My banknotes

Romania 10 lei, 2005 (P#119)

2012-01-20T08:37:00.004+01:00

Nicolae Grigorescu (May 15, 1838 – July 21, 1907) was one of the founders of modern Romanian painting.

He was born in Pitaru, Dâmboviţa County, Wallachia. In 1843 the family moved to Bucharest. At a young age (between 1846 and 1850), he became an apprentice at the workshop of the painter Anton Chladek and created icons for the church of Băicoi and the monastery of Căldăruşani. In 1856 he created the historical composition Mihai scăpând stindardul (Michael the Brave dropping the flag), which he presented to the Wallachian Prince Barbu Ştirbei, together with a petition asking for financial aid for his studies.

Between 1856 and 1857, he painted the church of the Zamfira monastery, Prahova County, and in 1861 the church of the Agapia monastery. With the help of Mihail Kogălniceanu, he received a scholarship to study in France.

In the autumn of 1861, young Grigorescu left for Paris, where he studied at the École des Beaux-Arts. He also attended the workshop of Sébastien Cornu, where he had as a colleague Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Knowing his weaknesses, he concentrated drawing and composition. However, he soon left this workshop and, attracted by the artistic concepts of the Barbizon school, he left Paris for that village, where he became the associate of artists such as Jean-François Millet, Jean-Baptiste Camille Corot, Gustave Courbet and Théodore Rousseau. Under the influence of the movement, Grigorescu looked for new means of expression and followed the trend of en plein air painting, which was also important in Impressionism. As part of the Universal Exposition of Paris (1867), he contributed seven works. Then he exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1868 the painting Tânără ţigancă (Young Gypsy girl).

He returned to Romania a few times and starting in 1870 he participated in the exhibits of living artists and those organized by the Society of the Friends of the Belle-Arts. Between 1873 and 1874 he traveled to Italy, Greece and Vienna.

In 1877 he was called to accompany the Romanian Army as a "frontline painter" in the Romanian War of Independence. During the battles at the Grivitsa Strongpoint and Oryahovo, he made drawings and sketches which later used in creating larger-scale works.

In 1889 his work was featured in the Universal Exhibition in Paris and at the Romanian Atheneum. Centerpiece exhibits took place at the Romanian Atheneum would follow in 1891, 1895, 1897, 1902, and 1905.

From 1879 to 1890 he worked in France, especially in Vitré, Brittany, and in his workshop in Paris. In 1890 he settled in Câmpina and started depicting pastoral themes, especially portraits of peasant girls, pictures of ox carts on dusty country roads and other landscapes. He was named honorary member of the Romanian Academy in 1899.

* * *

Traditional house in Oltenia - Oltenia, also called Lesser Wallachia in antiquated versions, with the alternate Latin names Wallachia Minor, Wallachia Alutana, Wallachia Caesarea between 1718 and 1739) is a historical province and geographical region of Romania, in western Wallachia. It is situated between the Danube, the Southern Carpathians and the Olt river (although counties in the east extend beyond the river in Muntenia in some areas).

Map of Romania with Oltenia highlighted

Yemen 250 rials

2012-01-14T11:09:00.000+01:00

Thailand 60 baht, 2006

2012-01-14T11:07:00.001+01:00

The Sixtieth Anniversary Celebrations of HM The King Bhumibol Adulyadej's Accession to the Throne 2006 were the celebrations held throughout Thailand from the beginning to the end of 2006 in order to celebrate Bhumibol Adulyadej's 60th year on the throne. The celebrations were arranged by the Royal Thai Government with Thaksin Shinawatra as Prime Minister, and joined by global monarchs.

NEW COUNTRY! - Switzerland 10 francs, 2006

2012-01-14T11:05:00.001+01:00

Charles-Édouard Jeanneret, better known as Le Corbusier (French pronunciation: [lə kɔʁbyzje]; October 6, 1887 – August 27, 1965), was a Swiss architect, designer, urbanist, writer and painter, famous for being one of the pioneers of what now is called modern architecture. He was born in Switzerland and became a French citizen in 1930. His career spanned five decades, with his buildings constructed throughout central Europe, India, Russia, one in North and several in South America.

He was a pioneer in studies of modern high design and was dedicated to providing better living conditions for the residents of crowded cities. Le Corbusier adopted his pseudonym in the 1920s, allegedly deriving it in part from the name of a distant ancestor, "Lecorbésier." However, it appears to have been an earlier (and somewhat unkind) nickname, which he simply decided to keep. He was awarded the Frank P. Brown Medal in 1961.

Nepal 10 rupees, 2009

2012-01-14T11:03:00.000+01:00

Zambia 50 kwacha, 2009

2012-01-14T11:01:00.000+01:00

Zambia 100 kwacha, 2009

2012-01-14T11:00:00.001+01:00

Zambia 20 kwacha, 1992

2012-01-14T10:59:00.001+01:00

Zambia 500 kwacha, 2008

2012-01-14T10:57:00.001+01:00

Zambia 1.000 kwacha, 2008

2012-01-14T10:55:00.000+01:00

Zambia 5.000 kwacha, 2008

2012-01-14T10:50:00.000+01:00

Serbia 2.000 dinara 2011, P-New

2012-01-10T21:27:00.001+01:00

Milutin Milanković (28 May 1879 – 12 December 1958) was a Serbian geophysicist and civil engineer, best known for his theory of ice ages, suggesting a relationship between Earth's long-term climate changes and periodic changes in its orbit, now known as Milankovitch cycles. Milanković gave two fundamental contributions to global science. The first contribution is the "Canon of the Earth’s Insolation”, which characterizes the climates of all the planets of the Solar system. The second contribution is the explanation of climate change on the Earth caused by changes in the position of the Earth in comparison to the Sun. This explained the ice ages occurring in the geological past of the Earth, as well as the climate changes on the Earth which can be expected in the future.

Samoa 5 tala, 2008

2011-12-13T15:28:00.004+01:00

Samoan fale and trees in a bay

Villa Vailima, former residence of Robert Louis Stevenson in Mount Vaea, Samoa

Robert Louis Balfour Stevenson (13 November 1850 – 3 December 1894) was a Scottish novelist, poet, essayist and travel writer. His best-known books include Treasure Island, Kidnapped, and Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.

A literary celebrity during his lifetime, Stevenson now ranks among the 26 most translated authors in the world. He has been greatly admired by many authors, including Jorge Luis Borges, Ernest Hemingway, Rudyard Kipling, Marcel Schwob, Vladimir Nabokov, J. M. Barrie, and G. K. Chesterton, who said of him that he "seemed to pick the right word up on the point of his pen, like a man playing spillikins.

Azerbaijan 5 manat, 2005 (P#26) Swap with Murad Rafiyev of Azerbaijan, The Land of Fire!

2011-12-13T15:18:00.003+01:00

Ancient writers, poets, and books from Azerbaijan, with a written excerpt of the national anthem and letters from the contemporary Azerbaijani alphabet.

In the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Azerbaijani alphabet refers to a Latin alphabet used for writing the Azerbaijani language. This superseded a previous versions based on Cyrillic and Arabic scripts.

In Iran, the Perso-Arabic script is used to write the Azeri language, with several characters borrowed from other Arabic alphabets or invented for Azeri. While there has been a few standardization efforts, the orthography and the set of letters to use differs widely among Iranian Azeri writers, with at least two major branches, the orthography used by Behzad Behzadi and the Azari magazine, and the orthography used by the Varliq magazine (both are quarterlies published in Tehran).

From the 19th century there were efforts by some intellectuals like Mirza Fatali Akhundov to replace the Arabic script and create a Latin alphabet for Azeri. In 1922, a Latin alphabet was created by Yeni türk əlifba komitəsi (New Turkish Alphabet Committee; Јени түрк əлифба комитəси) in Baku. In 1929, the Uniform Turkic Alphabet was introduced to replace the varieties of the Arabic script in use at the time. In 1939, because Joseph Stalin wished to sever the ties between the Republic of Turkey and the Turkic peoples living within the Soviet Union, he decreed that only the Cyrillic script be used. When the Soviet Union collapsed and Azerbaijan gained its independence, one of the first laws passed in the new Parliament was the adoption of the new Latin alphabet.

