This blog post is very special, I liked it when I first saw this banknote more than a decade ago, because it is fresh and elegant, with a very beautiful texture of the times. This note is a dh 50 note issued by Morocco in the 1960s, which is also the highest denomination, as can be seen from the beautiful colors, this is a French style banknote, printed by France. When I collected this banknote, the French style banknotes did not have any knowledge in China, and I think I was also the first domestic collector to really collect this banknote (of course, it is not excluded that many diplomats and other big men also collected it a long time ago, but I am shallow and ignorant). At that time, this note was really expensive, and I loved it after I got it, put it in a drawer, took it out and played with it from time to time, and out of hobby and habit, I was also curious about where the king looked with great spirits. As you can see, on the left side of the front of the banknote, is a beautiful small town, I was instantly attracted to this place, at that time the information was extremely scarce, I also went through various websites, and locked this pattern in the Udaya Fort in Rabat, the capital of Morocco. So the story of this article begins.
At that time, the information about Udaya Fort was extremely scarce, I looked through various websites, and found that the houses in this castle were painted blue and white, and the Internet also called it blue and white town, which made me feel excited, so the blue and white Udaya Fort became a poem and a distant place that I could not forget, it was really a romantic place. It was 2011, and I wanted to do my best to travel to Udayaburg, but unfortunately Morocco at that time was really a distant and unreachable country for ordinary people like me, and I have to say that China's development in recent years, especially the development of vision, has been fast. But at that time, not only was the travel information extremely scarce, but even visas were difficult to apply for. So my visa application was rejected, and Morocco was drawn out of my travel list. Until a few years later, a news item was that Morocco's King Mohammed VI visited China and announced that Morocco would be visa-free for Chinese tourists - I was so excited to hear this news that I almost booked my tickets at the first time, and even went to Morocco without even reading the raiders, and I was particularly lucky, the first stop was the Moroccan capital Rabat. As soon as I got off the plane, I didn't feel any tiredness, and the whole person was in a state of extreme excitement, and the first stop was the place I had been looking forward to for several years: Udaya Fort.
Rabat is the capital of Morocco, but as a capital, its fame and historical status are simply too low. Its history is very short compared to other Moroccan ancient cities. But I liked Rabat, a small, clean town, and Udaya Fort, located on the Atlantic side north of the city, was first built in the 17th century as a military fortress, and the buildings inside were mostly built by Arabs who fled from Spain. Of course, in addition to the tall walls, there is a very beautiful Andalusian-style garden inside, and the winding streets, as well as the houses painted blue and white, full of exoticism. Of course, the ancient city of Rabat, including Udaya Fort, is listed as a World Heritage Site by the United Nations. Walking around Udaya Fort, remembering the banknote collected in that year, there is an inexplicable sense of accomplishment, and the distant distance is at my feet, happy.
Inside fort Udajá, there is a beautiful Andalusian garden, which was once the residence of the lords of Castel Udajá, built in a style that clearly references the Alhambra in Spain and is also a popular place for locals to walk and meet. So the protagonist of this article appeared - notice that the cat with hidden color, very lazy in the sun rolling on the stone steps, rubbing, it is really cute :) As a veteran cat lover, I am also a cute kitten all over the world, and I have also taken pictures of various kittens, each cat has its own unique personality, such as some who like to hold their thighs, and some who look like Papa. Of course, although I have countless cats, the most favorite is still this cat in Udaya fort, which is naturally the one I am most impressed and remembered :)
Taking a photo with this cat and cat, it changed its lazy posture and revealed a particularly cute cat expression :) Seeing this photo made me very happy, existing in various places, taking it out from time to time to see, and using this cat as the head of many of my platforms for many years. Because of this, I have a lot of feelings for Udaya Fort, although strictly speaking, the quality of the place itself is not very high, but it makes me feel very happy.
But the story isn't over yet!
