1489) The "Trash Isles", Pacific Ocean: "Micro-currency" in the denominations of 100, 50 and 20 "Debris":

 1489) The "Trash Isles", Pacific Ocean: "Micro-currency" in the denominations of 100, 50 and 20 "Debris":

In 1973, several decades ago, much ado was made over a $35 Coin issued by the republic of Minerva (a group of coral reefs near Tonga, in the North Pacific Ocean - barely visible except at low tide, at least until barges laden with sand were dumped on them.

 It made them more visible, and the islands became a source of controversy between Tonga, Fiji and private entrepreneurs who claimed the reefs as their own.

The Minerva Coin was one of the more than two dozen coin  or banknote "micro-currencies" issue by various towns and city municipalities etc.

Dubbed the "Trash Isles" - because the Isles are formed by two patches of garbage, the size of France floating in the North Pacific Ocean and having a disastrous effect on marine life. One is located in the East, South-west of California and the other positioned to the West - Southeast of Japan. 

The "Trash Isles" is a "micro-nation" representing spots in the North Pacific Ocean where converging currents lead to vast patches of plastic debris.

In what was in essence a publicity campaign to call attention to the disastrous effect the rubbish was creating - the Plastics Oceans Foundation and media site LADbible submitted an application to the United Nations Organisation (UNO) on 08.06.2017 - "World Ocean's Day" - requesting that the Trash Isles be recognised as an official country.

Among the steps taken by them were naming Al Gore an honorary citizen - the first of 200,000 and creating its own passports, stamps and currency.

While drawing attention to this huge floating piles of unaltered plastic garbage, which instead of being bio-degradable simply breaks into smaller pieces called micro-plastics. The micro-plastics cannot be seen with the naked eye and even satellite imagery does not show a giant patch of garbage. The micro-plastics of the "Great Pacific Garbage Patch" makes the water look like a cloudy soup, which gets intermixed with larger items like fishing gear and shoes.

The micro-currency:

Three pieces of paper money in the denominations of 100 debris, 50 debris and 20 debris were brought out by the participating groups for drawing attention towards this huge "trash-pileup" problem. 

All these denominations have holograms and security stripes and all depict maritime wildlife amid piles of floating garbage.

The 100 Debris Note shows a whale's tail in a sea of floating plastic on the Front and a sea-gull with a plastic six-pack holder lodged around its neck on the Back.

The heading reads "THE RESERVE OF TRASH ISLES".

The 50 Debris Note has birds on a trash-strewn shore and a seal being choked by a fishing net.

The 20 Debris Note depicts a sea turtle on a pile of trash on the Front.

On the Back is an octopus entangled among plastic debris.

                          An alarming image of The Trash Isles

                    An image of the Passport of Trash Isles

                                   An inner page of the Passport

                        Stamps of the "Trash Isles" (0.30 Debris each)

                          Al Gore's "passport" of "The Trash Isles"

More posts on micro-currencies, all issued with an eco-friendly perspective in mind:

1) The Micro-Currency called - "EUSCKO", France circulates in the French Basque Country and is the largest such currency in circulation today, in the world, fully backed by the Euro; ii) It is one of 44 such micro-currencies circulating in French cities; iii) Paris is on the verge of introducing a micro-currency

2) The Brixton Pound, UK: Modern world's first novel Urban Local Currency, that circulates parallel to the British Pound in this district of South London

3) Micro-Currencies: Santa Maria Jajalpa (Mexico) and Castellino del Biferno (Italy): Is this the new norm after the "Chinese Wuhan Virus" (also known as "Covid-19") pandemic?

4) The "Trash Isles", Pacific Ocean: "Micro-currency" in the denominations of 100, 50 and 20 "Debris"