Paper Money: New Acquisitions

Today's new pickup... a new star, this a 1934-C $10. As I get more of these, they of course get harder to find... so every time I get a new one, it's a plus.

 

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That 5 peso lion note is very cool as is your description of it.
I did a quick Google search but couldn't learn anything about it, except that it may be part of a series of Costa Rican notes with African animal vignettes.
I'd like to buy one. Do you know the World of Paper Money number?

Mike

 

With each new acquisition of these stars, you're kind of cornering the market on these MEC.

 

I'm just getting around to scrolling through the last few pages of postings. MEC2, that lion note is something! I'm a big ABNC fan, but I've never seen that vignette before. I also like the Brazil note -- I was pretty sure I had one of those so I dug around in my foreign banknote pile and, yep, there it was. Sure enough it has a big scribble across the face. In the process I discovered I also had some other low denoms from that series, which I will post, forthwith. Interesting that ABNC only produced the 1 and 2 cruzieros notes; De La Rue in London printed the others. Still, which contract do you suppose was more profitable?

 

Mike/Midas - I've got more Costa Rica en route, but that Lion note, which is awesome, is Pick S163 - and can be gotten off eBay, if patient, in UNC around $50, and if impatient, closer to $80. Glad you like the description, I aim to make each new pickup a fun read, or at least not dreadfully boring...

Kookoo - I will settle for just one of each...

GS - Actually, the design and printing for all of those denoms was at once time ABNCo, only later did they change the printing to TDLR - I just acquired, but have not received, a whole bunch of those denoms in ABCNo and will post them once I get them. Sure have some great designs!!!

Today's new pickup, hmmm... let's roll Greek, this 5000 Drachma is a tougher get for a more modern (1950) note, and I find myself REALLY liking the design, neat engraving, an unusual color, neat reverse scene. The back is the battle of Mesolonghi, a city sieged three times before it fell, the last time which this depicts was an attempted escape of the population from the siege. This was a disaster and led to the eventual slaughter of many Greeks, and enslavement of many of the survivors. Very much like a Greek Alamo, it rallied alot of the Greeks to victory in their war for independence from the Ottoman Empire.

 

I've seen you upgrading MEC. Are you selling the lower grade duplicates?

You are single-handedly driving up prices.

 

Funkee - I am definitely "selling" them, just not actively, I need to get on that. And anyone who has seen me bid knows I am absolutely not driving up the price of *anything*, my cheap bids are usually barely-winners...

Speaking of barely winning, here is a new pickup! VERY large note, tallest I have, this 5 pound Scotland note is pretty unique looking. No design on the back (you can see the watermark but otherwise it's bare), but that's okay because the blue and yellow on the front is quite eyecatching. This larger size note is what I think of when I think of British Isles money...

 

Completely kidding, MEC.

 

I know Funkee, I'm just playing along, my brother from another mother... but seriously, I don't bid for $#!+... cheap cheap cheap! I think my Heritage win rate is like 2%.

Speaking of cheap, here's a nice get that is actually a fairly tough get - my cheap cheap cheap bid picked up this very large Greek 25 Drachma note from 1914. I think the seller can actually claim this auction as a theft loss, because I *STOLE* this son of a gun. This note is a taller but not quite as wide a large US note, and because it's ABNCo, you know you are going to get neat allegorical design - in this case, Trade and Agriculture on the front, very Educational in design. Hermes is on the back, looking sort of cherubic, in a creepy Mr. Herbert kind of way.

This is a candidate to upgrade in the future, but for now, I like filling in these 1910-20's Greek designs, they have great engraving and are the golden age of Greek note design, along with the brief designs of the 1954-56, also truly brilliant.

 

I picked up these scarcer FRN today at auction...





I also was lucky enough to grab this interesting Mexican note a couple weeks ago. Its beautiful:

 

Picked up a few things at the Santa Clara show. First is this 3rd issue 5 cent note in AU.

Interesting thing is what appears to be a "33" in the lower left corner. I have no info in any of my books on this.




More to come.

 

Today's newpy snoopy is a 1928 $20 from San Fran - I won an auction some time back with like three of these and it was tough to determine which to keep and which to release, I mean I even posted a thread elsewhere on it asking opinions. Well, it turns out... none of them. This note is just a bit crisper than all of them, even though my scanner is really exaggerating the horizontal fold on this note - it really isn't that visible in person. Normally the scanner tends to minimize folds, but not this one. Anyways, it's a nice high VF with crisp paper, so I will take it...

 

Two more pickups from the Santa Clara show:

1902 $5 Chase National Bank - Plain Back Fine+ to Low VF





1886 $1 Silver Certificate - Fine (Fr. 217)

 

Not a bad looking Martha funkee...did you get a pretty good deal on it?

How was the attendance at the show? Plenty of notes and inventory to keep a guy busy looking for what he wanted?

 

That is a real nice Martha. Definitely faces up nicely now I've had the chance to take a second look.

 

Parking was terrible. It took me 20 minutes to find a spot. This SUV taking up 4 spots angered me a bit.



There were more dealers than I was expecting. Must have been at least 60 tables, with about a dozen tables with currency. I got to hold some very high-end notes that I would never be able to afford. A Gem 65 1923 $10 Pokerchip and a Gem 67 Bison were a few. The crowd wasn't too large for a Saturday morning/afternoon. Maybe 3-4 people per table. So it was possible to get some time to look through notes and ask questions.

I got a fair price on the Martha. I paid what would've been the equivalent of $385, but I ended up trading a few duplicates and unwanted notes for it. Good thing is the trade value I got was higher than most of what I paid for these notes, with the exception of the South Carolina obsolete, on which I took a $7 loss.

For the Martha I traded:

- One XF $1 Hawaii (Valued at $35) - Paid $25
- One XF $1 North Africa (Valued at $40) - Paid $32
- One VF++ 1928A $1 Silver Certificate (Valued at $20) - Paid $20
- One VF++ 1934 $1 Silver Certificate (Valued at $25) - Paid $25
- One XF+ 1928D $2 Legal Tender (Valued at $25) - Paid $25
- One XF+/AU 1928F $2 Legal Tender (Valued at $25) - Paid $25
- One VF Stained 1917 $1 Legal Tender (Valued at $75) - Paid $50
- One XF+/AU 1872 South Carolina Obsolete (Valued at $50) - Paid $57
- $90 Cash

I spent some time at Emporium and he had a large selection of notes nationals. Quite interesting to look through. I'm not particularly looking for nationals, but grabbed the Chase New York bank as a good type note that was relatively inexpensive.

It is very good. It's unfortunate that the back is a bit dirty, especially for an ornate back series.

 

Funkee - that fractional number is the plate number. Also like that Martha, I have a Rosencrans-Huston red seal that I am trying to upgrade to about the same grade yours is.

Today's new get is a little different Greek type note. This 1000 Drachma has Caesar on the front and it's an Italian issue that was for the Ionian Islands (Isole Jonie, which is their name in Italian), which are next to Greece but the Italians planned to keep as part of Italy after the end of the war. Alas - didn't work out that way...

 

Funkee: Always good to hear that about a successful show! Parking around there is always difficult but that Suburban is asking to be keyed (and I think deserves it)...


In case you wondered what your Martha would look like with a little more wear, here is one I picked up for resale:



And I also was happy to pick up this interesting obsolete denomination: Certainly the strangest denomination I have in my collection...

 

That's commonplace here in Cali, and to be quite honest it's a little old.

 

lamborghinis, Ferraris, Rolls, Bentlys and the like get passes in my book... But not older model suburbans! You at least need a sticker price north of $150,000 to warrant such arogance... LOL