Before we had a single currency, each bank made their own. Which left lots of room for people to do bad things. Like get a bunch of money from a bank that had closed, travel far enough that people hadn't heard of the bank or its closure, and swap it for another banks currency usually at a discount.
One very enterprising guy would get to a town, check into the hotel, and draw by hand a banknote from a bank that never existed. Usually biggish bills like 50 or 100 Then he'd head to the saloon and lose 10-20 at cards. someone would make change, or go with him to the bank to get change. Then he'd pay the hotel with some of the change. By the time they'd sent the bill back east and found out the bank didn't exist he was long gone.
They had his paper supply and drawing set on display in the local museum where he'd finally ben caught.
It didn't end well for him.
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