Post Your Workhorse Notes.

Here's my Turkey P1331 50 Kurus note. It has a center fold and edge dings. Obviously saw commerce - ILLEGALLY!
I'm giving a talk on this & all salvaged notes at the OCCC (Oklahoma City Coin Club).
From my notes:
In 1941 the SS City of Roubaix was sunk by German warplanes. Actually a conflagration of fires burned all night in the harbor of Piraeus and the nearby Clan Fraser fire traveled to the Roubaix, which eventually blew up. It was in route from Rangoon, Burma to Liverpool, England. The cargo included bales of complete Turkey 50 Kurus notes (P133a) (40,000,000 notes) printed by Bradbury Wilkinson Co. and 100 Lirasi notes (P137) printed by Thomas De La Rue. Many of the 50 Kurus notes floated to nearby Greek islands, where they made instant millionaires out of several Greek locals. Although the entire shipment was invalidated, many of the notes were successfully used in trade. The rest of the 50 Kurus bank notes were returned to Turkey.

with numisRob (very interesting story about the 50 Kurus CurrencyDen) & I wish you well at your OCCC presentation. I've seen your post on the PMG about the lost currencies from shipwrecks & I think that should be a very interesting subject.

I started off collecting work horses & worked hard to replace those 'worn soiled beasts' for better examples about 2 decades ago. About 10 years ago I met this senior from my tai chi class & she was keen on selling me her late husband's collection. He worked at a local bank branch & she showed me one Chartered note but didn't seem too interested in parting with it (probably a grandchild or nephew was in mind). Once she showed me this large seal 1935 $20 I had to forget my goal (to be rid of workhorses) and made her an offer which she accepted:


I think it happens to be one of the ugliest notes I own but since it does still have original colours & features QEII as a child (before anyone knew she'd be queen) & has the original scarce large seal (which only 200,000 were issued), I had to bite.

Great backstories on these notes! And I love the detail on that 1926 1,000 francs, @NumisRob!

1937 Germany - Deutsche Rentenbank 2 Rentenmark [P-174b(1)]:

Here is one of the lowest grade notes in my collection. I also have a Canadian note from the same year in similar condition!

@CollegeBarbers
The vignette represents Ulster trade and industry! It remained a feature of Northern Bank notes right up to 1968 - if something works, no need to change it!!

Another cool vignette on the reverse of the Peruvian note, @NumisRob!

1938 Soviet Union 1 Ruble (P-213)

ND (1942) Philippines 5 Centavos - Japanese Occupation (P-103a)