The prices realized on Canadian and Canadian/Caribbean chartered notes at the Sept. 29/30 Spink sale in London are truly mind-boggling, at least to me. You can check them out yourself at the Spink web site. The illustrated catalogue is available online and the prices realized are there too in a different section:
http://www.spink.com/home_page/index.aspHere are a few examples of the prices achieved (all prices are in POUNDS STERLING and £1 = CDN$1.73 today):
Lot 314. Royal Bank of Canada (British Guiana) $100 1920 GVF -- £17,000 + 20% = $35,292 (wow!)
Lot 374. Molsons Bank $20 1904, Unc --- £8500 + 20% commission = $17,646
Lot 378. Molsons $5 1912, aEF (possibly trimmed?) -- £1200 + 20% = $2,490
Lot 379. Molsons $10 1912, aEF --- £3800 + 20% = $7,888 (wow!)
Lot 382. Molsons $10 1922 Unc --- £2000 + 20% = $4,152
Lot 512. Royal Bank of Canada (Dominica) $5 1938 Fine --- £3,000 + 20% = $6,228
Lot 1183. Canadian Bank of Commerce (Jamaica) 1 Pound 1921 Good Fine --- £5,000 + 20% = $10,380
Lot 1922. Canadian Bank of Commerce (Trinidad) $5 1939 GVF --- £1,800 + 20% = $3,736
Lot 1923. Canadian Bank of Commerce (Trinidad) $20 1939 GVF --- £5,000 + 20% = $10,380 (Wow!)
Lot 1930. Royal Bank of Canada $20 (Trinidad) $20 1920 GVF --- £9,500 + 20% = $19,722 (Wow!)
I could go on and on and on, but I think you get the picture. The most important conclusion to be drawn, in my opinion, is that Canadian chartered notes issued for the West Indies are in far greater global demand than most people realize and catalogue prices will have to be adjusted accordingly. If you're not a world paper money collector yourself, you may not realize just how strong the global market is for Caribbean paper money, both local Government issues and chartered bank issues. Canadian chartered notes for the West Indies are much more popular overseas than they are in Canada at this time. The highest price in the Caribbean section was £22,000 + 20% = $45,672 for a Government of St. Lucia 5 Shillings note dated 1920. While on this topic, I seem to recall that I viewed another Government of St. Lucia note in the Bank of Canada's Currency Museum back in the late 1970's.
There were also numerous rare Specimens and colour trials in the sale, e.g., Imperial Bank $20 & $50 1902 (extra large size) and Bank of Montreal $50 1903 (magnum size).
The prices realized were multiples of current catalogue values in many cases.
What about the recession, you ask? Mmmmmmm, that's a very good question!