Wooden bills (file photo) |
Unusual and rare objects always seem to be a favorite with collectors; the weirder, the better. The same applies to money. Some currencies don't even look like our regular perception of what money should be, but served as legit cash at some point in history.
The following are the top 10 weirdest currencies the world has seen so far.
Top 10: Wooden bills
Wooden bills may be rough on your wallet, but they were one of the best ways for Germany to rebuild its economy after World War I (1914-1918). When the crucial war caused the German economy to sink into a depression, local governments used almost everything they could find to print "notgeld" (emergency cash) -- including wood, aluminum foil, silk linens and even playing cards -- until the country's central Reichsbank had recovered. Meanwhile, governments realized collectors would buy up these odd currencies, so they were actually hard to circulate.
The death penalty dollar (file photo) |
Top 9: The death penalty dollar
The US dollar has now grown into one of the steadiest currencies in the world, but this wasn't always the case. When its colonies started to produce forged banknotes, these were found to be easily produced: There were many printers; the anti-counterfeit technology of that time was not advanced; and there weren't many anti-counterfeit activities. Therefore the government decided that all its 13 colonies printed "To counterfeit is death" on all of their money, a slogan which was eventually replaced by "In God We Trust".