10 Banknotes With Hidden Images And

Symbols
Steve Wynalda March 25, 2015

Paper money has been around since China issued it in the seventh century. But not all banknotes
are made of paper; theyve been made of everything from wood and foil to leather and polymers.
Here are the oddballs in the money world.

10Germanys 50-Pfennig Emergency Money

Photo credit: Nathalie Roy

Germany was already suffering shortages in coins and metals when World War I kicked off in
1914. With the advent of hostilities, silver prices skyrocketed, and copper and nickel were
diverted to the war effort. Without coinage, commerce became nearly impossible, and
municipalities and private businesses began printing paper money called notgeld or emergency
money.
At first, these notgeld were plain, issued in 25, 50, and 75 pfenning (penny) notes, along with
some in marks. Later, the notes featured colorful images of folklore, social satire, political
statements, and even playing cards. These notes were so unique by the end of the war that
collectors were gobbling up banknotes as quickly as they were issued.

For three postwar years, many notgeld were issued purely for collectors and were rarely
circulated. During this time, serienscheine banknotesa series of notes with the same thematic
story depicted on themwere issued. But in 1921, Germanys inflation evolved into
hyperinflation, and the situation became so dire that currency itself became difficult to obtain.
Postage stamps encased in aluminum or celluloid began to be used as currency.

In 1923, the Reichsbank issued a new currency, the Rentenmark, thus ending the era of notgeld.

9Burmese 1-Kyat Democracy Note

Photo credit: BBC

Until a few years ago, Burma had been fighting a civil war since it gained its independence in
1948, the longest civil conflict in the world. The resulting chaos played havoc with Burmas
monetary system, and the countrys odd banknotes will appear again on this list.

One of the key leaders in the countrys independence was General Aung San, who became the de
facto prime minister. Just months before England relinquished control, Aung San was
assassinated by a political rival. His daughter, Aung San Suu Kyi, was just two years old.
Suu Kyi left Burma in 1960 and didnt return until 1988 to care for her ailing mother. She found
a country in transition from a dictatorship to a military junta. Using the lessons from Mahatma
Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Suu Kyi led a nonviolent campaign for democratic
elections. The junta responded by arresting her, placing her under house arrest, and cutting her
off from all communication. Simply putting her image on a poster or flyer was punishable by
imprisonment.

The next year, the junta authorized a 1-kyat note with the national hero, General Aung San
depicted on it. The watermark was simply to be the same image. Some unknown engraver,
however, softened the generals features to form a watermark with Suu Kyis illegal likeness. For
the months it took for the junta to withdraw the banknote, democratic reformists needed only
hold their currency to the light to see their leader.

Suu Kyi spent most of the next 20 years under house arrest and in 1991 won the Nobel Peace
Prize. Finally, in 2010, she was released. Two years later, she and her party were elected to
parliament.

8Oranienburg Concentration Camps 50-Pfennig Note

Photo credit: WorldMilitaryNotes.com

As soon as deportees arrived at Nazi-run concentration camps and ghettos during World War II,
they had to exchange their cash and bonds for local currency. These local notes were poorly
made, worthless, and rarely circulated because there was little to purchase in a camp or ghetto.

The first camp to issue such scrip was the Oranienburg Concentration Camp just outside Berlin.
The camp opened in 1933 after a wealthy banker donated a lumber yard to the government. One
of the first inmates was Horst-Willi Lippert, a graphic artist imprisoned for his anti-Nazi
sentiments.

Lippert was ordered to design the printing plates for banknotes to be used within the camp. He
used the notes to send a subtle message to the public that the camps were not voluntary
communities where undesirables were relocated for everyones safety, as the Nazis claimed. His
5-pfennig note showed a guard tower standing over a barbed wire fence. His 1-mark note
depicted an elderly man digging a trench. He drew a barbed wire and a pair of stern-looking
armed guards on the 50-pfennig plates.

He didnt stop there. After the first run of printing, Lippert scratched off the top of g in the
word Konzentrationslager (concentration camp) on his printing plates, changing the word to
Konzentrationslayer (concentration killer). The change can be seen in the image above.

The Nazis never caught on to Lipperts subtle message or alteration, and Lipperts notes became
the template for money printed in other camps throughout the Reich. He survived the war and
later verified his efforts.

7Canadas $1,000 Devils Face Bill

Photo credit: J&M Coin & Jewllery

In 1951, Queen Elizabeth II sat for famous Canadian photographer Yousuf Karsh. One of the
photos was used three years later for a new series of Canadian notes from $1 to $1,000. This new
series would have the portrait of the queen on the right side of the banknote so that her image
would not be marred when it was folded.

