Latest Banknote purchases.

[Saor Alba]

Yep, and in the USA they become - "too big to fail"

[MADISON]

Mercantile Bank was a much smaller bank, and had far fewer banknotes in circulation - which is regrettable for collectors - because they are wonderfully designed and in deep deep red:

 

Notes were last issued dated 1974, the bank was sold to Citibank in 1984 and the name disappeared. Subsequently the assets of the bank were sold to Bank of Tokyo - Mitsubishi in 1987 and the bank completely disappeared.

''CORRECTION''

The Mercantile Bank became part of HSBC GROUP in 1959, its H.K. branch continued to issue notes until 1974, even though responsibility for its note issue was transferred to the HONG KONG BANK IN 1966..... I WAS THERE.... IT IS QUOTED FROM '' MONEY IN THE BANK'' by JOE CRIBB-LONDON-1987- And I do not believe a BRITISH Bank under BRITISH RULE at that time would be sold to a foreign entity............

 

[ccg]

Nice HSBC and MB notes everyone!

 

I'm still waiting to come across a nice Mercantile note at the right price, but none have yet to turn up around here in any grade.

[see323]

Nice HSBC and MB notes everyone!

 

I'm still waiting to come across a nice Mercantile note at the right price, but none have yet to turn up around here in any grade.

 

There is one in ebay.

 

http://cgi.ebay.com/Hong-Kong-Mercantile-B...=item563b99e841

[see323]

Malaysia 6th Series $1 and $50

 

[jtryka]

At the coin club meeting tonight, I paid too much for a group of foreign notes:

 

1999 Jamaica $20

1951 Bulgaria 5 Leva (x2)

1951 Bulgaria 10 Leva

Brazil 100 Cruzeiros

1987 Peru 500 Intis (x7, including 2 groups of 3 consecutive notes)

And some reproduction notes and "disney dollar" type notes from Colonial Williamsburg

 

I paid $5 so somebody please tell me I wasn't way off!

[Vfox]

At the coin club meeting tonight, I paid too much for a group of foreign notes:

 

1999 Jamaica $20

1951 Bulgaria 5 Leva (x2)

1951 Bulgaria 10 Leva

Brazil 100 Cruzeiros

1987 Peru 500 Intis (x7, including 2 groups of 3 consecutive notes)

And some reproduction notes and "disney dollar" type notes from Colonial Williamsburg

 

I paid $5 so somebody please tell me I wasn't way off!

 

 

I think you paid a fair amount for them. Most dealers charge 0.50 - 1.00 for each note so considering you have 13 or so at $5 I think you did just fine.

[see323]

Malaya and British Borneo 1959 $1 Near Solid 505555

 

[see323]

A long forgotten low serial piece from 1941. Bought it a few years ago from an Indian seller. The note look tanned. Not sure how it was kept but still look very good especially the serial number. These Malayan notes with low serial number are scarce and very popular among advance collectors.

 

[see323]

Solomon Island First Prefix low serial number pair.

 

[see323]

Malaysia 6th Series $50 solid 555555 pair with different printers - BA Banknote and TDLR. BA Banknote printer is the scarce printer.

 

 

 

Interestingly, if you look at the close-up on the reverse, you notice some differences in the engraved design.

No two engravers will be able to produce the exact design. I believe both printers uses their own engravings to print the notes.

 

[ccg]

That's quite the color variation

[Saor Alba]

Not only is it a colour variation, but also the plates are different and you can see the differences in the details you highlighted, there is enough of a difference that suspicions would be raised about counterfeits.

[see323]

Not only is it a colour variation, but also the plates are different and you can see the differences in the details you highlighted, there is enough of a difference that suspicions would be raised about counterfeits.

 

Now the next question I wanted to ask is why did Malaysia uses two printers to print the same note on the same series. Any particular reason. Why didn't they use the same plate to print the notes ? Upon further examination, I realised that they even have different watermarks. The TDLR one has a small and slimmer Agung face. The BA Banknote one look very much like the Agung Portrait appearing on the banknote. Here is a list of prefixes taken from K.N. Boon catalog. As I am not familiar with Malaysian notes, I will need to seek Malaysian collectors' opinions. As what Saor Alba, it may even be a counterfeit. I am not ruling that out.

 

[Dave M]

My SCWPM shows even more to the story. It has the note listed as P31 (ND 1987) printed by TDLR, then as P31A (ND 1991-2) printed by BABN, then as P31B (ND 1995) printed by FCO, then as P31C (ND 1996) by TDLR, then lastly as P31D (ND 1997) by BABN. There are many modern French area notes that were first printed by BdF and then subsequently by FCO. I have always assumed this was just a matter of purchasing contracts and pricing, where one printer has the contract for a couple years, but when the next contract is put out, a different bidder wins it.

