Cayman Islands Coins 50 Dollars Gold Coin of 1977 Queen Mary I - Queens of England

Cayman Islands Coins 50 Dollars Gold Coin of 1977 Queen Mary I 

Queens of England

coin weighs .1823 ounces of pure gold.

Mary I of England (18 February 1516 – 17 November 1558) was Queen of England and Ireland from July 1553 until her death. Her executions of Protestants caused her opponents to give her the sobriquet "Bloody Mary".
She was the only child of Henry VIII and his first wife Catherine of Aragon who survived to adulthood. Her younger half-brother, Edward VI, succeeded Henry in 1547. When Edward became mortally ill in 1553, he attempted to remove Mary from the line of succession because of religious differences. On his death their first cousin once removed, Lady Jane Grey, was initially proclaimed queen. Mary assembled a force in East Anglia and successfully deposed Jane, who was ultimately beheaded. In 1554, Mary married Philip of Spain, becoming queen consort of Habsburg Spain on his accession in 1556.
As the fourth crowned monarch of the Tudor dynasty, Mary is remembered for her restoration of Roman Catholicism after the short-lived Protestant reign of her half-brother. During her five-year reign, she had over 280 religious dissenters burned at the stake in the Marian persecutions. Her re-establishment of Roman Catholicism was reversed after her death in 1558 by her younger half-sister and successor, Elizabeth I.

Switzerland money 500 Swiss Francs banknote 1977 Albrecht von Haller

CHF 500 Swiss Francs

500 Swiss Franc - 500 Schweizer Franken - 500 Franc Suisse - 500 Franco Svizzero

Switzerland money 500 Swiss Francs banknote 1977 Albrecht von Haller, issued by the Swiss National Bank

Schweizerische Nationalbank Schweizer - Banque Nationale Suisse - Banca Nazionale Svizzera

Switzerland Currency - 6th series of Swiss Franc banknotes 

Banknotes of the Swiss franc money currency, 500 Swiss Francs banknote Mega money valuable bank notes, Swiss banknotes, Swiss paper money, Swiss bank notes, Switzerland banknotes, Switzerland paper money, Switzerland bank notes, Schweizer Franken Banknoten papiergeld, billet 500 francs Suisse, Banconota da 500 franchi Svizzeri.

Obverse: Portrait of Albrecht von Haller (16 October 1708 – 12 December 1777) , Swiss anatomist, physiologist, naturalist and poet. View of Gemmi Pass between Wallis and Berne at left.
Reverse: Muscular figure of a human body, graph of respiration and the circulation of the blood, and a purple orchis.

Prevailing colour - brown; Format 82 x 181 mm
Graphic artist - Ernst and Ursula Hiestand
Date of first issue - 04.04.1977; Date of recall - 01.05.2000; Worthless from 01.05.2020.
Printed by Orell Füssli, Zurich.

Banknotes of the Swiss franc

Switzerland Currency - 6th series of Swiss Franc banknotes

10 Swiss Franc     20 Swiss Franc     50 Swiss Franc     100 Swiss Franc    

500 Swiss Franc     1000 Swiss Franc

Albrecht von Haller
Albrecht von Haller (also known as Albertus de Haller) (16 October 1708 – 12 December 1777) was a Swiss anatomist, physiologist, naturalist and poet. A pupil of Herman Boerhaave, he is often referred to as "the father of modern physiology."

Albrecht von Haller - Early life
Albrecht von Haller - Medicine
Albrecht von Haller - Other disciplines
Albrecht von Haller - Botany
Albrecht von Haller - Later life
Albrecht von Haller - Importance for homoeopathy
Albrecht von Haller - Works
Albrecht von Haller - Reception

Albrecht von Haller - Early life
Haller was born into an old Swiss family at Bern. Prevented by long-continued ill-health from taking part in boyish sports, he had more opportunity for the development of his precocious mind. At the age of four, it is said, he used to read and expound the Bible to his father's servants; before he was ten he had sketched a Chaldee grammar, prepared a Greek and a Hebrew vocabulary, compiled a collection of two thousand biographies of famous men and women on the model of the great works of Bayle and Moréri, and written in Latin verse a satire on his tutor, who had warned him against a too great excursiveness. When still hardly fifteen he was already the author of numerous metrical translations from Ovid, Horace and Virgil, as well as of original lyrics, dramas, and an epic of four thousand lines on the origin of the Swiss confederations, writings which he is said on one occasion to have rescued from a fire at the risk of his life, only, however, to burn them a little later (1729) with his own hand.

Albrecht von Haller - Medicine
Haller's attention had been directed to the profession of medicine while he was residing in the house of a physician at Biel after his father's death in 1721. While still a sickly and excessively shy youth, he went in his sixteenth year to the University of Tübingen (December 1723), where he studied under Elias Rudolph Camerarius Jr. and Johann Duvernoy. Dissatisfied with his progress, he in 1725 exchanged Tübingen for Leiden, where Boerhaave was in the zenith of his fame, and where Albinus had already begun to lecture in anatomy. At that university he graduated in May 1727, undertaking successfully in his thesis to prove that the so-called salivary duct, claimed as a recent discovery by Georg Daniel Coschwitz (1679–1729), was nothing more than a blood-vessel. In 1752, at the University of Göttingen, Haller published his thesis (De partibus corporis humani sensibilibus et irritabilibus) discussing the distinction between "sensibility" and "irritability" in organs, suggesting that nerves were "sensible" because of a person's ability to perceive contact while muscles were "irritable" because the fiber could measurably shorten on its own, regardless of a person's perception, when excited by a foreign body. Later in 1757, he conducted a famous series of experiments to distinguish between nerve impulses and muscular contractions.

