pressed and washed banknotes

News: Welcome to the Canadian Paper Money Forum.

Hi All

I see a lot of sellers in eBay, but very small of them provide details about banknotes. Is there any way to recognize banknotes over the pictures posted in eBay?

Or maybe general question is - how we can recognize pressed or washed banknotes?
Any advice will be helpful

Thanks in advance

Hi 12vv21,

When it comes to ebay, the long and short of it is:  Caveat emptor.

Only buy from reputable dealers--The ebay "100% positive feedback" rating should be viewed with a certain degree of skepticism.

If a note looks too good to be true, then it probably is.

Without having the note in your hands, you can never be 100% sure that it has not been treated or altered; there is always a risk when buying stuff online.

Personally, I never buy from ebay but I have gotten scammed a couple of times from unscrupulous sellers on Facebook.

It really boils down to how much risk you are willing to take when acquiring objects for your collection.

Best,
Dean

When it comes to ebay, the long and short of it is:  Caveat emptor.

Only buy from reputable dealers--The ebay "100% positive feedback" rating should be viewed with a certain degree of skepticism.

If a note looks too good to be true, then it probably is.

Without having the note in your hands, you can never be 100% sure that it has not been treated or altered; there is always a risk when buying stuff online.
...
It really boils down to how much risk you are willing to take when acquiring objects for your collection.

+1
-It took me several years to learn to grade (& over that time I bought a few problem notes)
-It has taken me even longer to spot a note that has been washed (or pressed)
-generally speaking, you have to look for "tells" in the images, such as white crooked crease lines that & get to know what type of colour to expect on the various series your in search of.  The washed notes tend to be slightly lighter shades. Pressed notes tend to be darker & show no rippling around the creases. Its tough to discern problem notes on many of today's scanned offerings.  If the contrast of the scan seems off (white is too white) then its advisable to pass.
-Also learn to spot the language used: "GEM AU or "Mint" are all terms coin collectors (or unsavoury sellers) may use (avoid these listings). I also avoid note described as "uncirculated" when you can see pen marks, counting folds, etc b/c the seller doesn't really understand UNC.
-buy notes here.  I have bought better notes (for better prices) from fellow collectors off the Trading Post than on eBay.

Thanks walktothewater and Dean
Regards

As discussed, there is a risk factor. Ive gotten better at identifying UNC, Choice UNC  and GEM unc bills on ebay, but still hit and miss. If the seller is reputable, they should be ok with me returning their bills if they are not as described. Important for sellers to take good quality pictures, but even then, you will only know for sure when you have your bill in hand.

I just bought a lot of 9x 1974 $2 bills from a reputable seller, that were supposedly UNC as per his description. The pictures were taken within the money holder, so I knew I was taking a calculated risk. Having dealt with this seller multiple times and with the prices too good to pass on....I took the risk. Unfortunately, they were all pressed and none of them UNC. I gave the seller an option, I return them or he gives them to me at face value. He chose the latter and apologized, mentioning he truly thought they were UNC (which I believe). Again a reputable seller and now I have Christmas gifts to give. Merry Christmas.

As mentioned, there's a few of us here that sell our extras on this site.

Enjoy the risks, losses and rewards, it's all part of the hobby.

 

-Also learn to spot the language used: "GEM AU or "Mint" are all terms coin collectors (or unsavoury sellers) may use (avoid these listings).

There's a seller on eBay that list all his UNC bills as (( GEM UNC ))  . They were certainly not GEM when I received them. He did accept my return, but then blocked me immediately after.

All part of the game.

They were certainly not GEM when I received them. He did accept my return, but then blocked me immediately after.

There are many sellers who use the GEM term far too liberally. I was going to write "I know who you're talking about" but then realized, there are just too many sellers who could care less. 

One thing good about participating in US & World forums is you start to get a bit more critical with these adjectives & realize how important it is to use them conservatively.  I know we like to trash PMG & some US sellers but most of them are pretty careful with the term GEM as they know its all about the centred design (+ registration).  We may need to be a bit more vigilant about minor handling but on the whole- most Choice UNC notes get knocked down due to the design being off-centred somewhat.

With all of this discussion about "washing/pressing" notes and selling them on E-bay, I need to ask how common this practise is? 

Very common practice unfortunately and even reputable dealers get fooled (like the seller from whom I bought on eBay).

The pictures you will see on eBay look like this:  See the first two attachments.

Unfortunately, when you get them at home, they can look like attachments 3, 4 & 5!

Believe it or not....same bill, different angles & lighting. And in pictures 1 and 2, I wasn't trying to be manipulative with my camera.

Even the best of us on this forum would have a bit of a challenge without "the light"

Very tough to tell.  Thank you for that.

You think BCS would grade this beautiful ( GEM ) as a GUNC-66 or maybe 67?
 

 

... but BV for a GEM/UNC is $45 .. so your getting a deal for a mear $10, no? 

Maybe it's just the camera angle thats a bit off

I think this quote may apply here?

There are many sellers who use the GEM term far too liberally.

Maybe it's just the camera angle thats a bit off

I think this quote may apply here?

-If you look at the $2.00 you posted I think you'll notice that the design is a bit tilted. (For the time being lets just forget how circulated it is -demonstrated by your nice side-angle shots). Tilted designs or printing a bit too far the left/right/up/down happens a lot. What I have observed over the years is that the majority of World (& Canadian) sellers just examine a note for levels of circulation but forget the rest (whether either face or back are perfectly centred, whether they line up- register, etc).  US collectors tend to be a bit more critical of well centred notes so they tend to include this bit in their assessments. 

TPG's like PMG & PCGS will give these nice UNC notes a 65 or 63 (they're unc but the designs may be a little off). BCS tends to give them a 63 or 60 (depending on how poorly handled).