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[[Image:Billets de 5000.jpg|thumb|right|268px| Large-denomination banknotes of the world]]
[[Image:100 old Shekel bill.jpg|thumb|right|250px|two sides of 100 [[Old Israeli shekel]] [[1980]] ]]
A '''banknote''' (often known as a '''bill''', '''paper money''' or simply a '''note''') is a kind of [[negotiable instrument]], a [[promissory note]] made by a [[bank]] payable to the bearer on demand, used as [[money]], and in many jurisdictions is [[legal tender]]. Along with [[coin]]s, banknotes make up the [[cash]] or bearer forms of all modern [[fiat money]]. With the exception of non-circulating high-value or precious metal commemorative issues, coins are used for lower valued monetary units, while banknotes are used for higher values.

The banknote was [[Economy of the Song Dynasty#Paper currency|first developed in China]] during the [[Tang Dynasty|Tang]] and [[Song Dynasty|Song]] dynasties, starting in the 7th century. Its roots were in merchant [[receipt]]s of deposit during the Tang Dynasty (618&ndash;907), as [[Four occupations#The shang (商)|merchants]] and [[wholesaler]]s desired to avoid the heavy bulk of [[Chinese coins|copper coinage]] in large commercial transactions.<ref name=autogenerated1>Ebrey, Walthall, and Palais (2006), 156.</ref><ref name="Bowman">Bowman (2000), 105.</ref><ref name="gernet 1962 80">Gernet (1962), 80.</ref> During the [[Yuan Dynasty]], banknotes were adopted by the [[Mongol Empire]]. In Europe, the concept of banknotes was first introduced during the 14th century, with proper banknotes appearing in the 17th century.

==Advantages and Disadvantages==
[[File:Foreign Banknotes 2.jpg|thumb|237px|right|A sampling of banknotes from around the world]]

Originally, precious and semi-precious metals were made into coins and were used to negotiate and settle trades. Banknotes offer an alternative bearer form of money, but the advantages and disadvantages between the two forms of bearer money are complex and so in different circumstances the overall advantage can lie with either form.

The costs of using bearer money include:
# Manufacturing or issue costs. Coins are produced by industrial manufacturing methods that process the precious or semi-precious metals, and require additions of alloy for hardness and wear resistance. By contrast bank notes are printed paper (or polymer), and typically have a lower cost of issue, especially in larger denominations, compared to coin of the same value.
# Wear costs. Banknotes do not lose economic value by wear, since, even if they are in poor condition, they are still a legally valid claim on the issuing bank. However, banks of issue do have to pay the cost of replacing banknotes in poor condition and paper notes wear out much faster than coins.
# Cost of transport. Coins can be expensive to transport for high value transactions, but banknotes can be issued in large denominations that are lighter than the equivalent value in coins.
# Cost of acceptance. Coins can be checked for authenticity by weighing and other forms of examination and testing. These costs can be significant, but good quality coin design and manufacturing can help reduce these costs. Banknotes also have an acceptance cost, the costs of checking the banknote's security features and confirming acceptability of the issuing bank.
# Security. [[Counterfeit money|Counterfeiting]] paper notes is easier than forging coins{{citation needed|date=December 2010}}, especially true given the proliferation of [[photocopiers|color photocopiers]] and computer [[image scanner]]s. Numerous banks and nations have incorporated many types of countermeasures in order to keep the money secure.

The different advantages and disadvantages between coins and banknotes imply that there may be an ongoing role for both forms of bearer money, each being used where its advantages outweigh its disadvantages.

==History==
Paper currency was [[Economy of the Song Dynasty#Paper currency|first developed in China]] in the [[Tang Dynasty]] during the 7th century, and was later introduced in the [[Mongol Empire]], [[Europe]], and America. Paper money originated in two forms: drafts, which are receipts for value held on account, and "bills", which were issued with a promise to convert at a later date.

