Monday, December 8, 2008

Worlds Smallest banknote; which one?

Do you know which country has the smallest banknote? I am posting this post a long time ago and doing this edited post to tell you this two is still the smallest banknote I can find. What I found out there is two banknote that been said as a world smallest banknote. One from a personal website www.tomchao.com. While another one is from a Guinness Worlds Records 2008 website. Most of my search via google bring me into a website with other smallest thing in this world. So here is the story of the smallest paper money in this world.

50 centimesMorroco banknote
From Tomchao website, he put Morroco 50 centimes as a smallest banknote. Small denomination coins were in short supply during WWI. Morocco issued postage size 50 Centimes, 1 Franc and 2 Francs cardboard notes as temporary substitutes for coins. This 50 Centimes banknote only measuring at 41mm x 32mm. The banknote is in red color and issued in 1944.

small banknote10 bani
Photo by: aes.iupui.edu.

Guinness Worlds Records 2008 put this Romania 10 bani issued by Romania ministry of finance issued in 1917 as the worlds smallest national currency. Romania 10 bani banknote printed area measured 27.5 mm x 38 mm. The banknote color is green and you can see the year issued with the word Romania. My blog reader, Alex from Romania ( http://colectiebancnote.blogspot.com/) inform me that this banknote is not really a banknote ,it's a paper coin. It's a divisionary note (100 bani=1 leu ),and the guy from the note is King Ferdinand (1914-1927). King Ferdinand succeeded his uncle on the latter's death (Carol I of Romania died without surviving issue) as King of Romania on 10 October 1914, reigning until his own death on 20 July 1927.

At first, I do think Romania 10 bani bill is the smallest banknote if looking for the size given. After thinking about it for a while, based on printed area, Morroco 50 centimes could be the world smallest banknote. I also wish one day I can put this banknote in my collection. Which do you think is the worlds smallest banknote? Do you have any other banknote that smaller then this two? Please, don't afraid to comment and share what you know with the rest of this world.

Post edited at 21/09/09