How Far Back Can We Go? - With Banknotes! Third Edition

Wonderful looking notes!

Interesting notes, spence and walk2dwater!
1969 and I also have a rather careworn note for today, a French 5-Francs depicting Louis Pasteur. This French chemist, pharmacist and microbiologist was famous for his work on vaccination and microbes, and gave his name to the treatment of milk that is widely used today. As with other notes of this period, the same portrait appears on both sides, with the Pasteur Institute in Paris on the front and scientific apparatus on the back, together with a picture of the statue of a shepherd boy called Jean-Baptiste Jupille, who was one of the first people to be successfully vaccinated against rabies by Pasteur in 1885.


The white circle on the note, which has a watermark depicting Pasteur, is the same diameter as the contemporary 5-franc coin. This design of note was issued from 1966 to 1970, alongside the 5-franc coin. Until 1969 the 5-franc coin was made of silver, and the notes were more commonly used than the coins. With the increasing price of silver, the coins were changed to nickel-clad-cupro-nickel from 1970, and started to take over from the notes, which were withdrawn from circulation in 1972.

1968 - and my first note of the day is a French 500 Francs featuring Blaise Pascal, the 17th-century French mathematician and physicist who is perhaps best remembered as the inventor of the first successful calculating machine. He is also considered one of the originators of public transport, organising a 'bus' service with horse-drawn carriages on a circular route around Paris.


As with other notes of this period, the portrait on the reverse is a mirror image of that on the front. The front has a view of the St Jacques Tower in Paris and the Church of Notre-Dame-de-Prosperite in Clermont-Ferrand, Pascal's birthplace. On the back is a view of the monastery of Port-Royal, where Pascal's sister was a nun. He regularly visited her here, went on retreats here and worked on his theories in the gardens. This note was issued from 1968 to 1993 and was the last French note to be dated to the actual day and month of issue: this one dates from the first day of issue. It was replaced in 1994 by a note depicting Pierre and Marie Curie. It had a face value of around US$100 but has now been demonetised: this specimen cost me £3.

here are my 1968 notes :-)

Heading back to 1967...

Greece 100 Drachma:


The note has the bust of Democritus on the front, and the Academy of Athens building on the back.

Austria 20 schillings:


This note shows Austrian railway pioneer and engineer Carl Ritter von Ghega on the front, and a viaduct on the Semmering Railway, which he built, on the back.

Bank of England Ten Pounds:


This was the last new BOE note that did not show a famous person on the reverse. The design dates from 1964: the signature of JS Fforde dates this specimen to 1967.

Outstanding pair!

Very nice!