The paper is soft from age and the hue slightly dimmed, yet its edges are intact. Emblazoned within is a clear portrait, the name of a place and institution, and a serial number. These, collector Elias Baroudy says are all signs of historical banknotes in good condition. He should know, as his personal collection, he adds, built over a lifetime, is valued at more than a million dirhams.
The Lebanese national and Abu Dhabi resident views his collection as more than valuable objects stored in a purpose-built safe in protective sheets. Spanning over a thousand different notes acquired across decades, he sees them more as mementos – postcards from his travels and tokens of insight gleaned from decades of chasing rare currency across three continents. From Latin America and East Asia to the Gulf and North Africa, the notes in his albums capture the sweep of dozens of countries and eras.
“Like everything it starts as a hobby when you are discovering stuff,” Baroudy tells The National, carefully holding a note first given to him when he was 13 by a customer at his father's clothes shop in Beirut's Ashrafieh district.
Its faded turquoise ink has softened with age, but the print remains sharp, with the cedar tree at its centre framed by Arabic and French legends. It is a Lebanese five-centime note – a denomination so small it is rare to find in mint condition – and part of a series first issued in the 1940s. Printed by the Banque de Syrie et du Liban, these notes are now classed by collectors as early post-independence issues. The market value for such a note today is modest – between $10 and $75 in online marketplaces – but for Baroudy its significance runs deeper.
“This is really how I started being fascinated by history. Not through libraries or books or lectures – it was notes that encapsulated so many of the key elements about a country. Banknotes can tell you everything: geography, resources and minerals, leaders, ports, historical places. These are things written in thousands of books, but you can also get that insight just by looking at a note.”
A marketing consultant, Baroudy spent the following years building his own archive of world history. His collection speaks through banknotes of colonies and monarchies, of revolutionaries, and of nations proudly tied to their past. Also represented are those whose very act of printing their own cash is a declaration of an independent and vibrant future.
The hobby turned serious on a trip to Buenos Aires to see concert by Irish band U2 in 2006. He also had an errand for a friend: to meet an Argentine collector and pick up some notes. Baroudy remembers counters covered with binders and trays, the musty smell of old paper hanging in the air.
“There were banknotes everywhere,” he says. “To me, the shop showed that this can be a real thing to do – that you can have a collection that is so different and full of meaning, and you can even make money from it.”
Immediately, Baroudy began the kinds of calculations that came naturally to someone from a Beirut business family. “At the time I was in Abu Dhabi, I was with my wife and no kids. We couldn't just do a big investment or open a shop. So I thought, let's put a bit of money into old money – let's do banknotes,” he says.
His wife wasn’t exactly convinced by the pitch conceived on the fly. But the now father of two dove into this new world, where prices were tracked through specialist catalogues and deals were exchanged at conferences across Europe through persistence and guile.
His first serious buy came that day in the Buenos Aires shop: a note from Guatemala, printed at a time when private banks were still issuing their own currency at the turn of the 20th century. The $300 investment is now valued at about $1,000, says Baroudy.
Meanwhile, at home, catalogues arrived regularly by post. European and US online auctions became evening and dawn rituals. Soon, the growing pile of exotic notes spread across the dining table. “My wife was concerned about how deep I was getting into it so quickly,” he says with a chuckle. “I would tell her to relax – that yes, these notes may seem like paper but they are like gold. She already understood their value, though; she was scared the notes would bring in ants and cockroaches that would damage them.”
The concerns were quashed with the purchase of Ethiopian notes from 1915 from the Bank of Abyssinia (the country’s first central bank), found on a stall at a collectors' fair in the Dutch municipality of Valkenburg. Baroudy bought a bundle on a whim for $400.
“I remember being amazed by how it looked. It was so exotic and the fact it had not been released before shows how rare it is,” he says. “I just wanted it in my collection. Then, two years later, an auction house told me it could have a sale price starting at £21,000. That's when I thought it was time to get a safe.”
That windfall taught him there was a method to successful collecting. Baroudy followed the trajectory of a typical collector, beginning with Lebanese notes until he amassed copies of nearly all editions from the 1940s through the 2000s.
“It is practical to begin collecting your country's notes because it is less expensive,” he says. “Sometimes you might see the same note in the US and it's cheaper only because they don't know its value. That's when you become alert and just buy it without showing how excited you are. That's probably the best part of travelling to collect notes.”
