Politique Internationale — How does one become a collector of banknotes?
Michel Muszynski — In my case, banknote collecting was something I inherited! My father himself was a great collector. After being interested in philately, he turned to paper money, then a much less fashionable field, in which he was able to make some really nice discoveries. He wrote articles for numerous publications, was the author of several catalogues on French and colonial banknotes, and held several dozen exhibitions. He was behind the creation of the Fédération française des associations numismatiques, then the Association Française pour l’étude du papier-monnaie (1). It’s therefore not surprising that he conveyed his passion to me! But each collector follows his own path. The springboard might be some artistic, historical, local or regional, economic, technical or symbolic interest. Very often it starts with meeting a collector, or with an embryonic collection given by a relative or a friend.
You cannot build a collection in a corner all by yourself. Advice, discussion, the reading of specialised magazines — all of them allow you constantly to discover new facets of the notes in your own collection. Paper money, and numismatics in general, has a history that is much broader than that of philately. Notes and coins have a direct rapport with the great events of History. They bear witness first and foremost to the upheavals of a country. Through them, you get almost palpable proof of the changes a State has undergone. During or after a war, a revolution or an economic crisis, numerous regions around the world have equipped themselves with new banknotes: because people are worried and hoard currency, the authorities are obliged to put new notes into circulation to keep the economy going.
P. I. — The discovery and acquisition of successive pieces is what makes a collection. Do you remember the first specimens you got hold of?
M. M. — I must have still been an adolescent and I was interested at the time in English coins. I was able to acquire a shilling depicting Oliver Cromwell. It is a silver coin, in very good condition. The state of preservation is crucial to the collector and the value of the object is heavily dependent on it. But to go back to Cromwell and this shilling, we are in the middle of the XVIIth century, during the English revolution, which resulted in the execution of the king. So many surprising events can be associated with this beautiful coin! I still look after it carefully.
As for my first memorable banknote, that was a Chinese note, which dated back to the Ming dynasty in the XVth century. Surprisingly, it’s not a particularly rare item, in fact it even comes up quite often for sale: printed on paper made from mulberry bark, in large format, it already has all the characteristics of a modern banknote! In this domain, as in many others, the Chinese are at the forefront, even in long-ago eras: well before the Ming emperors, Marco Polo relates, in The Travels of Marco Polo, how Kublai Khan produced paper money and put it into circulation. At the time, no one in the West could believe it, and yet…
P. I. — At what point does a collection become interesting? Or more precisely, is there an ideal model for collecting banknotes?
M. M. — Everything depends on what the collector is looking for. Does he have a preference for history? In that case, he will seek out notes used at pivotal moments, in line with the major events. Is artistry his priority? He will have plenty to do, with notes designed often by famous artists. The Bank of France, in particular, has a great tradition of magnificent notes. The painter Clément Serveau, for example, designed the 5,000 franc note type 1942, dubbed ‘French Empire’, which is an absolute marvel. By the way, this banknote has a remarkable history: printed during the Occupation, brought into circulation during the obligatory exchange of banknotes in 1945, it would be demonetized two and a half years later, in January 1948. And Clément Serveau is in good company: if you’d like to have works at home by François Flameng, Luc-Olivier Merson, Sébastien Laurent, Lucien Fontanarosa and many others, put their notes in your albums. Abroad, I’d mention Gustav Klimt or Alfonse Mucha among famous artists who designed banknotes for their issuing institutions.
To get back to the typology of a collection, apart from the historical or artistic angle, it might also reflect economic or financial change. Some collectors seek notes, denoted in the billions and trillions, from periods of enormous inflation. Sometimes it’s the technical aspect that’s all-important: beautiful watermarks, or notes with polymer backing. Motif can provide the organizing principle: birds, reptiles, dams, planes, trains, Queen Elizabeth II (a vast choice!) — imagination is the only limit. In my case, banknotes from the Russian civil war, during the years 1918-1923, even led me to learn Russian!
In short, the reasons for collecting are varied and the basis of a collection differs widely according to individual inclination. Would you believe that you can even assemble a collection on the basis of unusual face-values (7, 11 and 13 scudi in Italy, 27 and 54 francs from Saint Pierre and Miquelon, and 35 kyats from Burma!)?
One of the particularities of paper money is that, as a general rule, every note is unique because it bears an individual number. Some collectors try to accumulate notes with special numbers: in China, those that have only 8s are the most sought-after because 8 is a lucky number!
P. I. — What is the most beautiful item in your collection? Or the one that you like the most?
M. M. — More than a single banknote, it’s a set of documents related to the 20 piastre note from French Indochina, for which I was lucky enough to gather notes that had been in circulation, as well as proofs and tests with different colours, the artist’s designs, and even letters that clarified the circumstances in which it was conceived. This set of documents dates from a now vanished era in which artists had the right to preserve these preparatory documents in their personal files.
