What do you think about fakes vintage? Not the modern reproductions for collectors (as for Civil War) but "real fakes" that circulated next to genuine notes and coins. I believe that, in some way, they have fulfilled the function of a coin, to circulate and be spent, and therefore can find a little place in a collection. According with my idea, I have some of these in my collection of WWII notes. The first is 5 pounds of the famous Operation Bernhard. In 1942 the Nazis had begun a project to counterfeit British notes. From the name of the director of this project, SS Major Walter Bernhard Kruger, it is known as Operation Bernhard. The Nazis assembled a group of Jewish artists, engravers, printers and techincians, to produce the counterfeit notes in the concentration camp of Sachsenhausen, 25 miles northwest of Berlin. The group produced foolproof fakes of £ 5, £ 10, £ 20 and £ 50 notes. Probably, they investigated even the possibility to produce fakes of £ 100, £ 500 and £ 1000, but they did not, there are no samples. In early 1944 the group began work on US $ 100 notes, but also of these there are no samples. But, how to identify a Bernhard fake? Once, the most reliable detection characteristic for identification, was the watermark. A line extends downward from the foot of the first N in England. On the counterfeits it extends from the center of the pedestal, on genuine notes the line is left of the pedestal center....but it's not easy to locate. Then, a study by Lance Campbell, revealed the block number ranges for the counterfeits. If a note is not within these ranges, it's not a Bernhard fake. These are the block ranges: £ 5 A128-275, A281-314, A317-398, B105-131, B134-182, B186-237 (my note is B233), B256-279, J373-377 £ 10 K102-184, K187-199, L100-107, V105-153, V163-170 £ 20 M43-55 £ 50 N42-61 petronius :smile
The others are two Am-lire notes, 500 and 1000 lire. When the Americans printed Am-lire, they decided to use a method based on lithographic inks with high specificity, in order to make the selection and the resulting photographic counterfeiting "extremely difficult, if not impossible". But Italians do it better :too-cool-for: ...the number and type of fakes was tremendous Because people did'nt know the new notes, one of the most popular ways of counterfeiting was to add a zero to the value .. 50 lire became 500, 100 became 1000. For this reason, was issued another series of notes, Series of 1943A, with value in numbers and letters. But was not enough, there were more sophisticated ways of counterfeiting, as shown by my two notes They were discovered and canceled with a perforated stamp FALSO (fake). I suppose that were discovered after a short time, because they are in quite good condition, especially the 500 lire, and I think that they have not been around for a long time. petronius :smile
Just a note, but what you are describing, at least in coins, are called contemporary counterfeits. Contemporary counterfeits are made in the same period as the originals, and are meant to be spent, not to fool collectors. As such, they are very collectible in their own right.
It 's true, I'm confused with translation from Italian to English and called them "vintage fakes"...pardon petronius
I in fascinated with contemporary counterfeits from the 19th century. Some of them distriubuted by directors of the mint are extremely rare and valuable.
Thanks for the interesting thread petronius. I had heard about the Bernhard notes but didn't know anything about them...until now. Thanks. Bruce
Yes, they are. The Counterfeiters (it.: Il Falsario) is based on the true story of Salomon Sorowitsch, a real counterfeiter who was forced to work in the Operation Bernhard in Sachsenausen...a good film :thumb: The Counterfeiters Movie Trailer petronius :smile
New acquisition :smile This 1000 dinara note, comes from Yugoslavia, and it was overprinted with a circular stamp showing allegorical representation of Italy and the text VERIFICATO (Verified), for circulation in Montenegro (Yugoslavian region) during Italian occupation in WWII. These notes were overprinted on July 1941, and remboursed on September 1942, but to reimbursement was submitted a lot of notes with forged stamp. My note was discovered and canceled with two red lines. Make attention...the stamp only is fake, the note is genuine petronius
This is, even from my collection, the genuine note with genuine stamp and an enlargement of stamps, to better show the differences. petronius
Yeah...Lake Toplitz http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Toplitz There are many legends about this lake. Since 1945 it's said that Nazis threw into the lake boxes full of gold and diamonds, stolen from Jewish families. In the vaults will also find dozens of works of art stolen from European countries, and several files with secret documents and plans of the Third Reich. A real treasure, which would have served for the "resurrection" of Nazi Germany, once the war ended. Every year tens of explorers, treasure hunters and sub improvised venture into the woods and mountains that surround the Toplitz, in search of the treasure of the Nazis...without result. The only thing that was found, in 2000, there were many boxes with millions of counterfeit notes, probably by Operation Bernhard...but no gold or diamonds. In 2009 Austrian authority for the protection of forests has decided to stop further research in the lake, for a century...the enigma is unsolved petronius
