Rubberband Racks

"Rubberband Racks" Money Canvas Art by IKONICK As long as there has been money, there have been those driven to collect as much of it as possible. Until the mid-1970s banks had currency counters to count each bill by hand. But more money meant more problems, and they needed a quicker way of accounting. So the American Bankers Association came up with the idea for a standardized color-coded system of paper bands. An orange band denoted a $50 stack of one-dollar bills, a red band meant $500 in fives, and so on, up to the coveted black strap of 1,000 Benjamins (that's $100,000). It’s a great system that made counting and handling money easier. However, there is one problem: Paper can't stretch. Once that black band is full of those 1,000 c-notes, it's maxed out. Not the case with a rubber band. Natural rubber can stretch up to 10 times its original length. That means a lot more room for a lot more cash. Those two methods of banding bills are a metaphor for two distinct approaches to life