For many years since I came back from Morocco, I have been obsessed with the kitten in Udayaburg, and from time to time I took it out to take a look, and suddenly one day, my deep house saw spring blossoms, the sun was shining, and I wanted to go out for a walk, so I casually saw a pet shop with a kitten in it, I was attracted at a glance, and without hesitation, I took it home! Because, I found out, is the kitten in Udaya Fort reincarnated to come to me? This is really an invincible fate!
The protagonist is done, let's talk about my fate with this note. The obverse of the banknote is that of King Hassan II of Morocco (reigned 1961-1999), the father of the current King of Morocco, Mohammed VI, who was first printed on Moroccan banknotes after the death of his father, Mohammed V, and his portrait was printed from 1965 until 2002. As a long-serving king beloved by the Moroccan people, Hassan II also built several spectacular buildings in Morocco, which have also become famous tourist attractions in Morocco and, of course, the motifs on Moroccan banknotes.
The year 1960 was an interesting watershed. For more than a decade or so, it was the highest level of paper money in France and the countries that printed it, of course, the highest level I am talking about here is not technical, because paper money as an anti-counterfeiting technology product, technology is definitely more and more advanced. The highest level I am referring to here refers to a period of the highest level of integration in design, traditional craftsmanship and many other aspects, and the French style banknotes of this period are really exquisite, almost all of which are my favorite banknotes. Moroccan Dirham 50 is also a work of this period, you can see that the front of the banknote is printed in the form of shadow engraving overprint, Hassan II's hair is very delicately carved, and covered with excessive color of brown and black, it looks very real and natural. Similarly, the king's face was overprinted with multiple colors, full of chiaroscuro and shade contrasts and the true color of the skin. It can be said that this banknote also represents the peak of the shadow engraving and overprinting banknote.
The Mausoleum of Mohammed V in Rabat, the capital of Morocco, is an excellent building during the reign of Hassan II, and is home to the remains of Mohammed V, the first king of modern Morocco after it was freed from French control, who died in 1961 and was completed in 1973. As an imperial mausoleum, it employs moroccan craftsmen of the highest calibre, using the finest tiles and hand carvings in Morocco, combined with this architectural wonder, which is the perfect masterpiece of traditional Moroccan architecture and hand carving, and the entire mausoleum brings me a solemn atmosphere. The motif of the royal tomb also appears on the Moroccan 1991 edition of AED 200 and the 2002 edition of Dirham 100. After the death of Hassan II in 1999, he married his younger brother Moulay. Prince Abdora was also buried here.
Another wish of Hassan II during his reign was to build a majestic mosque at the westernmost tip of the Islamic world, according to the Quran: God's area should be above the great water. So the mosque was chosen on the waters of the Atlantic Ocean, reclaimed to create a huge flat land, and built the mosque on top, which from a distance looks as if it were on the water. Located in Casablanca, morocco's economic center, the Mosque is called the Hassan II Mosque, which began construction in 1986 and was completed in 1993, and since then, the mosque has been a landmark in Casablanca and Morocco, one of the largest and most ornate mosques in the world, and has the tallest minaret in the world. The mosque is huge and magnificent, making it one of the most beautiful buildings of the 20th century. As such an important building, the Hassan II Mosque is naturally also printed on Moroccan banknotes, such as dirhams of 20 in 1996, Dirham 200 in 2002, Dirham 200 in 2012 (part of the mosque), and dirhams 20 on the back in 2012.
Of course, since the Hassan II Mosque is not the protagonist of this article, many interesting details will not be mentioned in this article, I have finished the article on the Paper Money of Casablanca in Morocco, and will talk more about the Hassan II Mosque.
The reverse side of this note shows a mining chart. After the Second World War, the whole world experienced a stage of large-scale mining and construction, and many industrial and agricultural production maps also became the pattern of paper money in many countries, including the mainland, as well as the countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America. However, this kind of theme was gradually no longer used by the state after the end of the Cold War, and it was full of historical value in a specific period.
This article is also a memorial to the cat in Rabat Udayabas and this French style banknote from my entry, many of which can evoke my memories and tell an interesting story, which is enough for me.