Counterfeit money appeared almost immediately after real money. The history of money knows a lot of bright fakes, real masterpieces created by single masters and well-organized groups. However, the most close to the original counterfeits have always been issued by states.

Also counterfeiting has been a long-standing method of warfare.

During the Seven Years' War (1756-1763), Prussian King Frederick the Second was noted for his large-scale production of counterfeit money of hostile states. At the mints of Prussia itself and in other principalities more than 200 million counterfeit Reichthalers were produced. The most popular was the medium Augustodor (gold coin), which was minted in 1755-1756. Its weight during the war was reduced from 6 to 4.2 g. Merchants, focusing on the pre-war date, took them without hesitation. It was a relatively easy way to solve financial difficulties and finance the war.

Other German states followed Prussia's example. As a result, the uncontrolled issuance of money and the massive deterioration of coinage led to the collapse of the financial system in Northern Europe. But Prussia withstood the burden of war and ruined its neighbors, shifting some of the war costs to them.

During World War II, the activities of Nazi Germany's counterfeiters gained great momentum.

Before the invasion of the USSR, it was decided to print Soviet rubles in the Reich to provide the troops with means of payment. The Germans could not create a high quality "watermark" with Lenin's image. In addition, the card system was in effect, and the counterfeit rubles were mostly dead weight. The monetary reform of 1947 killed the counterfeits.

The Nazis also made counterfeits in occupied countries and even counterfeited Allied money.

The main target of the Germans was the British pound. The British pound sterling was the world's currency at the time. Therefore, the Germans made great efforts to manufacture counterfeit British pounds. The operation was secret, so the world public learned about it in 1955, when the memoirs of one of the SS leaders Wilhelm Höttl were published.

The idea to destroy the reputation of the British pound and cause the financial collapse of Great Britain was born in 1939 in the department of the head of the General Directorate of Imperial Security R. Heydrich. The money was proposed to be dropped on enemy territory from the air. Having received Hitler's consent, Heydrich created a special group. The operation was called "Andreas." The project was headed by SS Sturmbannführer Alfred Naujoks and cryptographer Albert Langer. The Germans decided to create a perfect copy of the original and focused on the most common 5 pound bill.

However, it was not possible to create a counterfeit quality analog of the banknote. In addition, at that time Berlin still hoped to reach an agreement with London. Starting the war with the Russians, the Nazis wanted to achieve peace with Britain. Therefore, they did not start a "financial war" with Britain.

The project was covered up, but in the summer of 1942, SS chief Himmler resumed the operation. The SS Reichsführer planned to use the money to finance his department by selling forgeries in neutral countries and obtaining funds to purchase weapons and strategic materials.

The project was headed by Sturmbannführer Bernhard Krueger. The Sachsenhausen concentration camp became the base for German counterfeiters. Worked on the project prisoners counterfeiters, experts in engraving, printing and banking. Up to 150 specialists worked in the concentration camp. Forgeries were of high quality, and only specialists could distinguish fakes from the original. Banknotes in denominations of 5, 10, 20, 50, 100 and even 500 and 1000 pounds sterling were obtained. But out of caution, the higher denomination bills were not used. The total number of banknotes created during Operation Bernhard is variously estimated to be between 132 million and 300 million pounds.

Counterfeit money was taken abroad, where agents exchanged it for Swiss francs and American dollars, gold, jewelry, bought strategic raw materials, weapons and food. Pounds were also used to buy information, to finance agents and to pay traitors. Large quantities of pounds found their way to Italy, where the population eagerly bought "safe" pounds in anticipation of the collapse of Mussolini's regime.

After the war, the Bank of England did not search for and seize the counterfeits, and they went along with the real money. There are a lot of dark places in this story, obviously connected with British interests, representatives of big capital and former figures of the Third Reich, who successfully "repainted" as civilians, but retained ties with post-war neo-Nazi organizations.