Herbert Illuminations

Tuesdays |16 July

12.30pm – 1.30pm | Drop in | £3

16 July

Operation Bernhard was the code name of a secret Nazi plan devised during the Second World War by the RSHA and the SS to destabilise the British economy by flooding the country with forged Bank of England £5, £10, £20, and £50 notes. It was the largest counterfeiting operation in history. 

Steve Dimmer takes you through the setting up of the operation, the problems the German forgers overcame, and examines the consequences such a tactic would have had upon Wartime Britain.  He also explores what the forged money was actually used for and some of the theories of what happened to the £134 million of counterfeit notes. 

There will also be the opportunity to handle one of the few actual forged £5 notes that came from the scheme and has ended up in Steve’s possession.