Albrecht von Haller - Other disciplines
Haller then visited London, making the acquaintance of Sir Hans Sloane, William Cheselden, John Pringle, James Douglas and other scientific men; next, after a short stay in Oxford, he visited Paris, where he studied under Henri François Le Dran and Jacob Winslow; and in 1728 he proceeded to Basel, where he devoted himself to the study of higher mathematics under John Bernoulli. It was during his stay there also that his interest in botany was awakened; and, in the course of a tour (July/August, 1728), through Savoy, Baden and several of the cantons of Switzerland, he began a collection of plants which was afterwards the basis of his great work on the flora of Switzerland. From a literary point of view the main result of this, the first of his many journeys through the Alps, was his poem entitled Die Alpen, which was finished in March 1729, and appeared in the first edition (1732) of his Gedichte. This poem of 490 hexameters is historically important as one of the earliest signs of the awakening appreciation of the mountains, though it is chiefly designed to contrast the simple and idyllic life of the inhabitants of the Alps with the corrupt and decadent existence of the dwellers in the plains.
  In 1729 he returned to Bern and began to practice as a physician; his best energies, however, were devoted to the botanical and anatomical researches which rapidly gave him a European reputation, and procured for him from George II in 1736 a call to the chair of medicine, anatomy, botany and surgery in the newly founded University of Göttingen. He became a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1743, a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences in 1747, and was ennobled in 1749.
  The quantity of work achieved by Haller in the seventeen years during which he occupied his Göttingen professorship was immense. Apart from the ordinary work of his classes, which entailed the task of newly organizing a botanical garden (now the Old Botanical Garden of Göttingen University), an anatomical theatre and museum, an obstetrical school, and similar institutions, he carried on without interruption original investigations in botany and physiology, the results of which are preserved in the numerous works associated with his name. He also continued to persevere in his youthful habit of poetical composition, while at the same time he conducted a monthly journal (the Göttingische gelehrte Anzeigen), to which he is said to have contributed twelve thousand articles relating to almost every branch of human knowledge. He also warmly interested himself in most of the religious questions, both ephemeral and permanent, of his day; and the erection of the Reformed church in Göttingen was mainly due to his unwearied energy. Like his mentor Boerhaave, Haller was a Christian and a collection of his religious thoughts can be read in a compilation of letters to his daughter.
  Notwithstanding all this variety of absorbing interests, Haller never felt at home in Göttingen; his untravelled heart kept on turning towards his native Bern, where he had been elected a member of the great council in 1745, and in 1753 he resolved to resign his chair and return to Switzerland.

Albrecht von Haller - Botany
Haller made important contributions to botanical taxonomy that are less visible today because he resisted binomial nomenclature, Carl Linnaeus's innovative shorthand for species names that was introduced in 1753 and marks the starting point for botanical nomenclature as accepted today.
  Haller was among the first botanists to realize the importance of herbaria to study variation in plants, and he therefore purposely included material from different localities, habitats and developmental phases. Haller also grew many plants from the Alps himself.
  The plant genus Halleria, an attractive shrub from Southern Africa, was named in his honour by Carl Linnaeus.

Albrecht von Haller - Later life
The twenty-one years of his life which followed were largely occupied in the discharge of his duties in the minor political post of a Rathausmann which he had obtained by lot, and in the preparation of his Bibliotheca medica, the botanical, surgical and anatomical parts of which he lived to complete; but he also found time to write the three philosophical romances Usong (1771), Alfred (1773) and Fabius and Cato (1774), in which his views as to the respective merits of despotism, of limited monarchy and of aristocratic republican government are fully set forth.
  About 1773 the state of his health meant he withdrew from public business. He supported his failing strength by means of opium, on the use of which he communicated a paper to the Proceedings of the Göttingen Royal Society in 1776; the excessive use of the drug is believed, however, to have hastened his death.
  Haller, who had been three times married, left eight children. The eldest, Gottlieb Emanuel, attained to some distinction as a botanist and as a writer on Swiss historical bibliography (1785–1788, 7 vols). Another son, Albrecht was also a botanist.

Albrecht von Haller - Importance for homoeopathy
Albrecht von Haller is quoted in the footnote to paragraph 108 in the Organon of Medicine, the principal work by the founder of homoeopathy, Samuel Hahnemann. In this paragraph, Hahnemann describes how the curative powers of individual medicines can only be ascertained through accurate observation of their specific effects on healthy persons:
"Not one single physician, as far as I know, during the previous two thousand five hundred years, thought of this so natural, so absolutely necessary and only genuine mode of testing medicines for their pure and peculiar effects in deranging the health of man, in order to learn what morbid state each medicine is capable of curing, except the great and immortal Albrecht von Haller. He alone, besides myself, saw the necessity of this (vide the Preface to the Pharmacopoeia Helvet., Basil, 1771, fol., p. 12); Nempe primum in corpore sano medela tentanda est, sine peregrina ulla miscela; odoreque et sapore ejus exploratis, exigua illiu dosis ingerenda et ad ommes, quae inde contingunt, affectiones, quis pulsus, qui calor, quae respiratia, quaenam excretiones, attendum. Inde ad ductum phaenomenorum, in sano obviorum, transeas ad experimenta in corpore aegroro," etc. But no one, not a single physician, attended to or followed up this invaluable hint."
The quotation from Haller's Preface may be translated from the Latin as follows: "Of course, firstly the remedy must be proved on a healthy body, without being mixed with anything foreign; and when its odour and flavour have been ascertained, a tiny dose of it should be given and attention paid to all the changes of state that take place, what the pulse is, what heat there is, what sort of breathing and what exertions there are. Then in relation to the form of the phenomena in a healthy person from those exposed to it, you should move on to trials on a sick body..."

Albrecht von Haller - Works
 - Onomatologia medica completa. Gaum, Ulm 1755 Digital edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf
 - Historia stirpium indigenarum Helvetiae inchoata. Bernae, 1768. Vol. 1&2 Digital edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf.
 - Ode sur les Alpes, 1773
 - Materia medica oder Geschichte der Arzneyen des Pflanzenreichs. Vol. 1&2. Leipzig : Haug, 1782. Digital edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf.
 - Histoire des Plantes suisses ou Matiere médicale et de l'Usage économique des Plantes par M. Alb. de Haller ... Traduit du Latin. Vol. 1&2 . Berne 1791 Digital edition of the University and State Library Düsseldorf.

