Ted Uhl 1981 Price List  A classic price list with some of the most sought after banknotes ever offered. Featured on the front cover is a complete set of Abysinnia SPECIMENS with the inside cover offering an Alaska 25 Ruble walrus skin note. On the back cover is a Hijaz 100 Pound note that priced at $19,500, quite a sum in 1981, however, this note is unique in that it has a different watermark than seen on other notes in this series.  Read more...

Haiti Commemoratives on Hold  Both the 1999 Port-au-Prince/Hyppolite 1,000 Gourdes and the 2004 Bicentennials commemorative issues were held pending legislation to authorize their release during another unstable political environment. Then the Central Bank began to issue the six new Bicentennial designs on August 20, 2004. Although prepared in 1999, the 1,000 Gourdes note was not released until late 2004. The 1,000 Gourdes includes both 1999 and 2004 dated issues have now reached the public. Read more...

Bernard Kock, King of Cow Island  Was Abraham Lincoln hoodwinked by Kock? An entrepreneur offers Lincoln an attractive alternative to his "slave problem" with drastic consequences. This is a story of Kock's carefully laid plans gone badly because of investors who lost confidence in Kock and their Haitian venture. Pictures of two of the rare Kock notes from a recent auction were graciously provided by Rick Ponterio of Ponterio & Associates, Inc.      Read more...

Dózsa György  Hungarian Leader of a Peasant Revolt in 1514 was executed by Vladislav II (Úlászló) who succeeded Matthias, the Raven, Corvinius. With the ascension of Maria Theresa in 1740, Hungary became a province of her Hapsburg empire. Her son Joseph II, during his reign, later abolished serfdom. Dózsa's death was finally vindicated two centuries later.   Read more...

Ancient Chinese Cash Notes - the World's First Paper Money - Part I China has had a long and diversified numismatic history. From the dawn of antiquity onward, early Chinese traders used money in one form or another. It was not long after the Chinese invention of paper that the first paper money came into existence, making it the oldest paper money to be found in the world.

Part I discusses the evolution of the copper cash coin - the mainstay of the Chinese people for two thousand years - the invention of paper, the discovery of the use of paper money in China by Marco Polo and the various cash notes issued by the Tang, Liao, Sung, Hsia, Chin and Yuan dynasties.   Read more...

 Ancient Chinese Cash Notes - the World's First Paper Money - Part II  Part II describes Ming dynasty paper money issues and identifies the coins depicted on the 1 Kwan banknote of Emperor Hung Wu (1378 A.D.)

Money of the Kingdom of Heavenly Peace  Few people, if asked today, could identify the Kingdom of Heavenly Peace, tell you where it was located, or how or why it came into existence. The Kingdom of Heavenly Peace, founded in 1850, started as a noble experiment with great promise, which soon turned into outright rebellion against the Chinese Empire. The movement went terribly wrong, ultimately claiming the lives of 25 million Chinese before government troops, aided by Western forces, restored order.

During their fifteen year civil war the T'ai P'ing rebels, as they were called, formed a government which included an army, a civilian civil service bureaucracy, treasury and even a postal system of their own. This article studies the money of the T'ai P'ing rebels including both coins and bank notes. Few specimens of either survive today. The coin issues are varied and interesting. The bank notes, although referenced in various old numismatic books, are completely unknown to Westerners, have never been cataloged, and to my knowledge appear here for the first time.  Read more...

 Shanghai's Wartime Emergency Money  This is the story of a little known aspect of China's history and an oft neglected area of numismatics. The setting of this article is the Chinese city of Shanghai and the year is 1939. Dire things are about to happen which will drastically change the way the city goes about its business.

To set the stage the author takes you through the years leading up to 1937, when the Japanese invaded China prior to World War II. After abandoning the silver standard in 1935, the Chinese government set about to unify and stabilize both coins and bank notes. After working for awhile, inflation set in due to the war ultimately driving Shanghai's merchants to the use of emergency money to keep commerce flowing.  Read more...

Some Russian Bank Note Issues Associated with the Chinese Eastern Railway Collectors occasionally encounter a set of Russian language bank notes dating from the Bolshevik Revolution, which have been overprinted with a Chinese hand-stamp. Are these notes Russian, or are they Chinese? Who issued them and where? ... and for what purpose? This article reveals the research undergone to reveal the answers.

As these notes are associated with some very interesting history, it is worth identifying them correctly and thereby setting things right. This set of 1, 3 and 5 ruble notes were issued by the Han Dao Hedzy Mutual Credit Society (Han'Daohedzskoe Obshchestvo Vzaimnago Kredita, in Russian). The notes go on to state that they were issued at the railroad station "Han Dao Hedzy". Ahah! But where is that, and on what railroad, you might reasonably ask. Since the notes themselves do not give us the name of the railroad, merely the words "railroad station", this presents a bit of a mystery.  Read more...

