Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Set of Australian banknotes for auction

Set of privately owned complete set of original 1913 to 1914 Australian Collins/Allen Cancelled Specimen banknotes up for auction by The Rare Coin Company. The complete Aussie notes set includes eight banknotes of 10 shillings, STG1, STG5, STG10, STG20, STG50, STG100 and STG1000 denominations. The set expect to achieve a record-breaking price tag of $5.5 million. A new record for the most expensive Australian Banknotes.

10 shillings
10 shillings, ND (1913), red serial number M 010056

Australia £1
£1, ND (1913), red serial number P 008055

£5 dollar
£5, ND (1913), black serial number U 067927

£10 note
£10, ND (1913), black serial number W002238

Aussie £20
£20, ND (1914), black serial number X 000018

£50 banknote
£50, ND (1914), black serial number Y 005495

£100 banknote
£100, ND (1914), dark blue serial number Z 006944

Australia £1000
£1000, ND (1914), dark blue & black serial number 2A 048022

The specimen notes, named after the two Treasury secretaries who signed them, were printed in very limited numbers as examples of a new banknote series. Instead of being used as currency, they were cancelled and usually reserved for archiving or given to dignitaries.

On October 2009, Superb Set of The 1913–1914 Commonwealth of Australia Banknotes sold by Spinks for £350,000. The set of 6 notes were found in a chest of drawers in the North Yorkshire home of an elderly man when his home was being cleard out for an estate sale.

In 2012, The Rare Coin Company, which is selling the set found the missing STG10 and STG1000 notes.

‘‘When they were first printed they weren’t all together, they went out individual,’’ The Rare Coin Company’s managing director Rob Jackman said.

‘‘What’s happened now is that they’ve actually come together for the first time ever and makes it the complete set.

‘‘It’s the only set in private hands in the world.’’

Mr Jackman said its rarity makes it difficult to value, but he is confident it will attract offers of around $5.5 million - a far cry from its STG1186.10 face-value.

‘‘It will definitely be a world record and the most expensive set of Australian banknotes,’’ he said.

Most of the interest has come from international private buyers, particularly from Asia, he added.

The notes will be sold by private treaty ahead of this year’s 100th anniversary of the Commonwealth of Australia’s first banknotes.

Source: The Rare Coin Company, The age,