Most Attractive World Banknotes?

2000 Lei, 1999 Commemorative Issue, Total Solar Eclipse, 11 August 1999
Polymer Plastic Note
Front: Reproduction of the Solar System at right depicting the eclipse, arms at upper left, tranparent windows at upper left and lower right — view against black background to better see the transparent windows
Back: Map of Romania having the colors of the national flag (blue, yellow, and red). The map marks the main points where the solar eclipse was visible in a path moving along the map from west to east.
Size: 143 x 62 mm


In celebration of the total solar eclipse of August 11, 1999, the National Bank of Romania (BNR) decided to issue a commemorative two thousand Romanian lei banknote. Since it was the last eclipse of the millennium, the denomination was chosen to be 2000 in respect to the upcoming year.


The banknote was designed by Romanian artist Nicolae Siaftoiu, who is credited with the designs on which all Romanian banknotes printed since the 1989 Revolution are based.

 

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A test note from Komori Machinery Printing of the UK and targeted towards the Indian market:

 

Another one from their UK branch, Komori is a Japanese owned company:

 

I'm a bit late to this thread, but I'll add my favs. I've always loved the early Hawaiian notes (issued when it was still a kingdom). These notes are so rare that I only own proofs of them, but the color and artistry are phenomenal.

 

And I have to toss this one in, as well. Sort of a faux note -- a beautiful example of banknote engraving from a souvenir booklet issued at a convention of the Int'l Plate Printers Union.

 

5 and 10 pesos from Mexican Revolution...:too-cool-for:

 

...and commemorative 10 pesos for Emiliano Zapata







petronius :too-cool-for:

 

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I like the color and design on these and they aren't real expensive. I own mulitple prefixes and dates of the sphinx egyptian notes (1994-2002) and one of each of the others.

 

That Madagascar 25K needs to be added to my collection - talk about an awesome colour arrangement.

 

This is my single favorite note. I got one in AUNC and tried to bid on one that was graded but it went too high on me. But I think the design with three lovely ladies on the front and Angkor Wat on the back is incredible. Hard to find one in perfect condtion because of their climate.

 

I thought I'd add a couple more. I have 6 or 7 AA notes of the 50k won, but would buy more if I can find a really low prefix. I have more I could post but they are in the bitmap format and won't upload.

 

This is apretty hot looking note of QEII. She looks better on this note than the famous 70s Seychelles Sex note. The back of the note looks fine also.

 

A couple of test notes. I have three of the female note and two of the DaVinci note. These aren't my pics but are good representative. Just in case someone hasn't seen these yet. Also want to thank all for posting all those great notes, gives me some ideas.

 

It must have made an impression in Laos:



And then 5 years later this one:

 

Yes, it's a nice representation of the French Indochina note done in 54. The interesting thing about the 2nd note (your bottom note) that you probably already know (although others may not know) is that they supposedly stop making the notes because they picture real women and I guess that wasn't acceptable. I don't know if that's true but I've only seen the AA and DD (replacement) prefixes with this banknote, and of course the specimen notes. There's an AB prefix that was made but supposedly never issued. There's only one guy who I've seen sell these notes on ebay - mauriziolaos. He's from Laos. Who knows if the bank will release the AB notes in the future. Right now they go for a bit of a premium. According to mauriziolaos "only 298,000 pieces of this banknote had been issued and those have AA or the replacement DD serial." If true that's a pretty low number for paper currency.

 

The first note is from a breakaway area in Macedonia I'm told. It's note a legit currency but the people in the area use it. The 2nd and 3rd notes are arab notes. Some of those Islamic notes have some nice designs.

 

I bought mine from a dealer in Bangkok - they may have been sold into the international collecting community but not circulated locally.

 

That first one is from Vevčani; a friend of mine has one of those (not this denomination though). Somewhere in the fine print it says "souvenir" ...

Christian

 

I know it's not a legit note and what I know of it is from the person who sold it to me who said it's collectable. I got some Macedonia specimens off of him in the past and he's pretty nice guy. I can't read what's on the note but I put it in the same category as the test notes, fantasy notes and Mickey mouse notes. I don't know how many are produced but I don't see them on ebay a lot. The design is interesting so I bought one of them.

 

I like this one a lot!