After mastering his home turf, Baroudy says the next step was to acquire “keynotes”: odd denominations and short-lived issues. A prized possession is his collection of Mongolian notes, printed in Cyrillic script. “The monks printed these in 1924, but surrendered after a coup. Look at the date,” he says, pointing to the corner. “One year of circulation, then withdrawn. That's what makes it a keynote.”
Finding such notes requires going on the road to renowned fairs in Dutch cities such as Valkenburg and Maastricht, as well as German capital Berlin. Sometimes it evens means returning to where it all started. On a recent trip to Beirut, he met a dealer who was clearing out his wardrobe and found 12 Colombian notes tucked in a drawer. The family had emigrated decades earlier, leaving behind traces of their South American years.
Baroudy recalls suppressing his excitement, feigning disappointment as he paid $1,200. Upon his return to the UAE, he sold them for ten times that amount and partly reinvested the earnings in buying a rare Qatar–Dubai note from the 1960s.
“Collectors dream of finding it cheap,” he says. “To search and find, not to pay the market price, that's where the thrill lies.”
The excitement isn't only financial but emotional. His cousin in Lebanon who collects carpets once told him: “You're lucky. I can run with one carpet. You can run with your whole collection in a bag.”
Baroudy smiles at the memory, while pointing to a harsher reality that comes with being a Lebanese man who grew up during the civil war. “It's papers, not gold, not silver, and it's an easy way to take that value with you if you have to leave everything behind quickly,” he says. “That instinct to be ready is deep in the psyche of many Lebanese and Armenian families. In the back of our brain, there's always something that says: be ready, something and anything might happen.”
Electric scooters: some rules to remember
- Riders must be 14-years-old or over
- Wear a protective helmet
- Park the electric scooter in designated parking lots (if any)
- Do not leave electric scooter in locations that obstruct traffic or pedestrians
- Solo riders only, no passengers allowed
- Do not drive outside designated lanes
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French business
France has organised a delegation of leading businesses to travel to Syria. The group was led by French shipping giant CMA CGM, which struck a 30-year contract in May with the Syrian government to develop and run Latakia port. Also present were water and waste management company Suez, defence multinational Thales, and Ellipse Group, which is currently looking into rehabilitating Syrian hospitals.
GAC GS8 Specs
Engine: 2.0-litre 4cyl turbo
Power: 248hp at 5,200rpm
Torque: 400Nm at 1,750-4,000rpm
Transmission: 8-speed auto
Fuel consumption: 9.1L/100km
On sale: Now
Price: From Dh149,900
Ferrari 12Cilindri specs
Engine: naturally aspirated 6.5-liter V12
Power: 819hp
Torque: 678Nm at 7,250rpm
Price: From Dh1,700,000
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Another way to earn air miles
In addition to the Emirates and Etihad programmes, there is the Air Miles Middle East card, which offers members the ability to choose any airline, has no black-out dates and no restrictions on seat availability. Air Miles is linked up to HSBC credit cards and can also be earned through retail partners such as Spinneys, Sharaf DG and The Toy Store.
An Emirates Dubai-London round-trip ticket costs 180,000 miles on the Air Miles website. But customers earn these ‘miles’ at a much faster rate than airline miles. Adidas offers two air miles per Dh1 spent. Air Miles has partnerships with websites as well, so booking.com and agoda.com offer three miles per Dh1 spent.
“If you use your HSBC credit card when shopping at our partners, you are able to earn Air Miles twice which will mean you can get that flight reward faster and for less spend,” says Paul Lacey, the managing director for Europe, Middle East and India for Aimia, which owns and operates Air Miles Middle East.
Pharaoh's curse
British aristocrat Lord Carnarvon, who funded the expedition to find the Tutankhamun tomb, died in a Cairo hotel four months after the crypt was opened.
He had been in poor health for many years after a car crash, and a mosquito bite made worse by a shaving cut led to blood poisoning and pneumonia.
Reports at the time said Lord Carnarvon suffered from “pain as the inflammation affected the nasal passages and eyes”.
Decades later, scientists contended he had died of aspergillosis after inhaling spores of the fungus aspergillus in the tomb, which can lie dormant for months. The fact several others who entered were also found dead withiin a short time led to the myth of the curse.
