"Serbia", Belgrade

Upon the Italian invasion in WWII, the Yugoslav Treasury was anxious to take to safety the whole stock of money in its possession. The men in charge took the Treasury away up to the Montenegro mountains, with the Italian army following closely on their heels. When they were finally surrounded by the Italians, they were forced to make a quick decision: They packed the whole stock in a grotto and lit it. But peasants of the neighborhood managed to save a huge amount of these notes and get away with it.
The Italian Military Administration after investigating the matter had a complete list of all serial numbers made of the notes burned in the grotto. Then they proclaimed all these serials null and void.
At the same time they ordered the local population to bring the remaining notes they had retained to the Italian Authorities for registration. Every note was twice stamped with a round stamp "VERIFICATO".