 

Dave

[Saor Alba]

Now the next question I wanted to ask is why did Malaysia uses two printers to print the same note on the same series. Any particular reason. Why didn't they use the same plate to print the notes ? Upon further examination, I realised that they even have different watermarks. The TDLR one has a small and slimmer Agung face. The BA Banknote one look very much like the Agung Portrait appearing on the banknote. Here is a list of prefixes taken from K.N. Boon catalog. As I am not familiar with Malaysian notes, I will need to seek Malaysian collectors' opinions. As what Saor Alba, it may even be a counterfeit. I am not ruling that out.

 

Oh monetary boards in some of the Latin American countries, like the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua etc would change printing companies like underwear. Some of it may have had to do with the fact that from time to time these countries may not have actually paid for their note orders - so they skipped town and went to another printer. So variations in design happen, I can point this out with Nicaraguan notes in the middle 1950's - they went back and forth betwixt ABNCo and TDLR - and of course printing plates are proprietary to that particular company so the new contracted company would have to do their best to re-create the design. One thing I notice with the ABNCo printed notes is that the intaglio was deeper, the inks a bit darker and the design a bit more refined than the early TDLR notes - and maybe this could explain why ABNCo lost the printing contract - more expensive.

 

I can only surmise that it is a similar scenario with the Malaysian note - TDLR got expensive and they went with BA, I don't doubt that Malaysia can pay it's bills in contrast to the Latin American countries though.

 

As for proprietary plates and designs, one exception I can think of was the Canadian Banknote Company after it was spun off from ABNCo in 1918, they continued to share stones and plates for certain designs that were historically used on Canadian Charters, even Bank of Canada notes - and some of the vignettes stones were also used on Latin American, and even Russian notes by ABNCo into the 1940's.

[see323]

Thanks ccg, Dave M and Saor for the feedbacks .

[Dave]

One of the hardest notes for me to scan.... and the colors are still off. My scanner needs to be replaced I think. The area from teh date to the womans legs on front should be a blue to red-brown transition, and the notes background should be more green, but no matter how I set or try to change later, the image is off in color. ANyhow, it's close enough.

 

I see that BanknoteBank.com is still not quite up to it's old standard yet. It seems to me that the photo/scan size is set to that of the OmniCoin site instead of the older BanknoteBank size. Images I submit are all cropped at top, even when I submit in the 300x300pixel format.

 

[see323]

One of the hardest notes for me to scan.... and the colors are still off. My scanner needs to be replaced I think. The area from teh date to the womans legs on front should be a blue to red-brown transition, and the notes background should be more green, but no matter how I set or try to change later, the image is off in color. ANyhow, it's close enough.

 

I see that BanknoteBank.com is still not quite up to it's old standard yet. It seems to me that the photo/scan size is set to that of the OmniCoin site instead of the older BanknoteBank size. Images I submit are all cropped at top, even when I submit in the 300x300pixel format.

 

 

I always love notes from Congo. This is a nice one.

Beware of new scanner. They have built-in intelligence to detect modern currency making it impossible to scan them.

[see323]

Malaysia 6th Series $1 Last Prefix Solid 6s HJ 666666 and Solid 6s HC 6666666.

 

 

[MMMM]

Simeon II of Bulgaria, the child czar. He was king for 1943 to 1946

[see323]

Hong Kong SCB 1997 $500 Solid X555555. Scarce High Denomination SCB Solid. Issued on the 1 Jan 1997 which is exactly 6 months before Hong Kong was returned to China. Thus, 1997 is a special year for Hong Kong.

 

[Saor Alba]

One of the hardest notes for me to scan.... and the colors are still off. My scanner needs to be replaced I think. The area from teh date to the womans legs on front should be a blue to red-brown transition, and the notes background should be more green, but no matter how I set or try to change later, the image is off in color. ANyhow, it's close enough.

 

 

 

Actually with the Joh Enschede en Zonen printed notes, the issue is less your scanner and more the way the note was printed - the colour patterns and their arrangement seem to "trick" scanners. I notice that with most Dutch printed notes I have a heck of a time scanning them - here is one I fooled with for quite a few scans and finally submitted to the fact that they are reasonably scanner deterrent:

 

 

I just cannot get the colours right. It is as though the fine geometric and colourful engravings somehow mess with the scanning software - which well - can attest to their difficulty to forge - not bad for a 90+ year old printing technique.

 

Even the reverse of this one doesn't image correct to the colour:

 

 

That said, I like the note - a wonderful colonial issue and tantalizingly scarce too.

[Saor Alba]

Simeon II of Bulgaria, the child czar. He was king for 1943 to 1946

 

 

A cool note, and an interesting item bearing the image of one of only two WWII era world leaders that is still alive - the other being King Mihai of Romania. Simeon Saxe Coburgottski also has the unique distinction of having been duly elected as Bulgaria's prime minister a few years ago.

[Saor Alba]

Hong Kong SCB 1997 $500 Solid X555555. Scarce High Denomination SCB Solid. Issued on the 1 Jan 1997 which is exactly 6 months before Hong Kong was returned to China. Thus, 1997 is a special year for Hong Kong.

 

 

 

A note I could love, but I like HK notes anyway.