The perception of banknotes as money has evolved over time. Originally, money was based on [[precious metals]]. Banknotes were seen as essentially an [[IOU (debt)|I.O.U.]] or [[promissory note]]: a promise to pay someone in precious metal on presentation (see [[representative money]]). With the gradual removal of precious metals from the monetary system, banknotes evolved to represent [[credit money]], or (if backed by the credit of a government) also [[fiat money]].

Notes or bills were often referred to in 18th century novels and were often a key part of the plot such as a "note drawn by Lord X for £100 which becomes due in 3 months' time".

=== Money prior to the banknote ===
{{main|History of money}}
Money is based on the coming to pre-eminence of some commodity as payment. The oldest monetary basis was for agricultural capital: cattle and grain. In Ancient [[Mesopotamia]], drafts were issued against stored grain as a unit of account. A "[[drachma]]" was a weight of grain. [[Japan]]'s feudal system was based on rice per year &ndash; [[koku]].

At the same time, legal codes enforced the payment for injury in a standardized form, usually in precious metals. The development of money then comes from the role of agricultural capital and precious metals having a privileged place in the economy.

Such drafts were used for [[giro]] systems of banking as early as [[Ptolemaic Egypt]] in the 1st century BC.

===Development in China===
[[Image:Jiao zi.jpg|thumb|right|180px|Song Dynasty ''Jiaozi,'' the world's earliest paper money]]
{{See also|List of Chinese inventions}}
The banknote was [[Economy of the Song Dynasty#Paper currency|first developed in China]] in the [[Tang Dynasty|Tang]] during the 7th century, with local issues of paper currency. Its roots were in merchant [[receipt]]s of deposit during the Tang Dynasty (618&ndash;907), as [[Four occupations#The shang (商)|merchants]] and [[wholesaler]]s desired to avoid the heavy bulk of [[Chinese coins|copper coinage]] in large commercial transactions.<ref name=autogenerated1 /><ref name="Bowman" /><ref name="gernet 1962 80" />

Before the use of paper, the Chinese used coins that were circular, with a rectangular hole in the middle. Several coins could be strung together on a rope. Merchants in China, if they became rich enough, found that their strings of coins were too heavy to carry around easily. To solve this problem, coins were often left with a trustworthy person, and the merchant was given a slip of paper recording how much money he had with that person. If he showed the paper to that person he could regain his money. Eventually, the paper money called "[[Jiaozi (currency)|jiaozi]]" originated from these [[promissory notes]].

=== Banknotes in the Song Dynasty ===
{{main|Economy of the Song Dynasty}}
By 960 the [[Song Dynasty]], short of copper for striking coins, issued the first generally circulating notes. A note is a promise to redeem later for some other object of value, usually [[money|specie]]. The issue of credit notes is often for a limited duration, and at some discount to the promised amount later. The jiaozi nevertheless did not replace coins during the Song Dynasty; paper money was used alongside the coins.

[[Image:Hui zi.jpg|thumb|[[Huizi (currency)|Huizi currency]] currency, issued in 1160.]]
The central government soon observed the economic advantages of printing paper money, issuing a monopoly right of several of the deposit shops to the issuance of these certificates of deposit.<ref name="ebrey 156"/> By the early 12th century, the amount of banknotes issued in a single year amounted to an annual rate of 26 million strings of cash coins.<ref name="gernet 80"/> By the 1120s the central government officially stepped in and produced their own state-issued paper money (using [[woodblock printing]]).<ref name="ebrey 156">Ebrey et al., 156.</ref>

Even before this point, the Song government was amassing large amounts of paper [[tribute]]. It was recorded that each year before 1101 AD, the prefecture of Xinan (modern [[Xi-xian]], [[Anhui]]) alone would send 1,500,000 sheets of paper in seven different varieties to the capital at Kaifeng.<ref name="needham volume 5 part 1 47">Needham, Volume 5, Part 1, 47.</ref> In that year of 1101, the [[Emperor Huizong of Song]] decided to lessen the amount of paper taken in the tribute quota, because it was causing detrimental effects and creating heavy burdens on the people of the region.<ref name="needham volume 5 part 1 48">Needham, Volume 5, Part 1, 48.</ref> However, the government still needed masses of paper product for the exchange certificates and the state's new issuing of paper money. For the printing of paper money alone, the Song court established several government-run [[factories]] in the cities of [[Huizhou]], [[Chengdu]], [[Hangzhou]], and [[Anqi]].<ref name="needham volume 5 part 1 48"/>

