← Back to articles · Hobby & visiting shops ·
Allied Military Currency: occupation notes, not MPCs
AMC paid Allied troops and occupied civilians in WWII in lire, francs, marks, yen, and schillings. It is not a Hawaii overprint and it is not an MPC. Most circulated notes are common collector paper.
Allied Military Currency (AMC) is occupation money from World War II. The Allies printed it in the units of the places they were about to hold: lire for Italy, francs for France, marks for Germany, yen for Japan, schillings for Austria.
It says Allied Military on the note. It does not say Federal Reserve. It is not a US dollar with extra ink. Hawaii overprints and yellow seals are still dollars. Military payment certificates start in 1946, after this system. People mix the three in one cigar box. Make three piles.
Why it existed
A regular greenback in a wrecked country becomes a black-market hard currency. AMC let the military pay troops and buy local goods in a note they could later withdraw. When the regular national money stood up again, AMC was retired.
The Bureau of Engraving and Printing and allied printers ran huge quantities. Lire and francs were printed in the hundreds of millions of pieces. That is why a worn 10-mark or 100-lire note is usually a few dollars, not a second paycheck.
How to tell it from the cousins
- AMC — “Allied Military,” foreign unit (mark, lira, yen, franc, schilling)
- Hawaii / yellow seal — still a US dollar, brown HAWAII or a yellow seal
- MPC — “Military Payment Certificate,” series 461–692, 1946–1973
- Japanese invasion money — “The Japanese Government,” pesos, bananas, Oceania pounds. That page
What a shop pays
Common circulated AMC is collector paper. Replacements, specimens, and high-grade early printings are the jumps. A brick of mixed marks and lire from a footlocker is a bulk paper bid plus anything nicer we pull. Why apps lie.
Do not iron them. Do not tape them. What a banknote is.
Continue in the coin and money library. Related visitor guides: for shop visitors.
People also ask
Can I spend AMC? No. The occupation is over.
Is a 100-mark AMC note a hundred dollars? No. It is a 100-mark occupation note, usually common.
Did the Allies print these in the US? Many yes, at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and contracted printers. Huge print runs.