# Identify a banknote from a really bad description **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 19, 2015, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-a-banknote-from-a-really-bad-description/713101 "2015-02-19T17:06:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-a-banknote-from-a-really-bad-description/713101/1 "2015-02-19T17:06:42Z")
In the charity box on the counter in McDonald’s today I saw a folded banknote that had been dropped in. It looked unfamiliar so I wondered what it might be. It certainly appeared to be a real banknote, with serial numbers etc, but I couldn’t read much of it. It had a lot of blank white space, with a purple design. In one corner was an abstract looking logo consisting of overlapping purple and green shapes (one irregular shape of each colour, as I recall). The only text I could make out was …iti Bank, and on the the other side of the note was a word that appeared to start with R (which might have been the same text that I could see the other end of on the first side). The overall look was quite clean and modern, not an old-fashioned “copper engraved” style. More like the style of a euro note than an old dollar bill, say. I couldn’t make out what the main design on the note might be. Any ideas? ---
**Author:** ![Pjen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Pjen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pjen)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 5:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-a-banknote-from-a-really-bad-description/713101/2 "2015-02-19T17:17:39Z")
Citibank scrip of some kind? ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-a-banknote-from-a-really-bad-description/713101/3 "2015-02-19T17:50:11Z")
> [@Pjen](#): > > Citibank scrip of some kind? Yeah that did cross my mind, Google finds nothing of the sort though. It did look like a proper banknote though. ---
**Author:** ![Schnitte](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/schnitte/32/9033_2.png) [@Schnitte](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Schnitte)\ **Post date:** [February 19, 2015, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-a-banknote-from-a-really-bad-description/713101/4 "2015-02-19T18:22:47Z")
It could be a [Haitian banknote](http://www.brh.net/billets.html) (the name of the currency being gourde). They are quite colourful, the issuing central bank is the Banque de la République d’Haiti (there you have your R), and as [this picture](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haitian_gourde#mediaviewer/File:250G.png) shows, teh text “Banque de la République d’Haiti” is followed by the same name in Creole, starting with “Bank”, so that’s where the “iti Bank” part could come from. ---
**Author:** ![Colophon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f05b48/32.png) [@Colophon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colophon)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2015, 12:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-a-banknote-from-a-really-bad-description/713101/5 "2015-02-20T12:28:05Z")
It wasn’t anything like the Haitian note. I think it probably was part of the Citibank logo that I could see. Maybe a cheque (although Googling for Citibank cheques doesn’t come up with anything similar). And it didn’t have the machine-readable cheque numbers, as far as I can see, but proper banknote-style serial numbers. And who puts a cheque in the penny box at McDonald’s? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Kiyoshi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/e19adc/32.png) [@Kiyoshi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kiyoshi)\ **Post date:** [February 20, 2015, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/identify-a-banknote-from-a-really-bad-description/713101/6 "2015-02-20T14:58:36Z")
The banknotes of the Estonian kroon said “Eesti Pank”, which is similar to —iti Bank The [500 krooni](http://finntimo.com/images/Setelit/Viro%20500%20Krooni%202000%20ZZ093624.jpg) bill was purple with a lot of white space and an interlocking design. The currency went obsolete in 2011, which might explain why it was dumped in a charity box instead of being exchanged.