Collection PL

Uruguay 1872 - Banco de Londres y Rio de la Plata 100 Pesos = 10 Doblones Specimen (Pick Unlisted)

At the time of writing, this is the only documented specimen of the 1872 100 Pesos = 10 Doblones type. No additional specimens are known in private collections, institutional holdings, or grading census records. The note is unlisted in Pick and absent from all major published catalogues, reflecting its survival outside the normal catalogued population rather than any provisional or trial status. Read more →

Paraguay 1907 - 100 Pesos with 1912 Dual-Side State and Treasury Revalidation Overprint Specimen (Pick Unlisted)

Among recorded Paraguayan emergency issues, the dual-side state and treasury revalidation format is virtually in a class of its own. It is not simply another overprint variety. It is a surviving document of how Paraguay attempted to defend official monetary credibility at a moment when ordinary paper value, legal value, and gold-referenced value were no longer the same thing in practice. The second overprint is therefore the key historical feature: it confirms that this note was not only reissued, but reviewed, fiscalized, and tied back to the higher official “Diez Pesos Oro Sellado” standard. As a Pick-unlisted specimen, base Pick 159, and R9 Extremely Rare survivor, it stands as a museum-grade crown piece of Paraguayan emergency paper money. Read more →

China 1880 - Sinkiang Textile Emergency Currency Cloth Note (Pick Unlisted)

As a historical artifact, this note records how late Qing frontier authorities sustained economic continuity using locally adapted solutions. It stands as material evidence of a monetary system operating beyond the reach of centralized control, relying instead on durability, recognizability, and regional legitimacy to function. Read more →

China 1915 - South Sinkiang Border Defence Headquarters 1 Tael Textile Emergency Issue (Pick Unlisted)

As a historical artifact, this note documents how military authority on China’s western frontier constructed a functioning monetary instrument using locally available materials, established visual conventions, and bilingual administration. Its combination of textile substrate, woodblock printing, military symbolism, and frontier iconography places it among the most distinctive and academically significant emergency currencies of early twentieth-century China. Xinjiang Cloth Money (Sinkiang) 1880-1924 - Textile Emergency Currency on Red Cloth, Seven-Note Reference Set Read more →

China 1918 - Xinjiang Textile Emergency Currency Printed on Red Cloth, Local Authority Issue (Pick Unlisted)

Textile emergency currency of this type was issued as functional money for everyday transactions, provisioning, and local settlement in environments where paper currency was unavailable or impractical. Once monetary conditions stabilized, such notes were typically withdrawn and destroyed, accounting for their extremely low survival rate. Read more →

China 1920 - Xinjiang Textile Emergency Currency Printed on Red Cloth, Local Authority Issue (Pick Unlisted)

The note was issued as functional money, not as symbolic or ceremonial material. Textile currency of this type was intended for everyday transactions, provisioning, and local settlement in environments where paper currency was unavailable or impractical. Once monetary conditions stabilized, such notes were typically withdrawn and destroyed, resulting in extremely low survival rates. Read more →

China 1921 - Xinjiang Textile Emergency Currency Printed on Red Cloth with Sun Emblem (Pick Unlisted)

An issued textile emergency currency produced in Xinjiang (Sinkiang) during the early Republican period, printed by hand from carved woodblocks onto red-dyed cotton cloth. This note represents a distinct local issue within the Xinjiang textile tradition, created for circulation under conditions of monetary instability, limited access to paper currency, and decentralized administrative control in China’s western frontier. Read more →

China 1922 - Xinjiang Textile Emergency Currency Printed on Red Cloth, Local Authority Issue (Pick Unlisted)

An issued textile emergency currency produced in Xinjiang (Sinkiang) during the early Republican period and printed by hand from carved woodblocks onto coarse red-dyed cotton cloth. This note represents a locally authorized substitute currency created for circulation under conditions of monetary disruption, limited access to paper stock, and fragmented administrative control in China’s western frontier. Read more →

China 1924 - Dihua Official Coin Bureau 40 Wen Textile Emergency Issue (Pick Unlisted)

As a historical artifact, this textile note illustrates how regional authorities in early Republican China adapted monetary practice to local constraints. Its material choice, bilingual inscriptions, and woodblock execution record a pragmatic system of emergency finance at the edge of state infrastructure, making it one of the most distinctive surviving expressions of provisional currency in twentieth-century China. Read more →

Australia 1905–1910 - Commercial Banking Company of Sydney LIMITED £5 Specimen Proof (Pick Unlisted)

Unlisted in Pick and graded PMG 63 EPQ Choice Uncirculated (Top Pop), this specimen marks the transition from private colonial issues to the newly centralised Commonwealth currency introduced after 1910. It reflects both the confidence of early-twentieth-century Australian banking and the enduring partnership between London engravers and Australian financial institutions. Read more →

Australia 1880-1889 - Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Limited £5 with Serial Prefix SPECIMEN (Pick Unlisted, MVR4a)

A printer-issued £5 SPECIMEN prepared by Bradbury, Wilkinson & Co. for the Commercial Banking Company of Sydney Limited, dating to the late 1880s production window (ND 1880–1889), and bearing live serial numbers rather than zero or placeholder prefixes. This piece represents an internal control or approval specimen drawn from a numbered production sequence, distinct from margin-heavy proof impressions or display specimens. Read more →

Australia 1900 - Bank of New South Wales £20 Sydney Circular Note Specimen (Pick Unlisted)

Together, the face instructions, Letter of Indication reference, signature-verification procedure, London exchange provision, reverse demand draft, institutional watermark, and printer specimen markings preserve the complete operating structure of an early 20th-century Australian circular note. The Sydney £20 red-overprint specimen form is Pick Unlisted and is recorded here as R9 Extremely Rare, with this example representing the only known specimen of the exact form. Read more →