Collection PL

Spain 1857 - Banco de Zaragoza 2000 Reales Vellón Serie E Issued Note No. 00286 (Pick S455)

Issued examples of Serie E are seldom encountered today. Survival rates are best established through direct observation of extant notes rather than catalogue estimates. Only a very small number of fully executed, circulation-authorised 2000 reales vellón notes are documented, and serial number 00286 represents one of these scarce survivors. Read more →

Spain 1857 - Banco de Zaragoza 2000 Reales Vellón Serie E Issued Consecutive Pair No. 00031–00032 (Pick S455)

Consecutive issued pairs of Serie E are virtually unknown. Most surviving examples of the 2000 reales denomination appear as isolated single notes, often heavily circulated and later cancelled. The preservation of two consecutive serials-00031 and 00032-offers rare insight into the original issuance sequence and handling of Zaragoza’s largest circulating notes. Read more →

Macau 1937 - Foo Hang Bank 10 Patacas Archival Printer Proof Compound Sheet (Pick S105)

An archival printer proof compound sheet prepared for the Foo Hang Bank of Macau in 1937 for the 10 patacas denomination associated with Pick S105. This pre-issue proof material survives as a single intact sheet and represents internal security-printing output created for reference, approval, and archival control rather than public circulation. Read more →

China 1945 - Soviet Red Army Headquarters 100 Yuan Issued Note, Revalidated 1946 (Pick M36)

Notes of the Soviet Red Army Headquarters represent a narrowly defined historical episode and survive in limited numbers. Based on observable examples and established references, this issue is classified as R7, placing it among the scarce and institution-level artifacts of wartime and immediate post-war Chinese monetary history. Read more →

Martinique 1870 - Banque de la Martinique 1 Franc Unissued Cheque (Pick P.5A)

As a surviving unissued example, this cheque serves as a documentary artifact of colonial banking mechanics rather than a monetary substitute. Pick P.5A is infrequently encountered, and examples in fully unused condition are especially scarce. The piece occupies a specialized niche within French colonial numismatics, valued for its institutional context, documentary clarity, and direct association with Martinique’s pre-1902 financial history. Read more →

Martinique 1870 - Banque de la Martinique 1 Franc Cheque Recovered After the 1902 Mount Pelée Eruption (Pick P.5A)

A Banque de la Martinique one franc cheque form, Pick P.5A, originally printed for use at Saint-Pierre during the late nineteenth century and later recovered from the ruins of the city following the catastrophic eruption of Mount Pelée on 8 May 1902. Although printed decades earlier as part of the bank’s standardized cheque issue, this surviving example was never negotiated as a financial instrument and instead entered history as a disaster-recovery relic, explicitly identified as such by contemporary handwritten annotations. Read more →

Portugal 1799 - Real Erario 20000 Reis Apólice, Original Issue, No Overprint, Lisboa No. 37723

The result is a financial instrument that appears hybrid when viewed through modern terminology: short-term like a Treasury bill, but interest-bearing and formally structured as a public debt bond. Its later history adds another function. Once apolices were authorized to circulate in public and private payments, they also operated as fiduciary paper money. A single document could therefore represent government debt, a one-year interest-bearing obligation, and a circulating means of payment. Read more →

Brazil ca. 1852–1870 - Imperial Treasury of Brazil 10 Mil Réis Contemporary Counterfeit (Pick A231x)

Contemporary counterfeits occupy a distinct and historically important category within paper money studies. Unlike modern reproductions, they were produced to deceive during circulation and therefore interacted directly with the economy, merchants, and the public. In the Brazilian Empire under Dom Pedro II, paper currency circulated widely across a vast territory with uneven enforcement and limited centralized oversight, conditions that created both opportunity and incentive for skilled counterfeit production. Read more →

Uruguay 1871 - Banco de Londres y Rio de la Plata 10 Pesos Face Proof (Pick S239p)

This proof connects with the later 1883 Banco de Londres y Rio de la Plata 10 Pesos specimen preserved in this collection. The two pieces belong to different catalog issues and production dates, but together they document the continuing 10 Pesos denomination within the bank's nineteenth-century note history. The 1871 face proof preserves an earlier plate-approval state, while the 1883 Pick S242s specimen records a later completed two-sided specimen issue with full color, retained counterfoil, reverse design, and perforated SPECIMEN BW & Co LONDON cancellation. Their relationship provides a direct study of the denomination across separate production periods. Read more →

United States 1933 - Any City, U.S.A. 5 Dollars City and County Scrip Specimen (Generic Municipal Master Form)

The obverse is executed in dense brown engraved line work, incorporating wave-pattern security engraving, dual ornamental SCRIP cartouches, and a recessed central denomination panel reading FIVE DOLLARS. The lower margin carries the serial number No. 0000 and is overprinted SPECIMEN, confirming its status as a non-circulating printer-issued reference piece. The reverse is dominated by a large, highly complex radial guilloche medallion, reflecting professional security printing standards consistent with established banknote production rather than improvised emergency printing. Read more →

United States 1934 - New Jersey 10 Dollars County of Atlantic School Scrip Specimen (November 1 Issue)

School scrip issues such as this provide direct evidence of the severity of the Great Depression’s impact on public education. Counties were legally obligated to maintain schooling but lacked liquid funds, forcing them to monetize future tax receipts through interest-bearing instruments secured by municipal obligations. Once fiscal conditions stabilized, issued scrip was redeemed and cancelled, erasing most physical traces of the system. Read more →

United States 1933 - New Jersey 5 Dollars Borough of Palmyra Municipal Scrip Specimen (General Obligation)

Municipal scrip functioned as a direct acknowledgment of indebtedness by the issuing authority, intended for local circulation or settlement rather than long-term financing. In Palmyra’s case, the scrip was structured as a general obligation of the borough, transferable by delivery and bearing interest at the rate of three percent per annum from the date of issue. It was expressly acceptable in payment of taxes or other indebtedness to the borough, with redemption to be fixed by the Borough Council, integrating it directly into the municipality’s fiscal system. Read more →