Albrecht von Haller - Reception
Hegel mentions Haller's description of eternity, "called by Kant terrifying", in his Science of Logic. According to Hegel, Haller realizes that a conception of eternity as infinite progress is "futile and empty". In a way, Hegel uses Haller's description of eternity as a foreshadowing of his own conception of the true infinite. Hegel claims that Haller is aware that: "only by giving up this empty, infinite progression can the genuine infinite itself become present to him."


Gemmi Pass
   Gemmi Pass is the most famous of all high mountain passes across the Bernese Alps connecting Leukerbad (on the south) in the canton of Valais with Kandersteg (on the north) in the canton of Bern. The pass itself lies within the canton of Valais, at a height of 2,270 metres above sea level. The main trail reaches 2,322 metres.

  - The pass is mentioned in the Sherlock Holmes story The Final Problem. Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson cross the pass on their way to Meiringen, where Sherlock Holmes has his famous meeting with Professor Moriarty at the Reichenbach Falls.
  - The pass is described by Guy de Maupassant in his short-story L'Auberge.

  The pass lies between the Daubenhorn (2942 m.) in the west and the Rinderhorn (3448 m.) in the east.
Although the pass cannot be traversed by road, it is still directly accessible by cablecar from Leukerbad. Alternatively, the pass can be reached by a two-hour dramatic hike on foot.
It should take about two hours from Leukerbad to reach the pass area along this steep and winding hiking path.
From Kandersteg a cable car gives access to the Sunnbüel area (1,934 m), 10 km north of the pass, allowing hikers to cross the pass on a wide and easy trail.
The pass itself is also used as a vantage point, because of the view of some major peaks in the Pennine Alps, such as the Dom, Matterhorn, Weisshorn and Dent Blanche.


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Greece banknotes 5 Greek Drachmas banknote, Georgios Stavros.

Greek 5 drachmas banknote, Georgios Stavros

Greek 5 drachmas note

World paper money Greece - 5 Greek Drachmas banknote. 
National Bank of Greece - EΘNIKH TPAΠEZA THΣ EΛΛAΔOΣ
Greek banknotes, Greek paper money, Greek bank notes, Greece banknotes, Greece paper money, Greece bank notes.

Obverse: Portrait of Georgios Stavros, first governor of the National Bank of Greece.
Reverse: Head of Athena.
Printed by American Bank Note Company, New York.

Greece banknotes 500 Greek Drachmas Banknote, Helmeted Athena & ancient gold cup.

Greek 500 drachmas note

Greek 500 drachmas banknote

World Currency Greece - 500 Greek Drachmas Banknote.
Bank of Greece - TPAΠEZA THΣ EΛΛAΔOΣ.
Greek banknotes, Greek paper money, Greek bank notes, Greece banknotes, Greece paper money, Greece bank notes.

Obverse:  Helmeted profile bust of Athena.
Reverse: Scene from ancient gold cup - In a landscape of olive and palm trees a raging bull attacks two hunters as another bull is caught in a net - Vaphelo tomb gold cups, Raging Bulls being captured by hunters with nets, Lakonia, Sparta, Creto-Mycenaean 1500 BC. Archeology Museum of Athens.
Printed by American Bank Note Company, New York.

Greek Banknotes World War II Italian occupation of Ionian Islands Drachmas banknotes.

100, 500, 1000 drachma notes for the occupation of the Greek Ionian Islands.

100 drachma note with head of Aristotle.

500 drachma note with head of Julius Caesar on the obverse and a scene from an ancient Greek frieze containing
two horsemen on the reverse.

1000 drachma note with head of Julius Caesar on the obverse and a scene from an ancient Greek frieze containing
two horsemen  on the reverse.