Who was Alfred Nobel?
The Nobel Prize was created by wealthy Swedish chemist and entrepreneur Alfred Nobel.
- In his will he dictated that the bulk of his estate should be used to fund "prizes to those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind".
- Nobel is best known as the inventor of dynamite, but also wrote poetry and drama and could speak Russian, French, English and German by the age of 17. The five original prize categories reflect the interests closest to his heart.
- Nobel died in 1896 but it took until 1901, following a legal battle over his will, before the first prizes were awarded.
War 2
Director: Ayan Mukerji
Stars: Hrithik Roshan, NTR, Kiara Advani, Ashutosh Rana
Rating: 2/5
Groom and Two Brides
Director: Elie Samaan
Starring: Abdullah Boushehri, Laila Abdallah, Lulwa Almulla
Rating: 3/5
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Squid Game season two
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Tips for job-seekers
- Do not submit your application through the Easy Apply button on LinkedIn. Employers receive between 600 and 800 replies for each job advert on the platform. If you are the right fit for a job, connect to a relevant person in the company on LinkedIn and send them a direct message.
- Make sure you are an exact fit for the job advertised. If you are an HR manager with five years’ experience in retail and the job requires a similar candidate with five years’ experience in consumer, you should apply. But if you have no experience in HR, do not apply for the job.
David Mackenzie, founder of recruitment agency Mackenzie Jones Middle East
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The specs
Engine: 6.2-litre V8
Power: 502hp at 7,600rpm
Torque: 637Nm at 5,150rpm
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UAE - India ties
The UAE is India’s third-largest trade partner after the US and China
Annual bilateral trade between India and the UAE has crossed US$ 60 billion
The UAE is the fourth-largest exporter of crude oil for India
Indians comprise the largest community with 3.3 million residents in the UAE
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi first visited the UAE in August 2015
His visit on August 23-24 will be the third in four years
Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, visited India in February 2016
Sheikh Mohamed was the chief guest at India’s Republic Day celebrations in January 2017
Modi will visit Bahrain on August 24-25
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ELIO
Starring: Yonas Kibreab, Zoe Saldana, Brad Garrett
Directors: Madeline Sharafian, Domee Shi, Adrian Molina
Rating: 4/5
Director: Laxman Utekar
Cast: Vicky Kaushal, Akshaye Khanna, Diana Penty, Vineet Kumar Singh, Rashmika Mandanna
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The Africa Institute 101
Housed on the same site as the original Africa Hall, which first hosted an Arab-African Symposium in 1976, the newly renovated building will be home to a think tank and postgraduate studies hub (it will offer master’s and PhD programmes). The centre will focus on both the historical and contemporary links between Africa and the Gulf, and will serve as a meeting place for conferences, symposia, lectures, film screenings, plays, musical performances and more. In fact, today it is hosting a symposium – 5-plus-1: Rethinking Abstraction that will look at the six decades of Frank Bowling’s career, as well as those of his contemporaries that invested social, cultural and personal meaning into abstraction.
The Voice of Hind Rajab
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Russia's Muslim Heartlands
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UK's plans to cut net migration
Under the UK government’s proposals, migrants will have to spend 10 years in the UK before being able to apply for citizenship.
Skilled worker visas will require a university degree, and there will be tighter restrictions on recruitment for jobs with skills shortages.
But what are described as "high-contributing" individuals such as doctors and nurses could be fast-tracked through the system.
Language requirements will be increased for all immigration routes to ensure a higher level of English.
Rules will also be laid out for adult dependants, meaning they will have to demonstrate a basic understanding of the language.
The plans also call for stricter tests for colleges and universities offering places to foreign students and a reduction in the time graduates can remain in the UK after their studies from two years to 18 months.
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Skoda Superb Specs
Engine: 2-litre TSI petrol
Power: 190hp
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UAE squad
Humaira Tasneem (c), Chamani Senevirathne (vc), Subha Srinivasan, NIsha Ali, Udeni Kuruppuarachchi, Chaya Mughal, Roopa Nagraj, Esha Oza, Ishani Senevirathne, Heena Hotchandani, Keveesha Kumari, Judith Cleetus, Chavi Bhatt, Namita D’Souza.
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The National's picks
4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
9.30pm: Forever Young
