HUMPHREY BOGART'S "SHORT SNORTERS"

Most of you are familiar with so-called "short snorter" notes, which were signed by various individuals, primarily military, during World War II. I have been collecting these for some time, mostly looking for interesting stories or notes signed by famous personages. I have enough of these to fill a year's worth of Banknote Reporter articles. Still, for this month, I thought you might be interested in seeing and learning about not one but two notes that I have found over the years autographed by the legendary and well-known actor Humphrey Bogart! His performances in classic Hollywood films made him an American cultural icon. In 1999, the American Film Institute selected Bogart as the greatest male star of classic American cinema.

Now, let's look at some of the notes. The first I will show you is an Italian 50-lire note of the type of Pick #64, issued March 31, 1943. I found this note about 25 years ago at a coin show in Syracuse, New York. A well-known currency dealer in that area had quite a few boxes of world currency, and as I perused them, I came across this note priced at $5. This seemed cheap for the note at the time (little did I realize that almost no one collects Italian currency), but then I noticed that the identifying sticker on the holder indicated "writing" (hence the low price). I turned the note over to find just one pen signature on the back. It didn't take me long to decipher it as "Humphrey Bogart." Naturally, I bought it.

Why was Bogart's signature on a 1943 Italian bank note? Well, during part of 1943 and 1944, Bogart went on USO and War Bond tours accompanied by his then-wife Mayo Methot Bogart, enduring arduous travels to Italy and North Africa, including Casablanca. It is likely that Bogart signed this note when he was in Italy during this time. A United States soldier or officer may have grabbed whatever paper was on hand, in this case, a 50-lire note, and shoved it at Bogart for an autograph.

Here we get to the second note I will present to you. It is a "Series of 1935-A" $1 silver certificate, "short snorter," covered with signatures. On the back, along the bottom left, far left, and top left margins, it is inscribed, "Nov. 15, 1941- Short Snorter – ‘Bud' Caldwell." I like this one because it has a contemporary reference to "short snorter." It is not clear if all the signatures on it hail from that date; my conjecture is that Bud started the signatures then, and others followed over time.

To read the complete article, see:
Humphrey Bogart's "Short Snorter" Bank Note Signatures (https://www.numismaticnews.net/collecting-101/humphrey-bogarts-short-snorter-bank-note-signatures)

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