Tonight’s note is not really a note at all. It comes from Hell, that’s right Hell. This note was found with a bundle of like notes floating in a large lake connected to the Gulf of Mexico near where I live by a friend when I was a young collector namy years ago. It looked like a legitimate bank note but was in none of my banknote books. The only word I understood (in English) was Hell and believed it was not the Hell I thought but rather something like ‘heil’, ‘hail’, or some Asian city spelled that way. It would be years before I actually knew what it was. It was one of my first ‘non-currency’ notes. After all it looked pretty good as some type of money to me, I could not read Chinese.

What I found out later was that there are tons of this type of money that is used in ceremonies by Chinese / Oriental people. This note had come from an area heavily populated with oriental shrimp fishermen. These notes are burned or scattered at sea for the dead to pay the devil for their sins and be released from Hell. Because this note had stumped me for so many years it is one of my favorites, I now have an assortment of various Hall notes. None of them are as convincing at this one though! ENJOY BTW…. I couldn’t locate a map with this note, but anyone can find Hell!