HAY BANKNOTES
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| The back of the note shows 25 sheep and hidden within the fleece of each is the name of an internee, In all, we have 25 internees names. |
George was a very competent artist and also an engraver. He was later to change his name to GEORGE ADAMS with that surname being that of his mother, a US citizen.
Over the past few years, we have looked at thes notes a number of times but on this occasion, we have the benefit of more ex[perience and better photographic equipment as you will see in the images below:
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Stahl Signature Close Up |
In the image below, you can see that what in the first image looks like strands of barbed wire are in fact strings of numbers and letters written in red, as indicated by the number 5 in the image above and in the magnified area in the image:
This next image was taken at a slightly different angle and better lighting. It shows micro written letters and numbers in better detail:
Here we can see number/letter strings with details shown in blue:
Another clear example of tiny lettering and numbers within the Stahl signature, in my view these letters and numbers were done in pencil after the signature had been printed out:
From these images we can see that there are many examples of letters and numbers, none of which appear to make any sense as in they do not appear to have any logic to them and are just randomly placed in various locations within the notes. I believe that it's down to a simple anti-counterfeit method. An image is taken of what you see above and if a suspected counterfeit note is detected it would be a very simple task to verify it against the random characters. However, I have not as yet done a complete review of this note and it may be that other strings have some kind of logic and meaning.
Why is this information important?
It is important because this technique of miniature writing hidden within cursive writing or capital letters and completed in March 1941, was also used in March 1942 when the letter Q of the SM code page revealed the numbers of two ships:
1. The USS New Orleans CA 32
2. HMAS Deloraine J232
This same technique was found to have been used in the handwritten inscription of verse 70 found in a copy of the Rubaiyat of Omar Khayam believed to have been done by Jessica. It was also found that Alf Boxall later added the number 70 to this inscribed page and that number, as you will see in our next post, also contained micro written letters and numbers.
I will be adding more to this story of the Hay Banknotes, they form an intriguing introduction to the Somerton Man Code page and the discovery of the second man found poisoned in Adelaide in December 1948.
Again, my sincere thanks to Mick Vort Ronald who not only is highly skilled in the matter of numismatics, he also served with distinction in the SA Police Force. You'll find more information about Mick and his work here:
What sort of information coming from an internment camp would be subject to such secrecy?
ReplyDeleteI suspect that the primary purpose of using micro code in these notes was an anti counterfeit measure. It also no doubt served as a useful diversion for the men that were confined. Having said that, it is also my view that this method was spotted by intelligence services and its other uses were apparent. It may be coincidence but shortly after George Teltscher arrived back in the UK, the SOE released a manual that described the use of this kind of concealed code which they called INK H.
ReplyDeleteI have seen other examples of noites where some of the strings have apparently been altered so it's not impossible that information was being smuggled out of the camp via the various organisations that regularly visited to support the men. Typically these organisations would bring books and clothing to supplement the goods that could be bought from the internee shop. What kinds of information could be smuggled? Names, descriptions political interests, suspected Nazis, suspected communists and even details of new codes perhaps.
It was known that spies were planted amongst the internees by Allied intelligence and it would be no surprise to hear that communist and other spies would have been there.