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)

Certified PMG 62 Uncirculated, the note stands as a singular artifact of Australia’s private-banknote era. It represents the intersection of rarity, engraving excellence, and financial history, and qualifies unequivocally for classification as R9 - Unique. Read more →

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

Population and rarity: based on exhaustive market research-including archival dealer records, institutional catalogues, the Numisbids/Aureo/Santa Fe corpus, and the accessible Brazilian literature-no second example of this printed 1773 Tejuco diamond-administration receipt is known. No specimen is documented in public collections in Portugal or Brazil. As of today, this is the only confirmed surviving example. 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)

Graded PMG 64 Choice Uncirculated and recorded as the finest known example, this specimen stands as a unique surviving artifact of the Federal Bank of Australia’s brief existence. Its significance lies not only in its rarity but also in its documentation of Sydney’s role as a major colonial financial center during Australia’s private banknote era prior to Federation. Read more →

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

No Swedish institutional archive is known to hold a complete original set. Existing examples, when found, appear singly and often in lesser condition or as later restrikes. This privately assembled nine-note system, accumulated over nearly half a century, is believed to be the only surviving complete original series. Individually these notes measure at the highest rarity levels (R9+). As a unified and intact monetary system, the set attains R10 rarity, representing a uniquely preserved eighteenth-century institutional currency structure of profound historical and academic significance. Read more →

Egypt 1943 - Cyril IX Moghabghab, Melkite Greek Catholic Patriarch (Signed Patriarchal Letter, Alexandria)

As a primary-source artifact, this letter is exceptional. It captures the Patriarchate acting as a political broker during a moment of seismic regional change-linking Egyptian, Lebanese, ecclesiastical, and diplomatic worlds at the height of wartime uncertainty. Surviving signed political letters of Cyril IX are almost unknown in private hands, with most retained in institutional or monastic archives. Estimated total survival of comparable documents is believed to be no more than 2–4 pieces, placing this example firmly in the R9 tier of extreme rarity and making it a Tier-6 ecclesiastical–political manuscript of the highest research value. Read more →

Italy 1871–1872 - Banca Italo-Germanica 250 Lire Specimen (Pick S976s)

Rarity research places this specimen in the highest tier of European banknote scarcity. PMG lists exactly one graded example-this note-and no additional pieces have surfaced in major auctions, museum digitizations, or literature beyond isolated mentions in nineteenth-century trade records. In the absence of any documented issued notes and with no other certified specimens known, Pick S976s firmly qualifies within the R9 tier of extreme rarity. Read more →

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

This specimen stands as a singular documentary witness to Uruguay’s most explicit gold-standard experiment in paper form. It occupies a reference position not only within Uruguayan numismatics, but within the broader study of nineteenth-century Latin American monetary policy, where few surviving instruments state gold equivalence with such precision. Its uniqueness, early serial placement, and archival character place it firmly in the highest rarity tier. Read more →

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

This distinction is central to understanding the rarity and historical value of the piece. A single-face overprint could identify a note as part of the emergency state emission, but the additional reverse validation created a second layer of control. It linked the note directly to the fiscal board responsible for supervising the state’s monetary obligations and for separating verified notes from unverified or less formally processed material. The reverse wording “Diez Pesos Oro Sellado” is not incidental. It deliberately echoes the gold-value clause printed on the original 1907 design, reinforcing that this selected note remained connected to the higher official monetary standard even while ordinary paper pesos were under severe pressure. Read more →

Spain 1857 - Banco de Zaragoza 100 Reales Vellon Serie A No. 23327 Full Sheet with Header and Talon Specimen (Pick S451s)

Rarity is at the highest level. Importantly, PMG census data for the base Pick S451 grouping cannot be used to measure rarity for Zaragoza, because PMG aggregates multiple unrelated banks under the same base number (Barcelona, Cádiz, Valencia, Madrid, Pamplona, and others). Full-sheet S451s specimens for Banco de Zaragoza are not recorded by PMG at all. This example appears to be unique or one of very few survivors of its type, placing it firmly in the R8+ category. Read more →

Spain 1857 - Banco de Zaragoza 200 Reales Vellon Serie B No. 07887 Full Sheet with Header and Talon Specimen (Pick S452s)

Rarity is extreme. PMG census data for Pick S432 includes material from multiple unrelated banks and does not record any examples from Zaragoza. No full-sheet S452s specimens from Banco de Zaragoza appear in PMG databases or in major Spanish auction archives (Aureo & Calicó, Cayón, Soler y Llach, Vico). This survival, retaining header, talón, and note on a single uncut sheet, qualifies as R8+ and may be unique. Read more →