In 1942 , after the attack onPearl Harbor , the American authorities became worried about what would happen if Japan invadedHawaii . Specifically , official were concern about all of the U.S.moneyon the island . If the Imperial Army infest and grabbed all the cash , how could the government activity flag or demonetise those note ? After all , the money would be indistinguishable from all the other U.S. money in circulation .
To hedge against that spot , the government did something unusual : they recalled all of the paper money in the territory , asking the people and businesses to sell in their money for freshly printed bill that looked fairly received except for the wordHawaiistamped across them . The U.S. government also issued hard-and-fast rules about how much money anyone in Hawaii could conduct : individuals could have no more than $ 200 ( about $ 3740 in 2024 dollars ) in cash , while businesses were cap at $ 500 ( $ 9350 today ) .
But what about all the money they ’d just garner in the recall — the $ 200 million of steady currentness round up on the islands ? alternatively of putting it into circulation , or stockpiling it somewhere , the government decided the simplest solution was simply to burn it . Of course , this ended up being its own hassle . According toThe Numismatist , official started by try on to incinerate the monumental great deal of money at a crematorium in Honolulu . But when they could n’t cauterise the cash fast enough , they had to highjack some furnace at a sugar mill in Oahu to get the chore done .
By October of 1944 , the U.S. no longer felt the threat from Japan , and they take the emergency beak out of circulation , allowing normal currency to re - come in Hawaii . The Treasury pushed some of the overprint billhook to other islands in the Pacific . Today , very few of the Hawaii note are still in circulation , but if you find one , hold up on to it . depend on its appellation and serial publication , a Hawaii overprint bill at auction can sell for a few thousands dollars up to$52,000 or more .
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A version of this news report was published in 2015 ; it has been updated for 2024 .
