New Money Who Dis? Maya Angelou, Harriet Tubman, Queen Nanny of Jamaica…and Dr. Candy Terry, The First Black Woman To Appear On An NFT Coin
In 2021, we find numerous articles debating whether or not Harriet Tubman would be considered the first black woman on a currency, as talks of her being featured on the $20 bill took center stage. The debate arose from the history of Nanny of Jamaica who has already been featured on the $500 Jamaican banknote, being considered the first. What we can gather from research is that there is an African American woman that undoubtedly is the first of her kind regarding currency. Dr. Candy Terry is in deed the first black woman on an NFT cryptocurrency. The now famous NFT that costs 4819304.16 $SOL = $716,148,598.176 USD (as of 1/15/22) is now the highest valued NFT for sale by an African American and makes Dr. Candy the wealthiest African American woman in the metaverse. We will dive like Uncle Scrooge McDuck in to the pool of coins later.
So what about all the recent headlines about black women being featured on fiat money? We can start by looking at the recent news that the writer and poet Maya Angelou has become the first black woman to have her likeness depicted on the quarter, the first in a series of coins commemorating pioneering American women that began shipping this week, the U.S. Mint announced Monday. Last year, the U.S. Treasury announced that Harriet Tubman will replace Andrew Jackson on the front of the $20 bill. For some, this is an act of revolutionary change. It is a momentous action for people of color to celebrate, and to cut ties with a currency from a nation that supported slavery for close to 300 years (including the colonial era) and freedom for half of that. To recognize the life of a formally enslaved woman on a currency is a significant statement.
However, for some, placing Tubman on American greenbacks is an extension of the commodification of enslaved people and a slap in the face to her legacy.
“I don’t want to see Tubman commodified with a price, as she once was as a slave,” wrote the Guardian’s Steven W. Thrasher last summer.
“It’s clear that putting her face on America’s currency would undermine her legacy,” declared Feminista Jones in the Washington Post.
How should we evaluate these arguments in a moment where so many relics of the past are being removed, revised, rewritten, and relocated? We then must arrive to the future of finance.
There is a revolutionary change that has taken place in the world of economics. We are now witnessing the ushering in of a new era for all people. An era that is free from ties to a system that was built on the backs of the people most disadvantaged as a result of that same currency. We are introduced to the awe inspiring metaverse, where freedom, art, digital assets, and wealth are everyday used terms. Cryptocurrencies have shown to be disruptive economic innovations that have totally revolutionized the current economic structure and is changing how banks and financial institutions will have to operate just to stay relevant in the near future. The economic power which lies with the governments and financial institutions is at stake according to economists, which in turn has made them wary of crypto-currencies. Hence why the notion of an African American woman being featured on the the most valuable form of currency to date is empowering to say the least. Dr. Candy’s NFT Token is the first in the American blockchain history. The coin was minted on the LUV NFT Market, where players can mint personalized 5D LUVRS to honor men and women in LUV Tribes within the LUV Metaverse. LUV NFT Market is the first dCommerce market game in the MetaVerse that solves many cultural challenges for people of color, starting with the right of every player to vote on the direction of the game. LUV NFTs provide players with working capital, start-up capital, and pandemic relief donations by way of a (P2D) play-to-donate model that removes the middleman from running a virtual business in the LUV MetaVerse. Dr. Candy’s 5D LUVR NFT is now the highest valued NFT for sale by an African American woman, and can be seen here.
This serves as true liberation and empowerment, because it shows that there is no value that can be placed on us as people, regardless of color. Dr. Candy’s ingenious act reveals to us that we are priceless, by redefining the invaluable cost of a woman of color and of women everywhere. For some of us this may not be the tangible, old school, banknote we were expecting, but wether we understand the technology behind blockchain or not, this is undoubtedly the future “face” of currency.