    The Ionian Islands in the Adriatic Sea consisted of Corfu, Caphalonia, Zante, Lencas, Cythera, Paxos and myriad smaller islands totaling 891 square miles. The islands had a colorful history and the distinction of having been ruled by more foreigners than any other Mediterranean land. Initially Roman, they eventually fell to the Byzantine Empire. Upon the demise of the Byzantines they were taken over by the Venetian Republic and later the Turks in 1479. They later became the possession of France and when Napoleon was defeated, the islands were turned over to Great Britain in 1815 by the Treaty of Paris. Upon the establishment of the Kingdom of Greece in 1833, the British voluntarily relinquished the Ionian Islands to the mother country. This
was the state of affairs at the outset of World War II. Italy had long coveted these islands for their own. This yearning stemmed from the fact that the islands had formerly been Venetian territory which held a strategic
location in the Adriatic. If the islands could be occupied permanently, the Adriatic would truly be turned into an Italian “lake”. The territory was also part of the Adriatic coast that together with Dalmatia was needed to fulfill the Greater Italia dream. Recognizing this and spurred on by the Italian irredentists, Mussolini attempted to occupy Corfu in 1922. The 'Corfu Incident', as it was called, began when an Italian general and his staff, who had been sent by the Boundary Commission to arbitrate the Greek-Albanian border after World War I, was murdered in cold blood. Mussolini's reaction was to order the Italian fleet to immediately occupy Corfu. After Britain notified the League of Nations that they would put their own navy at the League's disposal, Mussolini backed down after a year's occupation.
     In 1939 the irredentists were again clamoring in the Italian press for control of the balance of Istria not acquired in 1923, Dalmatia, the Ionian Islands, Malta, Corsica and Nice and Savoy in France. Ultimately all these territories came under Italian domination with the exception of Malta, which due to the presence of a strong British fleet, remained free. Corsica, Nice and Savoy were occupied by the Italian army upon the fall
of France and the establishment of the Vichy government. Hitler rewarded his junior partner, Mussolini, by giving his blessing to these not too difficult Italian conquests. These areas were officially annexed to Italy in November 1942. Following his initial success in Albania, Mussolini moved to consolidate his hold on the Adriatic coast. He ordered the invasion of Yugoslavia and the occupation of the Dalmatian coast annexing them to Italy under the Governorship of Dalmatia. At the same time he sent the Italian fleet and army to occupy the Ionian Islands.
    Upon landing, a new political administration was set up and permanent annexation declared. All Greek streets and store signs were changed to Italian. The Italian language was made mandatory. Greek banks were closed and all communications with Greece ceased. On 20 April 1940 a new currency, known as the
Ionian drachma, was put into circulation. It was at par with the former Greek currency. The purpose was to orient the Ionian Islands economically towards Rome. The islands became a separate Italian province after the fall of Greece.
   The new currency bore the heading Biglietto a Corso Legale per le Isole Jonie, loosely translated as “Lawful Bank Note for Circulation Only in the Ionian Islands”. The notes were released by the Chief of Political and Civil Affairs. Denominations were of 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, 500, 1000 and 50000 drachma. The first three notes were small in size, the 50 and 100 drachma medium in size and the 500 and above denominations considerably larger. All but the 1 drachma note contain references to Greece's past glory. Alexander the Great appears on the 5 and 10 drachma notes, while a bearded Aristotle is featured on the 50 and 100 drachmas. The higher denominations are more interesting inasmuch as the reverses also extol the past glories of Greece. The 500 and 1000 drachma notes both contain a portion of an ancient Greek frieze containing two horsemen on the reverse. The 5,000 drachma note carries on its reverse a picture of a Greek trireme approaching shore surrounded by classical Greek symbols. The 50 drachma and higher denominations are all printed on watermarked paper containing rows of interlocking diamonds. The Ionian notes are all well executed. All notes were retired after the Italian capitulation in 1943.

Greece banknotes 5000 Greek Drachmas banknote, General Theodoros Kolokotronis.

 Greece banknotes 5000 Greek Drachma banknote, General Theodoros Kolokotronis

Greek banknotes Greek Drachma Currency

Currency of Greece - 5000 Greek Drachmas Banknote of 1984.
Greek banknotes, Greek paper money, Greek bank notes, Greece banknotes, Greece paper money, Greece bank notes.

Theme: Greek War of Independence (1821).
Obverse: Lithography of General Theodoros Kolokotronis by Karl Krazeisen and Church of the Holy Apostles at Kalamata at bottom center.
Theodoros Kolokotronis (3 April 1770 – 4 February 1843), Greek Field Marshal and the pre-eminent leader of the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire.
Reverse: Landscape and view of town of Karytaina.

Watermark: head of King Philip of Macedonia.
Prevailing colour - deep blue; Dimensions: 147x74mm.
Date of issue: 1 June 1997

Albania banknotes 100 Franka Ari banknote, King Zog I, Skanderbeg III.

100 Franka Ari Albanian note of 1926 showing King Zog at right.

100-franc banknote of Zog's reign

Albania - 100 Franka Ari bank note of the Albanian National Bank which had circulated since 1926.
Albanian banknotes, Albanian paper money, Albanian bank notes, Albania banknotes, Albania paper money, Albania bank notes.

The note carries a scene of the famous Gomsiqe Bridge at the center and a portrait of king Zog at right.
The reverse of the note depicts a landscape scene with the river Drin in the foreground.

Bosnia and Herzegovina currency 50 Convertible Mark Maraka banknote

Bosnia and Herzegovina 50 convertible mark note - BAM

Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark

Currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina - 50 Convertible Mark Maraka banknote, issued by the 

Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Sarajevo - Centralna Banka Bosne i Hercegovine.

Convertible Mark - Konvertibilna marka - конвертибилна марка
Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, Bosnia Herzegovina banknotes, Bosnia Herzegovina paper money, Bosnia Herzegovina bank notes.

Obverse: Portrait of Jovan Dučić (February 1871 – 7 April 1943), Herzegovinian Serb poet, writer and diplomat. Signature: Peter Nicholl (New Zealand economist) - Governor of the Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina (from 1997 to 2004).
Reverse: Pen, eyeglasses and book.

Watermark: Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina monogram "CBBH" in Latin and Cyrillic letters repeated vertically.
Dimensions: 146 x 71 mm.
Prevailing colour - violet red and violet brown.
Date of first issue - July 27, 1998 - Additional issues: 2002, 2007, 2008, 2009, 2012.
Printed by Francois-Charles Oberhtur, Fiduicare Paris.

Bosnia and Herzegovina banknotes

Konvertibilna marka = 100 fening

Parity: 1 konvertibilna marka = 0,51129 EURO.

The convertible mark was established by the 1995 Dayton Agreement and replaced the Bosnia and Herzegovina dinar, Croatian kuna and Republika Srpska dinar as the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1998. Mark refers to the German Deutsche Mark, the currency to which it was pegged at par. Since the replacement of the German mark by the euro in 2002, the Bosnian convertible mark uses the same fixed exchange rate to euro that the German Deutsche Mark has (that is, 1 EUR = 1.95583 BAM).

Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina issues

50 Convertible Pfeniga      1 Convertible Marka      5 Convertible Maraka    
10 Convertible Maraka    20 Convertible Maraka    50 Convertible Maraka    
100 Convertible Maraka

Republika Srpska issues

50 Convertible Pfeniga      1 Convertible Marka      5 Convertible Maraka    
10 Convertible Maraka    20 Convertible Maraka    50 Convertible Maraka    
100 Convertible Maraka

2002 Issue for the Whole Country

200 Convertible Maraka

Jovan Dučić
Jovan Dučić (Serbian Cyrillic: Јован Дучић; 17 February 1871 – 7 April 1943) was a Bosnian Serb poet, writer and diplomat.

