chinnotes

This note was first issued in 1940, in those parts of France that were occupied by German forces. Later they were also used in Romania and Bulgaria. The use of the note outside the "Wehrmacht" was not allowed and practically did not happen, because -as someone wrote here already- within the canteens of the soldiers the value was 10 Reichspfennig instead of 1 Reichspfennig. In 1942 a whole series of such "Behelfszahlungsmittel" was issued, with a completely different design. At the end of 1944 this series was withdrawn and replaced by "Verreichnungsscheine". Erwin

The creature on back of the Iranian note is Simurgh, a mythological bird. In Iranian art (an on this Iranian note) Simurgh is mostly shown with a dog's head and claws of a lion. In Iranian mythology Simurgh once saved a baby called Zal on top of Mt. Demavend, and grew him up. Zal became the father of a famous Iranian hero... Erwin

There exist many forgeries of the round stamps (not of the rectangular overprint). They are found on uncirculated and on used notes as well. I was told they are/were mainly produced in Croatia. Erwin

Well, I may have an explanation for the Chinese characters on dollar bill. I recently visited a Chinese money changer in Singapore (in order to get some unc. bills of East Asien countries). When I arrived, he was counting a thick bundle of 10 US $ bills. When he had ended counting he wrapped the notes with a rubber band, took a kind of stamp out of a drawer in front of him and marked the uppermost note with the Chinese Character 唐 (Tang). I asked him why he did this. His anwer: “that means that the bundle is counted and I can guarantee that there are exactly 100 bills in the bundle”. – His family name (姓) was „Tang“. As for the two Chinese characters shown here the first one is 華 (hua). This character means „magnificent, plentiful“ and also can mean –as someone told us already- „China“ – 北華 (beihua) is North China etc. But “hua” is also a family name. – As the old character 華 and not the modern character 华 is used, this note must have been chopmarked somewhere outside mainland China where only the simplified characters are used. The 2nd character is certainly 雪 (xue). (Someone had read this character already, he says “shue” which is roughly the pronunciation of the characters, but the official Pinyin romanization requires “xue”). This cannot be a family name, but it can be a personal name. Personal names are used if there are several persons with the same family name are working in one exchange bureau (they are often relatives of each other). Well what I am telling here is only valid for the Chinese chopmarks. It may also be valid for the words written in Arabic script. I have, however, no idea why the other marks like Winni the Pooh are on the notes… Erwin

The Taiwan 1000 yuan note clearly yr. 93 = 2004 Erwin

These lions have no individual names. Originally the entrance of the main Building of the Hongkoang and Shanghai Bank had two bronze lions, they were cast in 1935 and were very famous. One of them is now in the Shanghai Museum of History (I have seen it). In the same year (1935) two similar lions were cast and brought to Hongkong, they were placed at the entrance of the main Building of the bank in Hongkong. During world war II these bronze lions were taken to Japan for melting down. But they were detected unharmed after the war and brought back to Hongkong. They can now be seen near the entrance of the main building. One of these two lions still has traces of bullets from world war II… Erwin

I am sorry, but the portrait of the Manchukuo note shows the god of fortune, 趙公明 = Zhao Gong Ming. In the book "AN ILLUSTRATED CATALOGUE OF THE FINANCE AND CURRENCIES OF THE PUPPET REGHIMES IN CHINA UNDER THE JAPANESE - MANCHUKUO VOLUME" (Chinese and English) by Wong Hon Sum all these notes and their history are described in detail. Other portraits are of Confucius and Mencius. Erwin P.S.: I know that in the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money it is said, that "Ch'ien Lung' is pictured on the note, a remark that was taken from Fred Schwan's and Joe Boling's famous book "World War II Remembered", but it is wrong...

There is a 50 Pf notgeld note from Salzuflen in Germany: (I tried to upload a picture, but did'nt work..., will try later again) Erwin