World paper a draw in PCDA sale

Lyn Knight’s fall PCDA sale occupied Nov. 17 to 22. World paper was offered on the first and last days. Results proved sufficiently pleasing to leave Joel Shafer smiling broadly throughout Thanksgiving.

Top-selling lot came early in the World Live sale—a set of eight 1965 Bahamas notes: one half, one, three, five, 10, 20, 50, 100 dollars (P-17a, -18a, -19a, -20a, -22a, -23a, -24a, -25a). WBG grades ranged from “UNC 60 light staining” for the one half dollar to “Gem UNC 66 TOP.” Together the eight realized $26,437.50 on a $30,000-50,000 estimate.

Canada provided the second best seller, a Bank of Canada 1937 $50 sporting the seldom seen Osborne/Towers signatures (P-63a). This is a rare note with just 100,000 printed while just four have been recorded in uncirculated. The example on offer came graded PCGS Gem New 66 PPQ, which goes a long way to explaining its $19,975 price.

Also in the five-figure bracket was a scarce Palestinian £5 dated Sept. 1, 1927, P-8a. Despite a PCGS grade of VG 10 Apparent, it still managed a respectable $16,450.

A complete set of 1950 Italian Somaliland specimens attracted considerable interest: one somalo, five, 10, 20, 100 somali (P-11s, -12s, -13s, -14s, -15s). All were in top grade (Gem New PPQ). They included the error one somalo, P-11, where the face text has the error 1 SOMALI, the incorrect singular form. Together they sold for $14,100.

Also with an Italian flavor was a set of five specimens of the Chinese Italian Banking Corp. dated Sept. 15, 1921: one, five, 10, 50 and 100 yuan (P- S253, -S254, -S255, -S256, -S257). The 50 yuan is scarce and the 100 yuan rare in any form. As such, the set had no difficulty in crossing the $9,999 barrier to make $10,575.

Other top lots included some seldom seen occupation notes of the Dodecanese Islands and Norway plus a Chechen Republic of Ichkeria one naxar:

• Italy, Delle Isole Italiane…Dodecanese, 50 and 100 lire, P-M24, -25, EF: $9,987.50;
• Norway, 100 kroner, 1944, P-22r2, UNC: $7,931.25;
• Chechnya (Republic of Ichkeria), 1995, one naxar, NIP, WBG VF 25: $7,050.

Full details of the sale lots and prices realized can be found at new.lynknight.com/LK. A buyers’ premium of 17.5 percent has been added to the prices cited above, but is not included in the hammer prices given on the Knight website.

Knight’s next world paper sale will be in March 2017 at the 41st Annual International Paper Money Show in Kansas.

More Collecting Resources

• Order the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money, General Issues to learn about circulating paper money from 14th century China to the mid 20th century.

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