I am travelling right now, and have been for a while. I am in South America, and mostly in Bolivia. I have been keeping my eyes open for paper money, ofcourse, and have even spent the majority of this day attempting to track down some old banknotes, as well as some new uncirculated issues. I have some news on both accounts …

Of the antique variety, I have only been able to find the 1, 5, 10, and 20 peso banknotes from 1911 and 1928 (same as 1911, but with an overprint). Locally, these are selling for about 3-5 USD for notes in G condition. They 50 and 100 peso notes are nowhere to be found! So, if you see one on eBay for $15 or less, it might be a great investment.

As per the new notes, it gets quite silly. I actually made my way to the Central Bank of Boliva in La Paz today. I spoke with cashiers and some higher-ups as well, and all they could get for me, in UNC condition, were 10 Boliviano notes, which are the lowest local denomination. The CENTRAL BANK did not have any new notes to offer! What a scandal. Then I asked about Brazilian Reales, and we sent to the Banco de Brasil in La Paz, HQ for Brazilian banking in Bolivia and — wait for it — wait for it — they did not have ANY Brazilian money. Wow. Seriously, I am speechless.

I went to some money exchange places (Casas de Cambio), which always deal in US dollars, Bolivian Bolivianos, Chilean Pesos, Argentinian Pesos, and Peruvian Soles and spent one hour in one line, only to find out they did not have any UNC or AUNC notes (either that or they did not want to look too hard). So I went to a second exchange office, stood in line for 20 minutes, then left (if you are going to have 6 registers, why do you have only 1 cashier???).

Sadly, I do not know how much more time I am willing to spend looking for banknotes instead of vacationing. Makes those eBay auctions with a 50% markup seem like a good deal.

Anyways, that is the latest.

PS – clearly, while I am away, RealBanknotes.com is not being worked on. Delays delays, but it will be magnificent when the new version is up and running. Cheers, and thanks for visiting.

I recently purchased a banknote that I cannot identify. I bought it for $7.64 on eBay, but cannot figure out the pick number. I’m thinking its a special issue Russian banknote, but you can never be sure with those Russian occupied states. Can anyone help me out? What pick number is this note? Was $7.64 a good deal?

Unknown Russian paper money from 1919: 10,000 Rubles

Although I get a ton of traffic on this blog (yay!) I haven’t had any comments posted to it for quite a little while. It actually makes my day when someone takes the time to post something: silly, but true. So I have devised you, my visitors, to get involved a little, and to show off your knowledge and/or play on your curiosity. From time to time I will post a mystery note. First one to guess the country and Krause pick gets … bragging rights! Hurrah!

Identify this banknote:

Do you know which banknote this is?

Click ‘Leave a Comment’ below to leave your guess!

I’ve come across a Chinese banknote, supposedly from 1914, and I can’t figure out what pick number it is. The fact that I can’t read Chinese has always made me reluctant to purchase Chinese paper money, but this UNC banknote is quite attractive, even though it is pretty much monotone red. Regardless, I would love your help in identifying this note. Any ideas?

Unknown Chinese Paper Money

Tanzania has come out with just a phenomenally beautiful set of banknotes recently. This new set was printed in 2010 and put into circulation in 2011. The denominations for this set are 500, 1000, 2000, 5000, and 10000 Shilingi. The face sides of these banknotes, respectively, feature two politicians, a lion, a rhino, and an elephant. The back sides of the banknotes feature cultural items such as architecture and crafts. The back of these banknotes is at least as magnificent as the front. And it will be a while before these banknotes are valuable investments, but extremely attractive banknotes have a way of becoming valuable over short spans of time. I give you the case of the Suriname ‘bird series’. I’ve bought three sets of these, and they can often be purchased for just under $30 as auctions or, if you simply can’t wait, can be purchased as ‘But It Now’ items on eBay for around $33-35.

Tanzania banknotes from 2010-2011 (Shilingi set)

Does anyone know where I can find this banknote in any of the editions of the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money? This is a Tallahassee Rail Road Company two dollar banknote … I have no other information about it. Got it for $10.51.

Tallahassee Railroad Company $2

I have recently received, as a gift (thanks, you know who!!) the banknote pictured below. It looks familiar, because I think I have seen it as I entered descriptions and images of world paper money into the www.RealBanknotes.com database, but I cannot recall, now, where this banknote comes from. Can someone help me identify the country and pick number, from the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money, of the banknote in the picture below?

Unknown Banknote with a denomination of 5000

Is Palestine a separate country (as fas as banknotes are concerned) ?

