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"Operation Bernhard" Quartet of German WWII Counterfeit British Pound Notes, Various dates but ca.19

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money / Paper Money - World Currency Start Price:300.00 USD Estimated At:450.00 - 750.00 USD
 Operation Bernhard  Quartet of German WWII Counterfeit British Pound Notes, Various dates but ca.19
SOLD
800.00USDto 5****i+ buyer's premium
This item SOLD at 2021 Nov 23 @ 11:57UTC-5 : EST/CDT
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Germany and Great Britain. Lot of 4 "Operation Bernhard" counterfeit English notes, Includes: 1). 5 Pounds, 1936, P-335a; 2). 10 Pounds, 1935, P-336a; 3). 20 Pounds, 1933, P-337a; 4). 50 Pounds, 1930, P-338a. Operation Bernhard was an exercise by Nazi Germany to forge British bank notes. Included in the lot is an autograph from Hans Walter, who was a prisoner in the concentration camps and worked on these notes. The initial plan was to drop the notes over Britain to bring about a collapse of the British economy during the Second World War. The unit successfully duplicated the rag paper used by the British, produced near-identical engraving blocks and deduced the algorithm used to create the alpha-numeric serial code on each note. The unit closed in early 1942, but was reopened later that year. However, the aim was changed from forging money to financing German intelligence operations. Instead of a specialist unit within the SD, prisoners from Nazi concentration camps were selected and sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp to work under SS Major Bernhard Krüger. The unit produced British notes until mid-1945; estimates vary of the number and value of notes printed, from £132.6 million up to £300 million. By the time the unit ceased production, they had perfected the artwork for US dollars, although the paper and serial numbers were still being analyzed. The counterfeit money was laundered in exchange for money and other assets. Counterfeit notes from the operation were used to pay the Turkish agent Elyesa Bazna—code named Cicero—for his work in obtaining British secrets from the British ambassador in Ankara, and £100,000 from Operation Bernhard was used to obtain information that helped to free the Italian leader Benito Mussolini in the Gran Sasso raid in September 1943.