The 1958–1991 script is based on the Macedonian Cyrillic alphabet, with a few letters representing Macedonian sounds removed and new letters for Azerbaijani sounds added.

From 1918 until 1939
Aa, Bв, Cc, Çç, Dd, Ee, Əə, Ff, Gg, Ƣƣ, Hh, Ii, Ьь, Jj, Kk, Qq, Ll, Mm, Nn, Oo, Ɵɵ, Pp, Rr, Ss, Şş, Tt, Uu, Vv, Xx, Yy, Zz, Ƶƶ

From 1939 until 1958
Аа, Бб, Вв, Гг, Ғғ, Дд, Ее, Ёё, Әә, Жж, Зз, Ии, Йй, Кк, Ққ, Лл, Мм, Нн, Оо, Өө, Пп, Рр, Сс, Тт, Уу, Үү, Фф, Хх, Һh, Цц, Чч, Ҷҷ, Шш, Щщ, ъ, Ыы, ь, Ээ, Юю, Яя, ' (apostrophe)

From 1958 until 1991
Аа, Бб, Вв, Гг, Ғғ, Дд, Ee, Әә, Жж, Зз, Ии, Ыы, Јј, Кк, Ҝҝ, Лл, Мм, Нн, Оо, Өө, Пп, Рр, Сс, Тт, Уу, Үү, Фф, Хх, Һһ, Чч, Ҹҹ, Шш, ' (apostrophe)

From 1991 until 1992
Aa, Ää, Bb, Cc, Çç, Dd, Ee, Ff, Gg, Ğğ, Hh, Xx, Iı, İi, Jj, Kk, Qq, Ll, Mm, Nn, Oo, Öö, Pp, Rr, Ss, Şş, Tt, Uu, Üü, Vv, Yy, Zz

Since 1992
Aa, Bb, Cc, Çç, Dd, Ee, Əə, Ff, Gg, Ğğ, Hh, Xx, Iı, İi, Jj, Kk, Qq, Ll, Mm, Nn, Oo, Öö, Pp, Rr, Ss, Şş, Tt, Uu, Üü, Vv, Yy, Zz

The Azerbaijani alphabet is the same as the Turkish alphabet, except for ə, x, and q, the sounds for which do not exist in Turkish.

An interesting fact about the alphabet is the existence of schwa (Ə ə). When the new Latin script was introduced on December 25, 1991, A-umlaut was selected to represent the sound /æ/. However, on May 16, 1992, it was replaced by the schwa. Although use of Ä ä (also used in Tatar, Turkmen, and Gagauz) seems to be a simpler alternative as the schwa is absent in most character sets, particularly Turkish encoding, it was reintroduced; the schwa had existed continuously from 1929 to 1991 to represent Azeri's most-common vowel, in both post-Arabic alphabets (Latin and Cyrillic) of Azerbaijan.

Rock drawings of Gobustan, samples of Old Turkic script

The Old Turkic script is the alphabet used by the Göktürk and other early Turkic Khanates from at least the 7th century to record the Old Turkic language. It was later used by the Uyghur Empire. Additionally, a Yenisei variant is known from 9th-century Kyrgyz inscriptions, and it has likely cousins in the Talas Valley of Turkestan and the Old Hungarian script of the 10th century. The alphabet was usually written from right to left.

The script is named after the Orkhon Valley in Mongolia, where late 7th century inscriptions were discovered in an 1889 expedition by Nikolay Yadrintsev. These Orkhon inscriptions (Turkish: Orhun Yazıtları) were published by Vasily Radlov and deciphered by the Danish philologist Vilhelm Thomsen in 1893.

Czech Republic 1.000 korun (P#15), 1996

2011-10-22T20:43:00.004+02:00

František Palacký (June 14, 1798 Hodslavice, Moravia, today Moravian-Silesian Region, Czech Republic – May 26, 1876) was a Czech historian and politician.

His ancestors had been members of the community of the Bohemian Brethren, and had clandestinely maintained their Protestant belief throughout the period of religious persecution, eventually giving their adherence to the Augsburg confession as approximate to their original faith. Palacký's father was a schoolmaster and a man of some learning. The son was sent in 1812 to the Evangelic Lutheran Lyceum at Bratislava, where he came in contact with the philologist Šafařík and became a zealous student of Slavonic languages (He mastered 11 languages and became familiar with a few others).

After some years spent in private teaching, Palacký settled in 1823 at Prague. Here he found a warm friend in Josef Dobrovský, whose good relations with the Austrian authorities shielded him from the hostility shown by the government to students of Slav subjects. Dobrovský introduced him to Count Sternberg and his brother Francis, both of whom took an enthusiastic interest in Bohemian history. Count Francis was the principal founder of the Society of the Bohemian Museum, devoted to the collection of documents bearing on Bohemian history, with the object of reawakening national sentiment by the study of the national records.

Public interest in the movement was stimulated in 1825 by the new Journal of the Bohemian Museum (Časopis českého musea), of which Palacký was the first editor. The journal was at first published in Czech and German, and the Czech edition survived to become the most important literary organ of Bohemia. Palacký had received a modest appointment as archivist to Count Sternberg and in 1829 the Bohemian estates sought to confer on him the title of historiographer of Bohemia, with a small salary, but it was ten years before the consent of the Viennese authorities was obtained.

Meanwhile the estates, with the tardy assent of Vienna, had undertaken to pay the expenses of publishing Palacký's capital work, The History of the Czech Nation in Bohemia and Moravia (5 vols, 1836-1867). This book, which comes down to the year 1526 and the extinction of Czech independence (Palacký admitted that in writing about the national history since 1526, he "would have to lie"), was founded on laborious research in the local archives of Bohemia and in the libraries of the chief cities of Europe, and remains the standard authority. The first volume was printed in German in 1836, and subsequently translated into Czech. The publication of the work was hindered by the police-censorship, which was especially active in criticizing his account of the Hussite movement.

Palacký, though entirely national and Protestant in his sympathies, was careful to avoid an uncritical approbation of the Reformers' methods, but his statements were held by the authorities to be dangerous to the Catholic faith. He was compelled to cut out parts of his narrative and to accept as integral parts of his work passages interpolated by the censors. After the abolition of the police-censorship in 1848 he published a new edition, completed in 1876, restoring the original form of the work. The fairest and most considerable of Palacký's antagonists in the controversy aroused by his narrative of the early reformation in Bohemia was Baron Helfert, who received a brief from Vienna to write his Huss und Hieronymus (1853) to counteract the impression made by Palacký's History. K. A. K. Höfler, a German professor of history at Prague, edited the historical authorities for the period in a similar sense in his Geschichte der hussitischen Bewegung in Bohmen. Palacký replied in his Geschichte des Hussitenthumes und Professor Löffler (Prague, 1868) and Zur böhmischen Geschichtschreibung (Prague, 1871).

The Revolution of 1848 forced the historian into practical politics. He was deputed to the Reichstag which sat at Kroměříž (Kremsier) in the autumn of that year, and was a member of the Slav congress at Prague. He refused to take part in the preliminary parliament consisting of 500 former deputies to the diet, which met at Frankfurt, on the grounds that as a Czech he had no interest in German affairs. He was at this time in favour of a strong Austrian empire, which should consist of a federation of the southern German and the Slav states, allowing the retention of their individual rights. This movement was called austroslavism. Its views met with some degree of consideration at Vienna, and Palacký was even offered a portfolio in the Pillersdorf cabinet. The collapse of the federal idea and the definite triumph of the party of reaction in 1852 led to his retirement from politics.

