Largest collection of paper money in the world

Created: 01/11/2022Updated: 01/11/2022, 3:34 PM

From: Sebastian Hölzle

A rare treasure slumbers in Munich's Prinzregentenstrasse: the technology group Giesecke + Devrient manages the world's most extensive banknote collection in an inconspicuous archive.

We got an exclusive insight.

Munich

- Not much can be seen on the grayish piece of paper.

Chinese characters and several stacks of coins can only be guessed with difficulty (see photo below left).

But it is: The oldest known banknote in the world.

"It comes from the Chinese Ming dynasty in the 14th century," explains Katharina Depner.

Depner is a research assistant at the Munich technology group Giesecke + Devrient (G + D).

Strictly speaking, she works for one of the company's foundations, the Giesecke + Devrient Banknote Collection Foundation, which was set up in mid-November.

"Our banknote collection is probably the world's largest and most important collection in the field of paper money," says Foundation Board Member Celia von Mitschke-Collande.

Over 300,000 banknotes

The foundation stone for this was laid by a Cologne private collector named Albert Pick, who handed over his collection to the Bayerische Hypotheken- und Wechselbank in Munich in 1964. In 2003 the collection was transferred to UniCredit's HVB Stiftung Geldscheinammlung. Although the historical banknotes have been in the Giesecke + Devrient premises in Munich's Prinzregentenstrasse since 2008, the collection has only officially belonged to Giesecke + Devrient via the new foundation since November. The foundation does not provide any information about the value - that is hardly possible to estimate anyway. After all, the collection consists of over 300,000 banknotes.

The collection is important not only because of its size.

The banknotes also tell a lot about the history of paper money, as the example from the Chinese Ming dynasty shows: Instead of hundreds of coins, goods of high value can be paid for with manageable paper at once.

Bumpy start for paper money

Problem: "Even back then, paper money had to be made forgery-proof," says Depner.

Accordingly, the bank had the banknote, which is formally reminiscent of a document, artistically decorated in such a way that it was difficult to copy.

Another security feature is likely to have been much more effective: "If you translate the characters on the bank note, it reads: 'Whoever forges the money will be beheaded.'"

Despite the draconian threat of punishment, the paper money project failed: Back then, banknotes were not yet universally valid as a means of payment and had to be exchanged for coins.

On the banknote, the state promised that coins in the amount printed on it would be deposited in the safe.

“That may have been the case in the beginning, but in the end there was more paper money in circulation than coins were deposited with the state,” says Depner.

As a result, there was inflation.

"And when the owners wanted to exchange their banknotes for coins at a government agency, they didn't get the full value."

The oldest banknotes in Europe

Something similar happened hundreds of years later in Europe.

The oldest European banknote that exists today dates back to 1666. "In Sweden, it was customary at that time to pay large amounts with heavy copper plates," says Depner.

The banknotes were lighter.

The issuing Stockholms Banco also promised on its banknotes that the value in coins in the stated amount would be deposited with the bank.

"But too many banknotes were issued here - that's why the Swedish bank went bankrupt after a few years."

In the fight against counterfeiters, however, the Swedes were already one step further.

“One of the first watermarks can be found on the banknote,” says Depner - a security feature that can still be found on banknotes to this day.

Private banks printed the paper money

It was still a long time before state-organized central banks issued paper money. Even the first known paper money issues in today's Germany often came from private banks. Due to increasing industrialization in the 19th century, the need for capital rose rapidly - in the Grand Duchy of Saxony-Weimar-Eisenach, the Weimar Bank issued paper money for the first time in 1854, which already looks very similar to today's banknotes. And new security features promised even more protection against counterfeiting. “What you see on the banknotes from Weimar is the ultimate in printing,” says Depner. The typographic art institute Giesecke und Devrient in Leipzig - the predecessor company of today's group - was commissioned with the printing. "At that time, well-known allegories were printed, and they were so fine and detailed,that forgers must have had great difficulty making copies, ”says Depner.

Later, when Giesecke + Devrient was no longer printing money for private central banks but for state-organized central banks, the company worked on new security features. The D-Mark should be made more secure with machine-readable features. “In the first stage, everyone could check the authenticity of the banknote by seeing, touching and tilting it - for example through the special feel of the paper or the watermark,” says Depner. At a second security level, special sensors, for example under UV light, should detect the authenticity. "On a third level, there were security features for the first time that only the central banks could read with the help of special machines."

At the same time, Giesecke + Devrient developed more and more into a security group that not only printed money, but also developed technology for electronic payment transactions. Today, the company is in contact with various central banks around the world to develop a digital central bank currency.

What does this development mean for bank note collection?

Will no new banknotes be added to the collection in just a few decades because there are simply no more new ones?

“No, definitely not,” says Mitschke-Collande.

"Coin money was already widespread in antiquity, but coins are still considered a means of payment today." The emergence of the new paper money did not replace coin money, but supplemented it.

She expects something similar in the future, even if it is correct that many digital payment methods are added to cash.

"Especially since many countries have no digital infrastructure at all and are therefore dependent on banknotes for a long time," she says.

"Our collection will therefore continue to grow for many years to come, and we are already working on how digital currencies can be archived in the collection in addition to banknotes."

Virtual exhibitions

The Giesecke + Devrient banknote archive is not open to the public.

To do this, the foundation has digitized parts of the collection; the documents can be accessed online free of charge at: www.geldscheinsammlung.de

There are also virtual exhibitions here.

Most recently: “Bavaria's paper money - Munich emergency money”.