Coin dealer pays nearly $2.6 million for rare American penny

   LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A Beverly Hills rare coin dealer purchased a 1792 American penny for nearly $2.6 million, the most ever paid for a one-cent piece at auction.

   Named after its engraver, Robert Birch, the so-called "Birch Cent" was among the first pennies struck for the United States, part of a series of prototype coins. Only 10 are believed to exist and collector Kevin Lipton said the coin he purchased is in the best condition of those 10.

   "I felt elated, just wonderful,” Lipton, 55, of Lipton Rare Coins Inc said Monday of his winning bid made last Thursday at the Heritage Auctions sale in Orlando, Florida. "I thought the coin would bring more money. This was a really good buy."

   One side of the Birch Cent features the profile of Lady Liberty with flowing hair and the motto United States of America” and gives the denomination “One Cent” within a wreath.

“Liberty Parent of Science and Industry.” The other side says “

   "It’s a gorgeous coin, breathtaking,” Lipton said. “And the history is important. This is our earliest depiction of what we thought of ourselves as a nation.”

Jim Halperin, co-chairman of Heritage Auctions, said the $2,585,000 Lipton paid for the coin tops a record set the day before at the same auction: $2.35 million for a 1793 “chain cent,” named after the chains around the denomination.

   Before that, the record was $1.38 million, also for a “chain cent,” in 2012, Halperin said.

   Halperin said the auction brought in a total of $80 million over five days, with rare coins a hot commodity these days.

   "The economy is pretty good right now and there isn't a lot of other things to put your money in. People recognize that diversity is a very good financial strategy. And coins are just cool," he said.

   Lipton, who plans to hold onto his new purchase for himself for now, said he was so excited to get the coin that the next day he spent another $2,232,500 for the “Wright quarter,” America’s first quarter.

   “For 26 cents,” he said, “I spent $4.8 million.”

Thrupenny bit on sale for £30,000 at auction

Thrupenny bit on sale for £30,000
  An incredibly rare coin bearing the  head of King Edward VIII goes on sale for £30,000.
  The 12-sided coin was an experimental piece produced by the Royal Mint after the death of King George V.
  Edward succeeded his father but abdicated before his coronation to marry US divorcee Wallis Simpson.
  Vast quantities of commemorative china had already been produced, but hardly any coins were created.
  The coin, which has been in a private collection for more than 20 years, is one of no more than 10 brass pattern thrupences.
  The reverse bears an emblem of a thrift plant and the date 1937.
  Edward abdicated in December 1936 and was succeeded by his brother King George VI.
  Nigel Kirk, of auctioneers Mellors and Kirk said: "Very few of these coins were made, possibly five or 10.  It would be the jewel in the crown to many coin collections."