 The Money of Communist China - Part I   Prior to 1949 the People's Republic of China did not exist as such. In its place, commencing in 1927, was a Communist party which controlled scattered areas throughout China known as "soviets". These bases underwent many changes; first at the hands of victorious Nationalist armies, and after 1937, the Japanese invaders. These early Communists were self sufficient in every way. This included the manufacture and circulation of their own currency - including both coins and paper money. Driven out of their southern soviets by Chang Kai-shek's Nationalist army in 1934, the Communists fled north on their Long March to escape annihilation and to save their cause. There they stayed to fight the Japanese, and after World War II, to engage in all out civil war against the Nationalists for control of all of China.

Part I describes the coins and paper money used by the early soviets from 1927 to 1934, which period ended in the Long March north to Shensi province.  Read more...

Money of Communist China - Part II  Part II describes the money of the Communist Base Areas during the War of Resistance against the Japanese (1936-1945).

While enduring the hazards of the Long March en-route to Shensi, the Red Army paused in Kweichow province after capturing the city of Tsunyi. It was here that the Chinese Communist Party elected Mao as undisputed chairman. Mao's policy based upon mobile and guerrilla warfare was adopted. Contrary to the majority view, which called for a new base to be set up in western Sikang province (former province in southwest China, today part of Szechuan), Mao insisted upon pushing northward to Shensi where another Communist base already existed. Mao reasoned that the Japanese, not the Nationalists, were the immediate threat (after all, if Japan prevailed there would be no China or Nationalists to overcome) and he wanted to be close enough to reach the Japanese when the conditions were right. This could not be accomplished in far away Sikang. Completing their torturous march, the remnants of the Red Army eventually settled in Yenan, which in time became the Communists' wartime capital.  Read more...

Money of Communist China - Part III  Part III describes the money used in the Communist " Liberated Areas " during the civil war with the Chinese Nationalists (1945-1949).

Japanese Sponsored Coin and Bank Note Issues for the Occupied Regions of China  Occasionally, even today, one will encounter in a dealer's junk box or stock, a coin or piece of paper money whose origins lay in Japan's conquest and occupation of China (1937-1945). In order to administer such a vast country, Japan divided China up into administrative regions, each with its own financial management.

The coin and bank note issues of these Japanese "puppet" autonomous regions should not be viewed in isolation, as it is the totality of the story that is interesting. Coin collectors, perhaps, are aware of the coins, while bank note collectors are familiar with the various note issues. To appreciate the "total picture" as to what really transpired during the Japanese occupation, they must be viewed together. Read more...

Cast Coinage of the "Ming Rebels"   The Ming dynasty lasted from 1368 to the year 1644 when China was over-run by barbarians from the north calling themselves Manchu's. These fierce horsemen quickly conquered the decadent Ming, in turn establishing their own Ch'ing dynasty, China's last experiment with imperial rule.

The Ming court did not die easily, however, as one usurper after the other tried, for forty years, to reestablish Ming rule. Collectively these men were known as the "Ming Rebels". Each prince and warlord had his own court, army and bureaucratic following, setting up bases in various parts of China from which to overthrow the Ch'ing. Some enjoyed significant success while others did not. All, however, issued their own cast coinage for use in the areas they temporarily held. The coins are well executed, beautiful, specimens and are reasonably easy to acquire even today.

This article tracks the history of each rebel revealing both treachery and brutality in the attempt to eliminate the remaining vestige of loyalty to the Ming dynasty. The coin issues of each Ming Rebel are described in detail.  Read more...

  A Monetary History of the Former German Colony of Kiaochou  The defeat of China after two Opium Wars left the Ch'ing Dynasty weak and disorganized. European powers were quick to exploit this weakness. Both Britain and France placed exorbitant demands upon China in the form of monetary indemnity for expenses they had incurred during the wars, and for the outright concession of Chinese territory.

Sensing this weakness, other European powers were quick to seize territorial concessions and to set up their own 'spheres of influence' within China for commercial purposes. This is the story of how Germany became a colonial player in the China trade. Read more...

The Significance of Stamps Used on Bank Notes  Every collector, sooner or later, runs into a bank note or two with adhesive stamps affixed to them. This article, originally written by Dr. Arnold Keller, the dean of paper money collectors, explores the various reasons governments altered the original use of bank notes by affixing stamps thereto. Some stamps were attached to merely authenticate the value of the note itself after a change in government, other uses had tax implications, while still other applications were efforts to alter the economy of a region or whole country. Many of these schemes were ingenious beyond belief, and many of them actually worked!

All examples of stamps found on bank notes which are known to the author are enumerated in this article. Undoubtedly there are other examples. Fellow collectors who know of other examples are invited to share their knowledge with us.  Read more...

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