Innehållsförteckning för October 2025 från Banknote Reporter

In just a few months, we will have reached the end of 2025. We have made huge progress with the additions of missing and new bank notes in NumisMaster, adding more than 1,800 paper currency to the website just this year. Over 191 countries have been updated, with at least 173 of those countries updated through 2024 and 15 updated through 2025. The latest countries to be updated include the Czech Republic, the East Caribbean States, Ethiopia, the Falkland Islands, Gambia, Honduras, and Namibia. These accounted for 93 new numbers assigned to bank notes this month. If you would like to reach out to us with any questions or comments, please do not hesitate to email us at n@aimmedia.com. HONDURAS 2022 100 lempiras issued by Banco Central De Honduras. P#112.…

According to Greg Alexander, editor of the Souvenir Card Journal, the BEP proofs in the National Numismatic Collection host a plethora of truly historic items other than currency. Greg asks why not feature some of them? It would be hard to beat the 30-year, 6% bonds authorized by the Acts of July 1, 1862, and July 2, 1864, that funded the construction of the first transcontinental railroad. The acts providing for these bonds were signed into law by President Lincoln. The Western Pacific Railroad Company built 132 miles of it from Oakland to Sacramento, California; the Central Pacific Railroad 690 miles from Sacramento to Promontory, Utah; and the Union Pacific Railroad 1,085 miles from Council Bluffs, Iowa, to Promontory. The bond shown funded the Central Pacific Railroad for its leg…

It took a long time for the Bank of England (BoE) to feature vignettes on its 20th-century bank notes. Now comes the next hurdle: to make BoE notes look as modern as other 21st-century paper currency issued elsewhere, excluding the antiquated designs that periodically receive minor facelifts in the United States. The BoE is determined to modernize its currency just as King Charles III is seeking to remodel the monarchy. The king’s vignette currently appears on the front of each denomination now in circulation of the BoE’s “Series G” collection, the £5, £10, £20, and £50. It has been a challenge to get these into circulation, as they are only being issued to replace damaged notes that depict the late Queen Elizabeth II. Unless you collect British bank notes, you…

More than 500 lots of rare and desirable bank notes, coins, autographs, historic ephemera, and security printing artifacts will be for sale at Archives International Auctions' upcoming Auction 106 event on September 24, 2025. Among the highlights is an impressive set of six c. 1843-1844 bank notes issued by the Kingdom of Hawai'i. Considered some of the earliest pieces of Hawaiian paper money, the notes were printed at the Lahainaluna Seminary in Maui, which was founded by American missionaries in 1831 and was the first institution of higher learning west of the Rocky Mountains. This set has appeared at auction only five times in the last 30 years. Also up for bid is an 1856 Republic of Nicaragua $25 military pay certificate signed by American filibuster and unrecognized president of…

Among the vast selection of bank notes that have been uploaded and updated on NumisMaster, the database holds a growing collection of paper currency from the Czech Republic, also known as Czechia. The central European nation has issued its own currency since 1993 and may adopt the Euro in the near future. Below are some selections from NumisMaster that highlight the work of Czech artist Oldřich Kulhánek (1940–2013). First introduced in 1993 and still in use today, the notes’ faces feature portraits of famous Czech persons, while the reverses show architectural and cultural scenes. All integrate security features that have been updated throughout the years. Get a look at these issues and more on NumisMaster.com.…

It’s a great time to be a new issue world bank note collector. There are a lot of changes taking place. Both the Bank of England and the European Central Bank are involved in note design contests, soliciting ideas from what I will call “outside of the box.” Fresh new suggestions may make their next issues particularly attractive from an aesthetic view. We’re waiting to see if Iran issues new notes or simply countermarks those already in circulation. The inflation-ravaged country is about to lob four zeros off each denomination now in use. When the Islamic Republic displaced the Shah’s regime, the notes on which the Shah appeared were counterstamped to obliterate his image. Sky-high denominations that are replaced by notes in which the denominations are simply redefined do not…

We are all intrigued by error notes. They offer something different, an unexpected treat for the eyes that you may have never seen before. That’s what makes them so special; just when you think you've seen everything, a new type of error note arises. They also confirm that the printing presses and the inspectors at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) are not perfect. With the billions of notes produced over the years, mistakes sometimes occur; however, 99.9% of the time, the BEP gets it right. But when they do make a mistake, the resulting error can often be dramatic. Mainstream paper money errors are well-documented and include mismatched serial numbers, offsets, inverted reverses, shifts in serial numbers and seals, inverted third printing, third printing on the reverse, stuck…