International Express Wednesday 25 September 2013

U.S. collector uncovers third example of rare Canadian stamp

COLLECTIBLES
U.S. collector uncovers third example of rare Canadian stamp

RANDY BOSWELL

POSTMEDIA NEWS
  For nearly 80 years, there have been only two known examples of Canada's rarest stamp: the two-cent, 1868 "large queen" on laid paper, a postal treasure so scarce it's absent from the Canadian government's own collection — and estimated to be worth as much as $1 million.
  Now, an unidentified American stamp hobbyist has revealed his discovery of a third copy of every Canadian collector's wildest dream, creating a serious stir among postage specialists across North America and shedding new light on how a production anomaly 145 years ago — followed by the apparent distribution of this one-of-a-kind sheet of stamps from a Hamilton, Ont., postal station in 1870 — produced this country's greatest philatelic rarity.
  The idea that a new "large-queen¬on-laid" had been found was so startling to the Canadian stamp-collecting community it prompted a Toronto-based postal history research organization to conduct an exhaustive probe of the claim before issuing a 10-page report last month verifying the artifact's authenticity. The investigators concluded: "The purpose of the expertization of the submitted copy was
to determine if it was genuinely printed on laid paper. This has been successfully accomplished in our opinion."
  The two other documented specimens of the large-queen-on-laid were certified by the Royal Philatelic Society in London in 1935.
  The U.S. collector's coup is all the more remarkable because the stamp apparently cost him $5 after he spotted it in a local collector club's "circuit book" or catalogue. Instead of just pictures and prices of products available for order, a circuit book contains actual stamps and other postal, items and is passed between collectors, who can example and purchase any of the artifacts. In a sub-plot, the existence of the third large-queen-on-laid was first reported by the St. Catharines, Ont.  based Canadian Stamp News after rumours about the certification tests
began circulating in June.
  "The first story I wrote — strange enough for a stamp magazine — was one where I used anonymous sources," Canadian Stamp News editor Bret Evans told Postmedia News. "It's very rare that you sleuth out a stamp story," he added, describing his scoop as the philatelic journalism world's version of "Woodward and Bernstein stuff."
  The two-cent large queen from 1868 was part of the first series of Canadian stamps after Confederation in 1867, lending it special significance in the country's postal heritage. The green-hued stamp features a pro-file of Queen Victoria, and the' rare, ultra-valuable versions were printed — almost certainly by mistake — on a heavier, rougher sheet of "laid" paper in contrast to the run-of-the-mill large queens that were reproduced on more common "wove" paper, examples of which are worth $20 today.
  The value of the new-found large queen is difficult to determine. One major catalogue pegs the theoretical price at $250,000. But earlier this year, when it was announced Canadian stamp collector Ron Brigham would begin selling his set this fall, the value of the large-queen-on-laid in his possession — thought to be one of two in existence — was estimated at $1 million.

Vancouver Sun Saturday, 10 August 2013

Rare penny worth a lot of coin

RANDY BOSWELL

POSTMEDIA NEWS

This Canadian 1936 coin is expected to

 sell at an auction next month in the U.S. '

 - HERITAGE AUCTION GALLERIES

  OTTAWA — Just weeks after the Cana­dian penny was pulled out of circula­tion, the single most famous one-cent coin ever produced in this country — an "exceedingly rare" and valuable 1936 "dot cent" stolen from a U.S. collector in 1964, then mysteriously returned to him — is set to be sold at an American auc­tion next month for at least $250,000.

  The penny was one of just three known to have been created by the Royal Canadian Mint at a time when the nation's coin-makers were scram­bling to prevent a shortage of proper­ly stamped coppers.

  The crisis loomed at the end of a tumultuous year for coin engravers, during which George V died and his son, Edward VIII, became king for only a brief reign before abdicating in favour of his younger brother, George VI.

  Between the time Edward VIII gave up the throne in December 1936 (to mar­ry American divorcee Wallis Simpson) and George VI was formally crowned in May 1937, nervous Canadian offi­cials — lacking a profile portrait of the unexpected new king to stamp on the country's coinage — prepared for a stopgap re-minting of the old George V design.

  To distinguish any new batch of coins that might have been required from the earlier production runs of 1936 George V pennies, a tiny dot was added by mint technicians in the space beneath the "1936" date of the posthumous proto­types, believed to have been made in early 1937.

Ownership key issue in Double Eagle suit

They're remnants of last U.S. government default

   PHILADELPHIA — The 10 rare Double Eagle gold coins at the heart of a federal trial in Philadelphia are remnants of the last U.S. government default, almost eight decades before the current stalemate in Congress over raising the debt limit.

   The daughter of a Philadelphia jeweler found the coins in a family safe-deposit box in 2003. The coins were confiscated by federal authorities. None were issued to the public after minting in 1933, the year President Franklin Roosevelt made it illegal for citizens to own gold and told investors that the government wouldn't repay bonds with the metal. In 2002, a single Double Eagle fetched a record $7.59 million at auction.

   Joan Langbord's lawsuit to reclaim the coins is stirring passion among the numismatic community at a time when gold is near a record reached in May and has rallied every year for a decade. President Barack Obama and congressional leaders have failed to reach a compromise on reducing deficits and raising the $14.3-trillion federal debt ceiling before the government exceeds its borrowing authority on Aug. 2.

   "The government is broke and, eventually, they will dig into everyone's pockets," said Tobina Kahn, the vice-president of House of Kahn Estate Jewelers in Chicago. "Anyone who puts money into gold coins has no confidence in the government or fiat currencies."

