A six-piece set of color trial specimens issued by the Qatar & Dubai Currency Board sold for $58,750 at the 387-lot Stacks’ Bowers World Currency Auction in Denver on Aug. 4. The price includes the 17.5 percent buyer’s fee. The set dates to the 1960s and consists of 1-, 5-, 10-, 25-, 50-, and 100-riyal specimen notes. They are undated and received grades of Gem Uncirculated 66 and 67 by Paper Money Guaranty. The 1-riyal note is the only one of the six normally available in high grades.

An extremely scarce Philippines 500-peso silver certificate from 1906, reminiscent in appearance to its American counterparts and printed at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, doubled its low estimate by selling for $39,950. It was graded Very Fine 25 by PMG.

Foremost among a group of 35 Canadian issues, at $14,100, was a Dominion of Canada $5 note of 1924 in PMG About Uncirculated 50 Exceptional Paper Quality. Despite the date, it was not released until 1934, and then, just a third of the 2 million note press run was issued, because in 1934 the Bank of Canada was founded and began issuing its own notes, as the nation’s exclusive issuer, a year later.

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A massive Philippine 100,000-piso commemorative note from 1998 in Gem Uncirculated quality and mounted in clear plastic, sold for $15,275. The note commemorates the centennial of the First Republic, but instead of depicting older historical scenes, both sides show the country’s president from 1992 to 1998, Fidel “Eddy” Valdez Ramos. A thousand notes were printed, and they are difficult to obtain because most were given out to diplomats.