World Banknotes

Lot 3980    SESSION 14 (4.30PM THURSDAY 4TH APRIL)    World Banknotes

Estimate $1,000
Bid at live.noble.com.au

JAPAN, Great Imperial Japanese Government, one hundred yen, undated (1944) (P.57), hand signed in ink on front and back by 18 Japanese war criminals awaiting trial. A few small holes, loss of paper in a few places on edges, creases and folds, otherwise very good and rare.

Sold with details of several of the signatories as well as newspaper accounts of the notes discovery after lying in a draw for more than 30 years.

Ex J.P.Melick Collection, from Spink Australia Sale 7 (lot 555).

The signatures on the banknote were obtained by a U.S. soldier who was a warder at the Sugamo prison where the war criminals were being held. There are eighteen signatures in both English and Japanese. Those identified include six Generals, one Minister of Finance, one Colonel, one Military Attache, and two career diplomats. The sentences received by these eleven at the 1948 trial were two hangings, seven life imprisonments, one twenty year's imprisonment and one seven year's imprisonment. Among 25 verdicts and sentences handed down, one of those hanged was General Tojo Hideki - Prime Minister (1941-44), and Minister of War (1940-44).

A news report of the note's discovery in February 1982 stated:- A burglar who broke into the Northfield SA home of Ian and Joan McLeod and turned out drawers looking for goodies, actually did them a good turn. He unearthed a unique note that could be worth $10,000 or more - a Japanese 100 yen note carrying the signatures of 18 defendants of the famous trial of Japanese war criminals following World War II.

"I'd stuck the note in a drawer with hundreds of old photographs 32 years ago and forgotten about it," says Ian. "By pure chance we came across it when we were sorting through the mess the burglar left." When Ian was a member of the occupation forces in Japan, the note was given to him by a US soldier drinking buddy who was a warder at the Sugamo prison where the war criminals were being held. The "buddy" had received it for favours he did for prisoners such as bringing them cigarettes.

The yen story has another lucky twist. Ian's wife Joan happened to tune into a radio talk by Adelaide coin and banknote expert, Dion Skinner. On impulse she rang him and the rest could make history. "You can't put a price on the note," says Dion Skinner. "It captures a point in history. It's of international importance. You only have to think about the men who signed the note. There was General Tojo Hideki, Prime Minister and Army Minister during the war as well as eight top generals. Six of the 18 defendants were hanged, 10 got life imprisonment, one got 20 years and one seven years. Quite a select company!"

It should be noted that Dion Skinner did not actually see the note and was advised by the caller that it had been signed by Prime Minister Tojo Hideki. His signature cannot be located on the note although there are a few signatures faded or written over dark sections on the back of the note so perhaps it is one of these. Nonetheless the banknote is a rare piece of military and world history.