A Comprehensive Collection of ‘Operation Bernhard’ Notes

Prior to 1939 the Bank of England was the most important financial institution in the world and would, as always, have a crucial role to play in the event of war. Contingency plans included the leasing of extra printing facilities in the country and changes in colour for new issues of Ten Shilling and One Pound notes. In Germany, however, officials looked closely at the white notes produced by the Bank and what consequences forging these might have. Eventually, part of a concentration camp at Sachsenhausen was sectioned off for the specific purpose of reproducing notes of Five Pounds and higher denominations and Operation Bernhard was born. The Operation continued for most of the War. Some of the original notes are not too difficult to detect but problems reproducing the watermark, the quality of paper and the ageing of notes were gradually solved and overcome. Significant progress was also made with confirming the correct dates of printing and allocating the correct prefixes to those dates. Large numbers of notes in this collection have the correct prefix and date combination; in cases where they were misaligned the sequence was quickly corrected. Nevertheless, the procedure was not entirely perfect and within the group is a 1930 note bearing a 'Peppiatt' signature. The collection has been listed by denomination, to highlight prefix and date runs. As part of the ageing process most notes were handled, folded, flattened and pin holed before despatch from Sachsenhausen; the majority of the notes described below were treated in this way.
Collection Information
This collection was sold on 16 March 2006.
Other Collections Sold in 2006
- The Collection of Medals to the Medical Services formed by Colonel D.G.B. Riddick
- The 1914 Star Collection formed by the late Eric Knowles
- The Kuriheka Collection of British Medals
- Peninsula War Medals from the Collection of the late A.L.T. Mullen
- The Collection of Artillery Insignia formed by the late Norman Litchfield
- The Collection of Short Cross Coins formed by the late Professor Jeffrey P. Mass
- A Comprehensive Collection of ‘Operation Bernhard’ Notes
- The Collection of Victorian Bronze Pennies formed by the Late Laurie Bamford
- The Godfrey Burr Collection
- The Collection of 18th Century Tokens formed by Dr David L Spence
- The George Barker Collection of Irish Banknotes
- 18th Century Tokens from the Collection formed by David Litrenta
- The Carol Benton Collection of Miniature Medals
- The Collection of Medals to the Monmouthshire Regiment formed by Lt. Col. P. A. Blagojevic, O. St. J., T.D.
- The Bahadur Collection of Medals to Sikh Regiments
- The Jack Boddington Collection of Life Saving Medals
- The Tom Gustard Collection of Medals & Militaria and to the 21st Lancers
- A Collection of Medals to the Surrey Yeomanry
- A Collection of Medals to the 10th and 11th Hussars
- A Collection of Medals to the Yorkshire Regiment (Green Howards)
- A Collection of Medals to the Durham Light Infantry and associated units
- The Collection of Celtic Coins formed by the late James Hall
- The Collection of English Coins formed by the late James Hall
- An Important Archive Relating to Field Marshall Sir John French
- The late Norman Litchfield Collection of Pagri Badges to Artillery Units
- A Group of Long Cross Pennies of the Mint of Bury St Edmunds
- Duplicate Tokens from the Collection of David Griffiths
- A Collection of Sixpences of Elizabeth I and James I
- The Collection of Art Medals formed by Hans-P. Wipfler
- A Collection of French and French Colonial Piefort Essai Coins
- British Coins from the Robert Seaman Collection
- A Provincial Bank of Ireland Ledger and Banknotes
- A Collection of Coin-Related Artefacts
Back to Special Collections
Valuations
If you are interested in selling your items and would like a valuation, our experts would be happy to help.