The new edition of Charlton should be hitting store shelves any day, so now is a good time to present research that will not be appearing in the catalogue for at least another year.
I have been collecting data on *AN asterisk notes, mostly from online sources, for the past couple of years. Here is my "register" of notes recorded:
*an 1681495 Charlton 9th-23rd LOW
*an 1689216 Charlton 5th LOW
*an 1695754 VG-F dealer
*an 1711868 unknown CPM forum post
*an 1715478 circ eBay (Feb 2014)
*an 1721565 circ eBay (May 2014)
*an 1729777 AU+ dealer
*an 1729778 AU+ dealer
*an 1742408 circ eBay
*an 2411315 circ eBay (Feb 2014)
*an 2417474 VF private collection
*an 2423121 circ ebay (Apr 2014)
*an 2449007 circ ebay (Jun 2013)
*an 2457586 VF+ eBay (Jan 2014)
*an 2457677 circ eBAY (Jul 2013)
*an 2467049 unknown eBay
*an 2494615 circ eBay (Apr 2013)
*an 2503020 VG-F (trs) eBay (Dec 2012)
*an 2509038 circ eBay (Nov 2013)
*an 2520735 circ eBay (Mar 2013)
*an 2529702 circ eBay (Nov 2013)
*an 2568919 unknown G Bell auction (Jun 2012)
*an 2571915 Ch Unc Colonial Acres
*an 2577439 circ eBay (July 2013)
*an 2590331 F-VF private collection
*an 2605589 unknown eBay (Feb 2013)
*an 2613041 "Gem Unc" eBay (Jul-Dec 2012)
*an 2613045 Ch Unc eBay
*an 2618181 circ eBay (May 2014)
*an 2629081 unknown CPM forum post
*an 2641718 error G Bell auction (Jun 2012)
*an 2642346 circ eBay (Nov 2013)
*an 2648415 BCS-62-original eBay (Feb 2014)
*an 2653358 circ ebay (Jun 2013)
*an 2656133 unknown eBay (Nov 2012)
*an 2676278 "Unc" eBay (July 2012)
*an 2676279 unknown eBay (July 2012)
*an 2691736 Unc CPMS forum
*an 2691737 Unc CPMS forum
*an 2691738 Unc CPMS forum
*an 2691739 Unc CPMS forum
*an 2691740 Unc CPMS forum
*an 2691741 Unc CPMS forum
*an 2691743 Unc CPMS forum
*an 2715427 circ ebay (June 2013)
*an 2722759 "Unc" ebay (March 2013)
*an 2730800 unknown CPM forum post
*an 2731931 circ eBay (Apr 2014)
*an 2733844 Unc eBay (Feb 2013)
*an 2734197 "XF+" eBay (July 2012)
*an 2744985 "Unc" eBay (Feb 2013)
*an 2748444 "Unc" eBay (May 2013)
*an 2749712 unknown eBay (Mar 2013)
*an 2784985 "Unc" eBay (Feb 2013)
*an 2789105 circ eBay (Nov 2013)
*an 2789895 Unc eBay (Jan 2014)
*an 2796946 VF private collection
*an 2816086 "Unc" eBay (Jan 2014)
*an 2821442 "AU" eBay (Jan 2014)
*an 2824771 circ Colonial Acres
*an 2832360 low grade eBay
*an 2838103 AU-Unc eBay (Mar 2014)
*an 2838104 AU-Unc eBay (Mar 2014)
*an 2859899 VF private collection
*an 2860051 circ eBay (Apr 2013)
*an 2884685 circ eBay (Mar 2013)
*an 2911402 Fine Gatewest auctions (Nov 2013)
*an 2926232 circ eBay
*an 2929427 Fine private collection
*an 2939281 circ eBay (Jul 2012)
*an 2945941 circ eBay (Jul 2012)
*an 2974708 Unc eBay (Nov 2013)
*an 2974709 Unc eBay (Nov 2013)
*an 3004839 low grade eBay
*an 3011766 Unc Colonial Acres
*an 3020297 Fine+ private collection
*an 3031032 unknown CPM forum post
*an 3035938 circ eBay (Jul 2012)
*an 3044497 high grade eBay (Jun 2014)
*an 3051111 PCGS 58 PPQ eBay (Dec 2012)
*an 3081903 Gem Unc hamilton-coin.com
*an 3100847 circ eBay (Jan 2014)
*an 3100975 Unc eBay (Feb 2013)
*an 3102098 AU eBay (Feb 2014)
*an 3102385 AU Colonial Acres
*an 3131077 Fine+ private collection
*an 3134698 VF private collection
*an 3179569 VF eBay (Mar 2013)
*an 3182017 "Unc" eBay (Sep 2013)
*an 3184685 Charlton 5th-18th HIGH
*an 3185417 Charlton 19th HIGH
*an 3195847 Charlton 20th-23rd HIGH
Conditions are estimated and are not authoritative. The dates are also not representative of when the notes first appeared for sale because some notes have been offered for sale over a long period of time.
What immediately stands out from the data set is the fact that the vast majority of notes fall within the range *AN 2400000-3200000. Very few fall within the range *AN 1600000-2400000. In fact, I have failed to find any notes in the range *AN 1800000-2400000. My feeling is that there are two different ranges, and each range may have been created for different purposes. The lower smaller range may have been printed for the Bank of Canada for use as true replacements, while the higher range was made for use by the printers themselves as "star make-up notes". We have seen this sort of dual use of a replacement prefix previously (such as *A/G in 1954 series $2 notes and *R/X in 1954 series $5 notes).
The starting and endpoints of the lower range is unconfirmed because so few notes have been recorded. We can assume that *AN notes, like regular 1973 $1 notes, were printed 40/on with a skip interval of 500, so reams in runs of 20,000 notes. Using the data, it looks like the lower range is
*AN 1680000-1760000, so 4 reams (80,000 notes) in size The larger upper range *AN 2400000-3200000 is 40 reams (800,000 notes) in size.
Research is not finished! Don't think for one second that this new information will make it into the next Charlton catalogue. If you have *AN notes below 2400000, or can document the existence of any you come across, feel free to post the details on this thread or submit them to the
Serial Number Database (SNDB). Sheet numbers are optional if you report them here, mandatory if you make a SNDB submission (unfortunately). More data means we can speed up the process to getting the most accurate information into the catalogue sooner.
