Grandfathers Paper Money From The Pacific

Wow! You have some excellent notes there!

The Australian notes are quite rare, I believe. Someone else will give you info on those. Or, you can just go on google.

The French-Indochina issues are from Noumea, which is a small island in New Caledonia. These were French government issued notes because back then, French Indochina (which included Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and a fair bit of the South Pacific) was a part of the French Empire. These notes, although issued for the whole of Indochina, had their circulation restricted on Noumea. These notes also had their value tied to the French franc at par value.

The Japanese Government Pesos were issued in 1944, at the end of the war. These were basically worthless currency that the Japanese forced the Pilipino population to exchange for. Then the Japanese government took the specie from the Philippines and transported them to Japan. These were called "Mickey Mouse Pesos" because they were more or less worthless fantasy money. Earlier 1 pesos had individual serial numbers.

The Japanese Government pounds and shillings were prepared but never issued because the Japanese intended to force onto Australia after they invaded. Thankfully that never happened because the Marines held the Japanese back. I thank your grandfather for his service. Things would have taken a really bad turn if the Japanese got Australia.

The other Japanese notes were pre-war (1930s) exchangeable notes, meaning they could have been traded in for silver and gold. But as the war progressed, this clause was removed. The smaller notes with the 10 and 50 are sen notes (kinda like cents). The 50 sen was printed in Showa 13, meaning 1938, which is around the time of the Marco Polo Incident and the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War. 50 sen up to that point was silver, but it was replaced with cheaper metals and paper money because silver was a critical war supply.

whew... that was a bit. Feel free to ask any more questions! There's quite a bit of history behind these notes.

Thanks for the pics. As wd said a nice collection. And the Japanese occupation shilling was a revelation. I didn't know they existed.

Thank you rggoodie much appreciate that