If Tribeca ever secedes from the Union, we’ll already have designs for our new currency, thanks to Chia-Wei Liu, a grad student in the MFA in Interaction Design program at the School of Visual Arts. “Last year, in Jason Santa Maria’s Communicating Design class, we were assigned the task of designing a local currency,” he explained via email. “We were asked to research the neighborhood to determine which characteristics should be represented. I tried to find a balance between Tribeca’s past glory and present energy by using historical architecture, street views, and a popular event. Therefore, each note features one local landmark building, tiny pink blossoms I’ve seen there in April, as well as the Tribeca Film Festival. The back of the note shows Robert De Niro, co-founder of the film festival, which has had a huge contribution to the local economy.” (Hat tip to to Matt Lundquist of Tribeca Therapy for pointing this out.)