Greetings, Friends. I've been studying coins through this site and reading my 2024 Red Book edition. When I was a wee youngster, I used to collect banknotes. This made me curious to know the Holy Grail of Desirable Banknotes. Is there a 'RedBook' reference book for banknotes? Could you please let us know your personal Holy Grail of Desirable Banknotes? Thanks! CoinMagic
I can't speak for the rest of the crew, but I've always found this Book to be a huge help. Also, this is my Holy Grail (I'm not that greedy):
As far as United States notes are concerned, I consider this the authority. This book is so large, it won’t fit on my scanner.
Probably wouldn't call them the Holy Grail but the educational 1$, 2$, and 5$ notes seem to be the prettiest notes ever made in my opinion. Not my note: A solid serial number would be a nice Grail note for me though. I have been so close in the past: I found all three of these in circulation.
I gotta answer this because I've always stated that my "holy grail" note was the Bank of Canada $25.00 commemorative banknote from 1935 (French or English) but my priorities have since changed. For one, I want a note that would be really easy to sell the next day (week or month) even though I know that's a bit of a tall order in todays collectors' market. (The $25 is a tough sell b/c so many are in poor shape but worth thousands). Now I'd rather have a GEM UNC 66 EPQ Devil's Face asterisk replacement ($5 or $10) but I'd also settle for a 1935 French $2 or an Osborne 1937 $5.00 (P-60a) in GEM. This is my current "dream note" which took me 3 years to find. It's a 1935 $20 featuring Princess Elizabeth as a child: I also really like dramatic errors (on just about any series). I really like US Large size notes (including the Education series) so one (or 2 or 3) of those would be very welcomed addition to my collection! I like most of the large size US notes (Bison, Chief, Woodchopper, etc). Finally, I'd be tickled pink if I could acquire any of the Balboa's from Panama or a nice EPQ "Mona Lisa" 2 Colones from Costa Rica. Notes that they copy & pawn off on eBay are often really tough "trophy" or dream notes (typically in terrible condition).
You need to make a choice. Modern Notes? Obsolete Notes? Bank Notes? CSA Notes? Error Notes? @Collecting Nut, whatever floats your boat. I'm interested in learning about other collectors' holy grail of paper currency/banknotes. Everyone, Thanks for your responses. I distinctly recall putting a $2 dollar bill inside a special Agatha Christie edition book with edge gilding when I was around 13-years old. This particular book is packed somewhere in one of many boxes at a storage facility. My curiosity is somewhat piqued about that $2 dollar bill's value. Also remember collecting foreign paper currencies...cannot remember where they are at the moment. Possibly in one of those boxes as well. When I was a youngster, I was really into collecting gems/rocks, various coins with a Dansco book (I suspect quarters), and foreign currencies collated on black paper enclosed in film. I'm not sure if my late father has kept them or discarded them. *gasp!* After a youthful interest in collection pursuits, then it was off to sports and venturing out in the world of adventure. Now, I am literally circling back to these first stirrings of collecting and poking here and there with my online research and readings as a "full-fledged" adult. Whatever it means! P.S. I'm kicking myself now about some other highly valuable collectibles that I did not purchase when I was a young kid. When the 'Star Wars' movie first came out, kids from my neighborhood bought original toys and action figures from the local store and I didn't. Oh, oh oh....the utter despair with 20/20 hindsight!!
Found this useful link with helpful visuals on binary banknotes: https://startup.info/table-of-valuable-banknote-serial-numbers/
@masterswimmer, that's a nice super radar bill! It looks to be in good condition. I'm casually eyeing some American currency that go my way for any of those unusual numbers. No such luck yet.
For my own personal collecting my “holy grail” is any early Soviet or pre-revolutionary Russian note in clean, problem free condition. For example, Soviet Chervonets notes or Czarist notes predating the inflationary period. There just aren’t many of those still around and most surviving examples are in terrible condition.
@KSorbo, I think some of the old placemat sized notes from France (& overseas territories) are amazing too (500 Francs & up post WW2 to the New Francs issues). Just try to get one without staple holes! Pre-1800 French Assignats were rampantly counterfeited as were the old Bernhard WW2 White series of pounds (see link below). Some of these notes really need to be authenticated! So there's a lot of older world notes out there that can be "holy grails" in VF EPQ & up if you know where to find them. Too many were stapled, pinned or got toning/foxing back in the day. If you like counterfeits, you could go after the Operation Bernhard types. Another cool note is the CIA 20 Peso fakes (P-97x) printed for Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba (or even a P-97 regular issue!) Then there's the popular Cuban "Che" signed notes (limited to 1960) or the duplicate signatures found on the 1966 P-100 1 Peso & P-101 10 Peso notes I think that's what I love about hunting elusive world banknotes (or even watching what others find). There's just so many cool ones out there!
I have a Vichy era 1000 francs in a non-PQ 58 holder, as well as a 65PQ 100 francs from the same era. French notes in general are beautiful. I’ve seen the Bernhard notes in auctions but don’t have one. Agree that there are some real rarities out there. I just brought up the Russian ones because that is a big area of interest for me. Typically any note that was inflationary is easy to come by. It is the ones that had real value and circulated for a long period that are hard to find or virtually nonexistent.
Behold the mighty del Monte $20 FRN that sold for almost $400k in the Heritage auction Kinda thought @paddyman98 would've posted it here by now, lol
