WWII – Operation Bernhard an excessively rare group of fake British banknotes in denominati

WWII – Operation Bernhard an excessively rare group of fake British banknotes in denominations of £5, £10, £20 & £50 produced by the Germans as part of the notorious ‘Operation Bernhard’ – the attempt by the Nazis to flood the British economy with fake money in order to bring the country to its knees. The money was made under force labour conditions by Jews in Sachsenhausen Concentration Camp. The Nazis had 100 agents who attempted to put the fake money into circulation. The total produced amounted to more than £134million. The operation proved a failure as British intelligence got to hear of the idea as early as 1939, and steps were taken to identify and stop the circulation of the money. Remarkably of the almost 9 million notes actually produced, the Bank of England only records one as having been paid out. Ironically for the Germans, the possession of this money became a major factor in identifying German agents – leading to many successful arrests. Examples of these banknotes are now considered excessively rare. The operation was halted by the German High Command in early 1945 – with the majority of them believed to have been consigned to the bottom of Lake Toplitz in Austria. Divers rescued some examples from the lake and they continued to turn up in circulation – with the result that the Bank of England withdrew all notes with a value of larger than £5 from circulation and it was not until the 1970s that notes with the denomination of £20 started appearing again !