I get excited about banknotes but more exciting than official banknotes are emergency banknotes. From the days when Germans used wheelbarrows as purses:
"Notgeld (emergency currency)
was issued by cities, boroughs, even private companies while there was a
shortage of official coins and bills. Nobody would pay in coins while their
nominal value was less than the value of the metal. And when inflation went
on, the state was just unable to print bills fast enough. Some companies
couldn't pay their workers because the Reichsbank just couldn't provide
enough bills. So they started to print their own money - they even asked
the Reichsbank beforehand. As long as the Notgeld was accepted, no real
harm was done and it just was a certificate of debt. Often it was even a
more stable currency than real money, as sometimes the denomination was a
certain amount of gold, dollars, corn, meat, etc."
These are all from the flickr site of
Miguel Oks.
(Thanks to Michael Shick for sending these my way).