Dour queen, hidden king, and no bananas

I just had to show you these three last banknotes. Laurie picked them up around the same time, same place, but these were either pre-war, or produced by the pre-war governments.

A couple of differences stand out: first, these notes do not carry the Japanese lettering that the banana dollars do, no matter what language they were printed in.


And second, they do have serial numbers.

The dour queen, Queen Willhemina of the Netherlands, on a one rupee note for the Dutch East Indies. And a bit of a tongue-twister in two long words, "Nederlandsch-indische gouvernementsgulden".

King George IV of England, on a Malayan 10-cent note. In English and, I'm guessing, Malay. An oddity about this bill is that the backside is completely blank.


And King George, again, on an Indian one rupee note. Look at this one closely.


Frontside, I think.


And backside. I was intrigued by the white area, framed so nicely with flowers and trim, but blank, front and back. I held the bill up to the light, and there was George!


He's sandwiched in the centre of the paper, invisible except this way. (To photograph him, I propped the bill against my desk lamp, with a tissue behind to soften the glare.)

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Back to the fruit bills; I think the $1 bill has a fig tree and a coconut palm, the $5 bill shows coconuts and papaya, and the $10 has bananas and breadfruit flanked on either side by coconuts. I could be wrong; I am open to suggestions.

Not worth the paper it's printed on

During WWII, from 1942 to 1945, Japan occupied a fair territory of South East Asia, including part of China, down through Thailand, Indochina (Vietnam), part of Burma, Malaya, and so on, as far south as New Guinea. They invalidated all the currencies of the area, and issued their own equivalent. The new paper bills used the languages and units of each country occupied, but were "guaranteed" by the Japanese government.

10 rupees. I am not sure where these were used.

The bills were decorated with symbols and scenes familiar to the residents of each area, probably to encourage acceptance. Because of the bananas on the 10 dollar note, they became known as "banana money".*

Reverse of the 10 rupee note.

Pretty pictures did not do the trick, in part because, whenever the authorities needed more funds, they printed out another batch of bills, thereby devaluing the currency. Besides, since many of the notes did not have serial numbers (none of the ones Laurie brought home do), they were easily counterfeited. As the occupation dollar/rupee/gulder/pound dropped in value, Japan printed higher and higher denominations, again devaluing the holdings of the locals. (Black markets were illegally using the older currencies, which were safer.)

Half guilder, Dutch language. Used in Dutch East Indies.

After Japan's surrender in 1945, the occupation currencies became worthless. Many who had prospered under the Japanese lost everything; those who had held onto the older currencies instead of converting, found that they were again valuable.

Half rupee, 10 cents (Dutch).

So, Laurie's "stash" is interesting, unusual, a glimpse into a moment of history, but as to monetary value, worthless. We won't be cashing it in.

*About those trees: nobody, so far, has identified them. The bananas on the 10 dollar note were obvious, of course. And the round things on the right may be coconuts. Christopher has identified the one rupee note drawing as a banyan tree, because of the many dropped roots. I'm wondering if some may be mangos or papayas. Do they grow in Indonesia? I can see that I'll be Googling images tomorrow, to find out.

And I have a couple more oddities to show you then.

Can you identify these trees?

Laurie is a WWII veteran, British army, stationed mostly in S.E. Asia. With this snowy weather, we've been staying inside, puttering around, and he's been cleaning out old files; he found a stack of currency he had brought home as souvenirs.

These ones had interesting artwork. Can you name these fruits?






Or this tree?


Front of the one rupee note:


These date from around 1940 to 1947, when Laurie came home. More, with a bit of history, tomorrow.