QUESTION: Dear Mr Armstrong,

What are the risks on cash savings under the mattress and the relation from the land serial codes on Euro notes and confiscations?..

Country codes on the first series of banknotes

The central bank that commissioned the printing of a banknote (but not necessarily the country of printing) is indicated by a letter or country code preceding the serial number, as shown here:

This particular banknote, bearing the letter ‘S’, was printed for the Banca d’Italia. The country codes are listed below.

Country codes

(1) Uncirculated euro banknotes issued by the Banque centrale du Luxembourg bear the code of the central banks of the countries where the banknotes for Luxembourg are produced. Belgium Z Germany X Estonia D Ireland T Greece Y Spain V France U Italy S Cyprus G Latvia C Luxembourg (1) Malta F Netherlands P Austria N Portugal M Slovenia H Slovakia E Finland L

Is Norway a refugee haven for europeans, the NOK and confiscations?

Best regards,

R, the Netherlands, code P

ANSWER: Again, opinions are worthless – we all have them. All I can do is qualify events based upon the past. For the American readers, it is important to comprehend a critical point. A US dollar bill from 1861 is still legal tender. That is not the case in Europe – not even Britain. This goes to your question about stockpiling euro notes regardless of the codes. Europe routinely CANCELLED currency with each new issue. They demonetize both previous coins and notes. This has been a socialistic trick. This is WHY the US dollar was favored even in Russia, China, and among drug dealers. The dollar haters do not understand this aspect. Watch the Fed Video below. Pay close attention. The state this is for domestic and international demand and they make it clear the old notes are still legal tender.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n59L6rNEWWE&feature=c4-overview&list=UUS0HsbqlY7Qe0ZyX45Js3Pw

The tradition in Europe is always to cancel the previous notes. Old British pound notes are not legal tender. I would recommend old $100 bills while you can still get them. The new ones they can pick up on a scanner going through an airport these days.

So all I can suggest is based upon previous experience. Will they cancel the notes? They can do that. They always cancelled the notes to ensure people PAID TAXES. If you had a bundled of cash you didn’t pay taxes on, cancelling the old notes forced capital out of hiding and it was then taxed. This was one reason Say was correct – it made no sense to hoard cash.