After the liberal concessions of 1860 and 1861, however, he became a life member of the Austrian senate. His views met with small support from the assembly, and with the exception of a short period after the decree of September 1871, by which the emperor raised hopes for Bohemian self-government, he ceased to appear in the senate from 1861 onwards. In the Bohemian Landtag he became the acknowledged leader of the nationalist-federal party (staročeši). He sought the establishment of a Czech kingdom that should include Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia, and in his zeal for Czech autonomy he even entered into an alliance with the Conservative nobility and with the extreme Catholics. He attended the Panslavist congress at Moscow in 1867. He died at Prague on the 26 May 1876.

Czech Republic 500 korun (P#20), 1997

2011-10-22T20:41:00.003+02:00

Božena Němcová (4 February 1820, Vienna – 21 January 1862, Prague) was a Czech writer of the final phase of the Czech National Revival movement.

She was born as Barbora Pankel in Vienna, the daughter of Johann Pankel from Lower Austria and Teresie Novotná, a maid of Bohemian origin. In her childhood she lived in the village of Ratibořice, where her grandmother Magdalena Novotná played an important part in her life. Němcová would later write her most famous novel with the main character inspired by her grandmother.

When she was 17 years old, she married the 15-years-older Josef Němec, who worked as a customs officer and was therefore a state employee. The marriage was arranged by Barbora's parents and became an unhappy one, as the married couple didn't understand each other very well. Němec was said to be a rude and authoritative man. He was a Bohemian patriot, which his superiors didn't like, and he was often transferred to different locations, and later lost his job. The family had four children and suffered from a lack of money. Němcová died in poverty, estranged from her husband. The Bohemian patriots arranged a magnificent funeral for her.

Czech Republic 200 korun (P#19), 1998

2011-10-22T20:38:00.004+02:00

Jan Amos Komenský (28 March 1592 – 4 November 1670) was a Czech teacher, educator, and writer. He served as the last bishop of Unity of the Brethren, and became a religious refugee and one of the earliest champions of universal education, a concept eventually set forth in his book Didactica Magna. He is considered the father of modern education. He lived and worked in many different countries in Europe, including Sweden, the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Transylvania, the Holy Roman Empire, England, the Netherlands, and Royal Hungary.

Czech Republic 100 korun (P#18), 1997

2011-10-22T20:34:00.001+02:00

Karel IV (14 May 1316, Prague – 29 November 1378), born Wenceslaus (Václav), was the second king of Bohemia from the House of Luxembourg, and the first king of Bohemia to also become Holy Roman Emperor.

He was the eldest son and heir of John the Blind, who died (in the Battle of Crécy) on 26 August 1346. Charles inherited the County of Luxembourg and the Kingdom of Bohemia. On 2 September 1347 Charles was crowned King of Bohemia.

On 11 July 1346 Prince-electors had elected him King of the Romans (rex Romanorum) in opposition to Emperor Louis IV. Charles was crowned on 26 November 1346 in Bonn. After his opponent had died, he was re-elected in 1349 (17 June) and crowned (25 July) King of the Romans. In 1355 he was also crowned King of Italy on 6 January and Holy Roman Emperor on 5 April. With his coronation as King of Burgundy, delayed until 4 June 1365, he became the personal ruler of all the kingdoms of the Holy Roman Empire.

Costa Rica 1000 colones, 2011 (Swap with Juan Guerrero Toruño from Costa Rica)

2011-07-29T08:08:00.004+02:00

Braulio Evaristo Carrillo Colina (March 20, 1800, Cartago, Costa Rica – May 15, 1845) was the Head of State of Costa Rica (the title as it was known before the reform of 1848) during two periods: the first between 1835 to 1837, and the de facto between 1838 and 1842.

Before becoming head of state, Carrillo held a number of public positions, including Judge and Chairman of the Supreme Court of Costa Rica, member of the Legislative Assembly of Costa Rica and member of the Congress of the Federal Republic of Central America.

More about Braulio Carrillo Colina you can read on Wikipedia.

Costa Rica 2000 colones, 2009 (Swap with Juan Guerrero Toruño from Costa Rica)

2011-07-29T08:05:00.002+02:00

Mauro Fernández Acuña (December 19, 1843 – July 16, 1905) was a Costa Rican politician and lawyer.

He studied law at the University of Santo Tomás from which he graduated in 1869. He reached several positions in the Supreme Court of Justice of Costa Rica and was university professor of the College of Lawyers. He was a delegate in the Costa Rican Constituent Assembly in 1880 and again in 1885, 1892 and 1902. He was President of the Congress, Minister of Property and Commerce, advisor of State and Director of the Bank of Costa Rica.

In 1885 he was named by the President Bernardo Soto Alfaro in the Secretary of Public Instruction, where he initiated a reform in Costa Rican education of the country, which triggered the closing of the University of Santo Tomás which he had ironically studied at and instead more funding was put into Secondary Education.

He died in San José on the 16 of July 1905. He was a declared a Benemérito de la Patria, a title given to honorable Costa Rican persons in history by Executive Decree 109 on June 18 of 1955.

Tunisia 5 dinara (P#86) November 7, 1993 (Swap with Nabil Zaouali from Tunisia)

2011-07-21T16:05:00.002+02:00

Tunisia 10 dinars, November 7, 2005 (Swap with Nabil Zaouali from Tunisia)

2011-07-21T16:00:00.004+02:00

Dido was, according to ancient Greek and Roman sources, the founder and first Queen of Carthage (in modern-day Tunisia). She is best known from the account given by the Roman poet Virgil in his Aeneid. In some sources she is also known as Elissa.

The name Elissa is probably a Greek rendering of the Phoenician Elishat. The name Dido, used mostly by Latin writers, seems to be a Phoenician form meaning "wanderer" and was perhaps the name under which Elissa was most familiarly known in Carthage.

More about Dido...

Chile 2.000 pesos, 2009 (Swap with Luis Felipe Munoz Jobis from Chile)

2011-07-19T21:18:00.000+02:00

Chile 1.000 pesos, 2010 (Swap with Luis Felipe Munoz Jobis from Chile)

2011-07-19T21:17:00.000+02:00

Chile 1.000 pesos, 2009 (Swap with Luis Felipe Munoz Jobis from Chile)

2011-07-19T21:10:00.003+02:00

NEW COUNTRY! - Tunisia 5 dinars, 2008 (Swap with Ahmed Limam from Tunisia)

2011-07-17T10:10:00.002+02:00

Hannibal, son of Hamilcar Barca (247–183 or 182 BC) was a Carthaginian military commander and tactician. He is generally considered to be one of the greatest military commanders of all time. His father, Hamilcar Barca, was the leading Carthaginian commander during the First Punic War, his younger brothers were Mago and Hasdrubal, and he was brother-in-law to Hasdrubal the Fair.

Hannibal lived during a period of tension in the Mediterranean, when the Roman Republic established its supremacy over other great powers such as Carthage, the Hellenistic kingdoms of Macedon, Syracuse, and the Seleucid empire. One of his most famous achievements was at the outbreak of the Second Punic War, when he marched an army, which included war elephants, from Iberia over the Pyrenees and the Alps into northern Italy. In his first few years in Italy, he won three dramatic victories — Trebia, Trasimene, and Cannae — and won over several allies of Rome. Hannibal occupied much of Italy for 15 years, but a Roman counter-invasion of North Africa forced him to return to Carthage, where he was decisively defeated by Scipio Africanus at the Battle of Zama. Scipio studied Hannibal's tactics and brilliantly devised some of his own, and finally defeated Rome's nemesis at Zama having previously driven Hasdrubal, Hannibal's brother, out of the Spanish peninsula.

After the war, Hannibal successfully ran for the office of suffete. He enacted political and financial reforms to enable the payment of the war indemnity imposed by Rome. However, Hannibal's reforms were unpopular with members of the Carthaginian aristocracy and Rome, and he fled into voluntary exile. During his exile, he lived at the Seleucid court, where he acted as military adviser to Antiochus III in his war against Rome. After Antiochus met defeat and was forced to accept Rome's terms, Hannibal fled again, making a stop in Armenia. His flight ended in the court of Bithynia, where he achieved an outstanding naval victory against a fleet from Pergamum. He was afterwards betrayed to the Romans.

