Description
Great Britain Military Currency Six (6) Uncirculated 1 Shilling Vouchers Issued for British Armed Forces by the Ministry of Defense. After World War Two, England's Ministry of Defense issued banknotes to be used on British bases all over the world to prevent black marketeering & lasted until the late 1980's when the Berlin Wall came down & British bases in Germany were gradually run down. The use of this special military currency ceased. These Uncirculated 1 shilling notes were prepared for issue in 1962 & remain & remain crisp & uncirculated. All 100% Positive Feedback Rating on the old auction site since 1999 with more than 600 transactions & now over 1400 & counting on Etsy since 2018. More than twenty years of it has really added to our appreciation for Etsy & all our customers here. Shop with Confidence! "Historically, soldiers serving overseas had been paid in local currency rather than in their "home" currency, most cash drawn by soldiers would go directly into the local economy, & in a damaged economy the effects of a hard currency such as the £ circulating freely alongside weaker local currencies could be severely problematic, risking severe inflation. There were other problems as well; once £ were circulating in a combat region, the opposing side could freely use its own stocks of £ as currency, or acquire stocks for use elsewhere to support their war effort. The high purchasing power of the £ & its easy transference back to Britain also posed a significant incentive to the black marketers. However, whilst the use of local currencies was effective where they were provided in cooperation with the local authorities, it was impractical in combat zones where the government might be either hostile, deliberately ambivalent, or simply non-existent. in these cases, the military authorities issued special "military currency", which was paid out to soldiers at a fixed rate of exchange & simply declared legal tender in occupied areas by local commanders. After a remarkably brief period of preparation, the first series of 52,400,000 British Armed Forces Special Vouchers (BAFSV), valued at just over 10 million pounds sterling were printed by Thomas De La Rue & officially issued on August 1, 1946. in due course the ingenuity of the local population & the troops largely circumvented the intention of the first issue BAFSV's to slow black market activities. By mid 1947 it was decided, under a cloak of secrecy, to prepare a new issue to replace the first, then immediately demonetize the first to limit the conversion of illicitly-gained first series vouchers. This scheme was carried out on January 6, 1948, when the second issue was released. The third series was printed in 1948 by J. Waddington Ltd, but were not issued until 1956 for use during the Suez Canal Crisis. This situation was quickly resolved over a two-month period & those notes withdrawn. The fourth issue was originally discussed in 1952 but were not ordered until the heating up of the
