News & Notes Volume XI, No. 27

December 16, 2025

 From the Internet Bookshelf

  Articles from "The Collector" Website

• What Kind of Money Did People Use in Feudal Japan? From 2025.
• How Underwater Shells Became the First Global Money. From 2025.
• Knights Templar & the Creation of Modern Banking. From 2025.
• 10 Strange Old Currencies Throughout Time. From 2024.
• How Did Paper Money Develop in the Premodern World? From 2023.
• The Economic Impact of the American Civil War. From 2022.
• Adam Smith and the Origins of Money. From 2022.
• Three Criminals that Surprisingly Appeared on Australia's Currency. From 2021.

Currency Coming and Going

• Calls for more small-denomination notes in India (The Indian Express).
• Nepal relaxes ban on high-denomination Indian currency (The Hindustan Times).
• Might El Salvador end dollarization and revive its own currency? (MRI Bankers' Guide).
• China's "One Yuan Girl", after 50 years (South China Morning Post).
• The history of insurance in China, Part I and Part II (The Tontine Coffee-House).

The Business of Collecting

• Sipesville, PA, and its national bank notes (Numismatic News).
• Germany's local currency, the Bethel mark (Geldscheine-online, in German).
• A rare national bank note from Hampton, VA (Stack's Bowers).
• Commemorating the Battle of Jersey (Banknote World).
• Boleslaw I the Brave on Polish money (Banknote World).
• Selections from the latest Archives International sale (E-Sylum).
• A Bermuda $50 note, and what it sold for (The Royal Gazette).

New Banknote Issues

• Samoa's new 50 and 100 tala banknotes (MRI Bankers' Guide).
• Paraguay plans new banknotes for 2026 (MRI Bankers' Guide).
• eSwatini's new notes (MRI Bankers' Guide).
• Turkmenistan converts to polymer (Geldscheine-online, in German).
• Namibia's new banknotes under ultraviolet light (Geldscheine-online, in German).

Local Coin/Numismatic Shows Happening this Week

     Multi-Day Shows​

• Houston Christmas Coin Show, Houston, TX, December 19-20 (Coinzip).
• Salem Coin and Stamp Show, Rickreall, OR, December 20-21 (Coinshows-USA).

                    (Always call ahead to confirm)

      December 20

• Phoenix, AZ; Naugatuck, CT

​​      December 21

• Plantation, FL; Berwyn, IL; New Baltimore, MI; South St. Paul, MN; Omaha, NE; Hollis, NH; Clifton, NJ
  Old Bridge, NJ; Cheektowaga, NY; Liverpool, NY; Hilliard, OH; Toledo, OH; Langhorne, PA; Mechanicsville, VA

Upcoming Online Currency Auctions

• Heritage Tuesday U.S. Currency Select Auction, December 16 (HA).
• Spink World and British Banknote Auction, December 16 (Spink).
• Archives International Auction 109, December 16 (AIA).
• Stack's Collectors Choice Online Auction, December 18 (Stack's Bowers).
• The Woking Collection of U.S. Banknotes, December 21 (GreatCollections).
• The Surrey Collection of Fancy Serial Numbers, December 21 (GreatCollections).
• CGB Live Auction, January 6 (CGB Numismatique).
• Stack's January 2026 World Showcase Auction, Session A, January 16 (Stack's Bowers).
• Stack's January 2026 World Showcase Auction, Session B, January 17 (Stack's Bowers).
• Stack's January 2026 World Showcase Auction, Session C, January 20 (Stack's Bowers).
• Stack's January 2026 World Showcase Auction, Session D, January 21 (Stack's Bowers).

Major Coin and Currency Shows

• 71st FUN Show, Orlando, FL, January 8-11, 2026 (FUN).
• 54th NYINC, New York City, January 16-18, 2026 (NYINC).
• ANA's National Money Show, Savannah, GA, February 26-28, 2026 (ANA).

Banknote, Security Printing, and Cash Management Industries

• KOMSCO wins banknote award at HSP-Asia meeting (The Korea Times).
• Lethoso banknotes get a security upgrade (All Africa).
• Q & T's banknote substrate contract (Viet Nam News).
• Goznak is now printing Cuba's 200 peso note (Banknote News).

Upcoming Industry Conferences

• High Security Printing -EMEA, Rabat, Morocco, March 2-4, 2026 (Reconnaissance).
• High Security Printing-Latin America, Guatemala City, Guatemala, June 1-3, 2026 (Reconnaissance).
• Security Designers Forum, Istanbul, Turkey, September 7-10. 2026 (Security Designers Form).

From the Annals of Crime

• Japanese man seems to have a vague understanding of how banks and money work (SoraNews 24).
• Using kids in Florida to pass fake money (Tampa Free Press).

Websites to Like 

(in no particular order)

• Paper Money Forum (Numismatic discussion threads)
• Newman Numismatic Portal (Digital numismatic library)
• Numismatic Bibliomania Society (Includes E-Sylum, the weekly online complement to the NBS's journal, The Asylum)
• The American Revenue Association (Hobby website).
• The Souvenir Card Collectors Society
• New York Toll Script and Tokens (Collector website)..
• The American Historical Print Collectors Society (Hobby website).
• International Bank Note Society (useful features even for non-members).
• The Banknote Den (David Lok's website, with superb essays as well as a link to his book, The Many Faces of Money).
• The Higgins Museum (the one in Okoboji, IA, not Worcester, MA)
• Cigar History Museum's coupon gallery
• Boordgeld (Dutch ships' money)
• Depression Scrip (emergency money of the 1930s, and more)
• Wisconsin Depression Scrip
• Caishen's Temple-Asia Money
• Elkader Auction House
• Minnesota Nice
• The Currency Collector (more good essays by John Sandrock).
• COINWeek (numismatic aggregator with some paper money content).
• MRI Bankers' Guide (for its updates of new banknotes).
• Mujand (fantasy banknote maker).
• Alternative Banknotes and Coins (Alternatehistory). Fantasy thread.
• Stane Straus's Polymer Banknotes of the World
• Banknote News (roundup of news and promotional website for The Banknote Book).
• Mintage World (online museum of Indian numismatics).
• Chattanooga Money (site details historical episodes in Chattanooga, Tennessee's monetary and banking history)
• My Georgia Collection (collector site devoted to "Georgia State Notes, Obsolete Currency, Bonds, and Alternative Scrip")
• Banknotesworld ("THE German-language Banknote forum") Discussion threads and more.
• Scotsbanknotes
• Cash Essentials (Industry website devoted to promoting cash usage).
• Kuster's Engineering (Company website). Your expert in currency disintegration.
• PYMNTS.com (Industry website).
• Currency Research (Industry website).
• International Association of Currency Affairs (Industry website).
• De La Rue (Company website).
• Giesecke & Devrient (Company website).
• Our Passports (travel documents and other ephemera)
• Social Money (a Flickr album of photographs illustrating modern complementary currencies, heavy on Argentina).
• Library of Congress Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (search for banknotes etc.).
• Where's George? (currency tracking project).
• Banknoter
• Numismondo
• CoinsWeekly, numismatic website run by Ursula Kampmann. German-language version is here. Content is not identical.
• Blog du CNA (Club Numismatique  d'Argenteuil)
• AFEP   Association Française pour l'Étude du Papier-monnaie
• Monnaies Locales Complementaires
• Our Money (Eurozone currency).
• The Ephemera Society of America (Hobby website, with archived articles on ephemera topics)
• A Library of Scrip and Local Currency
• Fictional currency galleries (Deviant Art).
• Pakistani Currency