Chemical plants printed on bank notes, and a firm’s museum closes in Japan

The chemical industry is in the money

Last April, the Aamjiwnaang First Nation reported hazardous levels of benzene in the air in Sarnia, Ontario. In response, the Canadian government quickly imposed strict limits on area facilities known to emit the carcinogenic chemical. The new regulation was aimed primarily at a nearby plant run by Ineos Styrolution, which uses benzene to make styrene, a precursor for polystyrene and other styrenic copolymers. Styrolution shut the plant down after balking at the $50 million in upgrades that it would need to stay open.

It was an abrupt end for what was once part of a storied petrochemical hub. In fact, in 1971, the Sarnia complex was such a source of pride for Canadians that the Bank of Canada printed its image on the Can$10 bill. The plant had been chosen, in part, because it was aesthetically attractive—with its scaffolding, distillation towers, and Horton gas-storage spheres—compared with those of other industries, which “carried on in buildings of massive simplicity,” according to a Bank of Canada memo.

The Canadian bill made this Newscriptster wonder if there were other examples of currency depicting chemical plants. Indeed, industrial motifs on currency are found all around the world, according to chemical industry consultant and paper money collector Robert J. Bauman. He points out that in the 1970s, Singapore put the Jurong Island refining and petrochemical complex on its S$500 bill. A South African 2-rand note from the 1980s portrays a Sasol synthetic fuel and chemical complex. And a Mexican 10,000-peso note from 1982 features an image of state oil company Pemex’s refinery and petrochemical complex in La Cangrejera.

Bauman is no casual collector. In more than 40 years traveling as a consultant, first at ChemSystems and then at his own firm, he amassed a collection, he estimates, of about 13,000 bills. He even wrote a book on 19th-century Argentine paper money.

While visiting currency dealers in Germany, Bauman stumbled upon paper bills printed by chemical companies like BASF and Bayer. These and other chemical firms printed notes that they distributed to workers for use in company stores and canteens. During the period of hyperinflation in the Weimar Republic, around 1922, the company-issued bills had broader significance. “Some of them, like BASF’s, circulated within the town because people trusted BASF more than they did the government,” Bauman tells Newscripts.

Anyone can now view Bauman’s chemical industry paper money collection because in 2017 he donated it to Philadelphia’s Science History Institute. The institute’s Bauman collection now has more than 800 items, and Bauman tries to add to it with new donations every year.

DIC’s museum closes

Chemical companies sometimes have side hustles with little relation to their main business. For decades, DuPont ran a hotel in Wilmington, Delaware. BASF employs a sommelier. DIC, formerly known as Dainippon Ink and Chemicals, until recently operated an art museum.

The Kawamura Memorial DIC Museum of Art, situated on a picturesque spot in Sakura, Japan, had been home to 754 artworks, 384 owned by DIC. The museum’s collection boasts works by Henri Matisse, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, Rembrandt, Andy Warhol, and others. The book value of the artwork that DIC owns is $75 million.

Alas, Newscripts readers who want to visit the museum have missed their chance. The museum had been expensive for the company to maintain and had tied up its capital. After an extensive review in which DIC weighed the costs of the facility against the value to the company’s brand—the firm, after all, makes pigments that are used in artwork—the company decided to close the museum on March 31, sell off three-quarters of the DIC collection, and move the remaining works to Tokyo. Seven Mark Rothko paintings are already being transferred to the International House of Japan.

The decision was controversial. DIC closed the museum over the objections of more than 50,000 Sakura residents who petitioned to keep it open. Shareholders are worried about the transparency of the operation, given that the artwork is such a significant asset for the company. The part of the collection that DIC expects to sell could fetch more than $60 million on the market.

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