by ADAM RAWNSLEY
In 1967, organ experts cracked open an old organ at the church of San Valentino in Merano, Italy in an attempt to find markings which could date the instrument. Instead of a production label, the workers found £5 million in cash and the ghost of a Nazi covert operation.
Bankers would later determine that the cash was counterfeit—the product of a wartime Nazi effort to undermine the British economy.
Under the auspices of Operation Bernhard, Germany printed up millions in counterfeit British currency, using the proceeds to fund intelligence operations.
Though Bernhard ended with the war, anxious Allied officials and treasure-hunting amateurs would continue to seek out the remnants of its equipment, personnel and loot for decades afterward.
