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Brett

Aug 12 2005, 08:04 PM

I was wondering if anyone knows how when a Country makes specimen notes, how they go about distributing them? Do they have a lottery for them? Are they only sold through that countries mint website? Is there a set number of them that they produce?

Just some things I was wanting to know. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Thanks

San_Miguel98

Aug 12 2005, 08:39 PM

here's some useful info i found for ya:

QUOTE

• A banknote specimen is a real (original) note which is used only for demonstration and to be distributed to banks to know the note before it is issued in the market.

• Any Central Bank, before issuing a certain note, takes a small quantity to be sent to other Central Banks around the globe. To avoid its use as a legal tender note, it can be perforated, punched, without a serial number or a serial of 000000 (all zeroes), overprinted with the word "Specimen" or "Cancelled" in any language.

• Most central banks are conservative about printing and distributing the specimen and specimens are distributed mostly between central banks.

• The quantity is small and distribution is limited so a specimen note is very special. In many cases specimens are more expensive than issued notes.

• Some countries produce more quantities of specimen notes and sell them to collectors such as Bahrain's full set and it has a serial number preceeded by the Maltese cross. So that makes its value slightly less than the original specimen.

Aidan Work

Sep 2 2005, 02:04 AM

Specimen notes,especially those from British Commonwealth countries are very much sought after.I bought a set of the Provincial Bank of Ireland specimen notes in an auction a few years ago.They came out in the 1970's.They are in the following denominations; 1 Pound,5 Pounds,&
10 Pounds.They are a same-numbered set with a Maltese cross before the serial number.These notes from Ulster are very nice notes.Such specimen notes are legitimate issues,& yes,they are listed in Pick under 'Collector Series' in the back of each chapter with a cross reference to the Pick numbers of the non-specimen notes.

Aidan.

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