The size of the workforce employed in these paper money factories were quite large, as it was recorded in 1175 AD that the factory at Hangzhou alone employed more than a thousand workers a day.<ref name="needham volume 5 part 1 48"/> However, the government issues of paper money were not yet nationwide standards of currency at that point; issues of banknotes were limited to regional zones of the empire, and were valid for use only in a designated and temporary limit of 3-year's time.<ref name="gernet 80">Gernet, 80.</ref>

The geographic limitation changed between the years 1265 and 1274, when the late Southern Song government finally produced a nationwide standard currency of paper money, once its widespread circulation was backed by gold or silver.<ref name="gernet 80"/> The range of varying values for these banknotes was perhaps from one string of cash to one hundred at the most.<ref name="gernet 80"/> Ever since 1107, the government printed money in no less than six ink colors and printed notes with intricate designs and sometimes even with mixture of unique fiber in the paper to avoid counterfeiting.

[[File:Yuan dynasty banknote with its printing plate 1287.jpg|thumb|left|A Yuan dynasty banknote]]

===Banknotes in the Mongol Empire===
The successive [[Yuan Dynasty]] of the [[Mongol Empire]] was the first dynasty in China to use paper currency as the predominant circulating medium. The founder of the Yuan Dynasty, [[Kublai Khan]], issued paper money known as [[Chao (currency)|Chao]] in his reign. The original notes during the Yuan Dynasty were restricted in area and duration as in the Song Dynasty, but in the later course of the dynasty, facing massive shortages of specie to fund their ruling in China, began printing paper money without restrictions on duration.

The Venetian merchants were impressed by the fact that the Chinese paper money was guaranteed by the State and not by the private merchant or private banker as they did in the West.

===Banknotes in Europe===
The term comes from the notes of the bank ("nota di banco"), and dates from fourteenth century, it originally recognized the right of the holder of the note to collect the precious metal (usually gold or silver) deposited with a banker (that is, it was representative of paper currency). In fourteenth century, it was used in every part of Europe, and in Italian city-state merchants colonies outside of Europe. For international payments was used more often the most efficient and sophisticated bill of exchange ("lettera di cambio") that is a promissory note based on virtual currency account (usually a coin no longer physically existing). All physical currencies were physically related to this virtual currency, this instrument also served as credit.

In [[Middle Ages|medieval]] [[Italy]] and [[Count of Flanders|Flanders]], because of the insecurity and impracticality of transporting large sums of money over long distances, money traders started using [[promissory note]]s. In the beginning these were personally registered, but they soon became a written order to pay the amount to whoever had it in their possession. These notes can be seen as a predecessor to regular bank notes.<ref>De Geschiedenis van het Geld (the History of Money), 1992, Teleac, page 96</ref>

The first proper European banknotes were issued by [[Stockholms Banco]], a predecessor of the [[Bank of Sweden]], in 1660, although the bank ran out of coins to redeem its notes in 1664 and ceased operating in that year.

Until Louis XIV, banknotes were issued by small creditors, had limited circulation, and were not backed by the authority of the state. Economist [[John Law (economist)|John Law]] helped establish banknotes as formal currency, backed by capital consisting of French government bills and government accepted notes.

===Banknotes in the United States===
[[Image:Benjamin Franklin nature printed 55 dollar front 1779.jpg|thumb |right |Fifty-five dollar bill in [[Continental currency]]; leaf design by Benjamin Franklin, 1779]]

In the early 1690s, the [[Massachusetts Bay Colony]] was the first of the [[Thirteen Colonies]] to issue permanently circulating banknotes. The use of fixed denominations and printed banknotes came into use in the 18th century.

