I'm trying to figure out the significance of this stash of foreign currency we found while cleaning out my grandparent's house. The currency is from various countries and seems to be from the right time period to be currency given to my pilot grandfather in case he could not return to base. Can anyone provide me information about the practice of giving airmen (US airmen in this case) foreign currency before missions? Can anyone comment on whether this particular collection of currency is consistent with the practice?
Edit: Forgot the link to the images! http://imgur.com/a/U3Ssx
I'll leave the airmen policy question to someone else, but this group of currency is unlikely to have been for this purpose. The German, Belgian, Mexican, and Russian notes are from well before the war and the German and Russian notes at least would no longer have been valid for use as the countries had changed their currencies. The British and French notes are from the right period and are probably remainders from his time there.
Aircrew were issued with escape packs containing things like food, matches, purifying tablets, 'wakey-wakey pills' (Benzedrine), compass, a hacksaw etc. Depending on where they were flying, there were also purses containing silk maps and currency for the relevant country.
There's a list of the various types of purse that were issued here:
And a couple of pictures, one of a pack of French currency:
http://www.ww2rafcollection.co.uk/RAF_Collection/Escape.html#10
And one with French, Spanish and Italian currency:
http://www.ww2rafcollection.co.uk/RAF_Collection/Escape.html#12
In the RAF (I believe it was similar for the USAAF), the purses were issued before each mission, sealed, and were handed in when crew returned; apart from the value of the money, the silk escape maps were desirable as gifts (from an account [here] (http://www.rafcommands.com/archive/03038.php)).
It's not inconceivable that the French currency may have come from an escape pack, or possibly just part of a more general collection.