Introduction

Chinese reading guide is provided in translation mode. The source material below follows this edition.

Welcome to this 23rd edition of the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money, Modern Issues.

Many new issues, date varieties and signature combinations, as well as expanded text descriptions and price updates, have been added.

There was a strong effort to add dates to this edition. A section that benefited from this inclusion is the West African States. Several countries issued new families of notes, including Argentina, Belarus, and Georgia. The 23rd edition saw updates to many countries including Fiji, Great Britain, and Nicaragua.

An Invitation

Users of this catalog may find a helpful adjunct to be the Bank Note Reporter, the only monthly newspaper devoted exclusively to North American and world paper money. Each issue presents up-to-date news, feature articles and valuable information. All purchasers of this catalog are invited to subscribe to the Bank Note Reporter. See www.shopnumismaster.com.

To purchase additional Krause Publications titles on banknotes please visit www.shopnumismaster.com. You will find our more specialized catalogs available there for purchase in addition to the rest of the standard catalog series.

A review of modern paper money collecting

Paper money collecting is probably as old as paper money itself. However, this segment of the numismatic hobby did not begin to reach a popularity approaching that of coin collecting until the latter half of the 1970s. While coins and paper money are alike in that both served as legal obligations to facilitate commerce, long-time paper money enthusiasts know the similarity ends there.

Coins were historically guaranteed by the intrinsic value of their metallic content - at least until recent years when virtually all circulating coins have become little more than legal tender tokens, containing little or no precious metal - while paper money possesses a value only when it is accepted for debts or converted into bullion or precious metals. With many note issues, this conversion privilege was limited and ultimately negated by the imposition of redemption cutoff dates.

The development of widespread collector interest in paper money of most nations was inhibited by a near total absence of adequate documentation. No more than four decades ago collectors could refer to only a few catalogs and dealer price lists of limited scope, most of which were difficult to acquire, or they could build their own knowledge through personal collecting pursuits and contact with fellow collectors.

The early catalogs authored by Albert Pick chronicled issues of Europe and the Americas and were assembled as stepping-stones to the ultimate objective, which became reality with publication of the first Standard Catalog of World Paper Money in 1975. That work provided collectors with fairly complete listings and up-to-date valuations of all recorded government note issues of the 20th century, incorporating Pick’s previously unpublished manuscripts on Africa, Asia and Oceania, plus many earlier issues.

The completely revised and updated 23rd edition of Volume III, Modern Issues, along with the companion 16th edition Volume II, General Issues, presents a substantial extension of the cataloging effort initiated in 1975 and revised in succeeding editions. As the most comprehensive world paper money references ever assembled, they fully document the many and varied legal tender paper currencies issued and circulated by over 380 past and current government issuing authorities of the world from 1368 to present.

Falling within the scope of the Specialized Issues volume are all state, local, municipal and company releases which circulated under auspices of recognized regional governments and their banking agents. These are notes which enjoyed legitimate circulation in their respective countries, sometimes for a broad region or area, sometimes for the entire nation. In compiling this catalog we have excluded those issues which had a seriously limited range of circulation, such as the vast number of private Notgeld issued by many German and Austrian states and cities particularly in the period during and between the World Wars, as well as similar Chinese local issues and those very limited circulation issues of other nations and time periods.

Tracy L. Schmidt

Editor