AUSTRALIAN WWII SHORT SNORTERS

 
Australian War Memorial Curator Andy Muir

Andy Muir's eyes widen as he pulls a 4-metre roll of banknotes out of a collection.

Each creased and scribbled turn reveals notes from a new corner of the world — Africa, the Caribbean, Europe, North America, the Pacific and Australia.

The black, hand-drawn signatures on the notes are part of a military tradition of collecting "short snorters".

It was popular during World War II when service members would get comrades, allies and people they met to sign their bank notes as a show of camaraderie.

"There's a lot of downtime in the military, and we see these kinds of little traditions popping up in different ways to allow people to stay in touch," Mr Muir said.

Even 80 years after the currency was graffitied, each scrawl remains a symbol of mateship.

The practice disappeared in the 50s, but a similar tradition of exchanging challenge coins continues.

 

For historians, each short snorter is a rich list of characters, names, and research leads.

"There's not that many around, but when they do pop up, they're pretty exciting," Mr Muir said.

Surviving examples are rare and are often single banknotes.

So Australian War Memorial curators in Canberra were surprised when the 4-metre-long "short snorter" was donated in 2025.

It belonged to RAAF Flight Lieutenant William Gordon, who was a wireless operator and air gunner during World War II.

"When I first was assessing, it was kind of like, 'What is this thing?'" Mr Muir said.

Don adds:

To read the complete article, see:
Australian War Memorial curator amazed to find 4 metres of WWII 'short snorter' banknotes (https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-21/australian-war-memorial-curator-finds-4-metre-wwii-short-snorter/106576724)

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