Heritage Long Beach Slates NEI Rarities

The world paper money girls and boys at Heritage Auctions have been a tad busy over the last couple of months what with a major Hong Kong sale and the distractions of ANA. Nonetheless the catalog for their upcoming Long Beach auction has been slowly taking shape online.

For some weeks now the top item listed on the first webpage for that sale must have caught a few readers’ eyes. It is not every day that an auction lot reads: “Netherlands East Indies, French Influence 100; 200; 300; 400; 500 Rijksdaalders 1810 Pick S171; S172; S173; S174; S175; S176 Complete Denomination Set”.

Before any reader grabs their copy of SCWPM to check the listing out, none of the denominations are priced in any grade in Specialized Issues all of which are described as “Rare”. Those on offer come in a highly collectable: PMG Very Fine 30 to Extremely Fine 40. As with all items posted in the Long Beach online catalog to date, no estimate had been given at the time of writing.

And just as copy was closing for the September issue of BNR Heritage’s Dustin Johnston announced they will be offering a Palestine Currency Board £50 dated 30 September 1929 (P-10b) with serial 006262. No further details were available but it looks highly collectable and the bidding for this should prove as fascinating as the NEI lot.

This sale will also feature Yuri Solovey’s collections of North Africa (i.e. the Maghreb Countries & Egypt) as well as the third and final tranche of Canadian Charter Bank notes from the Harry M. Eisenhauer collection. When I last looked cataloging of both was still very much a work in progress. But already a number of very scarce to rare Canadian items had been listed online. All were in eminently desirable condition. If they were in Eisenhauer’s collection they had to be!

Typical of those on offer is an issued Bank of New Brunswick $5 drawn on St. John and dated 2 January 1904 (Ch.# 515-18-04). It was surely put aside after only light circulation as it comes in a remarkable PMG Extremely Fine 40 with crisp paper. It is the first example of this rarity Heritage has handled.

Still awaiting detailed cataloging is an 1886 dollar from a second New Brunswick-based bank: St. Stephens Bank (Ch.# 675-20-04-06). It is being offered in a desirable PMG Choice Uncirculated 63.

Another first for Heritage is an extremely rare Bank of Nova Scotia 1 pound issued in Kingston, Jamaica, and dated 2 January 1900 (Ch.#550-380-202). 1900 is the first date of issue for BNS notes through its Kingston branch. Graded PMG Very Fine 20 the paper has retained some crispness and the manuscript signature is clear.

And while on the subject of Canada, those who have yet to acquire a banknote showing King Edward VIII in his previous incarnation as Prince of Wales, may like to check out the Long Beach catalog. There are a couple of choice examples on offer of the Dominion of Canada $2 of 23 June 1923 (DC-26; P-34). Both are different varieties of this issue.

The top grade of PMG Choice Uncirculated 64 EPQ has been awarded to a DC-26i or, if you prefer, P-34i. This is the variety with a blue seal and signatures of Campbell/Sellar. The serial prefix is S.

The second comes in PMG Choice Uncirculated 63 and has a black seal with Campbell/Sellar signatures (DC-26j; P-34j).

Full catalog details of the above lots and many more are available at www.ha.com.