Indholdsfortegnelse for September 2019 i Banknote Reporter

Noble Numismatic’s late July - early August sale in Sydney featured an Australian super-rarity: a first issue £100. Several Commonwealth of Australia £100 notes from the 1914-45 series (P-9; R68) have been sold in recent years. The majority of these, as in Heritage’s sale of the Dauer Collection in 2018 and Noble’s sale of the Caldwell Collection the same year, are examples of the Charles Cerutty/ James Collins (second) signature combination (P-9b; R-69). These were issued in March 1921. It is £100 notes of the first signature combination of James Collins/George Allen (P-9a; R-68) that are missing from most collections. Further, there are two varieties of this signature combination that are not distinguished in the SCWPM listing. One has small blue serifed serial numbers (R-68a; McD-94). The other has medium-sized…

On Sept. 12 Dix Noonan Webb is conducting a further sale of British & Irish banknotes at their London auction rooms in Bolton Street. A week before consignment cut-off on August 1 a superb Bank of England £1,000 walked in the door. As might be expected it created something of a stir among Team Banknotes at DNW banknote. Dated 20 November 1936, signed by Kenneth O. Peppiatt as Chief Cashier, and drawn on London it is from one of the last issued £1,000 notes, which were withdrawn during WWII (P-341; EPM-B247). These notes are rare in any condition. That on offer grades EF to aUNC. It comes with a central fold and a pair of staple holes at left and will go to the block with an estimate of £24,000-£30,000…

Siderographer John C. Rout accidentally rolled in an ornate E instead of F for the left plate letter on the F subject while laying-in 8-subject $1 Series of 1899 Speelman-White plate 90541/2511. The plate was certified Oct. 17, 1923 without anyone noticing. It was sent to press the next day and used until Oct. 29th. Someone spotted the problem so the plate was repaired Oct. 30th and recertified Oct. 31st. It was sent to press a second time from Nov. 1, 1923 to Jan. 21, 1924, whereupon it wore out and was canceled Jan. 22, 1924. Previously I had reported on the same error on 4-subject $1 1899 Vernon-Treat plate 30692/5500 where a C had been rolled into the D position (BNR, Dec 2017). The big difference between these two…

This month’s article, as has been typical with many others, was engendered by a recent acquisition to my national bank note collection. I recently acquired some nice New Mexico notes, a state from which I previously had next to nothing. Accordingly, this gave me the impetus to investigate the towns and banks. For this month, we will be visiting quaint Bel-en, New Mexico. So let’s go. Belen, New Mexico is located in Valencia County, approximately 35 miles due south of Albuquerque. Belen is Spanish for Bethlehem but gained the nickname “The Hub City”. The city is geographically near the center of New Mexico and has been a significant transportation hub for central New Mexico that includes access to rail, the interstate highway and air at Valencia County’s only public airport.…

Numismatic catalogs covering a multitude of subject areas are being published in record numbers- at least, it appears that way to me. I receive and also read about notices when some of these works come out or are scheduled to appear. One such work that has already gone into its second edition is the Catalog of Circular Notes and Circular Letters of Credit. The author, Dr. Ilkka Makitie, lives in Helsinki, Finland; his book is written for the English-speaking market as all text and descriptions is entirely in that language. This unique compilation of data on a totally neglected numismatic field represents many years of author research, as examples of such instruments are few and far between. Specifically, Circular Notes and Letters of Credit are the forerunners of the easier…

Shown is a great pair of $2 Original Series counterfeits respectively on The National Union Banks of Kinderhook, NY, and Linderpark, NY. The first is charter 929, the second a fabricated town name. Both are listed in vintage counterfeit detectors, and both are from the same plate. When the Kinderhook version hit the counterfeit detectors, the counterfeiter simply changed the town name by altering four letters and then continued to spread his joy for as long it would work. He did a poor job altering the script location, but who would notice? Notice also that he didn’t bother to change the serial numbers, which are A445806 blue/1925. If you enjoy numismatic irony, you will find that the Kinderhook variety is reported three times in the National Currency Foundation census where…

Spink’s Master Hunter-Gatherer, the incomparable Barnaby Faull, has done it yet again. Fourteen East African rarities from the collection of Alan Pickering are slated to take center stage at Spink’s October world paper money sale. To obtain any early rupee or florin issue of this British Protectorate is extremely trying. Lower denominations are occasionally seen but high values are excessively rare in issued format with those from the reign of George V, a once in a lifetime event. Pickering’s collection has been assembled over several decades. The notes on offer range from 5 rupees through 10,000 shillings. They date from 1912 to 1951 and comprise examples of P-2, -2, -2A, -3, -4, -5, -6, -11, -12, -17, -18, -19, -23, -32a. All are in issued format. There are no specimens.…

For the past several years I have been compiling a list of the exact bank titles that appeared on all the national bank notes in the country. One especially odd title that came to my attention was “Farmers and Mechanics National Bank of Phoenixville, Pennsylvania,” used on the later Series of 1929 notes for charter 1936. This title makes no grammatical sense. Instead, it has the look of a typesetting error where a superfluous hyphen was accidentally inserted into the bank name. But this take was dead wrong like most conjectures made in numismatics. Upon checking, I found that the title, complete with the odd hyphen, was formally applied for by the bankers and approved for use by the Comptroller of the Currency on March 24, 1932. Previously the title…

At the recently held IPMS in Kansas City in June, I came across an altered note that was completely new to me. It is a Danish 50 Kroner of 1942 with its date now reading 1946. The original 2 in the date has been changed and the new 6 looks quite convincing. The only problem is that no 1946-dated 50 Kroner notes were ever printed! Therefore, any and all such notes with the spurious date of 1946 are immediately known as altered pieces. They are quite rare I am told; this example is punch cancelled with three holes across center.…