The largest counterfeiting operation used in war time. Germany and England during World War II, used a paper weapon on each other, to print each others currency in order to inflate each economy. Their economic warfare flooded each economy with large amounts of forged notes all at the expense of citizens increasing shoeleather and menu costs. Operation Bernhard was the Nazi plan to destabilize the UK economy, where each government would struggle to retain confidence in the currency. If notes were dropped by an airplane or as helicopter money the government would not receive seingniorage revenue from the resulting inflation.
Resources
See the film on Operation Bernhard: Ruzowitzky, S. (2007). The Counterfeiters. Retrieved [24/03/16] from <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Counterfeiters_%282007_film%29>.
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Copyright © 2016 Zoë-Marie Beesley
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