The selected photo, however, featured a tiara on Elizabeths head, and Canadians preferred
informal depictions of the queen. Artists retouched the negative to remove it. When the artists did
not retouch the hair behind the queens left ear, the change in brightness of her hair had an
unexpected result. Just over a year after it began circulating, banks began receiving complaints
that a demon hovered just behind the queens ear. Artists were commissioned to obscure the
devils image, and the series was reissued in 1957. All the denominations were changed except
the $1,000 bill. It waited several years before it was retouched.

The $1,000 bill is special for another reason. In 2000, Canada withdrew the denominations in its
fight against organized crime. Gangsters and money launderers favored these large
denominations (nicknamed pinkies due to their pink coloring) because they were easier and
lighter to smuggle. For instance, a $1 million payment in $100 bills would weigh 10 kilograms
(20 lb), while the same payment in $1,000 bills would weigh just 1 kilogram (2 lb). Often, these
criminals would use the notes to pay debts only to each other, keeping the bills out of circulation.
As of 2011, nearly a million $1,000 bills were as yet unreturned to the Canadian mint, mostly
hoarded by the criminal elite.

6Congos 20,000-Zaire notes

Photo via FairFX

Change in leadership has often played havoc with a nations currency. When the Shah was
overthrown in 1979, subsequent issues of Iranian money had the symbol of the Islamic Republic
stamped over his face. When Saddam Hussein and Muammar Gadhafi were deposed, their
countrys citizens had to live with their images on their money for a time.

Within months of gaining its independence from Belgium, the mineral-rich Democratic Republic
of the Congo was immersed in a civil war, and its democratically elected prime minister, Patrice
Lumumba, was deposed and murdered. Worse, the CIA installed as dictator the man most
responsible for Lumumbas assassination, the pro-Western Joseph Mobutu.

For 31 years, Mobutu crushed dissent and plundered the country he renamed Zaire, acquiring one
of the largest personal fortunes in the world. Meanwhile, corruption and mismanagement
resulted in the decay of Zaires infrastructure, resulting in chronic poverty. When Mobutu was
himself deposed in 1997, he escaped to one of his homes in Morocco, where he died a few
months later from prostate cancer.

The country readopted the name The Democratic Republic of the Congo but faced severe
shortages of banknotes. So they recycled old Zaire 20,000 notes with Mobutus face punched
out. These temporary notes were used until new currency could be printed and issued.

5Colonial Americas Privately Issued $5 Bill

Photo credit: Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia

During the British colonial period before the Revolutionary War, American banks issued their
own currency to local communities. The earliest notes were simple in design and were easily
counterfeited. More elaborate designs were then adopted. As an added anti-counterfeiting
feature, these included images based on deeply local folklore, which only members of that
community would understand.

One such story originates from the small eastern Connecticut town of Windham. The colonies
were in the midst of the French and Indian War in the mid-1750s, and one hot June night, the
towns residents were awoken by a racket. Believing they were about to be attacked by a tribe of
Native Americans or French soldiers, the villagers grabbed their weapons and headed toward the
noise. Their courage failed them as they approached a pond, and they hunkered down and waited
for dawn. When the Sun rose, they found that the noise came not from the enemy but from
hundreds of frogs, half of them dead, who apparently fought over the drought-stricken pond.

Shortly afterward, the Windham Bank issued a $5 bill with a pair of frogs fighting each other as
a community symbol. The two women featured on the note are probably local women, their
names lost to history.

4Burmas 35 Kyats

Photo credit: Banknotes of Burma

Nearly every country issues currency in denominations based on multiples of five and 10. In
other words, they have currency in 1s, 5s, 10s, 20s, 50s, 100s, 500s, and 1,000s. But not
Burma.

General U Ne Win was born Shu Maung in 1911. At the age of 30, he joined the Burma
Independence Armysponsored by the Japaneseto rid Burma of British rule. He changed his
name to Ne Win, which means brilliant as the Sun. When it became clear the Japanese meant
to replace themselves as Burmas rulers, U Ne Win switched sides and helped drive them from
his homeland.
When Burma gained independence from the United Kingdom in 1948, U Ne Win became the
countrys supreme commander. He took control of the country from Prime Minister U Nu in
1958 and again in 1962. The second time, he also became ruler for life.

As dictator, U Ne Win was incompetent and drove his country into poverty. He was also
eccentric. He was known to walk backward over bridges to ward off evil spirits and was said to
bathe in dolphins blood to reach the age of 90 (a multiple of his lucky number, nine). In 1970, U
Ne Win changed the countrys traffic regulations, so that cars drove on the right-hand side of the
road instead of the left. The reason? His astrologist warned him that Burma was becoming, too
left-wing in its politics.

