Paper Money

Canada, Colombia dominate Stack’s Bowers Americas auction

The leading price in Stack’s Bowers Galleries’ August world currency auction was $40,800, paid for a superb 1935 Bank of Canada $100 note. The note is graded Gem Uncirculated 67 by Paper Money Guaranty.

Images courtesy of Stack’s Bowers Galleries.

Canadian and Colombian paper money dominated the sales results at the 579-lot Stack’s Bowers Galleries Global Showcase Auction Aug. 14 to 15 devoted exclusively to banknotes of the Americas.

The leading price was $40,800 (including buyer’s fee) paid for a superb 1935 Bank of Canada $100 note. The note, graded Gem Uncirculated 67 by Paper Money Guaranty, is tied with one other for the high grade of the issue, of which 87,500 were printed. Its face has a portrait of Prince Henry, Duke of Gloucester, wearing the uniform of a captain of the 10th Royal Hussars Regiment. He was the third son of King George V and Queen Mary. The back has allegorical figures representing Commerce and Industry.

One of the two finest known Bank of Canada commemorative $25 notes issued on May 6, 1935, to commemorate the silver jubilee of King George V realized $25,200 in a grade of Gem Uncirculated 66 by PCGS Banknote. It has side by side portraits of King George V and Queen Mary, with Windsor Castle on the back. It is the only $25 note ever issued by the Bank of Canada.

The $1,000 note from the bilingual 1937 series with a low 0000104 serial number and a grade by PMG of Gem Uncirculated 66 reached $24,000. It has the portrait of Sir Wilfrid Laurier, the first French-Canadian prime minister, and on the back an allegory of a kneeling female shielding her child.

While the Canadian results were within range of their lower estimates, the top Colombian notes soared past theirs. An unlisted uniface Banco de Colombia 10-peso proof from 1875 printed by D. Paredes and described as possibly unique was estimated at $12,000 to $14,000 and settled at $28,800 in PMG About Uncirculated 50.

A pair of proofs from Colombia’s Banco del Cauca also thought to be unique, and printed by Paredes, had similar results.

Selling for $28,800 but with a slightly higher estimate of $15,000 to $17,000 was another unlisted undated 10-peso proof. It shows two children holding up the denomination counters. A companion 5-peso proof with the same estimate sold for $26,400. This one has a more prosaic design of an eagle with a banner in its beak proclaiming liberty and order. Both proofs are undated but attributed to the period of 1870 to 1879. Banking Institutions in Colombia says the Banco del Cauca was established in Cali in 1873 and liquidated in 1893.

Another part of the catalog was devoted to 130 lots from the Dr. Edward and Joanne Dauer Collection of East Caribbean States. The East Caribbean Currency Authority issued its first notes in 1965. They are the common currency of Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. A $100 note from the first year of issue graded Gem Uncirculated 66 by PMG sold for $3,360 and was the section’s top result.

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