The Confederate Congress met in Montgomery, Alabama on March 9, 1861 and authorized the issuing of paper currency (in the form of interest-bearing notes). Such notes were originally printed by the National Bank Note Co.<ref>[http://www2.timesdispatch.com/news/2011/mar/09/TDWEAT01-today-in-history-march-9-ar-892229/ Today in History: March 9 | Richmond Times-Dispatch<!-- Bot generated title -->]</ref>

In the early 18th century each of the thirteen colonies issued [[Early American currency|their own banknotes]]. During the [[American Revolutionary War]], the [[Continental Congress]] issued [[Early American currency#Continental currency|Continental currency]] to finance the war. The [[federal government of the United States]] did not print banknotes until 1862. However, almost immediately after adoption of the [[United States Constitution]] in 1789, the [[United States Congress]] chartered the [[First Bank of the United States]] and authorized it to issue banknotes. The bank served as quasi-[[central bank]] of the [[United States]]. The bank closed in 1811 when Congress failed to renew its charter. In 1816, Congress chartered the [[Second Bank of the United States]]. When its charter expired in 1836, the bank continued to operate under a charter granted by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania until 1841.

In the United States, public acceptance of banknotes in replacement of precious metals was hastened in part by [[Executive Order 6102]] in 1933. This order carried the threat of a maximum $10,000 fine and a maximum of ten years in prison for anyone who kept more than $100 of gold in preference to banknotes.

==Issue of banknotes==

Generally, a [[central bank]] or treasury is solely responsible within a state or [[currency union]] for the issue of banknotes. However, this is not always the case, and historically the paper currency of countries was often handled entirely by private banks. Thus, many different banks or institutions may have issued banknotes in a given country. In the United States, commercial banks were authorized to issue banknotes from 1863 to 1935. In the last of these series, the issuing bank would stamp its name and promise to pay, along with the signatures of its president and cashier on a preprinted note. By this time, the notes were standardized in appearance and not too different from the Federal Reserve Notes that circulated for most of the 20th century.

In a small number of countries, private banknote issue continues to this day. For example, by virtue of the complex constitutional setup in the [[United Kingdom]], certain commercial banks in two of the union's four [[constituent countries]] ([[Scotland]] and [[Northern Ireland]]) continue to print their own banknotes for domestic circulation, even though they are not [[fiat money]] or declared in law as [[legal tender]] anywhere. The UK's central bank, the [[Bank of England]], prints notes which are legal tender in [[England and Wales]]; these notes are also usable as money (but not legal tender) in the rest of the UK (see [[Banknotes of the pound sterling]]).

In [[Hong Kong]], three commercial banks are licenced to issue [[Banknotes of the Hong Kong dollar|Hong Kong dollar notes]].<ref name="BIS">{{cite web
|url = http://www.bis.org/publ/cpss55.pdf
|title = The Role of Central Bank Money in Payment Systems
|accessdate = 2008-08-14
|author = Bank for International Settlements
|date =
|format = PDF
|pages = 96, and see also page 9: "The coexistence of central and commercial bank monies: multiple issuers, one currency"
|quote = Although historically not the case, these days banknotes are usually issued only by the central bank. This is broadly the case in all CPSS economies, except Hong Kong SAR, where banknotes are issued by three commercial banks. Singapore and the United Kingdom are more limited exceptions. Singapore dollar banknotes have been issued by the Board of Currency Commissioners, a government agency, although following the merger of the Board into the MAS in October 2002 this is no longer the case. In the United Kingdom, Scottish banks retain the right to issue banknotes alongside those of the Bank of England and three banks currently still do so.
}}</ref> As well as commercial issuers, other organizations may have note-issuing powers; for example, until 2002 the [[Singapore dollar]] was issued by the [[Board of Commissioners of Currency Singapore]], a government agency which was later taken over by the [[Monetary Authority of Singapore]].<ref name="BIS"/>

==Materials used for banknotes==
[[Image:US $20 Series 2006 Obverse.jpg|thumb |right |A [[United States twenty-dollar bill|US twenty-dollar paper banknote]]]]

