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| photo by jim.notes |
"JIM Malaya $10 block MK, scarce smokeless variety. Printed by the American Secret Service(OSS) to finance the freedom fighter, Force 136 during the Japanese Occupation." jim.notesAmerican Secret Service funding Force 136 to fight Japanese? That was quite logical but I think that was never included in my History lesson before.
By the way, is it true? Wonder where the seller get the facts.
4 comments:
Hello Fadzly,
State forgery was quite common in warfare throughout history and some of the european wars. The counterfeiting of JIM notes by the British and their cousin US was mainly to sabotage Jap's economy in the east during WW2 hoping to create hyperinflation which they successfully did making JIM notes worthless later. Long history on this warfare strategy in european wars. Check it out.
Thanks
Hello Nu,
Thanks for your comment. Based on your comment, then the statement above has its base. I have heard story that Japanese wanted to take short cut for obtaining a lot of money by printing their notes using printing machines inside train, but looking back I don't think the Japanese were not thinking of its consequences.
Well, I think I shall hunt this note down to my collection before it gets into the catalogue list.
You can find out more about the smokeless JIM notes here http://www.psywarrior.com/WWIIAlliedBanknotes.html
The notes were not printed with the objective of creating inflation in the Japanese/Malay economy, the Japanese were quite able to do this without external assistance! Rather they were used to fund counter insurgency groups and as such they had to be high quality forgeries. The smokeless notes were NOT prepared by the American OSS. They were printed in Calcutta, I use the spelling used at that time, by the British Special Operations Executive (SOE). To further enhance their acceptance the British used four different block letter codes: MC, MD, MF & MK. I have all four codes in my collection and they are not easy to find. Be very suspicious of notes you find in perfect condition as the SOE "aged" their issue by tumbling them in oil drums full of dirt to make them look used; large amounts of "new" notes would have aroused the suspicion of the Japanese. A very few examples would have been kept in official records and these may be in perfect condition, but few survive and they exhibit mounting marks where they were entered into the paperwork.
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