i don't have any input, but i'd be interested in images of said currency. sounds very cool!
Chess on banknotes
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Well for example this is the Armenian 2000 Dram note from 2018.
This is the Estonian 5 Krooni from 1992
And here's a German emergency issue from ca. 1920 with some wise words and a position. I'd love to know what game or study this position would be from, but have not yet been able to find it.
Ah maybe I can only upload one image per post. Here's the note itself.
For the last one, we can see that Black is checkmated, so the last move must have been Qe6# or Qxe6# . From the material imbalance it would be attractive to assume that a black Q was captured there on e6 but that is of course highly speculative. For all I know, the position may just as well be from a game the banknote designer played the night before with his grandson or whatever.
Anybody? Please? 
Yes I found that one too, thank you 
That is one of the first things you stumble upon on Reddit, only to find out its "the other" Labourdonnais Makes you wonder what happened to the father of Louis / son of Bertrand. Was he famous too? Why not?
Interesting stuff. limited in quantity, but certainly not in quality
eathealthyfoods wrote:
I think the banknote that have chess positions drawn on it is not just a game but also a message against the people behind counterfeit... I don't know the exact message because this is just a speculation... It says something like this... "No matter what happens, the government (The Queen) and the people themselves (The Bishop which represents the people and the Rook which represents the Ruling System) who are using real money are against you even though you tried to make a new governance for yourself (He is trying to promote one of his pawn to a Queen) there is a great leader (King who represents the President) who will stop you from doing so... The Black Knight are goons that protect the counterfeiters and they are the ones who tries to undermine the ruling system hence it is attacking the Rook...
That's an interesting take indeed. I know the Germans weren't exactly afraid to put some morality into this kind of things, quite the contrary. Maybe you have indeed uncovered a deeper meaning than I at first thought. This stuff is deep!
Mar 9, 2024
0
#11
I would say that your hunch is real though... it really seems like it when I observed the chess board more and more 😅
I remember reading a book about this once. Let me check goodreads and Amazon for the title to help.
I really think you're taking this too far actually. While mentions of the recent defeat in WW1 are pretty common on German emergency issues, this one doesn't seem to have anything to do with that. It simply says:
Ein Schachbrett ist das ganze Leben
auf dem wir nur geschoben werden.
Mit lichter Hoffnung geht's ans Spiel
Ein Stärk'rer lenkt's, Schachmatt ist's Ziel
in English:
All of life is just a chess board
on which we are merely being pushed around.
With a light hope we try to do our best
A Stronger One decides, checkmate is the goal.
The last line is obviously a reference to God. It's just about the futility and humility of life on earth. "Memento mori!" and nothing more. That's what I think
Hi all!
I'm a banknote collector and I'm planning to write an article on chess on banknotes. Turns out, there are not that many banknotes with a chess theme. I know of a few German Notgeld issues from the 1920s, a more recent Estonian note with Paul Keres, an Armenian note with Tigran Petrosian and a test note or two. That's it really. Does anybody know of any more banknotes with a chess theme? Maybe a player, a tournament, a game, a random position? I'd welcome any input. Thanks!