1935 $50 English - A11287/D

News: Welcome to the Canadian Paper Money Forum.

A true story from my paper money archive:

This note was sold at the A.H. Wilkens auction in October 2015 for CAD $2800 and was graded BCS EF40 with the major Stain noted.  The buyer subsequently sent it to a top Canadian paper conservator and the stain was professionally removed for a cost of CAD $200.  There was no residual chemical or solvent smell on the cleaned banknote and the stain was totally removed.

The note was subsequently regraded by PMG and most recently by PCGS where it received a Choice AU 58 grade.  It sold in the November 2022 Prominence VIII Sale for CAD $8365 where the lot description read "This is a bright and pristine issue with great eye appeal".

I find these last 2 posts very very interesting.If you can please keep them coming!!!

There must be quite a difference between washing a note, which can remove or damage the planchettes, and a more modern, targeted repair by a professional. Still, yikes.

Other than this forum's note register, are there other online databases where one can easily look up a given serial/sheet number for previous grading?

This goes on quite a lot in the States. They often use Poli Restoration:
http://www.polirestoration.com/

Searching the Paper Money Forum for "Restored banknotes" (past year) yielded 16 threads. Here's a recent one where author actively restores 19th century notes:
https://www.papermoneyforum.com/post/restored-notes-update-13196395?highlight=restored&trail=25

If your note doesn't have an EPQ, PPQ (or Original for BCS) then anything is possible & buyer beware.  And even if your note has one of these designations, Buy the note/not the holder. I have seen several PPQ Legacy holders that have notes which look restored (so I won't touch those notes).

@rxcory: I believe a lot of US collectors employ "Track&Price" to check whether a large/more expensive note has been re-graded or restored.