An Irish 10 bank note from the famed Ploughman collection sold for #22,320, or roughly $31,100, for example, 24 percent buyer’s commission, in Dix Noonan Webb’s auction of British, Irish and international bank notes in London on Feb. 24.
It was offered by a private collector and was purchased by a different private collector with the online bidding platform.
Ploughman notes obtained their name in the image of a farmer working a field with a horse-drawn plow. They were first issued in the spring of 1929 from the Currency Commission of Ireland as a way to replace the bank notes in circulation in the Irish Free State issued by six Irish Joint Stock banks that had the right to issue notes under British rule.
Other Irish notes at the sale included the sole known case of a #50 note from the Belfast Banking Company Limited, dated Dec. 7, 1917, which offered for #12,400 ($17,270); an extremely rare #1 note in the Bank of Ireland (Dublin and Westport) in 1838, which sold for #11,780 ($16,400); and a #20 note printed in blue, from the Provincial Bank of Ireland Ltd. of Oct. 20 1904, which sold for #9,300 ($12,950).
The next greatest price of the auction, #12,400, was likewise the cost paid for an Extremely Fine Government of Iraq half-dinar note from 1948. The price was five times its high estimate of 2,200.
A 10-dinar note from the Central Bank of Iraq, dating from 1947, sold for #7,440 ($10,360) from an estimate of #1,500 to #2,000. Another 10-dinar note, from 1942, sold for double its quote, at #4,960 ($6,900).
The standout among British bank notes has been a superb Bank of England #50 specimen notice — a design that remained unchanged for nearly 150 decades. The notice, at Extremely Fine, without a date or consecutive numbers, which sold for #10,540 ($14,675), was hand-annotated from the then chief cashier, Matthew Marshall, saying”Specimen, M. Marshall, Bank of England, 30 December 1858,” presumably registering his acceptance.
Estimated to sell for #600 to #800 was a set of States of Guernsey, face and rear black and white die signs for 5 shillings / 6 francs, 1 SEPTEMBER 1914, without exceptions or consecutive numbers, along with blue pencil numerals on each, (408 and 409). After what was called a”truly remarkable battle between two committed collectors of Guernsey notes,” it offered for #6,820, or $9,500, and has been repatriated to its place of difficulty, which happens to be home to the purchaser.