Further to your question, I would also like to say a word about those notes in my collection that make me smile the most, these being ‘novelty’ banknotes: advertisements illustrated with banknotes, reproductions used in theatres or films, post-cards with banknotes on them, banknotes from schools (to teach children how to count and give change) — the list of these different types of ‘banknotes’ is long…
P. I. — You haven’t mentioned money. Was that intentional?
M. M. — You don’t need enormous resources to begin collecting banknotes. It may be surprising, but you can quite easily start off with just a few dozen euros in your pocket and assemble a nice little collection of notes from around the world. We should encourage parents and grandparents to guide their children and grandchildren in choosing their first ones; at minimal cost, they would be introducing them to the worlds of art and the economy. Obviously, things can take on a new dimension if you get interested in notes that are somewhat rare. But even then, we are not talking about excessive amounts. For example, the extraordinary notes issued by the Bank of France between 1930 and 1940 can be acquired in good condition for a few dozen euros. There’s another step when you get interested in notes that have become — almost — unobtainable. At that stage, you do need some resources! King Farouk of Egypt is known to have assembled an extraordinary collection. Now you are talking about museum pieces. Collectors who possess rare notes store them in safety-deposit boxes at the bank; that’s always safer. At home, you keep only those folders of notes that you want to admire without taking too much of a risk in doing so.
P. I. — Is the world of numismatics a small one, in that clients and collectors move in restricted circles, and attend a set of well established meetings?
M. M. — The market at the moment is less active in France than in Germany, the United States and even in China or Russia. To hunt down banknotes, the channels are quite similar to those for antiques in the broader sense: specialised dealers, second-hand markets, jumble sales… Not to mention dedicated events: in Paris, in February each year, our association organises a day devoted to paper money in which all the collectors can meet. The biggest event takes place twice a year in Holland, attracting buyers and professionals in the field. With Covid, these meetings have been put on hold, but the Internet is a valuable tool for ferreting out notes or offering them for sale. For some years now, collectors have had a superb display case on the web. Some of our members have their own sites devoted to a particular theme. But you should bear in mind that the reproduction of banknotes on the web is strictly regulated when it comes to recent notes. Modern scanners are equipped with software that can recognise notes and block their digitalisation! But of course, nothing can replace contact with the note itself to fully appreciate all its details and for reassurance, among other things, about the condition it is in.
P. I. — By the way, is numismatics the right way to refer to your passion, or should one use the term ‘billetophilie’, as some purists do?
M. M. — In France, people refer to paper-numismatics, and sometimes ‘billetophilie’. Americans in the main prefer ‘notaphily’.
P. I. — There is a lot of talk about counterfeiting in the world of money. Are collectors sensitised to this issue?
M. M. — That applies as much to a collection of banknotes as to any other field: you have to be on your guard. There are two types of forged banknote: those that are forged ‘for use’, and those designed to trick collectors. Fortunately, this second category is extremely rare, but you do have to be careful all the same, particularly when it comes to forgery by overprinting. Let’s not forget, either, all the legal risks involved when you venture into the area of counterfeit money. That’s why a collector who knows he is in possession of a false banknote must unfailingly stamp the note in question as a ‘forgery’.
In every era, it’s been the fight against the counterfeiters that has spurred progress in the techniques of banknote production. Whether it’s a question of engraving methods, of paper or of inks, it is difficult to imagine the sophistication of this industry in which France has a leading role. But history great and small is packed with examples in which forged currency is at the origin of some incredible episodes. The collective imagination thinks immediately of organized crime but, in some cases, there has been a desire to change the course of History. That was the case during the Second World War: Nazi Germany printed English banknotes with the aim of flooding British territory with them. This endeavour didn’t achieve its goals, though it did allow the Third Reich to remunerate its spies. Nor was that the only case of forgery by a state. A magnificent little museum of forged currencies exists close to Annecy in France.
And on the subject of museums, if anyone wants to immerse themselves more deeply in the history of money, I cannot recommend a visit to Citéco highly enough. This museum of the economy, located a stone’s throw from Parc Monceau in Paris, has a collection of banknotes and also displays the tools and techniques associated with the conception, production, distribution and use of banknotes. Housed in a magnificent XIXth century neogothic building, it is a modern museum that’s not to be missed.
P. I. — You are the president of the Association Française pour l’étude du papier-monnaie. Could you sum up its activities in a few words?
M. M. — We put collectors and numismatists in touch with each other, we publish a review containing in-depth articles, we provide a newsletter with information about current events and, on a modest scale and exclusively for our members, we offer channels that allow people to purchase a few notes and sell their duplicates.
The study and the collection of paper money in France is a particularly vast field because, during troubled periods, there was a great deal of issuance to comply with local need (the French Revolution, the war of 1870, the First and Second World Wars). A great many discoveries remain to be made, even if numerous specialized catalogues are, little by little, filling in these grey areas.