Catching up on purchases that have filtered in over the past three weeks:
A recent issue of the IBNS Journal had a story about the 1 Yuan note with the lady on the tractor. I always thought that these vignettes were allegorical or artists inventions but, in this case at least, it was based on a photo of her on a tractor. Evidently the lady (Liang Jun) was China's first female tractor driver. She was trained in 1948 at a school sanctioned by the Comunist Party and wound up working most of her life with agricultrual machinery. The note was first issued in 1960. She retired in 1990 and is now 80 years old.
This note was issued in 2006, though dated 2005, and is said to commemorate an archeaology conference that was held in Tunis. The subject of the front of the note is Elissa or "Dido", the legendary founder of the Carthaginian Empire in the 9th century BC. She is also a subject of the Aeneid by Virgil. As she is a figure in early written history, accounts of her vary and are mostly conjecture. The depiction of a feminine figure on a banknote from the Arabic world is very uncommon, so this note is unusual, and also a very fascinating tie in with semi mythological figures in history.
Ukraine in the era of 1917-1922 was a confused state that was battled over by Ukrainian, Russian, Polish and German forces. In essence there were really three competing forces at work in Ukraine during that time, the Social Democrats(Directorate), the Hetmanate under Pavlo Skoropadsky, and the Communists. The communists controlled the east of the country and south, and issued notes in ruble denominations. The Hetmanate issued currency in Hryvnia denominations whilst the Directorate of the Social Democrats controlled mostly the western part of the country and issued this currency in Karbovnets denomination. The Hetmanate and the Directorate controlled areas of Ukraine united in early 1919, but still had to oppose Polish, Communists, and White Russian forces. This particular piece of paper money was issued by the State Treasury of the Unified Ukrainian state - so called Ukrainian National Republic in 1918 and saw a short period of usage. This note was printed locally in Kyiv by a Ukrainian printer.
