The $1,695,446 realized at the Stack’s Bowers Galleries New York International Numismatic Convention Auction of World Paper Money on Jan. 15 completed the trilogy of rare world currency sales held in the first half of January.

The other two were conducted by Heritage Auctions in Dallas, in conjunction with the Florida United Numismatists convention, and by Spink, also at the New York show.

The top result in the Stack’s Bowers Galleries auction, at $43,200, quadrupled its estimate in the catalog. The short-lived Hamilton Bank Note Company of New York printed the “Arias” issues of Panama’s Banco Central de Emision in 1941. These are legendary both for their rarity and the story behind them — that they legally circulated for only seven days until a military coup led to the closure of the bank and most of the issue was destroyed.

The 20-balboa note is the highest and rarest of the four denominations. Only nine have been graded by Paper Money Guaranty. This one, with serial number 007000 is graded Very Fine 30. The sale was the third within a year where one of these notes sold for $43,200. Last October that was the price for an About Uncirculated 53 example, and in August the same price was realized for an Extremely Fine 45 example.

Tripling its estimate with a $36,000 winning bid was a Dominion of Canada $1 note of 1870, payable at Montreal, in PMG About Uncirculated 55 Exceptional Paper Quality. It is the only such note in the PMG census and part of the first issue of dominion notes after the establishment of the Canadian Confederation in 1867.

Five different $1 notes were printed. All have a bust of French explorer Jacques Cartier at top left, a vignette of Britannia with a shield pointing to the name of CANADA marked on a globe, an owl and dove, and a cherub holding a caduceus. The back of each has the name of the city where it could be redeemed, Montreal, Toronto, St. John, Halifax, or Victoria. They could not be exchanged elsewhere.

Two lots sold for $31,200. A very rare National Bank of Egypt 1-Egyptian-pound note of Jan. 5, 1899, in PMG Very Fine 30 is tied with two others for best known. Printed in London by Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co. Ltd., the red and yellow face features a pair of camels, one standing and the other kneeling.

The other lot to realize the same price was an early issue from the People’s Republic of China’s first series of renminbi bank notes that was listed at $2,000 to $4,000 — a previously mounted 50,000-yuan note from 1950 graded PMG About Uncirculated 53. The design is a political statement glorifying the worker’s paradise, a dark green face showing a combine harvester, and foundry workers in the center of a dark brown back. This was the highest denomination of the 1950 series by far, and certainly the least used. The others were 1-, 5-, 10-, 20-, 50-, 100-, 200-, 500-, 1,000-, 5,000-, and 10,000-yuan notes.

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