Yalta Leaders An incredible collection of nine signed pieces of currency, or "short snorters", five of which directly relating to the historic Yalta Conference, with one of the notes bearing the signatures of seven of the most prominent national representatives at that conference. On February 4-11, 1945, Franklin D. Roosevelt Winston S. Churchill, Joseph Stalin and their respective staffs met at Yalta in the Crimea to discuss the imminent destruction of the German armies in Europe, the prosecution of the war against Japan, the type of governments foreseen for post-war Europe, and planning for the founding of the United Nations. The conference was of course also attended by Edward R. Stettinius 1900-1949, Roosevelt's Secretary of State and a spokesman at the meeting who collected these signed bills at that time. The most outstanding item in the set is a one-chervonetz Russian bank note bearing an oval image of Lenin on the right side. On the left margin of the bill Stettinius noted "Short Snorter - Yalta Feb. 4, 1945", the first day of the meeting. Across the face are the signatures of some of the most important members of this conference, including Franklin D. Roosevelt (slightly blurred and faded), W[inston] Churchill, British Prime Minister, Anthony Eden, British Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, George C. Marshall, U.S. Army Chief of Staff, V[yacheslav] Molotov, President of the Soviet Union and Stalin's spokesman at the conference, Edward Stettinius Jr., and [Lord] Halifax, Edward F. L. Wood, British Ambassador to the U.S.. The note has one light vertical fold, otherwise in fine condition. Four other bills are related to the Yalta Conference. In chronological order they include a E1.0 silver certificate [Jan. 25, 1945], signed on the verso by Edward Stettinius and pilot J. M. Kelly who flew the American delegation to the conference; a ten franc French note signed by Alger Hiss, an adviser to Roosevelt at Yalta, W. F. Richmond, Hiss' pilot for the trip, and N. S. Portenoy, W. F. Finney, Jr., K. J. Stevens, Edward Stettinius, H. Freeman Matthews, Lee B. Blaisihord, Francis[?] Mcelson and Lee M. Good; a fifty lire Italian occupation note, Jan. 31,1945, signed on verso by Ira Eaker, Army Air Force general and Chief of Air Staff, Harry L. Hopkins, Roosevelts envoy to Great Britain and the U. S. S.R., Joseph T. McNarney, Commander of U. S. Forces in the Mediterranean, and 0 Nelson; a Malta two shillings six pence note, Feb. 1, 1945 signed on the face by Commander Steele and Captain Edwards of H.M.S. Sirius at Malta, and on the verso by Anthony Eden, Averell Harriman, American Ambassador to the U. S.S.R., and Alexander Cadogan. The other four notes follow Stettinius in his diplomatic travel to establish the United Nations. They include a Bank of Occidental Africa five franc note, Feb. 16, 1945, signed by G. C. Fraser, the local governor, and an unidentified person, a fifty piaster Egyptian note printed in 1942 signed by C[harles] N. Nixon, Governor of the National Bank of Egypt; and two Mexican five peso notes, one date Mar. 9, 1945 and signed on verso by Nelson A. Rockefeller, E. Padilla, Green H. Hackworth, Tom Connelly and Warren R Austin, the second note, Feb. 24, 1945, signed on verso by Buck Covel Upon his death in 1949, Stettinius willed the notes to Dr. Terrence L Tyson, a major in the Medical Corps who traveled with Stettinius to Yalta, and were thereafter sold by Charles Hamilton galleries in 1977 A historic collection of signed banknotes detailing the career of a great American statesman! Nine pieces.