During World War II The United States issued special currency for the island of Hawaii and for troops in North Africa. The Hawaii notes feature a brown seal and are over stamped with the word "HAWAII" on the front and back of the note. Some are silver certificates and others are Federal Reserve Notes printed in San Francisco. The North Africa notes have a striking yellow seal and are silver certificates. Both of these were very unique issues but the only real rarity is the 1934 $10 North Africa note.
During the North Africa Campaign in 1942, many United States troops were readying an attack on Europe from the South. All these troops were paid in cash. Fearing that the Germans could capture a large amount of this money, the United States Government designed special currency that could easily be identified and therefore declared worthless if seized by the Germans.
Because of the danger of a Japanese invasion of Hawaii in 1942, specially marked United States money was substituted for normal notes. These notes had brown serial numbers and treasury seal, and were overprinted on the back on the note with "Hawaii."
During World War II the government also experimented with new kinds of security paper for use as money when it wasn't known if supplies of normal U.S. Banknote paper could be maintained. The $1 silver certificate was the subject of the experiment. Notes with the special paper were printed with an "S" in the lower right corner and another group of $1 notes, the control group were printed on regular paper with an "R" in the same location. Exactly 1,184,000 notes were printed of each type. The results of this experiment are inconclusive so there were no changes to the original bank note paper. These are pretty rare in uncirculated condition and even rarer with a Star. A word of warning. SOme people out there have printd their own R's and S' to pass the notes off as the more expensive experimentals. the genuine serial for R's are S70884001-S72068000C and the S' are S73884001C-S75068000C.
Destruction of U.S. Emergency Currency In WWII
During the war the Treasury Department authorized the destruction of worn-out currency in Hawaii instead of the risk involved in shipping it to the mainland for destruction. The records of the Special Treasury Destruction Committee in Honolulu relate to destruction of unfit currency, and plans for destruction of currency and securities in case of emergency. This precautionary step was deemed unnecessary for badly worn North Africa emergency currency. Both the HAWAII and North Africa emergency currency replacement notes, in all theaters of operation, were indicated with a star.
Remarkably, the only distinguishing feature on the emergency currency produced for the North Africa campaign was the yellow printing of the traditionally blue seal.
In preparation for and during the North Africa Campaign in late 1942, U.S. troops were paid in the yellow seal emergency currency. This was done for the same reason the HAWAII notes were introduced.
Hawaiian History
In Hawaii, after the Pearl Harbor Invasion $20+ million in US and local currency was captured. There was also concern that the Japanese Pearl Harbor Attack fleet would return to invade the Hawaiian Islands so people would hoard and hide the cash.
The U.S. declared it was illegal for individuals in Hawaii to have more than $200 in cash. Businesses could keep $500. So strong were the invasion fears during the days and weeks after December 7, that military dependents and other U.S. citizens from the mainland were being shipped and flown away from the nine inhabited islands (out of the twenty volcanic islands which made up the archipelago) in what amounted to a panic exodus-like stampede. In most cases, departing civilians needed little encouragement to close local bank accounts and sell things of value, such as cars, and take millions of dollars in U.S. currency with them.
With few exceptions, the only non-military personnel who didn't leave were the several thousand native-born Hawaiians and the large Japanese population who lived and worked on the islands they called home.
Meanwhile, civilian traffic going to Hawaii, and into harm's way, was in the construction trades, steel workers, electricians, and heavy equipment operators.
Washington recognized that this sizeable post-December 7 population on the Hawaiian Islands (military, locals and civilian emergency workers) required a sound economic base for conducting the daily business of commerce. Since the United States wouldn't introduce Military Payment Certificates until after World War II was over, everything bought or paid for during the war years, by military personnel and civilians alike, was in cash.
HAWAII Dollars were also used to redeem Japanese Military Yen on the liberated Central Pacific Islands.
Consequently, the U.S. government jump-started a contingency economic defense plan for replacing the normal legal tender notes with the specially marked and easily identifiable new emergency currency issues for $1, $5, $10, $20 notes. The $1 notes were silver certificates and all the rest were Federal Reserve Notes. The logic was simple: if an enemy captured a depository, bank or money reserve, the U.S. could immediately isolate and demonetize the specially printed notes making them worthless to the enemy.
Occasional newspaper stories tell of people accidentally finding hidden hoards of HAWAII emergency currency in the islands. Like, In 1980 a man painting an attic discovered $100,000 represented in a total of 1,793 bills ranging from $1 to $20 and an elderly woman who accumulated around $45,000 in HAWAII currency, mostly $20 bills, asked a banker how she should go about selling them. The banker told her she should spend the money since the bills were not new and crisp they were simply worth face value, because currency collectors only wanted unused, unfolded money.