Yesterday's Weapons Forums

A few items that I ran across today.








This doodad is called a "Short Snorter." Aviators of by-gone days would put these together out of currency that they'd acquired in countries they touched down in. They would have fellow aviators or friends sign the bills. Later, if someone who'd signed the Short Snorter asked the owner if he had it on him and it couldn't be produced, they had to buy the signer a drink, or a "snort." As I understand it. This one has currency from the US, Australia, several Philippine notes, Bank of Borneo, Dutch East Indies.

A lot of neat stuff.

Rad

Very cool, thanks for posting pics!

....Aaaaahhh...!!! ...so THATS it... ...my father in laws brother was attatched to the 426th Night Fighter Squadron flying P-61 Black Widows out of someplace in China I think....found some Chinese $$$ with some sigs on them in the stash of stuff no one wanted and had no idea about in the family"junk box" along with photos...I wonder if the story may fit that explanation...

Yes, that Chinese money with signatures on it is probably a short snorter. Often only one single bill constituted one. The "belts" of bills linked together were less often seen than single bills.

I've heard that some seamen were caught taking the monoply money from the games on board and passing them off on the natives as military script.

Dad told me of some guys he knew buying what they thought was a native coconut wine, but which turned out to be a nerve toxin the islanders used to stun fish and scoop them up in nets. They brewed this concoction in coconut shells. Several men almost died from it.

Apparently the used this toxin by dropping the weighted coconut shells into a still lagoon, the poison coming out the top as it sank. A few minutes later masses of stunned fish would float to the surface.

thats really nice to have that stuff , i put my fathers stuff like that into a shadow box and gave it to my nephew - it needs to be preserved and with the family