Collection PL

Australia 1880–1910 - Commercial Bank of Australia £100 Specimen (Pick Unlisted)

Pick Unlisted and absent from major catalogues, this note represents the intersection of rarity, artistry, cultural history, and financial significance. As a design artifact, a Chinese-Australian commercial document, a surviving record of deliberate 19th-century financial localization, and a financial relic from the end of Australia’s private-banknote era, this piece is an educational cornerstone for advanced Commonwealth collections and a critical reference in the study of pre-federation monetary history. Read more →

Australia 1877 - City of Melbourne Bank Limited £20 Specimen (Pick Unlisted)

This specimen preserves the full engraved layout exactly as produced, without circulation wear, providing an intact reference for typography, guilloché geometry, and denomination treatment that is otherwise lost to history. Its survival illustrates the hybrid production model of the era, in which London engravers supplied master plates while colonial banks adopted imagery reflecting local identity and economic ambition. Read more →

Australia 1877 - Bradbury, Wilkinson and Company Portrait of Woman for City of Melbourne Bank Limited 20 Pounds Design Intaglio Vignette (Pick Unlisted)

This engraved Portrait of Woman intaglio vignette was produced by Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co., London, and is directly connected to the City of Melbourne Bank Limited 20 Pounds specimen of 1877, where the same portrait appears as the principal vignette within the large ornamental panel at left. The proof preserves that portrait as a stand-alone engraved component before its integration into the complete banknote design. Read more →

New Zealand 1896 - Bank of Australasia £50 Christchurch Proof (Pick Unlisted)

The Bank of Australasia, incorporated by Royal Charter in 1835, operated as one of the dominant British joint stock banks across Australia and New Zealand. By the 1890s, its New Zealand branches played a central role in commercial finance, agricultural settlement, and large scale mercantile transactions. The Christchurch office served as a major regional hub, making the Fifty Pounds denomination a practical upper tier instrument for institutional and wholesale banking use. Read more →

Australia 1835-1850 - Bank of Australasia £10 Melbourne Proof (Pick Unlisted)

This example serves as a primary documentary artifact of early Australian banking practice, British export engraving, and the institutional mechanics behind the first generation of colonial banknotes. Read more →

Brazil 1773 - Diamond Administration of Tejuco, 6 Octavas Gold Receipt No. 813 (Pick Unlisted)

Accordingly, the document qualifies as R9 - Unique: a singular surviving fiscal artifact of the Portuguese Crown's diamond-district administration at the height of Minas Gerais gold production. Its condition, completeness, watermark-bearing paper and clearly legible serial number 813 elevate it to true museum-grade status. Read more →

Australia 1877 - Mercantile Bank of Sydney £1 Specimen (Pick Unlisted)

As the only confirmed specimen of this design and now graded at the highest possible level (PMG 66 EPQ Pop 1), this note serves as the definitive reference for the Mercantile Bank of Sydney’s unlisted £1 issue. Its rarity is absolute: a single recorded survivor, establishing an R9 classification under documented-population criteria. It stands among the most important early Australian private-bank specimens preserved in private hands. Read more →

Australia 1879–1903 - Federal Bank of Australia, Limited £1 Sydney Specimen (Pick Unlisted)

The Federal Bank of Australia commenced operations in 1881 and expanded aggressively during the speculative land-boom years of the late nineteenth century. Its collapse during the catastrophic banking crisis of 1893 resulted in the rapid liquidation of assets and the withdrawal, redemption, and destruction of nearly all circulating notes. As a consequence, surviving material associated with the bank is almost entirely confined to printer’s proofs, archival specimens, and presentation examples retained outside Australia. Read more →

Poland 1994 - 50 Zlotych Discovery AR Prefix Without Overprints Approval Specimen (Pick Unlisted)

This AR-prefix approval specimen is a direct production artifact from the creation of Poland's 1994 banknote issue. Its AR0000000 serial, final design, Thomas De La Rue production origin, and documented approval-stage format establish a previously unrecorded production form absent from Milczak and Pick. Read more →

Poland 1994 - 50 Zlotych Discovery AR Prefix with Red Overprint and Oval Stamp Specimen (Pick Unlisted)

Discovery AR-prefix red-overprint specimen of the 50 Zlotych banknote from the 1994 Polish issue, bearing serial number AR0000000. The note carries a red diagonal SPECIMEN overprint, paired red oval NO VALUE stamps, round punch cancellations, and De La Rue specimen-control number 005. This AR-prefix form is unrecorded in Milczak and Pick and belongs to the same discovery-level production group as the related AR approval specimen. Read more →

Poland 1994 - 50 Zlotych Discovery AR Prefix Perforated SPECIMEN OF NO VALUE Specimen (Pick Unlisted)

Discovery AR-prefix perforated specimen of the 50 Zlotych banknote from the 1994 Polish issue, bearing serial number AR0000000 and cancelled by the perforated inscription SPECIMEN OF NO VALUE. This AR-prefix form is unrecorded in Milczak and Pick and belongs to the same discovery-level production group as the related AR approval specimen and AR red-overprint specimen. Read more →

Sweden 1785 - Stockholm Spinnhus Pollett System – Complete Nine-Denomination Institutional Currency Set:One Half Öre to One Daler (Pick Unlisted)

This complete nine-note ensemble represents the entire internal monetary system of Stockholm’s Spinnhus, the women’s correctional institution and workhouse operating on Långholmen Island during the late eighteenth century. Produced circa 1785, these engraved pollett notes functioned as closed-economy institutional currency, issued exclusively for use within the prison environment. They served as a controlled medium of exchange through which inmates were compensated for labor, particularly the spinning and processing of flax and wool. Internally, the notes operated as proto-fiat currency, enabling regulated transactions, discipline, and subsistence within a self-contained penal micro-economy. Read more →