U Ne Win was also fascinated with numerologyfortune-telling with numbers. In 1985, he

printed 15-, 35-, and 75-Kyat notes. In 1987, he issued notes based on multiples of his lucky
number. What followed were currencies in 45- and 90-Kyat denominations. Fortunately for the
Burmese citizens, Ne Win was eventually deposed, and his weird denominations were
demonetized. He died under house arrest at the age of 91. Maybe theres something to bathing in
dolphins blood?

3Seychelles 50-Rupee Note

Photo credit: Banknote World

It should not be a surprise that Queen Elizabeth II appears again on this list, as her likeness can
be found on the denominations of 33 different countries, more than any other person in history.
To date, 26 different portraits of her have been the model for these images.
In 1968, the British commonwealth of Seychelles issued 50-rupee banknotes with a depiction
based on a 1955 portrait of the queen commissioned by the Worshipful Company of
Fishmongers. The palm trees to the right of the queen spell out the word sex, though you might
have some trouble spotting it.

At first, this was thought to be a printing mistake. The two artists commissioned to draw the
palm trees were not the culprits: Their drawings and designs were examined and did not have the
palm trees in that configuration. The engravers therefore probably altered the design, but because
of fears of counterfeiting, their identities were kept secret. Another banknotethe 10-rupee note
issued in the same 1968 series also has a hidden word. Under the flipper of a sea turtle is the
word Scum.

While there is little supporting evidence, some have speculated that someone who supported
Seychelles independence from Britain inserted the secret words to embarrass the crown. Neither
the 10-rupee nor 50-rupee banknotes were withdrawn from circulation until 1973. Seychelles
won independence in 1976.

2The Quasi-Universal Intergalactic Denomination

Photo via Wikimedia

Not to be mistaken for the British quid (a slang for the pound sterling), the Quasi Universal
Intergalactic Denomination (QUID) was developed to be used by future space travelers. Looking
like miniature Nerf balls encased in plastic, QUIDs were developed by Englands National Space
Center and the University of Leicester for the foreign exchange company Travelex. The Nerf
balls represent the Sun, with the eight planetary inhabitants of our solar system circling along the
QUIDs rim.

None of the existing payment systems we use on Earthlike cash, credit, or debit cardscould
be used in space for a variety of different reasons, said Professor George Fraser of Leicester.
Anything with sharp edges, like coins, would be a risk to astronauts, while the chips and
magnetic strips used in our cards on Earth would be damaged beyond repair by cosmic
radiation.

He added: Whats more, because of the distances involvedit is more than 230,000 miles
[375,000 kilometers] from the Earth to the Moonchip and PIN technology is also out of the
question.

The QUIDs are made of teflon, a polymer resistant to the extremes of space, and have rounded
edges. Each of the planets on the QUID has a code, like serial numbers on paper money. Back in
2007, one QUID was worth $12.50, 8.68, or 6.25.

The QUID has competition. In 2013, PayPal announced that its trying to develop an
interplanetary monetary system that works without credit cards, currency, or QUIDs.

1Germanys 10,000-Mark Reichsbanknote

Photo credit: Wikimedia

After Germany signed the Treaty of Versailles to end World War I in 1919, war reparations
destroyed its economy. First, Germany had to relinquish valuable coal-rich territory such as the
Saar (put under the control of the League of Nations) and Upper Silesia (given to Poland).
Without these territories, a German financial recovery was near-impossible.

Second, Germany was required to take sole responsibility for the war. It would therefore funnel
billions of marks to the rest of Europe, specifically France and Belgium. Already crippled
economically by the war, Germany simply printed money to meet its payments, sending its
economy into hyperinflation. A single mark would buy virtually nothing, and larger and larger
denominations had to be printed.

By 1922, the Reichsbank was forced to issue 10,000-mark notes. It was decided that a painting
by the famous German master Albrecht Durers called Portrait of a Young Man would appear on
the front. An unknown engraver, however, added a political statement, subtly drawing the image
of a hooded vampiresignifying Francestanding behind the young mans left shoulder, about
to suck his blood. Its not easy to see, but tilt your head to the right. Even after the vampire was
discovered, the Reichsbank refused to pull the notes from circulation and even reissued more
with the vampire still in place.

The German economy did not improve. When the 10,000-mark note was issued in January 1922,
it purchased 110 kilograms (250 lb) of meat. By the end of the year, it purchased only 2
kilograms (5 lb). By 1923, 100,000 marks was equivalent to one US dollar. A year later, the same
dollar was equivalent to 4.62 million marks.

Steve is the author of 366 Days in Abraham Lincolns Presidency: The Private, Political, and
Military Decisions of Americas Greatest President and has written for KnowledgeNuts.