German counterfeits in WWII

[Fenwick]

Germany had a plan to drop millions of fake British pounds upon the nation during the early start of 1940. The money was not ready in time, and it was jut used to pay for spies, and other things but mostly it sat unused for the war.

WI the Germans started on their plan a little earlier, so the pounds had been ready to be dropped on the UK during the Blitz?

[CDurham]

well, the fact that there are millions of pound notes lying around after each bombing raid may be a clue that they are counterfeit, or they may be burned up in the fires... may be the reason they never went through with it in OTL

[Fenwick]

Originally Posted by CDurham

well, the fact that there are millions of pound notes lying around after each bombing raid may be a clue that they are counterfeit, or they may be burned up in the fires... may be the reason they never went through with it in OTL

It never went through cause it was not ready. Also are you saying if money was falling from the sky you would not get some? What if you saw a bunch of people getting it? Odds are you'd join in.

[David S Poepoe]

Took me a bit to remember it and then locate the title, but if you can you should take a look at an old Masterpiece Theater (for those of you in the US) miniseries from 1981 called "Private Schulz" with Michael Elphick and Ian Richardson.

The Plot: The Time - WWII, the place - Germany. The Germans have a plan to destroy the British economy by flooding the country with forged £5 notes. Private Schultz is coerced into organizing a gang of unwilling volunteers.

Quite a memorable show.

[CDurham]

Originally Posted by Fenwick

It never went through cause it was not ready. Also are you saying if money was falling from the sky you would not get some? What if you saw a bunch of people getting it? Odds are you'd join in.

Yes, I would, but after the 3rd or 4th time the government is going to put the pieces together and announce what is going on. As well as how to tell the difference between the real stuff and counterfiet.

[Hannibal.Caesar]

Originally Posted by David S Poepoe

Took me a bit to remember it and then locate the title, but if you can you should take a look at an old Masterpiece Theater (for those of you in the US) miniseries from 1981 called "Private Schulz" with Michael Elphick and Ian Richardson.

The Plot: The Time - WWII, the place - Germany. The Germans have a plan to destroy the British economy by flooding the country with forged £5 notes. Private Schultz is coerced into organizing a gang of unwilling volunteers.

Quite a memorable show.

They recently made a movie about this too. http://www.sonyclassics.com/thecounterfeiters/

Anyway, I don't think this plan would work unless the Nazis were able to discretely flood the British economy. As already pointed out, people are going to get very suspicious very quickly if money starts falling from the sky when German planes are flying over. IMO the best the Germans could hope for would be some sort of spy network that would do this as quietly as possible.

[juanml82]

If you can tell the differences between the legal notes issued by the Bristish government and the illegal notes issued by the German government . The British government has to replace the notes with new ones with different security measures

[Samuel Pearce]

IIRC, in the series "Private Schultz", the Nazis "cherry-picked" the jails of Occupied Europe for the most talented counterfeiters available, and a mathematician in Berlin had managed to crack the sequence the Bank of England used for serial numbers on the notes - so they essentially couldn't be told from the real thing.

Apparently, the British started the whole thing by dropping (badly done) fake ration coupons on Berlin during the early stages of the Sitzkreig.

[Alexius]

This reminds me of the special banknotes (actually, at the time, silver certificates) printed by the US government for use in Hawaii during WW2. All normal US dollar notes in Hawaii were destroyed, and replaced by notes marked "Hawaii" which were only legal tender in Hawaii. The idea was that if Hawaii was invaded, these notes could be declared worthless, thus preventing the Japanese acquiring US currency.

There was, of course, widespread resistance by Hawaiians who thought that they were being abandoned. The process took more than 2 years!