  Jovan Dučić was born in Trebinje at the time part of Bosnia Vilayet within the Ottoman Empire on 17 February 1871.
  In Trebinje he attended primary school. He moved on to a high school in Mostar and trained to become a teacher in Sombor. He worked as a teacher in several towns before returning to Mostar, where he founded (with writer Svetozar Ćorović and poet Aleksa Šantić) a literary magazine called Zora (Dawn).
  Dučić's openly expressed Serbian patriotism caused difficulties with the authorities—at that time Bosnia-Herzegovina was de facto incorporated into the Austro-Hungarian Empire—and he moved abroad to pursue higher studies, mostly in Geneva and Paris. He was awarded a law degree by the University of Geneva and, following his return from abroad, entered Serbian diplomatic service in 1907. Although he had previously expressed opposition to the idea of creating Yugoslavia, he became the new country's first ambassador to Romania (in 1937). He had a distinguished diplomatic career in this capacity, serving in Istanbul, Sofia, Rome, Athens, Cairo, Madrid and Lisbon. Dučić spoke several foreign languages and he is remembered as a distinguished diplomat. His Acta Diplomatica (Diplomatic Letters) was published posthumously in the United States (in 1952) and in the former-Yugoslavia (in 1991).
  It was, however, as a poet that Dučić gained his greatest distinctions. He published his first book of poetry in Mostar in 1901 and his second in Belgrade, 1912. He wrote prose as well: several essays and studies about writers, Blago cara Radovana (Tsar Radovan's treasure) and poetry letters from Switzerland, Greece, Spain and other countries.
  Like Šantić, Dučić's work was initially heavily influenced by that of Vojislav Ilić, the leading Serbian poet of the late 19th century. His travels abroad helped him to develop his own individual style, in which the Symbolist movement was perhaps the greatest single influence. In his poetry he explored quite new territory that was previously unknown in Serbian poetry. He restricted himself to only two verse styles, the symmetrical dodecasyllable (the Alexandrine) and hendecasyllable—both French in origin—in order to focus on the symbolic meaning of his work. He expressed a double fear, of vulgarity of thought, and vulgarity of expression. He saw the poet as an "office worker and educated craftsman in the hard work of rhyme and rhythm".
  Dučić went into exile in the United States in 1941 following the German invasion and occupation of Yugoslavia, where he joined his relative Mihajlo (Michael) in Gary, Indiana. From then until his death two years later, he led a Chicago-based organization, the Serbian National Defense Council (founded by Mihailo Pupin in 1914) which represented the Serbian diaspora in the US. During these two years, he wrote many poems, historical books and newspaper articles espousing Serbian nationalist causes and protesting the mass murder of Serbs by the pro-Nazi Ustaše regime of Croatia.
  He died on 7 April 1943, his funeral took place at St. Sava Serbian Orthodox Church in Gary, Indiana and he was buried in the Serbian Orthodox monastery cemetery of Saint Sava in Libertyville, Illinois. He expressed a wish in his will to be buried in his home town of Trebinje, a goal which was finally realized when he was reburied there on 22 October 2000 in the newly built Gračanica church.

Poet of Modernism
Dučić belongs to the Serbian Moderns; he is one of the three outstanding Serbian lyric poets of his generation, namely Aleksa Šantić and Milan Rakić. Coming under the influence of Pushkin and nurtured on his native Serbian folk poetry in Bosnia and Herzegovina, he was at first inclined toward western Romantic modifs: the baroque style, Catholicism, Romaniticism, and particularly toward the society of "the beautiful souls" of the Renaissance. Reminiscent of the ancient poets of Dalmatia, his motifs belong to the Dalmatian aristocratic milieu. Like other Neo-Romantics, Dučić sings of the "far-away princess" (the princesse lointaine of Rostand), who is dying of mortal wounds, far away from her lover. His poetry, which possesses serene beauty, is devoid of any personal note and is, in fact, pure fiction. He walks in the footsteps of Heine and Heredia, evoking "the deep melancholy of the past" and "the scent of things old and vanished."
  Whereas all these things become integral in the Western, Catholic and French lyric poets, in Dučić they strike us as a kind of literary exercise and as a heresy against the poet's Serbian Orthodox faith. Consequently, Dučić has often been accused of snobbery and mannerism, and his poetry shows influences of Rodenbach, Maeterlinck, Baudelaire, Verlaine, Albert Samain traces of the Parnassian, Symbolist and Decadent elements, all alien to Serbian traditional poetry. Dučić has shared the illusions of the western poet-princes in the cult of beauty.
  Until 1914 Dučić was almost unknown as a poet, although he had already distinguished himself as a courageous political champion of the people of Herzegovina, as co-editor of a Mostar literary review, when he left in 1896 for Geneva to study law.
  Dučić's first book of poems was published in Mostar in 1901, while he was still a law student in Geneva. Since that time his complete works in eight volumes have been published in Belgrade many times over. Before we turn to a study of his poetry, brief mention must be made of his poems in prose, Plave legende (Blue Legends), and the travel letters, Gradovi i himere (Cities and Chimeras), whose stylistic superioritry in Serbian prose was recognized by Jovan Skerlić, the eminent Serbian literary critic, shortly before his untimely death in 1914. In the case of Dučić, who is a very sensitive artist with words and an essentially lyric poet, there is no fundamental difference between verse and prose. While his prose poems, Plave legende, for instance, are a logical transition from versification to the lilt of his rhythmic prose, the letters from Geneva, Rome, Madrid, Athens, etc., reveal the sensitive poet for whom a word is the symbol of an inner experience.
  As to themes, Dučić is typical of the Moderns and is impressionistic in tone. His experiences are never overwhelming, This fact has already been observed by Skerlić who admits that Dučić's poems possess much elegance, rhythm and finesse, but that this suppression of feelings, the transfiguration of his nature, the wish to be different from other poets, the fear of sincerity and directness, the search for symbols at all costs, the eternal seeking for effects which he achieves with combinations of words and sounds -- all these give one an impression of cultivated affectation, of strait-laced elegance, and frequently almost pass into mannerism.
  One does not necessarily have to agree with Skerlić, however, this play with his feelings is one of the distinguishing marks of Dučić's poetic nature. Like all the devotees of beauty for beauty's sake, Dučić is also convinced of the great importance of having a measure for beauty. His poetry attempts above all to be disinterested, and consequently it never overcomes the poet.
  Dučić has remained faithful to this criterion, and it is for this reason that his inner creative personality is still shrouded in mystery. This is exactly what Skerlić refers to when he speaks of the "suppression of feelings," a quality which has given the remarkable poetry of Dučić its sheen of marble and "the coolness of its shade." Like most symbolists, Dučić is imbued with a particular kind of liturgic expression; he does not come to us with the gestures of a convincing speaker but with the fine figure of a priest.
  During Dučić's few final years in the United States were published a monograph, Grof Sava Vladislavić (1942), and Federalizam i Centralizam (1943; Federalism and Centralism), a book of political controversy in which he wanted to draw the West's attention to their continued errors of their ways, especially in foreign policy towards the people of the Balkans.

