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5 Dollars 'Banana Money' Japanese Government
| Issuer | Japanese Government (Military Administration) |
|---|---|
| Year | 1942-1945 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Shape | Rectangular |
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| Obverse description | A coconut palm vignette at left and a papaw (pawpaw) tree with hanging fruit at right frame the central design, printed in purple-brown on an orange-yellow guilloche underprint. The denomination 'FIVE DOLLARS' appears in large bold lettering within an ornate cartouche at centre, above which the issuer legend is set in two lines, with the Japanese characters 大日本帝國政府 enclosed in an oval medallion at the lower centre. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The unilingual reverse is printed entirely in purple-brown and relies entirely on lathe-work ornamentation. A large central oval guilloche medallion carries the numeral '5' in bold relief, flanked symmetrically by two rosette-style guilloche roundels each also bearing the numeral '5'; scrollwork corner pieces and a fine engine-turned border complete the design, with no textual inscription. |
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| Comments |
The informal name "banana money" came not from any design element but from the banana tree plantations that the Japanese military promised Malayan and Singaporean civilians as compensation for the scrip's inevitable worthlessness — a promise no one believed. The currency was issued without serial numbers on most denominations, which was a deliberate decision allowing unlimited and untracked overprinting. Inflation followed predictably.
By 1945, a bag of rice cost thousands of dollars in this currency. The collapse was total enough that the British Military Administration, returning after surrender, refused to honor it at any rate of exchange.