By the time you read this, you will have had a chance to take a look at the catalog for the upcoming Fall 2024 Maastricht Auction, which will take place on October 2, 2024, and offer nearly 850 lots of paper money from around the world. In this blog, I won’t focus on the rarest and most expensive notes in the sale, but instead will highlight some of my personal favorites. As I was cataloging the sale there are some notes that just stood out. While I am limited to the available space in the catalog, this blog allows me to expand a little more on why I think these notes are so interesting.
Lot 20171 is a 5 Rigsdaler from Denmark dated 1863, Pick-A62a, graded Very Fine 20 by PMG. Prior to the middle of the 19th century the paper money of much of Scandinavia, including Denmark, was rather simplistic, typically black and white notes printed in a uniface format. While this note is still uniface, its design is a radical change from earlier types, with a lovely and highly detailed engraving. It’s also a type that is not very often encountered and, in my opinion, would make a worthwhile addition to any advanced Scandinavian collection.
The next lot stood out to me because of its history. Lot 20350 offers a 50 Reichsmark issued at several Reichsbank offices in Austria in the final days of World War II. Graded Choice Uncirculated 64 EPQ by PMG, this is a most curious note, essentially an official reprint of contemporary circulating notes that was issued into circulation as an emergency measure when new notes could no longer be supplied. A random bank note was taken and reproduced as a photomechanical print. Of course, because of this process, each serial number was the same, but desperate times called for desperate measures. The 50 Reichsmark was one of three denominations issued as such; all are reminders of the hectic times of early 1945.
Issued around the same time, lot 20614 is another note from the World War II period, this one printed in the United States by American Bank Note Company. This 1943-dated 50 Gulden from the Netherlands is graded About Uncirculated 50 by PMG and represents the key denomination of this important series. While liberation of the entire Netherlands did not take place until May 1945, the southern regions of the country were already liberated in fall 1944. Here, the government issued this series of notes, which had been ordered by the government-in-exile the previous year. They remained in circulation for a relatively short period of time, as soon after the capitulation, the monetary reform of 1945 saw the introduction of new notes and withdrew all previous types in circulation (including these), making this a short-lived series that represents the liberation of the Netherlands.
Unlike many other areas in numismatics there are still discoveries waiting to be made “in the wild, and lot 20715 is one such find. This 1 Pound from the Standard Bank of South Africa (graded PMG Choice Fine 15) was issued at the Salisbury branch in Rhodesia (present-day Zimbabwe) and is dated 1st July 1919. According to the Pick catalog, the first date of this issue is 1925, which is obviously not correct. This note came to us in an otherwise ordinary consignment, but the note is definitely something special. Unlike later dates, it does not feature a cursive R in the underprint, and in my opinion, constitutes a separate type. Even over a century after the note was issued, no one had realized the specialness of that date until now.
My final personal favorite is actually a group of three lots, lots 20805, 20806 and 20807. These three notes from the Bank of St. Gallen in Switzerland from the 1830s are remainders or proofs printed in the United States by Draper, Toppan, Longacre & Co. of New York. What makes this trio so interesting is that in appearance they look more like contemporary obsolete notes from the United States than Swiss notes. The vignettes used by the printer should be familiar to collectors of obsolete bank notes, as they were used quite frequently by the printer. A fascinating group showing that even in the 1830s banks shopped around to find the most suitable printer for their circulating currency.
The entire Fall 2024 Maastricht auction is available for viewing and pre-sale bidding at StacksBowers.com. For information on consigning call 800-458-4646 or email Consign@StacksBowers.com.
