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Spink Highlights from 2004
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Banknotes
by Barnaby Faull, Director

2004 was another busy year for Banknotes. The April Auction held in conjunction with the Maastricht paper money show was our largest ever total for a Spring sale, over £540,000. Highlights include a varied selection of British Commonwealth issues, Middle East notes, rare Bank of England and English Provincial notes and an excellent group of Scottish banknotes including over 130 lots consigned by the Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc. with all profits donated to the Scottish Society for Autism.

This was followed by the two day auction in Autumn. The auction on October 1st was part I of a three part programme of sales for the Karouni collection of English banknotes. The collection is without doubt one of the finest collections of its type which has come on to the market. This unique sale had innumerable highlights specifically high denomination black and white notes, rare Treasury varieties and trials, special prefixes and presentation notes. The sale proved a huge success and it achieved a total of £436,000.

The World Section with over 900 banknotes held the across the two day extravaganza raised an impressive £457,000.

The final auction of the year was held in Hong Kong in November and realised a total of £318,000.

Overall turnover in auction for 2004 surpassed the considerable successes of 2003 by surpassing the massive figure of £1.7 Million. Treasury issues and Bank of England notes continue to sell well as the strong prices in the April and Karouni sales testify to. In addition the English Provincial series continue to attract new interest was seen when the English Provincial Banknotes Collection of the late Paul Russell Esq. was sold in Spring. Scottish notes are keenly sought after and prices for notes from the Far East, particularly from Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaya and the Straits Settlements are beginning to rise again. Underlying all the sales it is still abundantly clear that quality and rarity sells.

We have an exciting auction calendar planned for 2005 and I hope we can continue to build our collector base in this new and most interesting of hobbies.

Spink Highlights from 2004
Please click on your department of interest:   coins    banknotes    medals    stamps   books