ABN Co. Proof of 1900 Shinplaster signed Courtney

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I have in my collection an American Bank Note Company (ABN Co.) engraved Proof of the 1900 Shinplaster signed by Courtney (Charlton DC-15a). It is printed on card and has the following imprint at the top: DOMINION OF CANADA-F-141. It is identical in all respects to the issued note except that the tint color is black rather than brown and the word "OTTAWA" is omitted after the signature. This Proof was not obtained from the ABN Co. Archive sales of 1990/1991.

I have illustrated this Proof below together with an issued example for comparison purposes.

Could anyone venture an opinion as to what this Uncirculated Proof might be worth? With a few notable exceptions, Proofs and Specimens are difficult to price because they trade so infrequently.

Many thanks.

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I received a very kind private message today from member jasper indicating that he had seen an estimate of $750-$1250 on a set of colour face and back proofs of the Courtney signature 1900 shinplaster. He went on to mention that proofs have a very limited following, which is very true --- at least in the case of paper money but definitely not so in the case of postage stamps (see post below).

Jasper mentioned that black & white proofs generally sell for 50% of colour proofs and that since the present proof is missing the back proof it would be worth even less. He further noted that proofs of Dominion of Canada issues are generally scarcer than Chartered bank proofs. He suggested a value for my black & white Face Proof in the $300-400 range, which seems reasonable to me.

I greatly appreciate this member's detailed and analytical assessment of my proof note!

The Value of Paper Money Proofs vis-à-vis Postage Stamp Proofs.

I have always wondered why Canadian paper money proofs have such low values relative to postage stamp proofs from the same era. In particular, black & white so-called "Die Proofs" or "Plate Proofs" (with numerical printing plate imprints) of Edward VII and George V Canadian postage stamps frequently sell at philatelic auctions for several thousand dollars each even though the corresponding issued stamps themselves are quite common. Philatelists even get excited about relatively minor differences such as "Proof before Plate Hardening" and "Proof after Plate Hardening"!

The above comments provide another classic example of the well-known phenomenon of "Supply and Demand". Thus, no matter how rare a particular item may be, if there's little or no demand for it then the value will always be on the low side. Just because an item is unique or excessively rare does not necessarily translate into a high financial value. However, markets can and do change and things that were not previously popular can become popular quite quickly. The great current popularity of asterisk notes, replacement notes, changeover prefixes and the like is a fairly good example of this phenomenon --- who would have thought a few years ago that some Bank of Canada 1954 $1 non-Devil asterisk notes in Unc would now be selling for $10,000 each!!

I recently read a book on the World's greatest stamp collectors by Stanley Bierman.  It was interesting to see the parallel between the market for rare stamps and rare notes.

I was struck by the exact same finding regarding the disparity in prices between stamp proofs and banknote proofs and must admit I was floored by the prices paid at auction for stamp proofs even  100 or more years ago.  It was enlightening to see the highs and lows in the market for rare stamps as each was traced from generation to generation. Yesterday's expensive prices were tomorrow's bargians.  The prices the stamp proofs sold for made the prices for note proof look like a bargain.

Personally speaking, I have never liked proofs, which are virtually always printed on "alien" paper, i.e., on gossamer-thin India paper (usually glued to card), or directly onto thickish card itself. Also, they are printed on one side only. However, many are undeniably very beautiful and they will always be popular with some collectors. I have heard of proofs being referred to as "printer's waste" in the past but I think that's going a bit too far!

I personally like Specimen notes very much, if only for the fact that they are "structurally" the same as the issued notes, i.e., they are printed on the same quality paper and on both sides. They differ, of course, in that they usually carry 00000 serial numbers, they are usually missing one or both signatures, and they usually have cancellation holes and "SPECIMEN" overprints. However, they certainly have the "look" and the "feel" of real bank notes.

Unfortunately, in the case of notes that are very rare in issued form, the corresponding Specimen notes are often just as rare or nearly so. For example, when did you last see (let alone have an opportunity to acquire) some Specimens from the legendary Bank of Vancouver, the Metropolitan Bank, the Farmer's Bank of Canada, the Crown Bank of Canada, the Northern Bank, The Commercial Bank of Manitoba, etc.?  Early Dominion of Canada Specimen notes are generally excessively rare too.

Even more unfortunately for collectors, a large proportion of Canadian chartered bank notes are so very rare (sometimes even non-existent) in issued form that they will never be collectible in practical terms. I had an opportunity to purchase a Farmer's Bank of Canada $5 issued note in About Fine at a Torex show around 1980 but I let it slip away -- however, the asking price even then was $3000, which was a great deal of money at the time.