   Gold has rallied nine per cent this year and reached a record $1,577.40 an ounce on May 2 as the U.S. kept borrowing costs at a record low and purchased Treasuries to help boost the economy. Gold priced in euros was the highest ever Monday as investors sought a haven against declining currencies amid Europe's sovereign-debt crisis.

   A single 1933 Double Eagle believed to have once belonged to King Farouk of Egypt sold at auction in 2002 for $7.59 million, according to the court filings. The government minted fewer than 500,000 of the $20 coins in 1933, and all were ordered to be melted, according to the U.S. Mint.

   Langbord believed the coins belonged to her father, Israel Switt, according to the filings. The government, in a court filing, said the Secret Service in 1944 investigated "Swift's involvement in the apparent theft of 1933 Double Eagles from the Mint." The U.S. Attorney's Office declined to prosecute Switt, citing the statute of limitations.

   The family gave the Double Eagles to Daniel Shaver, the chief counsel for the U.S. Mint, saying they wanted to sell the coins and split the proceeds with the government. Officials concluded that the coins were authentic and were government property.

   Langbord's lawyer, Barry Berke, didn't immediately respond to a message for comment. Patty Hartman of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Philadelphia said the trial is expected to last two weeks.

   Thirteen of the Double Eagles are known to exist, according to Robert Hoge, the curator of North American Coins and Currency at the American Numismatic Society. Besides the 10 coins on trial in Philadelphia, the Smithsonian has two and the King Farouk coin is on display at the Federal Reserve in New York.

   The coins, which have less than an ounce of gold in them, were "too expensive for most people to consider collecting them at the time they were minted," Hoge said. "There's so much history with these coins. The gold value of the piece is minimal compared to its historical value."

   Double Eagles were minted during the Depression, when Roosevelt was trying to prevent hoarding of gold and a run on bank deposits. The coin depicts an eagle with spreading wings on one side and the other has the image of a woman portraying liberty as designed by Augustus Saint-Gaudens that had been in use since 1907. In 1986, the same design for liberty was chosen for American Eagle Gold Coins.

   It's unlikely that the government of today would confiscate private gold holdings as it did in 1933, said Michael Haynes, the chief executive officer of American Precious Metals Exchange, an online bullion dealer.

   "Unlike the period to the 1930s, the U.S. currency is not now convertible into gold and silver," so the circumstances that led to Roosevelt's order don't exist, he said. The exchange's sales are headed for a record year and may be up more than 67 per cent from a year earlier.

--- Bloomberg News

Canadian stamp snafu on block

`Seaway invert' is expected to fetch at least $60,000 at Sotheby's in London

BY RANDY BOSWELL

  The most embarrassing stamp sna­fu in Canadian history is set to go under the spotlight at a landmark auction in Britain, where an extremely rare, unused quartet of the famous "Seaway invert" — a five-cent issue featur­ing an upside-down image celebrating U.S.-Canada friendship — is expected to fetch more than $60,000.

  That's a whopping 300,000 times the stamp's original face value. Hailed by collectors as one of the world's classic postal errors, and described by the auc­tion house Sotheby's as "an icon of Canadian philately," the botched print­ing of the stamp — intended to com­memorate the opening of the St. Lawrence Seaway in 1959 — caused a sensation at the time.

  It even prompted Time magazine to profile a 20-year-old Winnipeg stenog­rapher, Mildred Mason, whose discov­ery of the mistake "touched off a trea­sure hunt" in Canada as collectors raced to snap up the misprints, while the fed­eral government scrambled to destroy the inverted lot.

Red lettering

  First noticed in August 1959 after the stamp went on sale by the millions across Canada, the erroneous batch of a few thousand featured red lettering on either side of an inverted central image — an American bald eagle and Canadi­an maple leaf entwined in rings and superimposed on a map of the shared Great Lakes. The blunder was particu­larly mortifying for Canadian officials because the Seaway inverts overshad­owed a special bi-national collaboration in which the U.S. Postal Service printed its own version of the stamp — the first-ever joint Canada-U.S. issue.

