We weigh banknotes like Pablo Escobar ...

In the splendor of his empire, the Colombian drug baron of Pablo Escobar turned so unimaginably large amounts of money that to count them, he began to weigh them! We don't have such a problem, which is a pity 😉 We will show you how weight may turn out to be a very helpful tool in collecting banknotes.

Weight has always been an integral part of the coins description. It is the most important information, especially in the case of bullion coins, but its value when distinguishing false coins from the original is also irrelevant. Of course, many forgery of coins, and in particular, are refined enough that the element of weight ceases to be helpful, but in the case of banknotes, happily not affected by such a large scourge of forgery allows you to examine and distinguish between varieties that are only characterized by the difference in the weight used for printing paper.

Our adventure with weight at the banknotes began when for one of our regular customers we were looking for a variety of the November Uprising on thin paper. How many times during my adventure with banknotes, being a buyer, I have to browse the offers of banknotes incorrectly offered as this "more expensive variety" on numerous exchanges. Any attempt to politely draw attention to the vast majority ended with absolute indignation. Without experience and rewriting many copies, a beginner collector has so far been condemned to honesty, knowledge and a reliable approach to trade in the numismats of the seller. The greater the difference in catalog valuations, the greater the temptation to "pull" the banknote under a given variety, which is valued above. Honestly, it was a few years behind him "to touch" I learned to distinguish between the varieties in terms of paper used for printing. Some varieties like 5 brands on cardboard paper are easier to distinguish, other like November zloty, much more difficult, and years of communing with banknotes allowed me to distinguish between subsequent varieties from this angle, even a tax ticket with a nominality of PLN 50 from the Kościuszko Uprising period, which was printed on paper with a significantly different weight of paper. In this case, the difference is even striking, depending on the Dutch company that provided printing paper, but the topic of the banknotes of the Kościuszko Uprising will be discussed at other times, in this topic we still have a lot to add.

Returning to our collector, during the transaction I was asked and how can you be sure that a given copy is on thin paper? It is difficult to provide a different argument at such a moment than "please trust me". Luckily we had a different copy printed on thick paper. Comparing for touch in such a situation is definitely easier, while turning the banknotes at the same time we can feel the difference. However, we usually do not have such a comfort of comparison, and it is difficult to take part of your collection for comparative purposes each time. It turned out that the weight was enough! Touch, touch, trust, but there is nothing more convincing than hard numbers. A copy on thin paper 0.38 grams, on a thick 0.63 gram. The difference is almost twice, hence, in combination with a touch examination, no one had any doubts.

The method of weighing banknotes in order to distinguish the variety should be only one of the elements, in my opinion a very important, especially for beginners. Each method and this have its limitations. It should be remembered that old banknotes weigh more with age, dirt, fat even in small amounts will increase the mass of paper. Conservation, which is always associated with soaking the banknote, automatically means an increase in weight. This leads us to the conclusion that when we have a suspicion of maintenance, it is worth considering more carefully whether a given variety is actually the one we are looking for. Despite this, even after maintenance due to the significant difference in weight between the tested copies of almost 65%, it will be difficult to get such a significant weight gain. Fortunately, the percentage difference in weight is so large that "creative" should not be tempted to cut the banknote, although we always absolutely encourage you to measure banknotes.

Having remembered the experience from the mentioned meeting, I decided to distinguish the same method probably the most frequently offered variety, i.e. 5 brands of ghetto on cardboard paper. Luckily, we currently have two copies in almost emission behavioral states, and another printed on "normal paper" also in the emission state of behavior. Both positions without signs of circulation, clean without any maintenance. So get to work! We weigh!

We made our weighing on two scales, one pocket money, the other very accurate jewelry. The effects of our research again showed a significant difference in the weight of individual varieties. Copies on cardboard paper weighed 1.1 and 1.133 grams when a copy on ordinary paper 0.796 grams. The difference in almost 40% in the mass gives us a clear clue when assessing whether a given variety is actually printed on cardboard paper. Importantly, measurements on a small pocket weight showed a similar difference.

It is worth emphasizing that in my personal assessment, the distinction to the touch of a cardboard variety of 5 Marek Ghetta is much easier than in the case of the November Uprising. The "cardboard" effect in the form of expressive stiffness is immediately noticeable, the banknote kept behind one edge falls very gently. Of course, it is easy to come to such conclusions with many years of experience in this topic, hence we encourage banknote collectors to buy a small, pocket scale, the indications of which may be invaluable when the purchase decision which would not be rare and sought after values, which are 5 brands on cardboard paper and an insurgent zloty from 1831.

Finally, a curiosity, we noticed some regularity at 5 ghetto brands. Copies printed on a carton, are characterized by an orange color number, while those printed on ordinary red paper. We do not guarantee that this is a certain relationship, but a fairly valuable tip and another element that is worth considering when examining a given copy.

Finally, as always, we encourage you to share our insights, we will gladly know the importance of your banknotes and experience in this topic.