One of those mysteriously enigmatic notes that appears from time to time in auctions. In the European pursuit of colonialising Africa during the early 20th century four world powers sought one of the crown jewels based on location. We all know in real estate that location location location is key to property. And one side of the Pillars of Hercules, Straits of Gibraltar lay Gibraltar(zealously controlled by Great Britain) and Spain of course. The other side, in what is now Morocco, was pursued by France, Great Britain, Spain, and Germany.
Of course nobody asked or really cared what the residents in what is now Morocco thought, and they rebelled with the assistance of an adventurous Englishman, Captain C. Gardiner pursued independence of the Europeans:
The government of the Riff existed for a brief period in the early 1920's before having been defeated by the Spaniards. Captain Gardner took it upon himself to print these notes, which is quite apparent that they were printed in Great Britain with references in English and to English money and curiously not pesetas.
Puerto Rico had been a colony of the Spanish Crown for over 400 years until 1898 when the naval forces of the United States of America launched an invasion during the Spanish-American War of 1898. Prior to the United States seizing control of the island, Puerto Rican nationalists fought against the Spanish colonial government with an objective of independence, a cause shared in common with Cuban nationalists of the time. Despite their hard fought campaign they failed in their attempt and control of Puerto Rico passed seemlessly from Spain to the United States when the Treaty of Paris was signed in December 1898.
One of the specific clauses of the Treaty of Paris was the provision that institutions which had previously existed during the Spanish administration of the islands would continue, in this case the Banco Español de Puerto Rico. This institution was formed in 1888 with the accession of the Spanish Crown granting a 25 year charter. The first banknotes were issued beginning in 1894 and featured the paschal lamb and or Maria Christina of Austria who was Spain's regent during the minority of Spain's King Alfonso XIII.
Beginning in 1900 the Banco Español de Puerto Rico went through a name change and became The Bank of Porto Rico, and a now curious anomaly occured regarding titles on the banknotes, the notes became bilingual with both Spanish and English, but apparently the American colonial authorities in an overt effort at Americanization intended to eliminate Spanish as a spoken language in the islands. This is apparent with this reverse proof of a $5 from the 1909 issue. The English takes precedence in size and placement on the note, the font in the English below the portrait is noticeably larger. It is now known that the American colonial government during the time had hoped to replace Spanish with English and the usage of the latter was strongly encouraged. As often happens with such overt measures, of course it met with strong resistance and the only real loser was the English language. To this day, with a distinctly Puerto Rican dialect, Spanish continues to be spoken prominently there.
The banknotes of The Bank of Porto Rico - Banco de Puerto Rico are incredibly rare now. The 25 year charter expired in 1913, and the bank was liquidated. Liabilities of the bank including it's banknotes continued to retain their value and did in fact circulate actively until 1916 when they were recalled for the first time. In 1925 a final $14872.00 was removed from circulation and through the Great Depression of the 1930's the vast majority of notes were redeemed by their bearers. Given their unique history, with early ties to a Spanish sponsored bank, to a United States sponsored bank that continued to issue it's own notes during a time when American National Banks were then chartered in Puerto Rico in denominations of United States Dollars, these notes have an enviable history and interests amongst collectors. This particular proof is the reverse from the last issue, Series F, that was issued in 1909. It features a portrait that was a stock image from American Banknote Company, the lady representing knowledge appears on many contemporary issues from the Americas including the Canadian Bank of Commerce $5 of 1907, and the Two Pesos note from the El Banco De La Compañia De Credito De Puerto Plata in the Dominican Republic.
In the probably unlikely chance you could come across the 1991 200 Shekel in uncirculated, I am avidly looking for one. It is a red note and has Zalman Shazar on the front, and a little school girl on the reverse.
Too bad they don't mint an OMS in silver of the presidential dollars, I would like to have one of Lincoln. I got the set of proofs of the bronze cents and the dollar coin last year. Frankly he is the only president on coinage that I am interested in collecting. BTW I am not sure of the interests in James Buchanan, he was president when the country began to dismember itself and he stood by and ignored it. I am also disappointed that James Buchanan's wife, Rufus King, will not be featured on the first lady coins.
