Operation Bernhard, WWII. Bank Of England. Nazi Forgery Pair Of Consecutive Ten Pounds £10 Banknotes, London March 19th 1938. KO Peppiatt. Serial: L/102 18558 And L/102 18559. Rare.
 
“Operation Bernhard was an exercise by Nazi Germany to forge British bank notes. The initial plan was to drop the notes over Britain to bring about a collapse of the British economy during the Second World War. The first phase was run from early 1940 by the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) under the title Unternehmen Andreas (Operation Andreas). The unit successfully duplicated the rag paper used by the British, produced near-identical engraving blocks and deduced the algorithm used to create the alpha-numeric serial code on each note. The unit closed in early 1942.”
 
In nice overall condition, some light edge nicks, discolouration and crease / fold marks. A rare pair.