This is the thought I had as I offered myself an old Anglo-Palestine note from 1948 ..

As i restarted my collection 18 months ago, i needed a goal to reach to make it nice … i soon realize that having a set of all the notes of a definite country (even a small one like mine) is out of reach for budget reason.. so i settled myself for having at least one banknotes of every currency / country having current banknotes. So excluding the old european currencies and every countries who stopped printing banknotes. I then counted 166 of them ..

The next goal was to reach 200 countries (easy having old French Francs, German Deutschmark .. all those national countries that switched recently to Euros) and a
few others..

I then tried to find a definite list of how many countries you could have banknotes from .. I ended up compiling my own list of countries based on the Pick book and a few websites ..

My current list (probably not definite) has 301 countries and I do have banknotes from 233 countries . Quite a good set. Getting more countries is probably very difficult as they only existed for a very short period of time (Panama anyone) or they are very old (Madeira Island).. thus the notes become very very expensive.. (way above my budget)

In the end, my Krause-Pick says Palestine is a separate country until 1927 and my Anglo-Palestine note is listed under Israel

How many countries do you have on your list ?

Country #232 .. thanks Proteus

Country 233 : Palestine ??

Happy new year to all of our readers! Best wishes for the upcoming new year: lots of joy, love, happiness, and … money :) (if you know what I mean). Cheers.

Silver Certificates were printed for a time in the United States as a form of paper currency. They were produced in response to silver agitation by citizens who were angered by the Fourth Coinage Act, which placed the United States on the gold standard. The certificate was matched to the same amount of value in silver coinage. For example, one fifty dollar Silver Certificate equals fifty silver dollars.

There are a few features that distinguish a Silver Certificate. The seal and serial numbers on many of the first Silver Certificates issued were red, brown, and blue. It was not until Series 1899 for the $1, $2, and $5 denominations that the seal and number colors were officially and permanently changed to blue. (This occurred at different points for denominations above $5). During World War II the government issued 1935a Silver Certificates with a brown seal for Hawaii distribution and 1935a certificates with a yellow seal for North Africa distribution. The idea was that if these areas fell into enemy hands during the war, the money would be able to be easily identified and cancelled so as to prevent large monetary losses.

The obligation of a certificate states how much of a specific commodity the government of a country will “pay to the bearer.” On most large-size Silver Certificates, the obligation reads: “This certifies that there have/has been deposited in the Treasury of the United States of America (number) silver dollar(s) payable to the bearer on demand.” On small-sized Silver Certificates beginning with Series 1934, in order to denote current location of deposit, it was changed to read: “This certifies that there is on deposit in the Treasury of the United States of America (number) dollar(s) in silver payable to the bearer on demand.”

The “Coinage Act of 1873″ placed the United States on the gold standard, which replaced the bimetallic (silver and gold) standard that had been created by Alexander Hamilton. Many of the poorer citizens saw this as a “crime,” and silver agitation began. The Bland-Allison Act, as it came to be known, was passed by Congress on February 28, 1878. It did not provide for the “free and unlimited coinage of silver” demanded by Western miners, but it did require the United States Treasury to purchase between $2 million and $4 million of silver bullion from mining companies in the West. The silver coins that were to be minted would be legal tender for all debts, like gold. These coins, however, were quite heavy, so the government applied their gold certificate strategy to the silver. Suppose that there were five silver dollars in the treasury. The government would print a $5 Silver Certificate against the dollars, providing a somewhat easier medium of exchange. The idea was kept, and Series 1878 was printed in denominations of $10 to $1000.

Certificates circulated, mainly in the $1 denomination, widely throughout the United States in the years following 1934. When the ’34s wore out, they were replaced with a new, more modern-looking Series 1953 (1935 for the $1 silvers; see below), with the same face changes as the Series 1950 Federal Reserve Notes had experienced. However, the Silver Certificates began to disappear from circulation during the 1940s and 1950s. The amount of Silver Certificates in circulation depended directly upon the amount of silver bullion in the Treasury vaults. As people redeemed the certificates for bullion or silver dollars, the notes were shredded, because the notes had lost their backing and could not be recirculated unless there was more silver being produced. The price of silver was also rising. In 1960, it was nearing $1.29, which meant that silver dollars were worth more than $1. This meant that people would receive their silver dollars, and melt them down for the bullion, thereby reducing the amount of silver in circulation, which was already falling.

I purchased this one for $56. It looks in worse condition than it actually is, as there are no actual pieces missing or tears. It just has a few folds which need to be straightened.

United States 338c: $1 Silver Dollar from 1899