Scottishmoney

The oldest piece of paper money I have ever bought, will have seen when it comes, the oldest piece of paper money possible to own, and probably the shortest time owning it, since it is going to be a gift for someone.

A very passionate note with much colour and feeling: Is this art, or is this money?

But influence shows up in unusual places, here Romania:

Mali, another nation in W. Africa weighs in with this note: Obviously in my quest to collect notes with feminine vignettes, France, French inspired, and French printed banknotes become a significant source of collectables for my venue.

And inspiration spread over time, well at least the three ladies did, they were obviously inspired by the French Indochina note from the 1950's, here depicted on a 2003 dated Laotian note:

Inspiration spread far, here to Laos:

One of the attributes of French printed notes in W. Africa is the liberal usage of vibrant colours on the designs: From Ivory Coast

Some might see some 19th century French inspiration on this note:

Gabon, in W. Africa:

We have seen her before here in this thread, but not closeup: She is Polynesian, here is her Melanesian friend:

One of the penultimate French inspired banknotes:

Or inspired by French:

Sweet reverse, I know a relative of mine that collects this stuff, will have to get.

The 1/2 cent gets all the more interesting when you look at especially the reverse and notice the multiple examples of repunched letters, most notably the N in cent. Also notice a couple of fissures that must have been forming in the die above the H and A of Half, the start of die cracking.

Incredibly the basic elements of this classic design date to 1807! The classic White notes would march on in the £5 denomination to serve 149 years all total before being replaced with the "Helmeted Britannia" design. Aside from the ubiquitous American dollar, the White Fiver is perhaps the then most recognised currency around the world, and was even forged by the Nazi's during WWII in a bungled attempt to bring down the British economy. Because of the German forgeries, denominations above £5 were discontinued during the war and not reintroduced until the late 1960's, so the White Fiver saw more service, and some changes including the introduction of a metal security strip into the paper.

This is Russian Asiatic Bank(China) from city of Harbin, 1 Ruble 1917. It is listed under foreign banks in China.

FR-1267 15¢ PCGS-64 EPQ

Northern Ireland, National Bank of Ireland, £5 1939, another very rare note without penmarks etc.

Cuba, Treasury of the Island of Cuba, 5 Pesos 1891

Reverse proof from 1908 Spanish 25 ptas note.

Many new lovely young ladies joined my harem, to be seen in my website today.

Whilst the young attractive lady on the front of the $20 note is mysteriously unknown, she was engraved by F.T. Howe. The reverse is a better known work, The Bouquet by Edward R. Felver. This reverse vignette was prominent on the front of the Bank of the Philippine Islands 50 Peso note used early in the 20th century, but designed by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington D.C.

Military Payment Certificates, better known as "MPC's" were first issued in 1946 to servicemen of the American military. The earliest series were first used in Europe, then in Asia in areas where the USA maintained a military presence. The military brass realised that they were exchanging significant sums of foreign currencies for servicemen overseas, and that it was alleged that some was going into blackmarket economies. In an effort to stem blackmarket activities by servicemen, the MPC's were instituted, and were not exchangeable for cash outside of US military facilities. The first issues were rather plain, usually consisting of the heraldic eagle, and rather dull designs. After the conclusion of the Korean conflict a new series, Series 521 was issued, this issue was significant, in that in departure from the earlier drab designs, attractive females figured prominently on all denominations issued. This lovely Ceres was issued beginning in 1954, though it was printed in 1952, the first two digits in the series are the year the issue was printed, but not necessarily when it was used. This issue was used until 1958 when the Series 581 notes were issued. This Series 521 issue was significant also in that both sides of the notes featured attractive females. This $10 denomination would be the highest denomination in the MPCs until the Series 661 notes were released in 1968.