When I first saw this note, I was deeply intrigued by the face side of it. No, not the portrait, but the images to the left and right of the portrait. At the bottom left there is an image of a huge and beautiful sail ship. At bottom right there is an image of a huge iron-clad ship from the early 20th century. I found this to be extremely interesting, and was excited to find a few of these banknotes available on eBay for under $20, so I bought a few. Even in F condition, a banknote that cost $20 has been bought at one seventh of its catalog price, if the catalog is to be believed. Either way, this is a beauty that I recommend for both investors and collectors. Old, beautiful, valuable, and cheap in eBay … what a combo!

Latvia pick 18a: 25 Latu from 1928

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)

As is fit when you do start a banknote collection, quite soon you are seeing your first inflation notes .. for me it started with the German 1923 inflation notes ..

Those notes were changed so frequently that they were only printed on one side !

Nowadays probably the most well known is the 100 Trillion dollars note from Zimbabwe .. Always nice to show it to people to expose what happens when the money system  goes mad ..

more interesting is how do you live in a place with such an inflation. I recently stumbled on a few pictures showing life in Zimbabwe around 2008

You can find more pictures like this at  http://www.myinterestingfiles.com/2008/09/money-in-zimbabwe.html

Strangely enough, it seems that it is not the highest denomination for a banknote . Seems like the winner is a banknote from the 1946 inflation in Hungary.

This banknote (pick 137) has a value of 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Pengo , but the value is not written with zeros.

It was never issued and thus is quite rare (and expensive)  to buy. And because of this rarity, it also seems that there are quite a few fake of this one in the market

It was not always the case that it was rare as can be seen in this picture

Referring back to two blog posts ago, I feel fortunate to purchase another extremely old South American banknote for a pretty small price. In this case, however, I refer to my recent eBay purchase of an Argentinian ten Centavos banknote from two centuries ago, 1891. This banknote was purchased for the price of $8.49, and becomes another part of my small collection of pre-1900′s paper money bills. If you’re looking for a 19th century banknote for less than $10 (*hint-hint* om007) then this is still a definite possibility.

Argentina pick 210: 10 Centavos from 1891

A feat celebrated less and less often, I have added another country to my banknote collection. I have recently purchased a 1 Franc banknote from the Principality of Monaco. This is a banknote from 1920, and it seems as though everyone is overpaying for Monaco banknotes these days, if catalog values are to be believed; apparently, however, the need to be adjusted. I paid $71.99 to add this banknote to my collection, and though it is small in size, the banknote offers a bit of detail on the back which features a town upon some land overlooking water.

Monaco p5: 1 Franc from 1920

It was advertised as mega rare on eBay, and though it isn’t really, especially in this condition, this 1 Cordoba banknote is a great addition to my collection for the low price of $9.99. I have noticed that as of late lots of Central American and South American banknotes are selling for a lot of money if they are from 1950 and before. Even low denominations are fetching high prices. Other countries with this phenomenon include, but are not limited to, Guatemala, Peru, Chile, and Honduras. I’m glad I bought this one, especially since my paper money collection is pretty poor in the ‘Nicaragua’ department.

Nicaragua pick 37: 1 Cordoba from 1937

As I have stated in an earlier blog post here, there is a huge influx of old Spanish paper money on eBay right now, and many banknotes are quite inexpensive. I have purchased a few banknotes because as the supply went up the price did the opposite. However, this trend can only continue for so long before it turns around. Aside from having some issues with the seller (which are rare on eBay; his user name is ‘maus’ something), I am quite happy with my banknotes. These 1000 Peseta notes (I also bought 500 Peseta notes) were purchased for $17.50 apiece and are in VF-EF condition. The serial number of these notes indicates that they were a Republic issue printed in 1936, and are therefore not worth as much as the initial issue, but these are great none-the-less.

Spain 70c: 1000 Pesetas from 1925