Banknote Collecting (Notaphily)

I have always collected banknotes from around the world, even before I travelled myself. I remember at an early age in Canada when visitors from Australia showed me the old Canadian banknotes their bank had given them, I immediately bought them off of them. Banknotes which we generally take for granted are miniature works of the engraver's art and over the years I have amassed a small collection.

Most of my notes are individual notes but I do have several uncut sheets of banknotes from both Canada and the United States. I have a specific interest in hyper-inflation notes with a number of examples from Zimbabwe and second world war Germany. Otherwise, I try to keep copies of any new country's banknotes when I visit, taking the cleanest and best examples, for my collection.

Due to security concerns, there are not many places in the world that you can see banknotes being printed.

Twice when I have visited Washington D.C. I have made an effort to visit the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. They offer free, timed, tours of the facilities (no pictures allowed) but they also have a small shop where you can purchase uncut banknotes at quite a bit above “face value” (and some tourist tat which I generally ignore).

The tour entrance is at the rear of the building on 14th Street Northwest (the front of the building looks out over the Tidal Basin on Raoul Wallenberg Pl SW). The tour takes you through the whole process of printing banknotes with the various steps involved including applying different inks, printing and cutting the bills.

It turns out I am $1,631,000 tall in $100 notes…