Description
Physical description
counterfeit currency (Nazi forgery note), 5 pounds, Britain. The note is in good condition except for a small amount of surface dirt around the edges.
Label
The note was produced as part of 'Operation Bernhard', which was the name of a secret German plan devised during the Second World War to destabilise the British economy by flooding the country with forged Bank of England £5, £10, £20, and £50 notes. The initial plan was to drop these notes from aircraft but, instead, the money was laundered from Northern Italy and used to pay for strategic imports and German agents.
The plan was directed by, and named after, SS Major Bernhard Krüger and by the beginning of 1942 he had set up a team of counterfeiters from among inmates at Sachsenhausen concentration camp. Their work included engraving complex printing plates, developing the appropriate rag-based paper with the correct watermarks, and breaking the code to generate valid serial numbers. When Sachsenhausen was evacuated in April 1945 the printing press there had produced 8,965,080 banknotes with a total value of £134,610,810.
The forgeries are technically excellent, although members of the team, at great risk, are thought to have deliberately included some errors in their work, so that British banks, once aware of the plot, were able to spot them.
Salvaged post-war from an Austrian lake into which a consignment of counterfeit notes had been tipped.
History note
The forgeries are technically excellent, although members of the team, at great risk, are thought to have deliberately included some errors in their work, so that British banks, once aware of the plot, were able to spot them.
History note
These notes were salvaged post-war from the Austrian lake into which they had been tipped.