PAPER MONEY

Hokitika Guardian, 1 April 1933, Page 7

PAPER MONEY

BILLIONS OF POUNDS,

PRICELESS OLD COLLECTION.

A complete yet of banknotes issuec and signed by General Gordon during tne siege or Khartoum is tbe fates addition to an amazing collection o more than 40,1)00 piei.es of paper lnb’nej owned by Mr F. Catling ,o. London Tne lace vaine of the collection fepre seats billions of pounds. ‘‘it is impossible to estimate tile actual value,” Mr Catling said recently,

“because no similar collection lias eve. been sold. It is priceless. He display ed some specimens from his coliectioi which is contained in 110 volumes ano housed ni a steel asbestos-fined case.

“The history of paper money,” M. Catling stated, “is linked lip with the word ‘blood.’ Look at these Ciiinesi notes —the oldest in the world—issuei by Kubla Khan toward the fail o. the Ming dynasty. Then I have note.printed during the French and Hus sum involutions, anci( the America; War of Independence; notes issued foi the use of prisoners during the great war. Here are forgeries of tile earlj nineteenth century, for which men arm women were hanged.” A caller fingered notes inscribed “issued by Colonel R. S. S. liaclen Powell” at Mafeking, and those pieces of yellow paper signed by “Gordon Pasha” in fateful Khartoum. There were also pages of elaborate German war-time notes, bearing heroic legends, aid printed on tin-loil, kidsldn, leather, and silk to impress on a sullen public the glory of the tottering Fatherland.

“I have scoured the world and spent thousands of pounds in my search for rare specimens,” Mr Catling confessed. “My father began the collection and I. have spent my life carrying on the work.”