Often regarded as the greatest military tactician and strategist in European history, Hannibal would later be considered one of the greatest generals of antiquity, together with Alexander the Great, Julius Caesar, Scipio, and Pyrrhus of Epirus. Plutarch states that, when questioned by Scipio as to who was the greatest general, Hannibal is said to have replied either Alexander, Pyrrhus, then himself, or, according to another version of the event, Pyrrhus, Scipio, then himself. Military historian Theodore Ayrault Dodge once famously called Hannibal the "father of strategy", because his greatest enemy, Rome, came to adopt elements of his military tactics in its own strategic arsenal. This praise has earned him a strong reputation in the modern world, and he was regarded as a "gifted strategist" by men like Napoleon Bonaparte and the Duke of Wellington.

More about Hannibal...

Yemen Arab Republic 10 rials (P#24), 1992

2011-07-10T11:33:00.001+02:00

Lebanon 1.000 livres, 2011

2011-07-10T11:32:00.002+02:00

Lebanon 500 livres (P#68), 1988

2011-07-10T11:30:00.001+02:00

Lebanon 1.000 livres (P#69), 1988-1991

2011-07-10T11:28:00.002+02:00

Mexico 10 pesos (P#63i), 1977

2011-07-10T11:14:00.001+02:00

Miguel Gregorio Antonio Ignacio Hidalgo y Costilla y Gallaga Mandarte Villaseñor (8 May 1753 – 30 July 1811), more commonly known as Miguel Hidalgo y Costilla or simply Miguel Hidalgo, was a Mexican priest and a leader of the Mexican War of Independence.

In 1810 Hidalgo led a group of indigenous and mestizo peasants in a revolt against the dominant peninsulares under the banner of the Virgin of Guadalupe. After clashes with the criollos and other townspeople the group disbanded. Hidalgo was captured on 21 March 1811, and executed on 30 July.

Hidalgo's rebellion was the beginning of what would become the Mexican War of Independence. Although he was unsuccessful in his original aim, Hidalgo's efforts were followed by those of José María Morelos and Agustín de Iturbide who brought down the colonial governments of Spain in Mexico. Hidalgo is considered the Father of the Nation of Mexico.

More about Hidalgo you can read on Wikipedia.

Columbia 20 pesos (P#409d), 1983

2011-07-10T11:10:00.000+02:00

Columbia 5 pesos (P#406f), 1980

2011-07-10T11:07:00.003+02:00

Bulgaria 2 lev (P#89), 1962

2011-07-10T11:05:00.000+02:00

Novak Đoković - Wimbledon champion - World no. 1

2011-07-04T22:00:00.003+02:00

NOVAK ĐOKOVIĆ IS WORLD NUMBER ONE!!
THIS BANKNOTE WAS CREATED IN HIS HONOR.

Read Tribute to Novak Đoković on ATP tennis website...

Hungary 1.000.000.000.000.000.000 pengö (P#134), 1946 (Swap with Peter from Taiwan)

2011-07-03T11:05:00.004+02:00

Lajos Kossuth de Udvard et Kossuthfalva (September 19, 1802 – March 20, 1894) was a Hungarian lawyer, journalist, politician and Regent-President of Hungary in 1849. He was widely honored during his lifetime, including in the United Kingdom and the United States, as a freedom fighter and bellwether of democracy in Europe.
More about Lajos Kossuth you can read on Wikipedia.

New Zealand 2 dollars (P#170c), 1989-1992 (Swap with Peter from Taiwan)

2011-07-03T11:00:00.005+02:00

The Rifleman, Acanthisitta chloris, is a small insectivorous passerine bird that is endemic to New Zealand. It belongs to the Acanthisittidae family, also known as the New Zealand wrens, of which it is one of only two surviving species. The Rifleman resembles a wren in form but is not related to the family of true wrens, Troglodytidae, nor the fairy-wrens of Australia.

The Rifleman is New Zealand's smallest endemic bird with fully grown adults reaching around 8 cm. The male Rifleman is bright green on the dorsal side while the female is of a more somber brownish tone and her head and back are flecked with ochre. Male birds typically weigh around 6 g, females 7 g. Both birds are white on their under surfaces and have white eyebrow stripes. They have short, rounded wings, a very short tail, and a long thin awl–like bill which is slightly upturned for insertion into cracks. The rifleman flies quickly with a wing beat producing a characteristic humming sound like a humming bird.

More about Rifleman you can read on Wikipedia.

New Zealand 1 dollar (P#169), 1981-1992 (Swap with Peter from Taiwan)

2011-07-03T10:52:00.002+02:00

Fantails are small insectivorous birds of southern Asia and Australasia belonging to the genus Rhipidura in the family Rhipiduridae. Most of the species are about 15 to 18 cm long, specialist aerial feeders, and named as "fantails", but the Australian Willie Wagtail, is a little larger, and though still an expert hunter of insects on the wing, concentrates equally on terrestrial prey.

The true wagtails are part of the genus Motacilla in the family Motacillidae and are not close relatives of the fantails.

The fantails are small bodied (11.5-21 cm long) birds with long tails; in some species the tail is longer than the body and in most the tail is longer than the wing.[1] When the tail is folded it is rounded at the end, but when spread in display or aerial foraging it has a characteristic fan shape that gives the family its name.

Fantails adopt a hunched horizontal posture most of the time, with the wings drooped and held away from the body and the tail half cocked. There are some exceptions to this, particularly the Northern Fantail of New Guinea and the Cockerell's Fantail of the Solomon Islands, which have a more upright posture reminiscent of the monarch flycatchers.

The wings of fantails are tapered and have sacrificed speed for agility, making fantails highly efficient at catching insect prey. Overall the fantails are strong fliers, and some species can undertake long migrations, but the thicket-fantails (Sooty Thicket-fantail, White-bellied Thicket-fantail and Black Thicket-fantail) are very weak fliers, and need to alight regularly.

The bills of fantails are typical for aerial insect eating birds, being flat and triangular. The gape is surrounded by two rows of rictal bristles which are long, often as long as the bill.The bills of most species are fairly weak, limiting fantails to softer insects, although the more terrestrial Willie Wagtail has a relatively stronger bill.

The plumage of most fantails shows some variation, most species are relatively uniform with some markings. A few species, such as the Rennell Fantail, have uniform plumage, while others have striking if sombre patterns. The colours of most species are greys, blacks, whites and browns, although a few species have yellow or even striking blue feathers. In most species there is no sexual dimorphism in plumage; the notable exception being the Black Fantail of New Guinea where the male has all-over black plumage and the female is almost entirely rufous. In a few species, such as the New Zealand Fantail, there exist two colour morphs, the common pied morph and the rarer black morph (which is most common on the South Island).

More about Fantail you can read on Wikipedia.

Japan 1000 yen (P#97b), 1984 (Swap with Peter from Taiwan)

2011-07-03T10:48:00.002+02:00

Natsume Sōseki (February 9, 1867 – December 9, 1916), born Natsume Kinnosuke, is widely considered to be the foremost Japanese novelist of the Meiji period (1868–1912). He is best known for his novels Kokoro, Botchan, I Am a Cat and his unfinished work Light and Darkness. He was also a scholar of British literature and composer of haiku, Chinese-style poetry, and fairy tales.

The Red-crowned Crane (Grus japonensis), also called the Japanese Crane or Manchurian Crane, is a large east Asian crane and among the rarest cranes in the world. In some parts of its range, it is known as a symbol of luck, longevity and fidelity. Adult Red-crowned Cranes are snow white with black to the wings (appears almost like a black tail when standing, but the real tail feathers are white), blackish to the head and neck, and a patch of red skin on the crown. This patch of skin becomes brighter red when the crane becomes angry or excited. This species is among the largest cranes, typically about 158 centimetres tall and weighing 7.7–10 kilograms. The maximum known weight of the Red-crowned Crane is 15 kilograms.