===Paper banknotes===
Most banknotes are made from [[cotton paper]] (see also [[paper]]) with a weight of 80 to 90&nbsp;grams per square meter. The cotton is sometimes mixed with [[linen]], [[abaca]], or other textile fibres. Generally, the paper used is different from ordinary paper: it is much more resilient, resists wear and tear (the average life of a banknote is two years),<ref name="DeLaRue">[http://www.delarue.com/ProductsSolutions/BanknoteProduction/TheBanknoteLifecyc/ "DeLaRue - The Banknote Lifecycle – from Design to Destruction"]</ref> and also does not contain the usual agents that make ordinary paper glow slightly under [[ultraviolet]] light. Unlike most printing and writing paper, banknote paper is infused with polyvinyl alcohol or gelatin to give it extra strength. Early Chinese banknotes were printed on paper made of [[mulberry]] bark and this fiber is used in Japanese banknote paper today.

Most banknotes are made using the mould made process in which a [[watermark]] and thread is incorporated during the paper forming process. The thread is a simple looking security component found in most banknotes. It is however often rather complex in construction comprising fluorescent, magnetic, metallic and micro print elements. By combining it with watermarking technology the thread can be made to surface periodically on one side only. This is known as windowed thread and further increases the counterfeit resistance of the banknote paper. This process was invented by Portals, part of the [[De La Rue]] group in the UK. Other related methods include watermarking to reduce the number of corner folds by strengthening this part of the note, coatings to reduce the accumulation of dirt on the note, and plastic windows in the paper that make it very hard to copy.

====Counterfeiting and security measures on paper banknotes====

The ease with which paper money can be created, by both legitimate authorities and counterfeiters, has led both to a temptation in times of crisis such as war or revolution to produce paper money which was not supported by precious metal or other goods, thus leading to hyperinflation and a loss of faith in the value of paper money, e.g. the [[Continental Currency]] produced by the [[Continental Congress]] during the [[American Revolution]], the [[Assignat]]s produced during the [[French Revolution]], the paper currency produced by the [[Confederate States of America]] and the [[Southern States Confederate Currency|Individual States of the Confederate States of America]], the financing of [[World War I]] by the [[Central Powers]] (by 1922 1 gold [[Austro-Hungarian krone]] of 1914 was worth 14,400 paper Kronen), the devaluation of the [[Yugoslav dinar|Yugoslav Dinar]] in the 1990s, etc. Banknotes may also be [[overprinted]] to reflect political changes that occur faster than new currency can be printed.

In 1988, [[Austria]] produced the 5000 [[Schilling]] banknote ([[Mozart]]), which is the first foil application ([[Kinegram]]) to a paper banknote in the history of banknote printing. The application of optical features is now in common use throughout the world.

Many countries' banknotes now have embedded [[holograms]].

===Polymer banknotes===

{{Main|Polymer banknote}}
<gallery>
[[File:Example.jpg|thumb |right | A 20 New Israeli Shekel (NIS) plymer banknote]]
{{Main|Polymer banknote}}
</gallery>

In 1983, [[Costa Rica]] and [[Haiti]] issued the first [[Tyvek]] and the [[Isle of Man]] issued the first [[Bradvek]] polymer (or plastic) banknotes; these were printed by the [[American Banknote Company]] and developed by [[DuPont]]. In 1988, after significant research and development by the [[Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation]] (CSIRO) and the [[Reserve Bank of Australia]], [[Australia]] produced the first [[polymer banknote]] made from [[biaxially-oriented polypropylene]] (plastic), and in 1996 became the first country to have a full set of circulating polymer banknotes of all denominations. Since then, other countries to adopt circulating polymer banknotes include [[Bangladesh]], [[Brazil]], [[Brunei]], [[Chile]], [[Guatemala]], [[Dominican Republic]], [[Indonesia]], [[Israel]], [[Malaysia]], [[Mexico]], [[Nepal]], [[New Zealand]], [[Papua New Guinea]], [[Romania]], [[Samoa]], [[Singapore]], the [[Solomon Islands]], [[Sri Lanka]], [[Thailand]], [[Vietnam]], and [[Zambia]], with other countries issuing commemorative polymer notes, including [[China]], [[Kuwait]], the [[Northern Bank]] of [[Northern Ireland]], [[Taiwan]] and [[Hong Kong]]. Other countries indicating plans to issue polymer banknotes include [[Nigeria]] and [[Canada]]. In 2005, [[Bulgaria]] issued the world's first hybrid paper-polymer banknote.

