The Hermitage Museum collection of paper currencies from Western European countries totals about 20 thousand items. The earliest example of the paper money in the collection is the French assignat issued in accordance with J. Law’s Parisian Banque Royale's project in 1719. The eighteenth century is represented by American, Finnish and Italian banknotes, as well as by the paper currencies of the French Revolution and the Polish Uprising.
The collection contains paper money from the countries of Central Europe, Scandinavia, the Baltic states and North and South America, which, together with the relevant coins, enable the viewer to get an idea of the money circulation in Europe and America in the 19th–20th centuries. The gem of this section of the collection is the album of printed specimens presented to Alexander II by the American Banking Сompany that issued banknotes and securities for many countries of the world.
Municipal issues, so called notgelds of 1914-1924 from Germany and Austria, account for three fourths of the collection. They were issued not only by major metropolitan centres, but also by very small townships and suburbs. The first issues of notgelds were necessary as small change for centrally issued large denominations, but later they became a source for replenishing municipal budgets which shrank dramatically as a result of the war and revolution. In the 1920s they began issuing them as souvenir series (sets of postcards) with pictures glorifying the home land, as well as political cartoons or comic strips illustrating legends or historical subjects. German notgelds were a peculiar encyclopedia devoted to the life, history and cultural realities of Germany’s different lands. Their texts, as a rule written in local dialects, were often in versified form.
Paper currencies dating from the 20th–early 21st centuries are frequently notable not only for their bright, up-to-date artistic design, but also for the application of the latest materials and technologies, such as plastics, holograms, etc. – like the banknotes of Australia and Canada, for example.
