Spectacularly High Realizations on Canadian Chartered Notes at Spink Auction

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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.asp

Here 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!

Looks like there was a very nice selection of Royal bank material, sorry I missed it.

All of the scarcer Royal Bank and Bank of Commerce notes in this sale were Caribbean issues with many rarities included. There were a total of 2051 lots in this sale of World Paper Money which was the most important offering by Spink to date. The Sale Total was £2,049,670 + 20% Buyer's Commission = $4,255,000. This sale exemplifies the incredible strength and vibrancy of the international paper money market. Don't expect the same prices on eBay though!

I would certainly like to own a few of those but they are going for more than I would be comfortable to pay. I think however that these realized prices just goes to show that the rare chartered market remains very strong even far away from home.

Your most likely right about eBay but I would sure love to see this kind of stuff get posted there on occasion.

I've attached two scans showing a few of the rarest Canadian notes from the Sept. 29/30 Spink sale that were being exhibited by Brian Bell of The Coin Cabinet (New Brunswick) at the recent Nuphilex show in Montreal. The first image shows Brian Bell and Mike Findlay examining the Molsons Bank $20 1904 note in mind-boggling original Unc condition. It sold for about $18,000 at the auction and both Bell and Findlay agreed that it was "Cheap at the price"!

The second image shows some excessively rare notes issued by Canadian banks for their branches in the British West Indies (Jamaica, St. Kitts and Barbados).

(Click thumbnails to enlarge)

[edit]Images replaced with thumbnails --BWJM[/edit]