Nicolae Iorga (1871 – 1940) was a Romanian historian, university professor, literary critic, memorialist, playwright, poet, and politician. He served as a member of Parliament, as President of the post-World-War-I National Assembly, as minister, and (1931-32) as Prime Minister.

Romania (2005) 1 Lei (front) portrait of ex-Prime Minister Nicolae Iorga

Artur Virgílio Alves dos Reis (b. in Lisbon 1898 - 1955) perpetrated one of the largest fruad in history, against Bank of Portugal in 1925 often called the Portuguese Bank Note Crisis. He duped Waterlow & Sons into printing 200,000 pieces of 500 Portuguese Escudos, read the whole story here. And here the 500 note piece, and auction in 2007 for 6500Euros!

In April 2008, the Bank of Ireland marked the moment with the launch of new banknotes that honour the Bushmills Irish Whiskey's heritage by featuring the famous Old Bushmills Distillery in Co Antrim.

Bank Of Ireland (2008) 20 Pounds - Bushmills Distillery

The official currency of Transnistria is the Transnistrian ruble. Transnistria is an internationally unrecognized country. Currency has no ISO code.

Transnistria (1994) 10 Ruble (front)

Polymer banknotes were introduced in (2004) due to high cases of banknote forgery. All of them are polymer. The largest denomination is the BND 10,000.

Brunei (2006) 10,000 Dollar - (front) Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah

Bloomberg 3rd June 2008:-
1 USD = 1.3628 BND (Brunei Dollar)

The somoni (ISO 4217 code: TJS) is the currency of Tajikistan. It is subdivided into 100 diram. The currency is named after the father of the Tajik nation, Ismail Samani (also spelled Ismoil Somoni).

Tajikistan (1999) 10 Somoni (front) - Portrait of Mir Syed Ali Hamadani

In November 2006, the Royal Monetary Authority (RMA) of Bhutan released the new one Ngultrum note. The release, called the ‘Series 2006’, was part of a clean note policy during which the authority would mop up all the soiled, dirty and mutilated notes from circulation. See The Full Series 2006

Bhutan (2006) 1 Ngultrum (front) - Dragons

Bloomberg 3rd June 2008:-

The US appeals court recently ruled that the blind and other visually impaired people are discriminated against by the nation's currency.

Canada has put "embossed dots" on its bills that vary by denomination, while the Euro includes a foil feature that can be detected by touch, the judges said. The United States is nearly alone in the world in using bills that are the same in size and color in all denominations, they added.

There are about 3.7 million visually impaired in USA. The US Treasury Dept is considering next action includig appeal to Supreme Court.

The US $10 Dollar and US $100 Dollar banknotes are the only 2 bills which do not feature a President of the United States on the front. The $10 bill features the first US Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton (1755 - 1804)

USA (2004) 10 Dollar - portrait of Alexander Hamilton

Sometime during the 1870s to 1930s the USA had currency notes issued by banks chartered by the United States Government. The notes were backed by United States bonds the bank deposited with the United States Treasury.

National Bank of Honolulu, Hawaii (1929) 50 Dollar (front)