Thailand 60 baht (P#93), 1987 (Swap with Peter from Taiwan)

2011-07-03T10:39:00.001+02:00

H.M. King Bhumibol Adulyadej's 60th birthday

Thailand 50 baht (P#99), 1996 (Swap with Peter from Taiwan)

2011-07-03T10:36:00.005+02:00

50th Anniversary of King Bhumibol Adulyadej's Reign

Bulgaria 500 lev (P#55a), 1938 (Swap with Slobodan Ilijoski from Macedonia)

2011-06-20T19:16:00.001+02:00

Costa Rica 5.000 colones, 2005 (Swap with Marc Antoine Morvan from Frnace)

2011-06-10T15:31:00.003+02:00

Saint Thomas and Prince 10.000 dobras, August 26, 2004 (Swap with Carlos Pinto from Mozambique)

2011-06-05T10:19:00.003+02:00

The African Emerald Cuckoo (Chrysococcyx cupreus) is a species of cuckoo in the Cuculidae family. It is found in Angola, Botswana, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Malawi, Mali, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, São Tomé and Príncipe, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Sudan, Swaziland, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.

New country - Algeria 100 dinars, 1970 (Swap with Samir from Algeria)

2011-05-23T20:36:00.002+02:00

Lebanon 5 livres, 1982 (Swap with Samir from Algeria)

2011-05-23T20:36:00.001+02:00

Bulgaria 100 leva, 1951 (Swap with Samir from Algeria)

2011-05-23T20:35:00.001+02:00

Greece 5.000 drachmai, 1943 (Swap with Samir from Algeria)

2011-05-23T20:33:00.002+02:00

Serbia 10 dinara, 1893

2011-05-22T07:54:00.001+02:00

Surinam 100 gulden (P#43), 1988

2011-05-19T18:56:00.001+02:00

The White-throated Toucan (Ramphastos tucanus) is a near-passerine bird found throughout the Amazon in south-eastern Colombia, eastern Ecuador, eastern Peru, northern Bolivia, southern and eastern Venezuela, northern and western Brazil, including the Amazon Basin's adjacent Tocantins-Araguaia River drainage, and the Guianas. It prefers tropical humid forest, but also occurs in woodland and locally in riverine forest within the Cerrado.

It was formerly considered to be two species, with the southern and western nominate subspecies, R. t. tucanus, named the Red-billed Toucan, and the northern and eastern subspecies, R. t. cuvieri, Cuvier's Toucan (when considered a species; R. cuvieri, Wagler, 1827). However, the two subspecies, which differ principally in the bill colour, interbreed freely wherever they meet and therefore merit only subspecies status. The subspecies R. t. inca from Bolivia is of questionable validity and may represent a stable hybrid population between tucanus and culminatus.

Like other toucans, the White-throated Toucan is brightly marked and has a huge bill. It has a total length of 50–61 cm and weighs 540-700 grams. The bill is typically 14–18 cm long. The only species of toucan that surpasses it in size is the Toco Toucan.

It has black plumage with a white throat and breast bordered below with a narrow red line. The rump is bright yellow and the crissum is red. The bare skin around the eye is blue. The bill has a yellow tip, upper ridge and base of the upper mandible, and the base of the lower mandible is blue. The rest of the bill is mainly black in R. t. cuvieri and mainly reddish-brown in R. t. tucanus, with intergrades showing a mixed coloration. Males are larger and longer-billed than females, but otherwise the sexes are alike.

Juveniles are noticeably shorter-billed, more sooty-black, and have duller plumage.

The White-throated Toucan of the race cuvieri is virtually identical to the related Channel-billed Toucan of the race culminatus, but the latter is smaller and has a proportionally shorter bill with a more strongly keeled culmen. The call is often the best distinction between the species. White-throated has a yelping eeoo, hue hue, whereas Channel-billed has a croaking song.

Sri Lanka 50 rupees, 2010

2011-05-19T18:54:00.003+02:00

The Dull-blue Flycatcher, Eumyias sordida, is a small passerine bird in the flycatcher family Muscicapidae. This species is an endemic resident breeder in the hills of central Sri Lanka.

The Dull-blue Flycatcher breeds in deciduous mountain forest, invariably above 600m, although it is not common below 900m. The main breeding season is in March and April, but a second brood is often reared later in the year.

The cup-shaped nest is a lined compact mass of moss. The site is usually a well-shaded rock ledge. The normal clutch is two or three brown-spotted pink eggs are laid. One of the best places to see this species is Horton Plains National Park.

This species is 15 cm long. It is similar in shape to the Spotted Flycatcher and has a loud melodic song.. Adults are ashy blue, with a whitish belly. There is a black patch between the broad black bill and the eye, bordered with brighter blue above and below. Sexes are similar, but females are slightly duller.

Juvenile Dull-blue Flycatchers are brown, heavily spotted on the head, back, wing-coverts and breast with pale buff; their flight feathers are broadly edged with blue-grey.

This is relatively easy bird to see, despite its forest habitat. It feeds mainly on flying insects, beetles, caterpillars and other insects, but also eats berries.

Surinam 100 gulden, 1998

2011-05-19T18:54:00.001+02:00

Papua New Guinea 2 kina, 2010

2011-05-19T18:53:00.005+02:00

The kina (ISO 4217 code: PGK) is the currency of Papua New Guinea. It is divided in 100 toea. The kina was introduced on 19 April 1975, replacing the Australian dollar at par. The name kina is derived from Kuanua of the Tolai region, referring to a callable pearl shell used widely for trading in both the Coastal and Highlands areas of the country.

For earlier currencies used in Papua New Guinea, see New Guinea pound and New Guinea mark.

Syria 50 pounds, 2009

2011-05-19T18:53:00.003+02:00

Mexico 100 pesos, 1981

2011-05-19T18:52:00.003+02:00

Venustiano Carranza de la Garza, (December 28, 1859 – May 21, 1920) was one of the leaders of the Mexican Revolution. He ultimately became President of Mexico following the overthrow of the dictatorial Huerta regime in the summer of 1914 and during his administration the current constitution of Mexico was drafted. He was assassinated near the end of his term of office at the behest of a cabal of army generals resentful at his insistence that his successor be a civilian.

West African States (Senegal) 500 francs (P#710Ki), 1999

2011-05-02T20:55:00.001+02:00

West African States (Senegal) 1000 francs (P#711Ki), 1999

2011-05-02T20:53:00.001+02:00

Trinidad and Tobago 5 dollars, 2002

2011-05-02T20:50:00.002+02:00

The Blue-crowned Motmot, Momotus momota, is a colourful near-passerine bird found in forests and woodlands of eastern Mexico, Central America, northern and central South America, and Trinidad and Tobago. As presently defined, it includes several taxa that possibly should be recognized as valid species, including the Highland Motmot, Momotus aequatorialis.

Like most of the Coraciiformes, motmots nest in tunnels in banks, laying about three or four white eggs.

The Blue-crowned Motmot is 38–48 cm long, depending on race. Nominate M. m. momota may weigh as little as 77 grams, while the Highland Motmot may weigh up to 175 grams. The tail is very long with a bare-shafted racket tip. The upperparts are green, shading to blue on the lower tail, and the underparts are green or rufous depending on subspecies.

In all except the entirely blue-crowned subspecies coeruliceps, the central crown is black and surrounded by a blue band. There is a black eyemask, and the nape of momota is chestnut. The call is a low owl-like ooo-doot, although there are variations depending on the subspecies involved.

These birds often sit still, and in their dense forest habitat can be difficult to see, despite their size. They eat small prey such as insects and lizards, and will also regularly take fruit.

