Art and money have much in common. Both are spheres of social activity that carry symbolic values. A coin is simply a piece of metal, stamped with signs to give it symbolic meaning, to give it a value, a value that changes with the vicissitudes of its economic life, or, when no longer legal tender, with its life as a collectable. A painting is a piece of canvas, stretched on a frame to make it taut, which is then covered with pigment, brushed with an image, a sign that gives it value, a value that changes with the vicissitudes of its aesthetic and symbolic life, with its commodity value. Art and money come together whenever the values of both are exchanged within a market—in trade between artist and client/patron, between dealer and customer, between competitors for social authority.

These relationships of art and money are examined by a number of writers from a variety of perspectives—from different periods in history, within different cultures, and engaging with different media of art—from Renaissance Italy to Pop Art and the recent flourishing of the art of Australian Aborigines, from critiques of the market and contemporary art to the funding of art education, from an examination of the values that are being bought and sold to ways for artists to avoid an over-engagement with the money economy, and finally the relationship between art, national identity and coinage.