Works
 - Pjesme, knjiga prva, izdanje uredništva Zore u Mostaru, 1901.
 - Pesme, Srpska književna zadruga, Kolo XVII, knj. 113. Beograd, 1908.
 - Pesme u prozi, Plave legende, pisano u Ženevi 1905. Beograd, 1908.
 - Pesme (štampa „Davidović“), Beograd, 1908.
 - Pesme, izdanje S. B. Cvijanovića, Beograd, 1911.
 - Sabrana dela, Knj. I-V. Biblioteka savremenih jugoslovenskih pisaca, Beograd, Izdavačko preduzeće „Narodna prosveta“ (1929–1930). Knj. I Pesme sunca (1929)
 - Knj. II Pesme ljubavi i smrti (1929)
 - Knj. III Carski soneti (1930)
 - Knj. IV Plave legende (1930)
 - Knj. V Gradovi i himere (1930)
 - Knj. VI Blago cara Radovana: knjiga o sudbini, Beograd, izdanje piščevo, 1932.
 - Gradovi i himere, (Putnička pisma), Srpska književna zadruga, Kolo XLII, Knj. 294. Beograd, 1940.
 - Federalizam ili centralizam: Istina o “spornom pitanju“ u bivšoj Jugoslaviji, Centralni odbor Srpske narodne odbrane u Americi, Čikago, 1942.
 - Jugoslovenska ideologija: istina o “jugoslavizmu“, Centralni odbor Srpske narodne odbrane u Americi, Čikago, 1942.
 - Lirika, izdanje piščevo, Pitsburg, 1943.
 - Sabrana dela, Knj. X Jedan Srbin diplomat na dvoru Petra Velikog i Katarine I – Grof Sava Vladislavić – Raguzinski, Pitsburg, 1943.
 - Sabrana dela, Knj. VII-IX (Odabrane strane). Rukopise odabrali J. Đonović i P. Bubreško. Izdanje Srpske narodne odbrane u Americi, Čikago, 1951.
 - Sabrana dela, (uredili Meša Selimović i Živorad Stojković), Svjetlost, Sarajevo, 1969.
 - Sabrana dela, (uredili Meša Selimović i Živorad Stojković. Pregledao i dopunio Živorad Stojković), BIGZ, Svjetlost, Prosveta, Beograd-Sarajevo, 1989.

Croatia banknotes 1000 Croatian Kuna banknote of 1943.

Old currency of Croatia - 1000 Croatian Kuna banknote of 1943, issued by the Croatian State Bank Zagreb - Hrvatska Državna Banka. In circulation from September 1, 1943.
Croatian kuna, Croatian banknotes, Croatian paper money, Croatian bank notes, Croatia banknotes, Croatia paper money, Croatia bank notes.

Obverse: In the center - depiction of an Historic Frieze with horsemen and hunting scenes. The banknote face value is printed in words and there is the numerical indication of the denomination in the four corners of the banknote.
Reverse: In the center, two women in Croatian folk costumes. On the right and left of them in vignettes depicted: on the left - numerical denomination, right - the banknote face value is printed in words.

Dimensions: 176 x 80 mm. horizontal.
Color: dark brown on yellow and green background.
Printed in Leipzig Germany by Giesecke & Devrient.

The kuna was the currency of the Independent State of Croatia - puppet state of Nazi Germany established on a part of occupied Yugoslavia in the period between 1941 and 1945 during World War II. The word "kuna" means "marten" in Croatian and the same word is used for the current Croatian kuna currency.
The kuna was withdrawn from circulation from 30 June to 9 July, 1945 and replaced by the 1944 issue of the Yugoslav dinar at a rate of 40 kuna = 1 dinar.

Yugoslavian banknotes 1000 Dinara banknote of 1935.

Yugoslavia - 1000 dinara note

Yugoslavia - 1000 Dinara banknote of 1935, National Bank of Kingdom of Yugoslavia.
Dated: September 6, 1935. - This note was not put into the circulation.
Yugoslav dinar, Yugoslavian banknotes, Yugoslavian paper money, Yugoslavian bank notes, Yugoslavia banknotes, Yugoslavia paper money, Yugoslavia bank notes.

Obverse: Allegorical woman with a laurel branch in his right hand and three mounted warriors, with Yugoslav Royal coat of arms on the shield of one of the riders. Mother and child or "teacher and a pupil" - at left.
Reverse: seated blacksmith with hammer on his right shoulder and fisherman with paddle in his hand. Big bridge over the river at center.
Watermark: Head of young King Peter II.
Signatures: Governors of the National Bank of Kingdom of Yugoslavia - Milan Radosavljevic, a member of the council - Jovan Lovchevich.
Format: 182 x 113 mm; Color: Multicolor; Paper: white thin.
Graphic artist - Vasa Pomorishats and Panta Stoyichevich, engraver - Veljko A. Kuhn.
Printed by "ZIN" - Institute for Manufacturing Banknotes and Coins (ZIN), Belgrade.

