Welcome to the CPM forum. Always nice to see "new blood" joining the ranks of paper money collectors in Canada. As Hammer says - you'll find this site informative, the more you read the more you'll learn.
There are so many different ways to collect paper money. This is something I've always been fascinated with just as much as the hobby itself-- that is how people tend to classify, organize and collect notes.
Lots of collectors start out by collecting denominations of each series. In world paper money collections, it is commn to have a collection according to themes (eg: "Birds" "QE II" Vehicles, Industry, wildlife, etc). Other collectors collect certain denominations ($1.00 or fractionals).
Eventually advanced collectors seek rarer notes so they tend to collect signature (or year) change-overs, short prefixes, replacements & test notes. Other serial number collectors love radars, or special types of serial numbers. Radars, or palindromes, are notes with numbers that go from solid eg 1111111 to 2 digit 1212121 to 3 and 4 digit 3420243. There are low number notes (technically below a 1000 but some collect higher than that) and million numbered notes. All sorts of serial number variations.
One of the most taxing kind of collections is the prefix collector who collects every prefix of every denomination (or of one particular denomination).
So as you can see there's several ways to collect. If you have a good set of $20 bird notes you might than want to get a nice set of the BIRD SERIES. You will want to get the $10, $5 and $2 if you don't already have them. Some collectors collect up to the $100 denomination but that's not necessary. Fewer collect up to the $1000 note.
You would be wise to go to your library and get a Charlton Paper money guide (18th edition) to give you an idea what collectors are seeking. In it you will find all the different kinds of Canadian notes to collect. The older notes are very beautiful (before 1935) and they just keep going up in value. Its fine to have an UNC note of a regular prefix but its a lot nicer to have something a little special like the AIW you mentioned. With a Charlton in your hand you will come to understand that it isn't simply UNCIRCULATED notes that a collector wants: That is something that is lost on a lot of collectors.
Here's a bit of free advice-- take it if you like. I've been collecting for over 30 years and its been what I've been doing all along: and I read about it in a book called "Collecting paper money for fun and profit." What I do is sell or trade notes that I have duplicates of. Once I started collecting for a while I'd see a note that I knew was being sold at a very good price and pick it up regardless of whether I had it or not and sell it later for a profit.
I've been selling and trading my notes before there was eBay (as many of use "old timers" have been doing). I've never regreted it ... since I usually trade/sell knowing full well what I'm getting and what I'm getting rid of. I often traded up (got a note in better condition for one that was in lower condition and paid a little bit for it)
The point is: you should determine what kind of notes you want to acquire next, and trade or sell your extra AIW's and any duplicate notes you said you hoarded. When I was your age I did the exact same thing: hoarded a bunch of notes and really didn't know what they were worth (there was no Charlton or Internet back then either!) So I traded a lot of those notes (most of them were common but in decent enough shape to get a small premium) for older notes. I didn't always fret about grade so long as the note was higher (EF and up) and showed well with no tears, ink spots, etc. I also tried to trade and sell with collectors before dealers since I could get better deals that way. Coin/paper money shows are a little better than walking into a coin shop because the dealers have competition & will go down a bit in price (usually).
Coin shops dealers are flexible too. They sell the the currency pages and holders you're asking about. If you establish a good rapport, they can be very helpful in getting you notes at a fair price. Talk to them like you want to know what they know (they have a lot of valuable info!) When I was very young I used to talk like I knew a lot about what I was talking about. Then when I got in my mid 20's I heard someone younger talking like I used to -- and it really annoyed me. It made me realize that I had a lot to learn! Going into a shop with a humble attitude goes a long ways!
You may want to try the "Trade & Sell" section of this site to post some of your excess notes to sell here. Or you could try eBay.
Good luck in your hunt!
Canadian Paper Money