As presently defined, it is likely that the Blue-crowned Motmot includes several species level taxa. Especially the Andean Highland Motmot, Momotus aequatorialis (Gould, 1858), is frequently considered a separate species, but this treatment is no longer adopted here, following SACC (2005), which noted that the published evidence for treating it as a separate species is weak, but also hoped their decision would stimulate further research on the taxonomy of the M. momota complex. In addition to the Highland Motmot, several major groups have been identified: Amazonian Motmot (momota group; found in central and northern South America), Whooping or Tawny-bellied Motmot (subrufescens group; found in north-western South America and eastern Panama), Blue-diademed or Lesson's Motmot (lessonii group; found in most of Central America and eastern Mexico) and the 'true' Blue-crowned Motmot (coeruliceps; found in north-eastern Mexico). Additionally, the taxon from Trinidad and Tobago, misleadingly named bahamensis (there are no motmots in the Bahamas), is distinctive, and possibly worthy of species recognition. Based on measurements, plumage and voice most of these group were considered to be species by Stiles (2009). The only exception was coeruliceps, which was beyond the scope of that study.

Sri Lanka 100 rupees (P#118c), 2004

2011-05-02T20:45:00.002+02:00

Saint Thomas and Prince 5.000 dobras (P#69), 2004

2011-05-02T20:42:00.005+02:00

The Many-coloured Bushshrike (Telophorus multicolor) is a species of bird in the bushshrike family, Malaconotidae.

It is found in western and central Africa where it occurs in Angola, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivory Coast, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, Ghana, Guinea, Liberia, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, Togo and Uganda. The Black-fronted Bushshrike (T. nigrifrons) of southern and eastern Africa is sometimes included in this species.

Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry forests, subtropical or tropical moist lowland forests, and subtropical or tropical moist montane forests.

Gambia 100 dalasis, 2006 (Many thanks to Wilson Chow from Malaysia!)

2011-04-07T15:58:00.003+02:00

The Senegal Parrot (Poicephalus senegalus) is a Poicephalus parrot which is a resident breeder across a wide range of west Africa. It makes migrations within west Africa, according to the availability of the fruit, seeds and blossoms which make up its diet. It is considered a farm pest in Africa, often feeding on maize or millet. It is popular in aviculture.

There are three subspecies. They do not differ in behaviour, but only in the colour of the "vest". In the pet trade, the nominate subspecies is the most common though all three are raised and sold as pets.

* Poicephalus senegalus senegalus (the nominate subspecies): this subspecies has a yellow vest; its native range includes southern Mauritania, southern Mali to Guinea and Lobos Island.
* Poicephalus senegalus mesotypus: this subspecies has an orange vest; its range is from eastern and northeastern Nigeria and Cameroon into southwest Chad.
* Poicephalus senegalus versteri: this subspecies has a deep-orange/red vest; its range is from the Ivory Coast and Ghana east to western Nigeria.

Senegal Parrots are birds of open woodland and savanna. With the exception of the Ring-Necked Parakeet, the Senegal is the only parrot inhabitant of the savanna woodlands and forest mossaic of West Africa. It is a gregarious species, continuously chattering with a range of whistling and squawking calls. Senegal Parrots live an average of approximately 25–30 years in the wild, and have been known to live for 50 years in captivity.

Senegal Parrots are about 23 cm long, weigh about 120 to 170 g. They have a relatively large head and beak for their overall size, and feathers form a short broad tail. Adults have a charcoal grey head, grey beak, bright yellow irises, green back and throat, and yellow underparts and rump. The yellow and green areas on a Senegal Parrot's front form a V-shape resembling a yellow vest worn over green. Young Juveniles have dark grey, almost black, irises, which change to light grey.

Senegal Parrots are not sexually dimorphic, but there are some hypotheses which sometimes might help to determine the gender of adult birds:

* The V-shape of the vest is usually longer in females; in females the green area extends down over the chest to between the legs, whereas in males the tip of the green area ends midway down the chest.
* The female's beak and head are generally slightly smaller and narrower than the male's.
* The under-tail covert feathers (short feathers under the base of the main tail feathers) are generally mostly yellow in the male and generally mostly green in the female.
* Males are generally, but not always, larger and heavier than female birds.

Gambia 50 dalasis, 2006 (Many thanks to Wilson Chow from Malaysia!)

2011-04-07T15:56:00.002+02:00

The Hoopoe (Upupa epops) is a colourful bird that is found across Afro-Eurasia, notable for its distinctive 'crown' of feathers. It is the only extant species in the family Upupidae. One insular species, the Giant Hoopoe of Saint Helena, is extinct, and the Madagascar subspecies of the Hoopoe is sometimes elevated to a full species. The English name is derived from Latin upupa, which imitates the cry of the bird.

The Hoopoe is classified in the Coraciiformes clade, a group that also includes kingfishers, bee-eaters, rollers, and woodhoopoes (forming a clade with this one according to Hackett et al. (2008). A close relationship between the Hoopoe and the woodhoopoes is also supported by the shared and unique nature of their stapes. In the Sibley-Ahlquist taxonomy, the Hoopoe is separated from the Coraciiformes as a separate order, the Upupiformes. Some authorities place the woodhoopoes in the Upupiformes as well.

The fossil record of the hoopoes is very incomplete, with the earliest fossil coming from the Quaternary. The fossil record of their relatives is older, with fossil woodhoopoes dating back to the Miocene and those of an extinct related family, the Messelirrisoridae, dating from the Eocene.

It is the only extant member of its family, although some treatments consider some of the subspecies as separate species. Several authors have separated the Madagascan subspecies (U. e. marginata) as a separate species, and also the resident African form U. e. africana. The morphological differences between the most commonly split subspecies, U. e. marginata, and the other subspecies are minor, and only U. e. marginata has distinctly different vocalisations. One accepted separate species, the Giant Hoopoe, U. antaios, lived on the island of St Helena but became extinct in the sixteenth century, presumably due to introduced species.

The Hoopoe is a medium sized bird, 25–32 cm long, with a 44–48 cm wingspan weighing 46-89 g. The species is highly distinctive, with a long, thin tapering bill that is black with a fawn base. The strengthened musculature of the head allows the bill to be opened when probing inside the soil. The hoopoe has broad and rounded wings capable of strong flight; these are larger in the northern migratory subspecies. The Hoopoe has a characteristic undulating flight, which is like that of a giant butterfly, caused by the wings half closing at the end of each beat or short sequence of beats.

The song is a trisyllabic "oop-oop-oop", which gives rise to its English and scientific names. In the Himalayas, the calls can be confused with that of the Himalayan Cuckoo (Cuculus saturatus) although the cuckoo typically produces four notes. Other calls include rasping croaks and hisses. A wheezy note is produced by females during courtship feeding by the male.

Gambia 25 dalasis, 2006 (Many thanks to Wilson Chow from Malaysia!)

2011-04-07T15:55:00.004+02:00

The Northern Carmine Bee-eater (Merops nubicus) is a near passerine bird in the bee-eater family Meropidae. Alternative common names include the Carmine Bee-eater or the Nubian Bee-eater.

It is native to Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, Tanzania, Togo and Uganda. It occurs as a vagrant in Burundi.

This species, like other bee-eaters, is a richly colored, slender bird, predominantly carmine in color, except for a greenish blue head and throat and distinctive black mask. This species has red eyes, a black, pointed, decurved beak, and elongated central tail feathers.

The sexes are similar in appearance, and the juveniles can be distinguished from adults by their lack of elongated central tail feathers and the pinkish brown coloration of their mantle, chest to belly, and flanks.

Czechoslovakia 25 korun (P#87a), 1958 (Swap with Pavel Tobiška from Czech Republic)

2011-03-22T20:56:00.001+01:00

Czechoslovakia 20 korun (61a), 1945 (Swap with Pavel Tobiška from Czech Republic)

2011-03-22T20:54:00.001+01:00

Czechoslovakia 10 korun (P#83), 1953 (Swap with Pavel Tobiška from Czech Republic)

2011-03-22T20:51:00.002+01:00

Czechoslovakia 1 korun (P#78b(, 1953 (Swap with Pavel Tobiška from Czech Republic)

2011-03-22T20:49:00.001+01:00

Hungary 10.000.000 pengö (P#123), 1945 (Swap with Pavel Tobiška from Czech Republic)

2011-03-22T20:48:00.001+01:00

Hungary 2 korona (P#59), 1920 (Swap with Pavel Tobiška from Czech Republic)

2011-03-22T20:46:00.002+01:00

Hungary 1 korona (P#57), 1920 (Swap with Pavel Tobiška from Czech Republic)

2011-03-22T20:44:00.002+01:00

England 10 pounds (Many thanks to Marc Antoine from France!)

