Why did someone stamp “Hawaii” on this note?

It's normal, just search Hawaiian Notes.

 

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The same principle as with the Hawaii overprint notes, but in the instance of banknotes issued during the North Africa campaign, it was a lot less obvious.

 

Just curious why did they do notes for Africa?

I understand Hawaii. In the event of Japanese invasion but the US didn’t have any colonies or possession or territories in Africa so why make the special notes?

Why not just use regular US dollar bills?

 

Africa=German invasion

 

I'm more of a coin guy myself too but I'm trying to get an American dollar bill collection started... I have a silver certificate and a few $2 bill but that's about it.

 

During 1942 and 1943, the Allies worked to dislodge the German Afrika-Corps and Italian forces from the North African desert. These notes were made to invalidate any American currency that could've been possibly fell into the hands of the Axis forces.

 

So then did they make one for Vichy France, Italy and Germany too? Because alot more soldiers fought there.

For example during the invasion of Normandy soldiers were in France for a long time. A lot of them.

 

Nope, that part of the war is where military payment certificates come in. MPC’s are not a numismatic interest of mine, so I cannot help you here.

 

It’s ok I was just curious for the information not looking for MPCs.

Thanks for your wisdom!

 

Hawaii didn't become a state until 1959 it was the 50th state as well Alaska was the 49th state.
The notes were printed with that to avoid counterfeit money from the Japanese government durring WWll.

 

There's lots of good stuff on Ebay and HA...take your time, and spend time in the PAPER MONEY thread.

 

There was also an emergency issue used in North Africa. The reasoning for these specially marked notes was that they could be devalued in the event that enemy forces gained control of those regions.

It had nothing to do with Hawaii needing money. Don't guess!

 

No, because by then we were clearly on the offensive.

Vichy France we weren't there until 1944 so by then you didn't need special stamped currency; MPCs and North Africa and regular currency were enough.

Yes, but the quantity of money there wasn't that large....mostly MPCs and North Africa notes....and chances of a major military reversal were very low.

In 1942, the fear was that the Japanese and Rommel would overrun us.

 

The US had substantial forces in North Africa, and obviously, needed substantial cash to support the effort. If the US forces were overrun by the enemy, the US could simply devalue these specially marked notes so the enemy couldn't use them.

 

That doesn’t make sense.

If the Japanese wanted to counterfeit notes why would they counterfeit the Hawaiian ones instead of regular ones? That’s what the Nazis did in Operation Bernhardt where they counterfeited British £5 notes by using concentration camp inmates with the skills to do it. They planned on having the Luftwaffe drop them over big cities and utterly ruin the British economy.

 

It wasn't counterfeiting so much, as large quantities of currency falling into enemy hands.

You have $$$ in soldier's pockets...civilians...banks and businesses.

Forget countefeiting.

 

I think I saw this plan once on an epsiode of "Hogan's Heroes" !!

 

No they wernt trying to counterfeit Hawiian note but all notes. So they printed special notes for both the African campaign as well printed note for use in Hawaii.
In the Philippines they dumped the silver coins in the bay in crates to hide it from the Japanese. Remember silver was under a dollar an oz. But still had value to support a war machine.

 

There is a lot of incorrect information being bandied about on this thread. Please do not respond if you don't know what you are talking about.

MPC was not introduced until 1946 after the war was over.

Hawaii notes were used so they could be invalidated if large quantities fell into enemy hands. They could be spent on the mainland also. They have nothing to do with counterfeiting fears.

Yellow seal notes were used to pay US troops in North Africa and during the invasion of Italy. They were necessary because the allies did not have enough local currency (francs and lire) to pay troops. Yellow seals were withdrawn when adequate supplies of local currency were obtained and when AMC lire were used in Italy.

AMC francs and Banque de France notes were paid to troops for the Normandy invasion. AMC marks were paid once the allies passed I to Germany.

If you are really interested in WWII coins and currency, get Schwan and Bolings book World War II Remembered.