Standard Catalog of World Paper Money, General Issues, 1368 - 1960 by Albert Pick: P-33 (Yugoslavia).

Bulgarian banknotes 50 Leva banknote of 1922

Bulgarian Banknotes 50 Leva

Bulgaria 50 Leva note

Bulgaria 50 Leva banknote of 1922, issued by the Bulgarian National Bank - Българска народна банка. 
In circulation from December 1923
Bulgarian lev, Bulgarian banknotes, Bulgarian paper money, Bulgarian bank notes, Bulgaria banknotes, Bulgaria paper money, Bulgaria bank notes.

Obverse: Coat of arms of Bulgaria from the period 1881-1927;
Reverse: a shepherd-pipe player, sheep at midday rest nearby.

Size: 142 x 80 mm, horizontal
Watermark – none
Artistic design – Dimitar Gyudjenov, Nikola Kozhouharov
Printed by American Bank Note Company, New York, USA

Czechoslovakia money 10 Czech Korun banknote 1927 Jaroslava Mucha as Slavia & Husite soldiers

10 Czech korun banknote

 Czechoslovakia 10 korun banknote - Alphonse Mucha, Jaroslava Mucha 

Czechoslovakia money 10 Czech Korun banknote 1927, issued by the 

National Bank of Czechoslovakia - Národná banka Československa

Czechoslovakian banknotes, Czechoslovakian paper money, Czechoslovakian bank notes, Czechoslovakia banknotes, Czechoslovakia paper money, Bohemia and Moravia banknotes, Czechoslovakia bank notes, Czechoslovak koruna, Czechoslovakian currency.

Obverse: Coat of arms of Czechoslovakia; Two portraits of Hussite Wagon Soldiers - one with medieval flail at left and with heavy flanged mace at right. (Taborites - Hussite Wars).
Reverse: Portraits of Jaroslava Mucha as Slavia, daughter of Alphonse Mucha.

Jaroslava, Mucha's first child, was born in 1909 in New York, during the family's stay in America. She appears in numerous pictures and designs, including Czechoslovak banknotes.
When Mucha was working on the Slav Epic at Zbiroh, Western Bohemia, Jaroslava not only posed for the paintings, but also worked as her father's technical assistant. This early training may have helped her pursue her career as a conservator of fine art.

Watermark: continuous - "tiled roofing"
Author: Rudlof Rössler (obverse), Alois Mudruňka (Hussites heads), Alfons Mucha (reverse)

Czechoslovakian currency 50 Czech Korun banknote 1929 Jaroslava Mucha as Slavia

Banknotes of Czechoslovakia

50 Czech crowns

Czechoslovakian currency 50 Czech Korun banknote 1929, issued by the 

National Bank of Czechoslovakia - Národná banka Československa

Czechoslovakian banknotes, Czechoslovakian paper money, Czechoslovakian bank notes, Czechoslovakia banknotes, Czechoslovakia paper money, Bohemia and Moravia banknotes, Czechoslovakia bank notes, Czechoslovak koruna, Czechoslovakian currency.

Obverse: Portrait of Jaroslava Mucha as Slavia, daughter of Alphonse Mucha at left; The large Coat of arms of Czechoslovakia.
Reverse: Portrait of Jaroslava Mucha as Slavia at right; Worker and peasant woman at center.
Watermark: continuous "tile"
Author: Alfons Mucha, engraving by Charles Wolf
Signature: Dr.Hodáč (member bank. rady) Dr.V.Pospíšil (governor), A.Novák (Managing Director)
Printer: TB NBČ Prague

Czechoslovakian banknotes 100 Czech Korun banknote 1931 President Masaryk

Czechoslovakian banknotes 100 Czech Korun bank note

Czechoslovakian paper money 100 Czech Korun banknote

Czechoslovakian banknotes 100 Czech Korun banknote 1931, issued by the National Bank of Czechoslovakia - Národná banka Československa

Czechoslovakian banknotes, Czechoslovakian paper money, Czechoslovakian bank notes, Czechoslovakia banknotes, Czechoslovakia paper money, Bohemia and Moravia banknotes, Czechoslovakia bank notes, Czechoslovak koruna, Czechoslovakian currency.

Obverse: Liberty Head; Allegorical figure of young boy with a book and with laurel branch in his hand.
Reverse: Portrait of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, first President of Czechoslovakia at right; Allegorical couple at left.

Author: Max Švabinský, engraving by F.Schirnböck
Signature: Dr. Roos  (member bank. rady) Dr.V. Pospíšil (governor), A.Novák (Managing Director)
Printer: TB NBČ Prague.

Banknotes of Czechoslovakia 5000 Korun bank note 1945 Bedřich Smetana

pictures of Czechoslovakia paper money

 Banknotes of Czechoslovakia - 5000 Korun Crown - National Theater in Prague 

Banknotes of Czechoslovakia 5000 Korun bank note 1945, issued by the National Bank of Czechoslovakia - Národná banka Československa

Czechoslovakian banknotes, Czechoslovakian paper money, Czechoslovakian bank notes, Czechoslovakia banknotes, Czechoslovakia paper money, Bohemia and Moravia banknotes, Czechoslovakia bank notes, Czechoslovak koruna, Czechoslovakian currency.

Obverse: Portrait of Bedřich Smetana (2 March 1824 – 12 May 1884), Czech composer who pioneered the development of a musical style which became closely identified with his country's aspirations to independent statehood. He is thus widely regarded in his homeland as the father of Czech music.
Reverse: View of the National Theater in Prague.