2011-02-26T08:47:00.003+01:00

Hummingbirds are birds that comprise the family Trochilidae. They are among the smallest of birds, most species measuring in the 7.5–13 cm range. Indeed, the smallest extant bird species is a hummingbird, the 5-cm Bee Hummingbird. They can hover in mid-air by rapidly flapping their wings 12–90 times per second (depending on the species). They can also fly backwards, and are the only group of birds able to do so. Their English name derives from the characteristic hum made by their rapid wing beats. They can fly at speeds exceeding 15 m/s (54 km/h).

Bermuda 2 dollars, 2009 (Many thanks to Mark Antoine from France!)

2011-02-17T16:56:00.003+01:00

The bluebirds are a group of medium-sized, mostly insectivorous or omnivorous birds in the genus Sialia of the thrush family (Turdidae). Bluebirds are one of the few thrush genera in the Americas. They have blue, or blue and red, plumage. Female birds are less brightly colored than males, although color patterns are similar and there is no noticeable difference in size between sexes.

Bluebirds are territorial, prefer open grassland with scattered trees and are cavity nesters (similar to many species of woodpecker). Bluebirds can typically produce between two and four broods during the spring and summer (March through August in the Northeastern United States). Males identify potential nest sites and try to attract prospective female mates to those nesting sites with special behaviors that include singing and flapping wings, and then placing some material in a nesting box or cavity. If the female accepts the male and the nesting site, she alone builds the nest and incubates the eggs.

Predators of young bluebirds in the nests can include snakes, cats and raccoons. Non-native and native bird species competing with bluebirds for nesting locations include the Common Starling, American Crow, and House Sparrow, which take over the nesting sites of bluebirds, killing young and smashing eggs and probably killing adult bluebirds.

Bluebirds are attracted to platform bird feeders, filled with grubs of the darkling beetle, sold by many online bird product wholesalers as mealworms. Bluebirds will also eat raisins soaked in water. In addition, in winter bluebirds use backyard heated birdbaths.

By the 1970s, bluebird numbers had declined by estimates ranging to 70% due to unsuccessful competition with house sparrows and starlings, both introduced species, for nesting cavities, coupled with a decline in habitat. However, in late 2005 Cornell University's Laboratory of Ornithology reported bluebird sightings at many locations in the southern U.S. as part of its yearly Backyard Bird Count, a strong indication of the bluebird's return to the region. This upsurge can largely be attributed to a movement of volunteers establishing and maintaining bluebird trails.

UAE 5 dirham (P#19b), 2001 (Many thanks to Mark Antoine from France!)

2011-02-17T16:53:00.000+01:00

UAE 10 dirham (P#20b), 2001 (Many thanks to Mark Antoine from France!)

2011-02-17T16:50:00.002+01:00

Cook Islands 3 dollars (P#37), 1992 (Many thanks to Marc Antoine from France!)

2011-02-17T16:48:00.003+01:00

Fantasy issues - My work

2011-02-12T23:22:00.009+01:00

I've always been fascinated with banknotes, and even as a child I was drawing on paper some of "my notes". Now, i'm not drawing on paper anymore. I'm using photoshop, the basic program. Until I find something better. Now I'll introduce to you some of my beginner's work. I'd like if you can share with me your opinion.

YUGOSLAVIA - 100 DINARA

HUNGARY - 500 FORINT

CROATIA - 250 KUNA

SERBIA - 500 DINARA

ENGLAND - 20 POUNDS

UNDERGROUND - 10 HADA

New Zealand 20 dollars (187b), 2004 (Many thanks to Marc-Antoine from France!)

2011-01-26T19:25:00.005+01:00

The New Zealand Falcon or Kārearea, Falco novaeseelandiae, is New Zealand's only endemic falcon and the only remaining bird of prey endemic to New Zealand. Other common names for the bird are Bush Hawk and Sparrow Hawk. It is frequently mistaken for the larger and more common Swamp Harrier.

A member of the Falconidae bird family, the New Zealand Falcon is mainly found in heavy bush and the steep high country in the South Island and is rarely seen north of a line through the central area of the North Island. A small population also breeds on the Auckland Islands; the species is known only from the Chatham Islands from fossil remains. Although protected since 1970, it is considered to be a vulnerable species.

Ornithologists variously described the New Zealand Falcon as an aberrant hobby or as allied to three South American species (F. deiroleucus, F. rufigularis and F. femoralis); however studies of feather proteins suggest a close tie with the Australian Brown Falcon.

It differs from the much larger Swamp Harrier, (or Kāhu), which is common throughout New Zealand, in that it catches other birds on the wing, and seldom eats carrion. An aggressive bird that displays great violence when defending its territory, the New Zealand Falcon has been reported to attack dogs as well as people.

With a wingspan of about 45 cm and weight rarely exceeding 450g, the New Zealand Falcon is slightly over half the size of the Swamp Harrier, which it usually attacks on sight. The male is about two thirds the size of the female.

The New Zealand Falcon nests in a scrape in grassy soil or humus in various locations: under a rock on a steep slope or on a rock ledge, among epiphytic plants on a tree branch, or under a log or branch on the ground, making chicks and eggs vulnerable to predators.

Viet Nam 10.000 đong (P#119), 2006 (Many thanks to Marc-Antoine from France!)

2011-01-26T19:20:00.002+01:00

Afghanistan 10.000 afghanis (P#63b), 1993 (Many thanks to Marc-Antoine from France!)

2011-01-26T19:18:00.002+01:00

South Africa 10 rand (P#120), 1978-1990 (Many thanks to Marc-Antoine from France!)

2011-01-26T19:15:00.002+01:00

Egypt 20 pounds (P#52c), 1998 (Many thanks to Marc-Antoine from France!)

2011-01-26T19:13:00.002+01:00

Venezuela 20 bolivares, 2008 (Many thanks to Marc-Antoine from France!)

2011-01-26T19:11:00.001+01:00

Venezuela 10 bilivares, 2008 (Many thanks to Marc-Antoine from France!)

2011-01-26T19:10:00.001+01:00

Venezuela 5 bolivares, 2008 (many thanks to Marc-Antoine from France!)

2011-01-26T19:09:00.002+01:00

Greece 100 drachmai (P#200b), 1978 (Many thanks to Marc-Antoine from France!)

2011-01-26T19:07:00.003+01:00

Indonesia 20.000 rupees (P#135b), 1995 (Many thanks to Wilson Chow, Malaysia!)

2011-01-08T13:07:00.003+01:00

Red Bird-of-paradise (Paradisaea rubra, also Cendrawasih Merah), is a bird-of-paradise in the genus Paradisaea, family Paradisaeidae.

Large, up to 33 cm long, brown and yellow with a dark brown iris, grey legs and yellow bill. The male has an emerald green face, a pair of elongated black corkscrew-shaped tail wires, dark green feather pompoms above each eye and a train of glossy crimson red plumes with whitish tips at either side of the breast. The male measures up to 72 cm long, including the ornamental red plumes that require at least six years to fully attain. The female is similar but smaller in size, with a dark brown face and has no ornamental red plumes. The diet consists mainly of fruits, berries and arthropods.

An Indonesian endemic, the Red Bird-of-paradise is distributed to lowland rainforests of Waigeo and Batanta islands of West Papua. This species shares its home with another bird-of-paradise, the Wilson's Bird-of-paradise. Hybridisation between these two species is not recorded but is expected because it is recorded for many other birds of paradise.

NOTICE

2010-12-04T12:15:00.002+01:00

After many years of collecting notes, I decided that I will no longer collect all banknotes which do not have. I am no longer interested in banknotes from countries that have not so far. I focused on banknotes on which there are birds and some other notes that are interesting to me for some other reason. Most of these notes, which you can see now on my site I am ready to change for the banknotes that are interested in me now.

