Army Museum (WWII allied currency)

[mtnstyne]

Japan

Germany

Italy

France

[jtryka]

Very cool!

[RWB]

Are the North African and Hawaiian notes included in part of the display? They were used in combat and Allied occupation zones instead of locally denomenated currency.

[mtnstyne]

Are the North African and Hawaiian notes included in part of the display? They were used in combat and Allied occupation zones instead of locally denomenated currency.

 

Yes, I was just trying to keep the number of pictures to a managable amount.

[RWB]

Thought this might expand a bit on the use of Hawaii currency.

 

Excerpt from current draft of: National Gold, Volume II, p.76:

 

"The Hawaiian special currency was intended to circulate only in the territory, but military necessity dictated otherwise. In November 1943 overprinted notes were used in the liberation of the Gilbert Islands. Thereafter, it was used in all Central Pacific campaigns through the invasion of Palau Islands in September 1944. None of these islands had stocks of local currency and the brown seal Hawaiians served the same purpose as yellow seal dollars did in Sicily and the Middle East. Small change was supplied by U.S. minor and silver coins. These tended to be saved by the local population and had to be periodically replenished. The paper money circulated freely and was not widely hoarded.

 

"At times, the supply of Hawaiian notes was insufficient to meet the needs of island-hopping Marines and soldiers. In planning for the invasion of Saipan, Army finance officers determined that $1,839,600 would be needed. Hawaiian banks said it would take four to six weeks to supply that much currency. When the commanding General of the Central Pacific was advised of the problem, he arranged for all the paper currency and coins to be shipped from the mainland by boat and airplane.

 

"Until October 1944, everyone entering Hawaiian territory had to exchange blue seal currency for brown seal bills. On leaving the territory, the exchange was reversed. After October, all paper currency circulated freely and overprinted bills were a common sight both in the Islands and on the West Coast for several years."

 

[mtnstyne]

Thanks for sharing from the new book. The museum is pretty basic with most of the information and knowledge locked inside the memory of the curator. Next time I see him in a couple weeks I am going to ask if he has more resources he has developed that he can share.

 

Anyway, I was wondering if you could tell me why these notes are all from the 1930's series? I always assumed that if it said series 1934 it was printed in 1934. Surely they couldn't have produced these notes seven years before the attack on Pearl Harbor.

[RWB]

Currency series dates refer to the design and office of the signatories, not the year the currency was printed. I don’t recall the rules for changing series date, but I'm sure a board member can help.

 

Any info on the WW-II special currency that I have is freely available to the curator, if he/she wants it.

 

[mtnstyne]

I will surely pass it on. Did you see the post I put in the paper money forum on the MPC series 691 and 701?

[DaveG]

Regarding the Series date of US currency: if you look in the Friedberg book on US currency (and perhaps the others, as well), there's a table listing when the many Secretaries of the Treasury and Treasurers were in office together, so you can determine roughly when a particular note was printed.

 

As I recall, the rules regarding when the Series date or letter changes have changed a bit over the years, but the Series date used to change when the Secretary changed (or in the case of a major design change - but that didn't happen between the change from large size currency to small size currency in 1928 and the design change in 1996), while the letter changed with the Treasurer.

 

There may be something about this on the BEP website, as well.

[Conder101]

Back in that time period the rule was the series date changed when there was a change in the design OR if both signatures changed at the same time. If just one signature changed (either one) the the series letter would change. Those rules were changed in the late 70's or early 80's. The current rule is the series date changes with a change in design OR a change in the Secretary of the Treasury. Changes in the signature of the Treasurer results in a series letter change. (There have been a couple of violations of these rules.)

 

Sometimes with the older notes it was surprising how long they would go without a date change. You will notice the one dollar Hawaii note is a 1935A series. The last of the 1935 series silver certificates was I believe 1935G which was printed through late 1957.

 

A bit of trivia, the 1935G series comes with and without the motto IN GOD WE TRUST. The motto was added to the 1957 silver certificates (The reason for the change in the series date) but some notes printed with 1957 back plates had their fronts printed with 1935G front plates. (The production of 1935G and 1957 series notes overlapped. The BEP doesn't retire plates until they wear out.) These mules are interesting but pretty common so they aren't especially valuable.

[DaveG]

See, now you made me go and get my copy of Friedberg and actually look it up!

 

The last of the 1935 series $1 silver certificates was actually the 1935-H series, which features the signatures of Secretary C. Douglas Dillon and Treasurer Kathryn O'Hay Granahan. Friedberg says they were in office together from January 1963 through March 1965.

 

(The Series 1935-G $1 silver certificates have the Dillon/Smith signature combination; Friedberg says they were in office together from January 1961 through April 1962.)

 

Oddly enough, Friedberg says that for the Series 1957 $1 silver certificates, that the signers (Anderson and Priest) were in office from July 1957 through January 1961.

 

Great, now I have to go check whether there's an error in Friedberg!

 

Edited to add: I checked the Treasury's website and Friedberg does have the terms of office correct. I have no idea why the Series 1957 notes would have the signatures of officials who served before the signers of the Series 1935-H notes.

[Conder101]

A better question is why was there a series 35-G or H at all? Once the Series 1957 notes began production, why would they START a run of a new 1935 series note. Notice the 1957 A series has the same signatures as the 1935 G, and the 1957 B has the same signatures as the 1935 H.

 

The only possibility I can think of is possibly they wanted to continue using the old presses while they were being phased out. (The older series were printed on a "wet press" method where the paper was dampened before it was printed. The new 1957 notes were printed on a dry sheet press where the paper was not dampened.)