They really are cool coins, about the size of the current US dime, and I have heard of people getting them in circulation as a dime. Here is an uncirculated example from 1865:
These coins were not overly popular in circulation even then, but they and the 2 cent coins stayed in circulation until ca 1900 or so when they started getting saved.
Curiously stamps are also the reason this thang was created - so people could buy 100 stamps:
The $3 coins were never really popular - but there were exceptions, they were popular in some mining areas for a particular reason - $3 represented the price of a night of pleasure.
I bought mine from seller in Lithuania, it comes in folder with 1 krooni coin dated 2008 also. It has the descriptions of coin and banknote in Estonian and in English, it is very attractive set.
This note is a commemorative note issued by Estonia to mark the 90th anniversary of Estonia first declaring independence from Russia in 1918. There is much more symbolism in this note than the texts will attest to though. The 10 krooni note was the last banknote issued by the independent state of Estonia before the USSR overran the country again in 1940. Curiously a few years ago in the old treasury building the plates for the 1940 issue were uncovered by a worker doing some restoration on the building, they were found under some cabinets where they remained stashed for over 50 years. Because they could use these original plates as a basis for doing a commemorative note - Eesti Pank decided to incorporate the elements of the old 10 krooni note on this commemorative issue. While the front of the note is the old design from the first Estonian Republic, the reverse represents the current design of the 10 krooni note now in circulation - however the earlier note was a larger note and so this one is in the earlier dimensions.
And sometime later I will image the Estonian 10 Krona note that just came in from Estonia, it commemorates 90th year of independence and uses old design of banknotes.
The earliest commemorative paper money I have owned is a Leith Banking Company one pound note from 1822 that was issued to commemorate the visit of George IV to Scotland that year. The note has a vignette of the royal entourage arriving at port then.
Commemorative banknotes are really more of a modern thing though, think Scotland, Thailand, Mexico that issue a lot of them. They were issued in earlier times but not very often or in large quantities - here is an example of one from Uruguay that commemorated the 100th anniversary of Uruguayan independence in 1930:
This note is now very rare, usually they had their notes printed by Giesecke and Devrient, but this is printed by Banque de France.
Here is a modern note from Tunisia that commemorates an archeology conference in Tunis in 2006:
This note from Thailand commemorates the Queen's 72nd or 6th cycle birthday:
I collect all Thai commemoratives, they are some of the best series in the world.
This Swedish 100 kroner was issued in 2005, and sold at a premium - making it scarce:
Commemorates the anniversary of the founding of Tumba Bruk, the Swedish printer. This note has Svea, a figure representing Sweden since early times.
Mexico has gotten in the act with this 2010 dated 200$00 note commemorating the bicentennial of the independence from Spain:
And then the 100th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution:
This is one of those wildly popular amongst world banknote collectors notes. Great artistry coupled with wonderful printing and dramatic imagery combine to mystify one with the intriguing subjects here. Curiously though, while this note is popular, and relatively common despite it's now advanced age; it is quite difficult to find a truly uncirculated one as these notes saw heavy usage right up until the German inflationary period of 1920-1924.
The front of the note has a lovely vignette of "Germania" with a toddler who is launching a dove with an olive branch overlooking the Baltic Sea, not exactly the imagery you would expect in the Prussian dominated Germany of the era. The most dramatic and evocative image on the note is on the reverse however. This dragon, with his smoking snort guarding a reliquary is just fantastic and is what makes this note so popular.
Given that I wanted the note in the best condition possible, it pretty much predicated a long delay in purchasing one. This note is the scarcer six digit serial variety that was printed before WWI, the notes with seven digits were printed after the war and in much greater quantities.
I am not sure if it was union rules or what, but cabooses ran on some of the Michigan Central trains up until about 10 years ago, and they were using the older cupola style Chessie system cabooses that hadn't even been repainted. They tend to buy older equipment from other railroads and never bother to paint it, so we have some Portland, Oregon diesel electrics running here.
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