Reversible Currency.

 

In 1961, Hull pharmacist René Laflamme noticed that bank tellers were spending time re-arranging bank notes so that they were face-up and right-side-up. He conceived of the idea of inventing a note that was always face-up and could not be inverted. The result was Laflamme's "Reversible Paper Money", copyrighted in 1961, a specimen of which is shown above.

Sacrificing an ordinary Bank of Canada $1 note, he used parts of it to do a paste-up, later photocopied on bank cheque security paper in several colours. Because of the strict Canadian laws governing the reproduction of any current notes at the time, the fictional country for which this note was "issued" is given as CADANA, as well as the "Bank" and "Banque" thereof. Only the arrangement of the twelve coats-of-arms ( ten provinces and two territories) cause the upper and inverted lower halves to differ. In place of the Queen, pictures of actress Grace Kelly, then Princess of Monaco, are substituted. The back of the note is exactly the same.

Scarce enough today, the "reversible paper money" was issued in at least three colours: rose, light blue and light green. In 1961, they were released only by Laflamme at a price of $1.00 for two different postpaid.

Scarcely any country ever took up Laflamme's idea. But there was one: Brazil . To be fair, it seems likely that they came up with the idea all on their own and probably never heard of Laflamme or his "reversible paper money". The Brazilian note in question is the recent 200-Cruzieros issued by the Banco Central do Brasil.

Although the face and back of the note are different, the left and right sides are mirror-images and cannot be inverted. Even the watermarks on the face side are identical. Rather oddly, there is a slight difference on the back: one set of serial numbers has pointed "A"s, the other, rounded.

Time will tell if this format is more widely used. Laflamme was away ahead of his time.

Wayne Jacobs is a numismatic expert. Currently secretary and editor of the "Mid-Island Coin Club Numismatic Journal"of Nanaimo, Vancouver Island , British Columbia, he is the award winning author of numerous articles. The MICC journal are hosted here: MICC webpages Copyright 2006 Wayne Jacobs. This article may be reprinted freely for non commercial purpose only if the resource box is left intact, linking back to us.