Skullduggery? Kenya Auditor-General Nancy Gathungu thinks so. Although the incident was identified last year, it was only on July 25, 2025, that publications like Business Daily got news of questionable activity by Kenya’s central bank. The Central Bank of Kenya (CBK) signed a five-year contract with security printing company Giesecke+Devrient Currency Technologies GmbH in Germany to produce needed replacement bank notes. The notes will also have color-shifting security threads that are not on the older versions. In the past, Kenya’s bank notes were printed by the English firm De La Rue. Predecessors of De La Rue International, Thomas De La Rue and Company Ltd. and Bradbury & Wilkinson were the sources of Kenya’s bank notes since 1966. De La Rue then established a factory in Ruaraka, a suburb of Nairobi,…

Sales were gleaming at Stack’s Bowers Galleries Summer 2025 Global Showcase Auction: Session D: World Paper Money: The Americas event. A standout of the auction was a gold-colored 1942 British Guiana $100 note issued by the government of British Guiana (PMG Very Fine 30), which sold for $78,000. Perhaps considered one of the most well-known notes from this former British colony, this rare piece is both beautiful in design (bright colors with no tears or repairs) and historically significant. After extensive research, Stack’s Bowers believes that this denomination was of little use to the local population, which relied heavily on natural resources, and was likely used for interbank settlements, government accounting, or export-related commercial transactions. The print run was presumably low and undocumented, and only specimen examples exist. This note…

Jess Lipka dropped this newly discovered Dakota territorial into my inbox. Any Dakota territorial find is big news. This is the first territorial to appear from Pierre, the capital of South Dakota. It holds a special appeal for me because the town is my namesake, Pierre being French for Peter. The good folks in Pierre long ago Anglicized the pronunciation of the place from “peaair to “pier.” But the place was named for a Frenchman whose first name was Pierre, so I legitimately claim identity with the place. Pierre was formally incorporated in 1880 as the western terminus of the Chicago and North Western Railway at the Missouri River. The town was named for Pierre Chouteau, Jr. (1789-1865), an entrepreneur from the wealthy Chouteau fur-trading family of Saint Louis. Pierre’s…

Nebraska national bank note specialist Matt Hansen has branched off to Pancho Villa’s unissued El Banco del Estado de Chihuahua notes produced by the American Bank Note Company (ABNC) in 1914–1915. This set of notes denominated 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, and 500 pesos comprises one of the most beautiful series of currency ever produced by ABNC. Matt has become fascinated—that is to say, obsessed—with the recycling of the vignettes and counters found on the notes both to and from other currency and securities produced by ABNC, and has found no end to the recycling of those devices. Suddenly, he is now absorbed with building a collection illustrating these ties. What could epitomize this endeavor more than the mating illustrated here of a beautiful $1,000 Chicago, Indianapolis, and Louisville…

Ifirst became aware of postage stamp envelopes when Smythe & Co featured them in one of their 2007 auctions. These fascinating items represent a brief but historically significant chapter in American financial history, dating back to the early years of the Civil War. Their origin is closely tied to a widespread problem faced by the public at the time—a severe shortage of coinage, particularly in the North and along the East Coast. As the Civil War intensified, citizens and businesses encountered growing difficulties in conducting everyday transactions due to the lack of available small change. Coins had all but disappeared from circulation, hoarded due to their intrinsic metal value and the uncertainty of wartime. This coin shortage forced the government to consider alternative methods, especially for small purchases. One of…

Yeehaw! Numismatists, collectors, and professionals from around the world gathered in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, from August 19–23 for the 2025 American Numismatic Association’s World’s Fair of Money. This was the first time the event had taken place in the Sooner State, which offered quite the warm welcome. Throughout the multi-day event, the Oklahoma City Convention Center hummed with a busy schedule of events, which included the Sundman Lecture Series and the Money Talks forum, coin club meetings, and ceremonies that included the 134th Anniversary Awards Banquet and the Coin of the Year awards. A venture to the bourse floor continued the excitement as the ample space was filled with a never-ending stream of attendees perusing tables filled with rare finds from dealers, new issues by American and world mints, and…