Monday, August 03, 2009

Taking "Notes"

I collect coins, and don't really know much about currency. Still, I've amassed a small collection of notes I've found "interesting". I've shown other notes before, and here are more.
click on pictures to enlarge
From what little I can read of French, this appears to be from the period of the French Revolution.
Update, 12/18/16:  A reader informs me of the following:
The left side says Counterfeiting is punishable by Death, The right side says the State will honor the amount shown.  Assigned a value of 100 Francs.
Thank you!


I received this confederate note from my grandfather; we believe it originally came from his great-grandfather (scroll down here to see letters written to him in 1865).


This appears to have been issued by the legitimate government of the Philippines during the Japanese occupation of World War II.


And who is this cherubic individual? Could it be Chairman Mao?


And how about this guy? We've been in a war (of wits) with his country since he was deposed in 1979.


The top note is an Iraqi 25 dinars note issued in 1986. In the middle is one of the leaflets, along with a description of it, that was dropped on Iraqi soldiers during Gulf War I (Desert Shield/Desert Storm). The bottom note could have been released in 2002, before Saddam was deposed, or just after the 2003 invasion. Immediately after Saddam's fall more notes with his picture were printed, but in less than a year the new government had released new notes sans Saddam.

2 comments:

Sandra said...

Have you seen Lileks' "Engraveyard"? He has some currency from a whole bunch of different places.

Mike said...

Hey Darren:

I used to do leaflet drops back when I was a navigator. Would you believe it was a special qual? Anyway, it was a lot of fun, especially if you later got to see your target blanketed with leaflets like a ticker-tape parade.