Surinam 100 gulden (P#149) January 1, 2000

2010-11-15T08:55:00.003+01:00

The Long-tailed Hermit (Phaethornis superciliosus) is a large hummingbird that is a resident breeder in Venezuela, the Guianas, and north-eastern Brazil. This species is commonly referred to as the Eastern Long-tailed Hermit, but it is likely, following recommendations from Gary Stiles in February 2006, that the new name will be adopted by most authorities.

The taxonomic history of this group is complicated, with similar hermit populations from both sides of the Andes being originally classed as a single Long-tailed Hermit species. The western population was then split as the Western Long-tailed Hermit, P. longirostris, leading to the renaming of P. superciliosus as Eastern Long-tailed Hermit. The further renaming of P. longirostris as Long-billed Hermit means that P. superciliosus no longer needs “eastern” in its English name. Read more...

Uzbekistan 1000 sum (P#82), 1982 (Gift from Barak Pikarski from Israel)

2010-11-14T10:37:00.000+01:00

Israel 10.000 sheqalim (P#51), 1984 (Swap with Barak Pikarski from Israel)

2010-11-14T10:33:00.001+01:00

Golda Meir (born Golda Mabovitch, 3 May 1898 – 8 December 1978, known as Golda Meyerson from 1917–56) was the fourth Prime Minister of the State of Israel.

Meir was elected Prime Minister of Israel on 17 March 1969, after serving as Minister of Labour and Foreign Minister. Israel's first and the world's third woman to hold such an office, she was described as the "Iron Lady" of Israeli politics years before the epithet became associated with British prime minister Margaret Thatcher.[3] Former prime minister David Ben-Gurion used to call Meir "the best man in the government"; she was often portrayed as the "strong-willed, straight-talking, grey-bunned grandmother of the Jewish people". Read more...

Israel 1000 sheqalim (P#49), 1983 (Swap with Barak Pikarski from Israel)

2010-11-14T10:30:00.000+01:00

Israel 50 sheqalim (P#46a), 1978 (Swap with Barak Pikarski from Israel)

2010-11-14T10:28:00.000+01:00

Israel 100 sheqalim (P#47a), 1979 (Swap with Barak Pikarski)

2010-11-14T10:26:00.000+01:00

Israel 5 sheqalim (P#44), 1978 (Swap with Barak Pikarski from Israel)

2010-11-14T10:24:00.000+01:00

Israel 5 lirot (P#31), 1958 (Swap with Barak Pikarski from Israel)

2010-11-14T10:23:00.005+01:00

Labourer holding a sledge-hammer against a background of an industrial plant

Seal of Shema - This seal was discovered in 1904 during the earliest excavation of Megiddo, led by Gottlieb Schumacher. This was a seal belonging to a royal minister in the 8th century BC. It is engraved with the figure of a roaring lion (symbol of the kingdom of Judah) with a beautiful curved tail and was skillfully executed. The inscription reads "Shema" on top, and "Servant of Jeroboam" on the bottom.

Israel 10 lirot (P#32), 1958 (Swap with Barak Pikarski fromm Israel)

2010-11-14T10:20:00.003+01:00

Scientist in a laboratory

Passage from the Book of Isaiah. Dead Sea Scrolls;
The Book of Isaiah is one of the Prophetic books of the Bible. In the first 39 chapters Isaiah prophesies doom for a sinful Judah and for all the nations of the world that oppose God. The last 27 chapters prophesy the restoration of the nation of Israel and prophecies of a new creation in God's glorious future kingdom. This section includes the Songs of the Suffering Servant, four separate passages understood by Jews and modern scholars to refer to the nation of Israel, but interpreted by Christians as prefiguring the coming of Jesus Christ.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 documents, including texts from the Hebrew Bible, discovered between 1946 and 1956 in eleven caves in and around the ruins of the ancient settlement of Qumran on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea.

Israel 50 lirot (P#36), 1968 (Swap with Barak Pikarski from Israel)

2010-11-14T10:17:00.001+01:00

Chaim Azriel Weizmann (27 November 1874 – 9 November 1952) was a Zionist leader, President of the Zionist Organization, and the first President of the State of Israel. He was elected on 1 February 1949, and served until his death in 1952. Weizmann was also a chemist who developed the ABE-process, which produces acetone through bacterial fermentation. He founded the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot, Israel. Read more...

The Knesset is the unicameral legislature of Israel, located in Givat Ram, Jerusalem. Read more...

Israel 50 lirot (P#33d), 1960 (Swap with Barak Pikarski from Israel)

2010-11-14T10:15:00.001+01:00

Two young pioneers against a background of an agricultural settlement in the Negev
The Negev (also Negeb) is a desert and semidesert region of southern Israel. The Arabs, including the native Bedouin population of the region refer to the desert as al-Naqab. The origin of the word Negev is from the Hebrew root denoting 'dry'. In the Bible the word Negev is also used for the direction 'south'. Read more...

Candelabrum from the ancient synagogue of Nirim in the Negev
The menorah is described in the Bible as the seven-branched candelabrum made of gold and used in the portable sanctuary set up by Moses in the wilderness and later in the Temple in Jerusalem. Fresh olive oil of the purest quality was burned daily to light its lamps. The menorah has been a symbol of Judaism since ancient times and is the emblem on the coat of arms of the modern state of Israel. Read more...

NEW COUNTRY!! - Sierra Leone 10.000 leones (P#29), 2004 (Gift from Barak Pikarski from Israel)

2010-10-30T09:34:00.003+02:00

Pigeons and doves constitute the bird family Columbidae within the order Columbiformes, which include some 300 species of near passerines. In general parlance the terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat interchangeably. In ornithological practice, there is a tendency for "dove" to be used for smaller species and "pigeon" for larger ones, but this is in no way consistently applied, and historically the common names for these birds involve a great deal of variation between the terms "dove" and "pigeon." This family occurs worldwide, but the greatest variety is in the Indomalaya and Australasia ecozones. Young doves and pigeons are called "squabs."

Pigeons and doves are stout-bodied birds with short necks, and have short slender bills with a fleshy cere. The species commonly referred to just as "pigeon" is the feral Rock Pigeon, common in many cities.

Doves and pigeons build relatively flimsy nests from sticks and other debris, which may be placed in trees, on ledges or on the ground, depending on species. They lay one or two eggs, and both parents care for the young, which leave the nest after 7 to 28 days. Doves feed on seeds, fruit and plants. Unlike most other birds (but see flamingo), the doves and pigeons produce "crop milk", which is secreted by a sloughing of fluid-filled cells from the lining of the crop. Both sexes produce this highly nutritious substance to feed to the young. Read more...

Israel 10 lirot (P#39), 1973 (Swap with Barak Pikarski from Israel)

2010-10-30T09:31:00.004+02:00

Sir Moses Haim Montefiore, 1st Baronet, Kt (24 October 1784 - 28 July 1885) was one of the most famous British Jews of the 19th century. Montefiore was a financier, banker, philanthropist and Sheriff of London.

Montefiore was born in Livorno, Italy in 1784. His grandfather, Moses Vita (Chaim) Montefiore had emigrated from Livorno to London in the 1740s, but retained close contact with the town, then famous for its straw bonnets. Montefiore was born while his parents, Joseph Elias Montefiore and his young wife Rachel, the daughter of Abraham Mocatta, a powerful bullion broker in London, were in the town on a business journey, their first child. Read more...

Jaffa Gate (Hebrew: Sha'ar Yafo) is a stone portal in the historic walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. It is one of eight gates in Jerusalem's Old City walls.

Jaffa Gate is the only one of the Old City gates positioned at a right angle to the wall. This could have been done as a defensive measure to slow down oncoming attackers, or to orient it in the direction of Jaffa Road, from which pilgrims arrived at the end of their journey from the port of Jaffa.