In today’s Nature Printing class we looked at Benjamins -which were nature-printed paper currency developed in the 1730s by Benjamin Franklin in collaboration with the botanist Joseph Breintnall.

Franklin began creating new paper money for the American colonies soon after he opened his printing house in 1728. He realized his and Breintnall’s nature-printing invention could be useful against counterfeiting because the unique patterns of leaves was not easily reproduced. He also used unusual printing inks and spelling mistakes.

Later we made a thaumatrope- an optical toy developed in the 19th century. Invented by John Ayrton Paris an English physician in 1825, the Thaumatrope was the first instrument to exploit the (disputed) persistence of images on the retina. Paris believed that scientific learning in children could be stimulated through a combination of amusement and instruction, using toys such as the Thaumatrope.

We made a “coin” tossed on a string- the outline and the nature print of a citronella leaf become its head and tail. It’s one of a kind and cannot be reproduced! We haven’t placed a numeric value to it yet.

More from our Nature Printing classes: