#TBT: What Does the Billion Dollar Banknote Hide?

Google the “Theft of the Century” keyword. Of all the results (and there are around 97,000,000), what interests us most lies on the first page of the search engine. Eastern Europeans may be familiar with the subject. But just to make sure that the whole world knows about it, during this week’s #ThrowBrandThursday, we bring to the readers’ attention the subject of the financial scandal that shook Moldova in 2014 and what Piko creative agency did to commemorate the 5^th anniversary of the theft.

In short, three banks, some public faces, government included, one billion dollars vanished into thin air. The total loss of the scam was equivalent to 12% of Moldova’s GDP. And as if this wasn’t enough, a law forced every Moldavian citizen to give the money back to the banking system by 2041.

“Up until now, the billion hasn’t been found,” says Piko which developed the Billion-Dollar Banknote as a response to this situation. Created at the request of the independent TV channel & media platform TV8, and the investigative journalist, Mariana Rață, in order to promote her TV show, Cutia Neagră, the Stolen Billion Banknote was designed as a creative attempt to untagle this story.

Its real worth lies in its visual DNA, so don’t try to use it to buy expensive stuff. The only thing that you’ll buy is a ticket to the Theft of the Century operation, which can be deciphered once reading the design details on the banknote.

There are no less than 35 symbols — signed by a Georgian artist, Tatiana Trikoz — hidden on the banknote that follows the original design of the American dollar. “The idea was to leave the viewer to decide for himself what each one of the elements meant. On the back, we sketched the whole timeline of the operation, up until the day of the launch,” says the agency behind the project.

The billion-dollar bill was launched during two public events, in front of the National Bank of Moldova and the Parliament of Moldova. Passers-by were offered the banknote, a metaphorical action that expresses the idea of “giving the billion dollars back” to the real victims. “This acted as a reminder that, even though 5 years have passed, the officials still have not found, nor returned the stolen billion. Influencers and users posted about the banknote on their social media, using the #undeimiliardul hashtag,” the agency continues.

The campaign is supported by an online website, miliardul.md, doubled in Romanian, English, and Russian, where users can check out the symbols while also reading their short description and why they were chosen to adorn the banknote. The website also offers viewers the chance to download the bill and print it.