsansicht "Die blühende Sprache des Geldes. Florale Motive auf Münzen und Banknoten" im Münzkabinett

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Ausstellungsansicht "Die blühende Sprache des Geldes. Florale Motive auf Münzen und Banknoten" im Münzkabinett

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As part of BLOOM, works by Ryts Monet are being presented in the exhibition.

As part of BLOOM 2026, Coin Cabinet

Ryts Monet

Works

22.05.–31.10.2026

For the Coin Cabinet and the exhibition The Blooming Language of Money, Ryts Monet has integrated works that relate nature, systems of value, and image production into a shared network of relationships, expanding the context of the numismatic collection.

Riserva Aurea (Orchids), Assembled banknotes, paper, glass, 50 x 70 cm, 2026
Kunst = Kapital², colored ballpoint pen on paper, 70 × 50 cm, 2026
In God We Trust, digital collage printed on wallpaper, various dimensions, 2015
Frottages (series), colored crayons on paper, 21 × 29,7 cm per element, 2026

Ryts Monets Riserva Aurea (Orchids) (2026), the artist assembles international banknotes into a field of orchid images, referencing Singapore’s “Orchid Series”, in which the national currency was deliberately designed without human figures. The orchid appears here as a hybrid form and a symbol of cultural plurality, as well as a model of controlled coexistence.

In In God We Trust (2015), the US dollar motto becomes the starting point for a large-scale wallpaper composed of fragments of banknotes, whose floral motifs represent national plant symbols and map global systems of value.

The series Kunst = Kapital² (2026) transfers Marx’s value logic (M–C–M’) onto artworks depicted on banknotes and meticulously reconstructs them in ballpoint pen, revealing a closed circuit between money, image, and artistic production.

In the Frottages (2026), coins from the Coin Cabinet are reorganised into botanical categories and made visible through rubbing techniques, creating unexpected visual harmonies across geographically and historically separated systems.

Finally, in Fleur de Sal (2026), salt crystallisations are applied to floral coin motifs, linking salt as an ancient means of payment with natural processes of crystallisation. Together, the works form a systemic reflection on value, nature, and representation, in which money, plant, and image continuously transform into one another.

 

You can see more of Ryts Monet’s work at the Kunsthaus Graz.

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