Field Day result I: Two Chinese exercise banknotes

[Pellinore]

Following up on the Fantasy Banknote Field Day I posted some days ago, here are the two Chinese banknotes that I bought.

The obverses are pretty exact copies of the original 10 and 1000 guilder banknotes (the seller had other denominations, too, but I bought only these because of the price), but the reverses are just monocolor.

I put the Chinese characters of the 1000 guilder note through Google Translate (that useful photo app on my iphone, comes in very handy for helping to understand books in Russian, Arabic and Chinese. Often the translations are ridiculous, but they certainly help). 

It said:
Sun Gong Coupon
Exercise Coupon
1000 guilders

So these appear not to be a hell note, but a way for Chinese to learn discerning between banknotes, Dutch banknotes of thirty years ago.

-- Paul

[Manzikert]

I have seen similar notes from several countries sold as 'bank practice notes', but how they were actually used (or whether they are just fantasies) I don't know.

Here is an example of Euro notes Setcomplet de 7 Billets euros spécimentest practice of banknotes, 欧元 --

Alan

[Figleaf]

There used to be a loose-leaf publication (forgot title and issuer, but I think the issuer was Dutch) for the financial sector that listed all the currently circulating banknotes in the world, with good quality colour pictures marked up with SPECIMEN or similar. The book was standard equipment for the main branches of banks, as it allowed staff to do a rudimentary check on the design of exotic banknotes offered for exchange. When I was very young and innocent and money was cash, the book saved me when I was travelling around in a US state that shall not be named, where all bank tellers told me that they'd never heard of a country called the Netherlands, let alone its currency. I had to go to the state capital, where they had the book and my banknotes were exchanged. I was also informed that (in spite of what's on the note and how it was listed under N in the book) the name of the country was Holland.

At that time, the Netherlands still had a sizeable merchant fleet, but its crews were largely Chinese. They would have been paid cash with Dutch banknotes. My guess is that these notes were made for banks where Chinese was spoken to help staff recognise these "exotic" notes.

Peter

[Pellinore]

Figleaf, you are right, I remember this, too. I should have added that these notes were printed on excellent, crisp banknote paper. In many ways they are exactly like the original ones, except for their monochrome reverse.

-- Paul