\n\nThe World War II Japanese invasion of Hawaii and the Hawaii overprint note.
\nAfter the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 7th, 1941, it was feared that the next move of the Japanese was to invade Hawaii.\u00a0 One concern of a possible Japanese invasion was the possibility that the Japanese could get there hands on millions of dollar of American currency and use it to fund their war effort.\u00a0 Across the Hawaiian Islands, millions of dollars worth of hard currency was held by banks, financial institutions, businesses, and private citizens.
\nTo solve this problem, the US Federal Reserve created an emergency \u201cHawaii\u201d note to replace all currency on the islands.\u00a0 The Hawaii notes were only legal tender in Hawaii and were declared worthless anywhere else.\u00a0 To distinguish between real US dollars and Hawaii notes, the new notes featured a brown Federal Reserve seal and the word \u201cHawaii\u201d was printed in large capital letters across the back of the bill, with the addition of two small overprints on the front.\u00a0 Specially issued by the San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank, they came in denominations of $1, $5, $10, and $20.\u00a0\u00a0
\nOn July 15th, 1942 citizens of Hawaii were ordered to turn in all their cash in exchange for the Hawaii notes. In total, around $200 million of cash was collected and burned.\u00a0 In 1944, when it was clear that no invasion of Hawaii would occur, issuance of Hawaii notes was discontinued and normal cash was once again issued to Hawaii.\u00a0 Recall of Hawaii notes began in 1946, although many bills were saved as\u00a0curios and souvenirs.\u00a0 Today surviving examples are popular collectors items.
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