LARA SUPERBANQUITO CURRENCY
(MEXICO, 1968)

The front, inside cover and back of the album.

IN 1968-70, Mexican residents were able to collect a set of "Superbank" (Superbanquito) money notes issued with cookies made by the Lara company, which they could stick in an album or keep in a wallet made specifically for the currency. They featured characters from the Legion, the Justice League and the Superman Family. Images used were copied from various issues of the time (mostly ACTION COMICS, ADVENTURE, SUPERBOY, JIMMY OLSEN, LOIS LANE and JUSTICE LEAGUE).
   In total, there were 96 different bills (33 of which were Legion-related), with collectors also invited to purchase the "super wallet to keep the super bills". Each hero or villain was assigned the monetary value of a Krypto, making this, indeed, the earliest form of Krypto-currency! It's also obvious that the compilers had little knowledge of the characters (except for the Superman family members, who each had the maximum 10,000 Kryptos each). Legionnaires like Chameleon Boy and Lightning Lad get the minimum 1 Krypto valuation, while enemies like Nemesis Kid and Regulus are worth 500 Kryptos. Outside of the Legion, a number of obscure individuals adorned notes between 5 to 1000 Kryptos (see if you can recognize them).
   Were these officially licensed from DC? It's Mexico, home of the bootlegs, so who knows for sure. The notes do come with a copyright notice (stating National Periodicals Publications or using © N.P.P.I.), but many of the illustrations are actually mirrored versions of the images as they appeared in the comics, implying some attempt at infringement avoidance.
   *NB: the bills were printed on extremely flimsy, light, easily torn and transparent material akin to onion skin paper, during an era when such collectibles were probably not valued, and discarded once damaged. Finding complete notes today in any sort of condition is therefore almost impossible.

Pictured below are close-ups of some of the Legion-related notes.

Pictured below are some of the blank pages in the album with allocated spaces for various notes to be pasted. There is short explanatory text for each character.

Pictured below are all 32 pages with the notes.