MONACO

Monaco, officially the Principality of Monaco, is a sovereign city-state and microstate, located on the French Riviera in Western Europe. It is bordered by France on three sides; one side borders the Mediterranean Sea. Monaco is the second smallest and the most densely populated country in the world.. Monaco's most populous Quarter is Monte Carlo and the most populous Ward is Larvotto/Bas Moulins. Through land reclamation, Monaco's land mass has expanded by twenty percent.

MONETARY UNITS

1 ( Monegasque) franc = 100 centimes (until 2002)

1 euro = 100 cents  ( from 2002 )


The note above is a private issue note from 2014 with (Princess ) Grace Kelly on the front and the Museum of Oceanography  on the reverse


Thanks to my fellow Edinburgher at Just World Banknotes

DIFFERENT WORLD CALENDARS

There a few different calendars used throughout the world, so as well as looking at the differing scripts used on banknotes, determining the date of issue can be complex too. Here are a few of the more commonly used ones - apologies if I have left any out.

NAME                              INITIALS                                                YEAR NOW (CE7/3/2015)

CHRISTIAN ERA            CE /AD                                                     2015
OR COMMON ERA

MOHAMMEDAN ERA   AH                                                             1436      
(ISLAMIC)

SOLAR YEAR                 SH                                                             1393
(IRANIAN)

VIKRAMA SAMVAT      SE                                                             2071
ERA (NEPALI)

SAKA ERA                       SAKA                                                       1936
(INDIAN)

BUDDHIST ERA              BE                                                             2557

BANGKOK ERA               RS                                                             2558
(THAI SOLAR)

CHULA SAKARAT           CS                                                            1377


ETHIOPIAN ERA               EE                                                           2007


JEWISH ERA                      AM                                                          5775


KOREAN ERA                    ??                                                            GOAT (2015)
(SOUTH KOREA)


The above is taken from the standard catalogue of world paper money.

It also mentions the monarchic solar era but I couldn't find details of that era. any info?? leave a comment.

AFGHANISTAN FROM 1381

This is a 2 Afghani note from SH1381 (CE2002) with the victory arch near Kabul. Unfortunately it no longer looks like that and has suffered the same fate as many other areas of Afghanistan in the ongoing conflicts.

DIFFERENT RUPEE, DIFFERENT COUNTRY

This note from Nepal has a beautiful picture of a leopard on the reverse. The leopard is not an animal that i would associate with Nepal, I may be more likely to say Yeti or Yaks but leopards inhabit territory from Siberia to sub Saharan Africa and they are gorgeous if dangerous animals. Jim Corbett's " the man eating leopard of Rudraprayag" was his account of hunting a leopard who was reputed to have killed over 125 people. The area Jim Corbett operated in, at the beginning of the 20th century, was an Indian Provence on the Nepal border.

........ but back to the note!!!! this is a 2 Rupee note from 1981. It has King Birendra on the front. King Birendra ruled Nepal from 1972 until the Nepalese royal massacre in 2001. The massacre occurred when Prince Dipendra killed 9 members of the royal family and then committed suicide.

More Nepalese notes HERE

A NEATER NOTE FROM INDIA

I have a similar 5 Rupee note but this one is uncirculated (unc) and a lot cleaner. They have a similar reverse with the tractor ploughing but the front of this one has Mohandas K Gandhi, probably the most famous Indian of all time, blazoned across the note. Its quite a colourful wee note with a watermark of the same portrait of Gandhi and a metal strip, which you can see just to the left of Gandhi. The note is from 2010.

More Indian notes HERE

BELARUS FROM 2000

This is the 100 Rublei note from 2000 with the Bolshoi ballet and theatre building on the front and a scene from the opera Vibrannista on the reverse.

See more from Belarus HERE

ONE TO ADD TO THE CROATIA ISSUE

This is the 25 Dinara note from Croatia. It is part of the 1991 issue with the poet, Roger Joseph Boscovich , on the front and Zagreb cathederal on the reverse with the layout being reversed to portrait orientation.

Some of the others in this issue are HERE

Zegreb Cathederal

FROM ONE COMMUNIST TO ANOTHER

We move from Ho Chi Minh to another famous communist, Chairman Mao, who was the 1st chairman of the central committee of the communist party of China. Here he is represented on the 1 Yuan note from 1999. The reverse has "Three Pools Mirroring the Moon" which has temples on the west lake in Hangzhou. This is a bit strange to put them together on a note as Mao is noted to have said "all religion is poison" a more direct version of Marx's quote " religion is the opium of the people"

More Chinese Notes HERE  or click on china on the right of this post.

VIETNAM'S HO CHI MINH

Here is two more to add to the Vietnam collection. they are the 500 Dong and 200 Dong notes. the 500 Dong has Ho Chi Minh  on the front and ships on the reverse whereas the 200 also has Ho Chi Mihn but has a tractor on the reverse

More Vietnam Notes HERE

MORE BIRDS FROM ZAMBIA

These two notes from Zambia are the 100 Kwacha note from 2008 and the 2 Kwacha note from 1980. The K100 note has the Fish eagle on the front and Victoria falls and a buffalo head on the reverse. whereas the K2 note has the Fish Eagle and President Kaunda on the front and a school, teacher and student on the reverse.

More from Zambia HERE