Author: Max Švabinský, Jan Mráček, Bedřich Fojtášek.
Signatures: Dr. L. Chmela, Dr. Jaroslav Nebesář, Dr. Murtin.
Printed by TP NBČS Praha.

Prague National Theatre
The National Theatre, a neo-Renaissance structure built at the end of the 19th century, is one of Prague's most important buildings since it is seen as a symbol of Czech culture and independence.
The theatre was opened to the public in 1883 with a performance of Libuše by the Czech composer Bedřich Smetana.
  The decorations of the National Theatre were created by prominent artists of that period such as František Ženíšek and Alfons Mucha. The beautiful red-gold curtain shows the creation of the National Theatre and was designed by Vojtěch Hynais. In 1883 Antonín Wagner and Josef Václav Myslbek created the statues, representing the Arts, that adorn the attic gable on the western façade. The presidential box (formerly the royal box) is covered in red velvet and was decorated with famous figures from Czech history by Václav Brožík.
  The bronz battle chariot with three horses carrying the goddess of victory (the so-called triga) was designed by Bohuslav Schnirch. It is said that the roof which is the colour of the night sky dotted with starts, symbolises the pinnacle that should be the goal of all artists.
The theatre is set on the Old Town - New Town bank of the River Vltava, one bridge along from Charles Bridge.

Czechoslovakian money 100 Korun banknote of 1945 President Masaryk

 Czechoslovakian money 100 korun banknote, President Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk 

View of Prague Castle and Charles Bridge

Czechoslovakian money 100 Korun banknote 1945, issued by the 

National Bank of Czechoslovakia - Národná banka Československa

Czechoslovakian banknotes, Czechoslovakian paper money, Czechoslovakian bank notes, Czechoslovakia banknotes, Czechoslovakia paper money, Bohemia and Moravia banknotes, Czechoslovakia bank notes, Czechoslovak koruna, Czechoslovakian currency.

Obverse:  Portrait of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, (7 March 1850 – 14 September 1937), Austro-Hungarian and Czechoslovak politician, sociologist and philosopher, who as an eager advocate of Czechoslovak independence during World War I became the founder and first President of Czechoslovakia.
Reverse: View of Prague Castle and Charles Bridge.
Prague Castle - Castle Hill, or Hradcany, is one of the most-visited parts of Prague, next to the Old Town. The complex on Castle Hill contains palaces, churches, gardens, and galleries and many other attractions for visitors: romantic nooks, peaceful places and beautiful lookouts.

Author: Bedřich Feigl.
Signature: Finance minister - Dr. L. K. Feierabend
Printed by Bradbury Wilkinson & Co, New Malden, London, England.

Czechoslovakian currency 500 Korun banknote of 1946 Ján Kollár

Czechoslovakia 500 Korun banknote of 1946, Ján Kollár.

Kčs 500 korun banknote

Czechoslovakian currency 500 korun banknote of 1946, issued by the 

National Bank of Czechoslovakia - Národná banka Československa

Czechoslovakian banknotes, Czechoslovakian paper money, Czechoslovakian bank notes, Czechoslovakia banknotes, Czechoslovakia paper money, Bohemia and Moravia banknotes, Czechoslovakia bank notes, Czechoslovak koruna, Czechoslovakian currency.

Obverse: Portrait of Ján Kollár (29 July 1793 – 24 January 1852) was a Slovak writer (mainly poet), archaeologist, scientist, politician, and main ideologist of Pan-Slavism.
Reverse: View of Strbske Pleso Lake and High Tatra mountains.

Štrbské pleso - picturesque mountain lake of glacial origin and is a favorite ski, tourist, and health resort in the High Tatras, Slovakia. It is the second largest glacial lake on the Slovak side of the High Tatras, after Hincovo pleso. Maximum depth is 20 meters.

Watermark: Portrait "Ivo Feierabend", son of the Minister of Finance signed on 100 Korun note.
Author: Edmund Dulac.
Signature: Dr. L. Chmela, Dr. Jaroslav Nebesář, Oliva.
Printed by TP NBČS Praha.


Ján Kollár
Ján Kollár (29 July 1793 in Mošovce (Mosóc), Kingdom of Hungary, Habsburg Monarchy, now Slovakia – 24 January 1852 in Vienna, Austrian Empire) was a Slovak writer (mainly poet), archaeologist, scientist, politician, and main ideologist of Pan-Slavism.

  He studied at the Lutheran Lyceum in Pressburg (Pozsony, Kingdom of Hungary, now Bratislava, Slovakia). In 1817 he enrolled in the University of Jena. His attendance at the Wartburgfest (18 October 1817) has since been credited as being a formative experience with regards to his views on Pan-Slavism.
  He spent most of his adult life as a chaplain to the populous but poor Slovak Lutheran community in Pest (Kingdom of Hungary, today part of Budapest, Hungary). From 1849, he was a professor of Slavic archeology at the University of Vienna, and several times he also acted as a counselor to the Austrian government for issues around the Slovaks. He entered the Slovak national movement in its first phase.
  His museum (since 1974) in Mošovce was installed in the former granary, which was the only masoned part of Kollár's otherwise wooden birth-house. The rest of the house burned down in a fire on 16 August 1863. In 2009 was built a replica of the original Kollár's birth-house, which is now a museum.

Czechoslovakia banknotes 50 Czech Korun banknote of 1962

 Czechoslovakia 50 Czech Korun Crown banknote 

Czechoslovakia 50 Czech Korun banknote 1962

State Bank of Czechoslovakia - Státní Banka Československá

Czechoslovakian banknotes, Czechoslovakian paper money, Czechoslovakian bank notes, Czechoslovakia banknotes, Czechoslovakia paper money, Bohemia and Moravia banknotes, Czechoslovakia bank notes, Czechoslovak koruna, Czechoslovakian currency.

Obverse: Beautiful Peasant Woman.
Reverse: The Coat of arms of communist Czechoslovakia (1961-1989).