Afghanistan

Afghanistan

80 x 1 Afghani notes (FF 001-080)

80 40 sec. videos

I was first attracted to these Afghan notes because this was the currency of the theater during the never ending US occupation, a military adventure financed by US money printing. This was the other side of the coin.

But these uncirculated notes are unusual. They carry small handwritten marks in the margins — numbers added by hand, likely for counting, pricing, or exchange. These kinds of marks are common in places where currency moves quickly through informal systems: markets, money changers, checkpoints, aid transactions. They are human marks, added out of necessity, not authority.

But they don't include dates or serial numbers. So I used a plain, black gel pen to add my own, using my signature "Fiatfire" in a sequential series, "FF-001" etc.

Throughout the 2000s and into the 2010 series, Afghan banknotes were produced abroad by foreign security printers, primarily in the United Kingdom and Germany. Firms such as De La Rue and Bundesdruckerei handled different production runs under international contracts tied to reconstruction and monetary stabilization efforts. When a nation’s currency is printed across multiple countries, by different printers, under political urgency, inconsistencies emerge. The notes may look unified, but materially they reflect a fragmented system — one where sovereignty over money is partial, negotiated, and often provisional.

The handwritten marks on these bills are evidence of that reality. They show how money actually functioned on the ground: handled, counted, adjusted, and adapted by individuals. But handwriting is not the same as serial numbering. There's no pretense of institutional permanence or security. They were made to be gamed. It's like any other commodity in an open-air market.

The package I received from an online dealer contained 100 uncirculated bills in a plain paper band. My handwriting didn't seem right on the first few. So I also had the freedom to improvise. I tried to fashion it a little bit like the numbers already there. I started spraying them with accelerants the way I usually, but about half through I realized that these bills didn't need them. They were essentially made to burn.