Undervalued Notes

News: Welcome to the Canadian Paper Money Forum.

With the new "guide" on the horizon I would like to hear some commentary on which BOC notes you feel are undervalued prior to the Journey issue. I only exclude Journey because the notes are still in circulation and I don't think enough time has passed to determine real values.

Which note and if you would like which grade of that note do you feel is undervalued. Also please include what you think the price should be. Initially you may want to keep your comments to just 2-3 different notes.

I think the Birds $1000 EKA prefix in both signatures are undergraded in AU because of a sudden $500 price jump from AU to UNC. I think the price should be $1200. Just my opinion.

I only really have one note that I would like to discuss in this thread and thats the 1937 $ 50 Osborne/Towers in the VF + EF grades.

The surviving population of this note is very low to start with. 100,000 Printed and if we're lucky 1,000 left. Probably less. And all the ones that seem to surface are mostly VG and the odd fine. The VG's aren't too terribly hard to come by.

Since returning to currency collecting about three years ago I have only seen 1 Original VF ( which I purchased) and those few processed EFish aAU notes that were auctioned on EBay back before Christmas. Which based one the " grades advertised " initally sold for well in excess of the guides suggested price.

So if the guide suggests 15,000 for an UNC and bidding is good faith reached in excess of 20,000 for an UNC back before Xmas how can the VF+EF notes be accurately priced at 1,750+3,000. I realize to guide is a year old and these notes will certainly increase in the forthcoming issue. But by how much. Find me a VF or an EF. I'd love to buy it. I can't find one. From the 18th edition to the 19th edition that note went from 1650 to 1750 in VF and from 2750 to 3000 in EF. I had a retail dealer offer me 120% of book for the VF I have and even openly suggested to me that he could without a lot of difficulty get $ 2500 for it.

I don't want this to sound self serving in a way of trying to hype a particular issue I happen to own because I own hundreds of notes from many different issues. It's just this one that flabbergasts me more than any other.

I'm really not sure what the price should be. I'd only surmise that if a dealer feels he could get $ 2500 for a VF that might be the approprite price. And if it is then an EF would like fetch $ 5000.

I beleive the grade line in the 20th edition should look like this

250,500,1000,2500,4500,8500,17500

I put the 250 in because I think the scarciity of this note deserves to have a G price provided. Quite frankly so does the $ 100 + 1,000
 

The 1954 Modified Beattie-Coyne - Prefix I/B changeover is severely underpriced in the catalogue.  This note should
be priced in the $500+ range in UNC.

It is missing from the collections of many serious 1954 issue collectors.  With about 1.4 million printed you would
expect to see one come up for sale every so often.  They don't and I believe it is because anyone who does have
one or more is just sitting on them until the catalogue reflects the true market value of these notes.

There may also be some technical reasons that this note is absent that we don't know about.  I would be
interested to know if anyone has this note or seen it on a dealers table or in a public auction.

...Arthur

[ I would be
interested to know if anyone has this note or seen it on a dealers table or in a public auction.
/quote]

Hello Arthur,

That note is in my possession,Don O sold it to me several years back.He had it graded as Gem Unc.I have not viewed this particular bank note in some time,locked away in a safety deposit box,so I'm trusting Don's grading when I write the above.

I only really have one note that I would like to discuss in this thread and thats the 1937 $ 50 Osborne/Towers in the VF + EF grades

  Ok no one is about to dispute this ... nor dispute your predilection for the OZZY notes!!!

But back to "Undervalued Notes" in general - I agree with

Prefix I/B changeover is severely underpriced in the catalogue

as are most of the 1954 change-overs.

I also think that most of the asterisk replacement notes in this series are still under-valued.  If you compare the difficulty in securing a $1200 *N/Y with almost any of the *$5 (B/Coyne A/C, R/C, B/Ras I/X, W/S, N/S, N/X) or the *$10 (B/D excepted) and *$20  and you know that its a hard note to come by. 

There are many (non-single sheet replacements) of the 70's that should go up too ($2 R/A, U/G $5 C/S, C/U. S/L, S/W or $10 D/G, T/L, T/T V/J,VL, V/T and many of the $20's)  And yet if you think how scarce these are.... they're usually easier to find than the 54's

I only really have one note that I would like to discuss in this thread and thats the 1937 $ 50 Osborne/Towers in the VF + EF grades.

Incredibly enough this notes price was not changed in grades EF and lower. Why I don't know. Someone is not paying attention to the market. Oh well another year for me to try and add another one to my collection at a reasonable price.

For scarcity, I think the specimen sets should be worth more.  There aren't that many out there when compared to other short run notes.  (Hope I don't regret this post, as I don't own any yet!!)

Entire 37 & DF series in Unc excluding the 1's.
As for the O/T 50 in lower grades, keep it where it is, I like buying them for those prices when I can which isn't often.

Hi Arthur:
Sorry to trouble you but I was wondering what price the I/B cross-over that you had finally went for? I was going to put in an offer but sadly, I'm a little short of loose spending money right now (I only had trade material to offer and I didn't think that was the kind of offer you were looking for.  If you would prefer to keep it confidential, no problem (it's really none of my business) but if you were willing to reveal the amount perhaps you could post it on the forum, oddly the original posting is no longer there. Either way, that's only the second example (maybe it's the same one that I saw on Ebay a couple of year back) of this rare cross-over that I've ever seen in any grade.
Many Thanks
Rob
(Paperchase)

Re:  1954 $2 Beattie-Coyne, I/B Prefix (Modified) - BC-38a

The response to the sale of this bank note was greater than I had anticipated and reaffirmed my research
as to the "true" scarcity of the 1954 $2 Beattie-Coyne, I/B Prefix (Modified) - BC-38a.

I received offers from eleven persons, many of them prominent and well known collectors in our hobby. 

The high offer and final selling price was CDN $1,350.

This note is truly an enigma among modern Canadian bank notes.  Although technical data states that
1.4 million of these notes were printed, this note is rarely seen anywhere.  I have collected Canadian
paper money for well over 20 years and focused on the 1954 issue for the last 8 years.  In all that time,
this note was the only example of the modified I/B changeover that I could find.

Although the Charlton catalogue is an invaluable resource, the astute collector must realize that it is just
a guide and that the marketplace will always be the true valuator of paper money.