In circulation vs Issued

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Newbie.  Just joined the forum.  I started collecting only a month ago.  I'm quite liking it!

Charlton states how many notes of a given issue went into circulation.  As notes wear out they are removed from circulation.   Does the Bank of Canada replace old issues with new ones systematically, collecting old notes and replacing with new ones (assume yes) and if so are there estimates available of what remains in circulation by issue?

I would have thought the BoC may keep track of what they pull out to keep some idea of the float.

- Thanks for sharing any insights....
 

Absolutely. What you're looking for is called the Bank of Canada Note Liabilities. The Bank publishes this information from time to time.

A copy of the data from 1991 to 2008 is on the Wiki site:
Bank of Canada Note Liabilities

Thanks..

Also, is there tracking of specific series?  eg. There are lots of different 1954 $2.   A BC-38bA with A/B prefix printed quantity is 3,280,000...how many of the 3.28M are left out there?

It is a generic question, I am not asking about that particular series.

It would seem value relates not only to condition and desirability, but the rarity.  The latter increasing as more are withdrawn.

- Probably not worth doing by BoC so I doubt anyone knows... they probably just care about total denomination liability.

Thanks again...

No information to that level of detail has been released.

Any such surveys of notes in public hands are the domain of note registers such as the ones found elsewhere on the Wiki site. They are typically reserved for the rarer varieties of notes.

It's very interesting to observe from the comprehensive Bank Note Liabilities data that six (6) $500 notes were cashed in between 2001 and 2004. Heaven forbid!! However, no $25 notes have been cashed in in recent times. 

That's true, i have heard about that. If you look at those liabilities i think only 40?? $500 remain today (is that correct?). Imagine someone cashing in a $500! That's like throwing $100,000 in the garbage

So there is a way to approximate.  Assume for a given denomination of say $5 notes.

Total denomination liability = 200 M notes (example.. didn't check table)
*minus*
Total printed in most current series (all variations in the year of record YOR)
= the total notes of all older YOR's. 

A start, assuming total denomination liability float by replacing worn notes from current YOR.

Now if you estiamte an increasing note withdrawl rate on each year of record (1972, 1954, 1937, 1935) you can approximate how many would be left.  I'm sure this forum could crowd-source the right factors.   Or inferrred from market values.

Not exact but would give you a "rarity factor".. "patent pending" ;-)

My assumption is few 1954's are being turned in and no one is turning in 1937 and older on purpose... like a $500 above - my word!   I can't believe it wasn't harvested somewhere before the furnace!  like maybe it's in BOC museum vault and therefore not deemed in public circulation (one would hope so, unless you've got one).


I can't help but believe this is unoriginal thinking and that someone has plugged the math into a spreadsheet at some point.  I know a rocket scientist and a brain surgeon and I'm not a smart as either of them


Here's hoping!

The total liablilty only says the total number of notes of a given denomination NOT cashed in.  For instances, lets say the 500$.  The stats says that there is still 40 notes not accounted for.  It does not means that there is 40 notes surviving.  It's only a maximum.  It doesn't tell you how much notes are actually surviving, nor how much were destroyed by some manner (flooding, fire, eaten by worms, name it...) or hidden in a since forgotten place, to be refound years later, or lost somewhere in a box of grand'pa's old papers in the attic? Does anybody knows the number of  500$ notes in the hands of collectors?  There is already few in the BoC museum, but how many others?  Sure the total is not 40...

And that is applicable to any other denomination....

Does anybody knows the number of  500$ notes in the hands of collectors?  There is already few in the BoC museum, but how many others?  Sure the total is not 40...

This will mark the third time in this thread that I have referred people to the Wiki site. Does anyone actually look at the site, or is it there just for my own personal vanity?

This will mark the third time in this thread that I have referred people to the Wiki site. Does anyone actually look at the site, or is it there just for my own personal vanity?

The Wiki sites states that the number of $500 notes issued - the number of redeamed notes = 40.

It doesn't mention how many of those 40 have been destroyed, lying in someone's suit pocket, got destroyed in fire, etc. I don't see a mention anywhere of how many are in collector's hands.

Also, how come the $500 note is worth so much when the 1902 $4 bill (the numeral '4''s) is almost as rare (53 surviving notes if I'm not mistaken).

Sorry, I assumed you were able to look around.
English Text $500 Notes
French Text $500 Notes

I saw actually the wiki, but I only wanted to know if ALL the 500$ notes remaining were known, even if there are not in the registry...

In the wikis,  I counted out 36   500$ notes, so we're 4 notes short from the maximum possible.  Since 33 notes lay in the national collection, and only 3 known notes are in the collector's hands, do these four remaining notes still exists and presumably are in the hands of-perhaps-four persons?

Heck maybe some 90-year-old man has it and I might run into him one day

Actually I would bet that the 4 notes have been lost or destroyed.

My question about the 'numeral 4' four dollar bill still hasn't been answered. Is it because there are 53 known in collectors' hands vs. 4 known in collectors' hands? I am guessing there are more than 53 of these $4 notes out there.

The register on the Wiki site reports two $500 notes as having been in recent auctions, and a third referenced by the Charlton catalogue. The upcoming Torex auction includes a fourth that is not yet on the register. The rest are in the National Currency Collection.

I don't know whether this is true or not, although I am tempted to believe it: If a note was returned for destruction by the Bank, but diverted to the National Currency Collection, it is highly likely that the note has been written off the books meaning that it no longer counts as an outstanding liability of the Bank. Of course this is a different case than the Museum purchasing a note in a private sale or at auction; these notes are likely not written off the books. As well, any "first notes" given to the Museum likely never made it onto the books in the first place, so all those low-numbered notes probably don't count either.

So the true number of notes still "out there somewhere" is probably much closer to 40 than to 4.

As for the value of the "numeral 4" notes, I see those crop up in auctions, dealer inventories, etc FAR FAR FAR more often than a $500 note comes available. To me, there's no question about the difference in price. The two notes are in completely separate rarity classes.

Something else to keep in mind: Registers only record known notes, and in some cases the registers are fairly new. Thus, they should be considered incomplete.

Brent has brought a interesting comment to a question that I'm wondering about:  Are the notes in the National Collection are accounted as redeemed and written off from the BoC's books, or are accounted separately and there is still 40  500$ notes outside the collection?  Is there a way to get an answer to this question...   I suppose that it's not a State's secret...

The register on the Wiki site reports two $500 notes as having been in recent auctions, and a third referenced by the Charlton catalogue. The upcoming Torex auction includes a fourth that is not yet on the register. The rest are in the National Currency Collection.

I just got the catalogue for the Torex auction (Feb. 25-28th, 2010).  The serial number of the fourth note is A00313.

There is also one face proof and one back proof of the 1935 $500 note, which are being estimated will sell for about 4x the book value in Charlton's 22nd ed.