Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
Bikini Atoll - Short Snorter
| Issuer | Joint Task Force One |
|---|---|
| Year | 1946 |
| Type | Vouchers |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | Green letterpress design with large interlocking block letters spelling BIKINI overlaid with KWAJALEIN at centre; circular left vignette contains a four-engine bomber in flight, circular right vignette shows the silhouette of Bikini Atoll. Small pig-mascot medallions appear at lower corners, with 509th Wing insignia at upper corners and scrollwork borders throughout. |
| Reverse lettering | TASK GROUP ONE.FIVE BIKINI KWAJALEIN SHORT SNORTER |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
Short snorters from Operation Crossroads — the July 1946 atomic bomb tests at Bikini Atoll — are among the most historically loaded pieces of ephemera to survive the postwar period. Joint Task Force One assembled roughly 42,000 military and civilian personnel for the two detonations, Baker and Able, and the signing tradition that produced these notes ran through the entire complement: scientists, sailors, journalists, and observers from sixteen nations. A short snorter found its way into virtually every pocket on that fleet.
The notes used varied — whatever currency was at hand — so the issuing "authority" here is really the collective event itself rather than any printing institution. Provenance and the names on the signatures matter far more than the underlying note.