Polymer banknotes were developed to improve durability and prevent [[counterfeit]]ing through incorporated security features, such as optically variable devices that are extremely difficult to reproduce.

===Other materials===
Over the years, a number of materials other than paper have been used to print banknotes. This includes various textiles, including [[silk]], and materials such as [[leather]].

Silk and other fibers have been commonly used in the manufacture of various banknote papers, intended to provide both additional durability and security. [[Crane and Company]] patented banknote paper with embedded silk threads in 1844 and has supplied paper to the [[United States Treasury]] since 1879. Banknotes printed on pure silk "paper" include "emergency money" [[Notgeld]] issues from a number of German towns in 1923 during a period of fiscal crisis and [[hyperinflation]]. Most notoriously, [[Bielefeld]] produced a number of silk, leather, velvet, linen and wood issues, and although these issues were produced primarily for collectors, rather than for circulation, they are in demand by collectors. Banknotes printed on [[cloth]] include a number of Communist Revolutionary issues in China from areas such as [[Xinjiang]], or Sinkiang, in the United Islamic Republic of East [[Turkestan]] in 1933. Emergency money was also printed in 1902 on [[khaki]] shirt fabric during the [[Second Boer War|Boer War]].

Leather banknotes (or coins) were issued in a number of [[siege]]s, as well as in other times of emergency. During the Russian administration of [[Alaska]], banknotes were printed on sealskin. A number of 19th century issues are known in Germanic and Baltic states, including the towns of [[Dorpat]], Pernau, Reval, Werro and Woisek. In addition to the Bielefeld issues, other German leather [[Notgeld]] from 1923 is known from [[Borna]], Osterwieck, Paderborn and Pößneck.

Other issues from 1923 were printed on wood, which was also used in [[Canada]] in 1763-1764 during [[Pontiac's Rebellion]], and by the [[Hudson's Bay Company]]. In 1848, in [[Bohemia]], wooden checkerboard pieces were used as money.

Even [[playing cards]] were used for currency in France in the early 19th century, and in French Canada from 1685 until 1757, in the [[Isle of Man]] in the beginning of the 19th century, and again in Germany after [[World War I]].

==Vending machines and banknotes==
People are not the only economic actors who are required to accept banknotes. In the late 20th century machines were designed to recognize banknotes of the smaller values long after they were designed to recognize coins distinct from slugs. This capability has become inescapable in economies where [[inflation]] has not been followed by introduction of progressively larger coin denominations (such as the United States, where several attempts to introduce [[dollar (United States coin)|dollar coins]] in general circulation have largely failed). The existing infrastructure of such machines presents one of the difficulties in changing the design of these banknotes to make them less counterfeitable, that is, by adding additional features so easily discernible by people that they would immediately reject banknotes of inferior quality, for every machine in the country would have to be updated.

==Destruction==
{{See also|Burning money}}

Banknotes have a limited{{specify}} lifetime, after which they are collected for destruction, usually recycling or shredding. A banknote is removed from the money supply by banks or other financial institutions because of everyday [[wear and tear]] from its handling. Banknote bundles are passed through a sorting machine that determines whether a particular note needs to be shredded, or are removed from the supply chain by a human inspector if they are deemed unfit for continued use – for example, if they are mutilated or torn. Counterfeit banknotes are destroyed unless they are needed for evidentiary or forensic purposes.

Contaminated banknotes are also decommissioned. A Canadian government report indicates:

{{bquote|Types of contaminants include: notes found on a corpse, stagnant water, contaminated by human or animal body fluids such as urine, feces, vomit, infectious blood, fine hazardous powders from detonated explosives, [[dye pack]] and/or drugs...<ref name="">{{Cite web|url=http://www.thestar.com/Business/article/261441|title=Bankers wipe out dirty money|last=Trichur|first=Rita|publisher=[[Toronto Star]]|date=2007-09-28|accessdate=2007-09-28}}</ref>}}

These are removed from circulation primarily to prevent the spread of diseases.

