The final installment of the collection of archive material from AIB (Allied Irish Banks, formerly First Trust Bank) realized a total of £122,815 ($158,985) in an online and live auction of British, Irish and world bank notes at Dix Noonan Webb in London on Oct. 28.

The collection contained an assortment of proofs, specimens, sheets and issued notes dating from 1954 to 2012 from the Provincial Bank, AIB, and First Trust Bank. The collection was offered in three auctions over the last seven months with the proceeds being split between Age NI, the leading charity for older people in Northern Ireland, and the Alzheimer’s Society. DNW will also make a contribution and will donate 5% of the buyer’s fees (£6,140.75) to the two charities.

The three auctions had a total of 330 lots and each one sold.

The highest price of the entire collection was the final item, one that offered a rare look into how a bank note design is developed. It consisted of a nine-page booklet printed on De La Rue letterhead with an official proposal to First Trust Bank from De Le Rue for a polymer £10 “2017 New Series,” with two totally different proposed designs, called Versions One and Two.

Included with images of the notes was a list of all the security features and annotations identifying all these features.

Pages had images of the notes as they would appear under different conditions such as ultraviolet lighting. Also shown were the locations of the clear window, magnetic thread, iridescence, mask, and machine readable features. The last page has the obverse and reverse of the proposed Version Two design printed on transparent plastic to simulate polymer.

Neither design was adopted and the bank stopped issuing notes in 2019.

The booklet realized £8,500, 14 times its estimate of £400 to £600.  The second highest price was for an uncut sheet of 40 specimen/proofs for an unadopted £5 trial note which sold for £3,200 against an estimate of £1,500 to 2,000.

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