old PEI treasury notes, apparently (?)

News: Welcome to the Canadian Paper Money Forum.

The past several weeks have seen several of these notes turning up for sale.  They look like old Prince Edward Island treasury notes (issues of 1848-1870), but they are unsigned and unissued.  Notably, they have what looks like counterfoils at left, something the very rare issued notes lack.  They look legitimate, but there is no mention in the Charlton bible about the existence of proofs or remainders.  The selling prices have been high considering they are black-and-white unissued documents with no catalogue reference, and the seller is selling one every couple of weeks without any indication of how many he has.

While they look absolutely real, something troubles me about them.  The 20 shillings note shown below has design differences from the note shown in Charlton.  Most notable is the different vignette at left.

{http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/3234/peitn.jpg:http://img850.imageshack.us/img850/3234/peitn.th.jpg}

They look like reproductions to me.  The paper looks too bright and clean for something printed that long ago.

They look like remainders.

One of the Prince Edward Island notes from the Bank of Canada Museum does show a remnant of a counterfoil. Also note that both the left and the right vignettes are different.

Somehow my image did not display.
{http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/3579/peicounterfoil.jpg:http://img831.imageshack.us/img831/3579/peicounterfoil.th.jpg}

Here are a couple more.  A five shilling remainder (?) sold for a whopping $1,150 (apx)...

{http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/6374/peitn5.jpg:http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/6374/peitn5.th.jpg}

This two pound note is printed on card stock instead of banknote paper and does not have a counterfoil.  It sold for under $500...

{http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/635/peitn2.jpg:http://img685.imageshack.us/img685/635/peitn2.th.jpg}

I want to agree with Bernie that they are remainders, but after seeing one printed on card and considering how they are being sold (all by the same person), I'm starting to think they are more like trial printings (essai?).  The fact that they have not been cancelled in any way makes me feel more suspicious.

I see that he has sold one of the 5 shillings, two of the one pound, and one of the two pound notes in the last month or so. I went through all of his feedback back to 2009 and could not find any others. Are you aware of others that he has sold?

No, that pretty much sums it up, but two of those notes are identical, and if he has two the same, the question begs to be asked... how many MORE does he have?  He did not even identify these treasury notes properly the first couple of times he made listings... He called them cheques.  I guess when a cheque sells for $500+, it provides incentive to do a little bit of research!