When taken out of circulation, Australian bank notes are melted down and mixed together to form plastic garbage bins.{{Citation needed|date=March 2011}}

==Literary references==
Paper money is created by the devil in the 1832 ''[[Faust, Part II]],'' Act I, by [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe]], to save the imperial finances. In ''[[The Master and Margarita]]'', by [[Mikhail Bulgakov]],<ref>[http://cr.middlebury.edu/public/russian/Bulgakov/public_html/C12.html Chapter 12: ''Black Magic and Its Exposé''], by Kevin Moss</ref> the devil turns paper into money, which then reverts into paper. In both cases, the implication is that fiat money is black magic, and but paper.

==Paper money collecting as a hobby==
Banknote collecting, or [[Notaphily]], is a rapidly growing area of [[numismatics]]. Although generally not as widespread as coin and [[stamp collecting]]{{Citation needed|date=June 2009}}, the hobby is increasingly expanding. Prior to the 1990s, currency collecting was a relatively small adjunct to coin collecting, but the practice of currency auctions, combined with larger public awareness of paper money have caused a boom in interest and values of rare banknotes{{Citation needed|date=June 2009}}.

=== Books ===
Collectors often use books such as ''Paper Money of The United States'' to find information about their banknotes or banknotes they may be interested in.

=== Trades ===
For years, the mode of collecting banknotes was through a handful of mail order dealers who issued price lists and catalogs. In the early 1990s, it became more common for rare notes to be sold at various coin and currency shows via auction. The illustrated catalogs and "event nature" of the auction practice seemed to fuel a sharp rise in overall awareness of paper money in the numismatic community. Entire advanced collections are often sold at one time, and to this day single auctions can generate millions in gross sales. Today, [[eBay]] has surpassed auctions in terms of highest volume of sales of banknotes. However, rare banknotes still sell for much less than comparable rare coins. This disparity is diminishing as paper money prices continue to rise. Many rare U.S. notes have sold for more than a million dollars.

There are many different organizations and societies around the world for the hobby, including the International Bank Note Society (IBNS).

==See also==
{{Portal|Numismatics}}
{{Col-begin}}{{Col-break}}
* [[Banking]]
* [[Banknote counter]]
* [[Colnect]]
* [[Contaminated currency]] {{nb10}}
* [[Counterfeit]]ing
* [[Federal Reserve Note]]
* [[Giesecke & Devrient]]
* [[Hell bank note]]
{{Col-break}}
* [[List of motifs on banknotes]]
* [[List of people on banknotes]]
* [[Money circulation]]
* [[Polymer banknotes]]
* [[Postal currency]]
* [[Seigniorage]]
* [[Trevett v. Weeden]]
* [[United States Note]]
* [[Used notes]]
{{Col-end}}

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
* Bowman, John S. (2000). ''Columbia Chronologies of Asian History and Culture''. New York: Columbia University Press.
* Ebrey, Walthall, Palais, (2006). ''East Asia: A Cultural, Social, and Political History''. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Company.
* Gernet, Jacques (1962). ''Daily Life in China on the Eve of the Mongol Invasion, 1250-1276''. Stanford: Stanford University Press. ISBN 0-8047-0720-0
* Needham, Joseph (1986). ''Science and Civilisation in China: Volume 5, Part 1''. Cambridge University Press

==External links==
{{Wikisource1911Enc|Bank-Notes}}
* [http://vash2008.mylivepage.ru/wiki/1307/564_Shishanov_V._The_Assignats_of_1802-1803 Shishanov V. The Assignats of 1802-1803]

[[Category:Accounting source documents]]
[[Category:Banknotes]]
[[Category:Chinese inventions]]
[[Category:Paper products]]
[[Category:Watermarking]]

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Revision as of 03:57, 16 June 2011

I HAVE NO LIFE

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