  About 250 misprinted specimens escaped the federal shredder. Dozens of those were acquired by the quick-think­ing Winnipeg stamp dealer Kasimir Bileski, who paid Mason more than $5,000 for her one-buck block of 20 and earned an appearance on TV's Front Page Challenge for his relentless bid to corner the market in Seaway misprints. Most of the stamps have ended up in public collections around the world, including the Smithsonian's U.S. National Postal Museum, but about 60 are still believed to be in private hands.

  The block of four being sold by Sothe­by's in May belonged to the late Sir Gawaine Baillie, an eccentric British aristocrat and 1960s motorsports celebrity who amassed one of the world's most valuable stamp collections before his death in 2003.

  Another unused pair of the Seaway inverts, originally purchased in Ottawa, is also being offered at the London sale. That couplet is expected to go for about $25,000. Baillie's collection is being liquidated in a record-smashing series of 10 sales that began in 2004, including one New York auction last year that saw a single, ultra-rare example of Canada's most famous stamp — the "Twelve-Penny Black" of 1851— bought for near­ly $250,000, double the predicted price.

Pushing final price

  The significance attached to the Sea-way stamps by collectors could similar­ly push their final price well beyond the pre-sale estimate.

  The 1959 invert has been described by Charles Verge, president of the Royal Philatelic Society of Canada, as "the most spectacular stamp error in Cana­dian philately."

  The mistake occurred because in Canada the two colours were printed separately and the stamp's blue plate was initially placed upside-down.

--CanWest News Service

50,000 flawed U.S. dollar coins believed to be in circulation

George Washington dollar coins struck without their edge

inscriptions are selling for between $40 and $60 US on eBay.

   PHILADELPHIA — An unknown number of new George Washington dollar coins were mistakenly struck without their edge inscriptions, including "In God We Trust," and made it past inspectors and into cir­culation, the U.S. Mint said Wednesday. They went into circulation Feb. 15. The mint struck 300 million of the coins, which are golden in colour and slightly larger and thicker than a quarter. Ron Guth, president of Professional Coin Grading Service, one of the world's largest coin authentication companies, said he believes at least 50,000 error coins were put in circulation. "The first one sold for $600 before everyone knew how common they actually were," he said. `"They're going for around $40 to $60 on eBay now, and they'll probably set­tle in the $50 range."

$200,000 stamp stuck in ballot box

NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY/ASSOCIATED PRESS

The 1918 `Inverted Jenny' is perhaps the 

world's most famous stamp error.

$200,000 stamp stuck in ballot box

  FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. — A rare stamp that could be worth at least $200,000 may be on an absentee-ballot envelope sealed in a box with other bal­lots from Tuesday's election.

  Broward County Commissioner John Rodstrom discovered the stamp, which may be the famous Inverted Jenny, while reviewing absentee ballots. There was no name on the envelope so the vote didn't count. Rodstrom discussed the stamp with the other members of the canvassing board — Broward Coun­ty Court Judge Eric Beller and the supervisor of elections. A stamp-col­lecting deputy overheard them and said the stamp would be very valuable if it was real.

  But it was too late. "By that time we had already sealed the box. And once you seal the box, under the election law you can't unseal it," Beller said.

  The 24-cent Jenny stamps were print­ed in 1918, said Maynard Guss, president of the Sunrise Stamp Club. Stamp sheets were run through presses twice to process all the colours, and on one pass, four Jenny sheets went through back-ward. Inspectors caught the errors on three of the sheets and destroyed them, but somehow, a sheet of 100 stamps got through. Stamp collectors have spent the past 88 years trying to find them all.

Associated Press

New coin for breast cancer wears pink

Next time a cashier hands you change, you may notice two-bits worth of colour in your  --palm. The newest quarter, a collaboration between the Royal Canadian Mint and the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, is adorned with the image of a pink ribbon, and goes into circulation Saturday. Last year more than 5,000 Canadian women died from breast cancer.

--Vancouver Sun 1 April 2006

Smiling, forward-facing Jefferson on new U.S. nickel

   WASHINGTON — After nearly 100 years of depicting presidents in sombre profiles on its coins, the U.S. Mint is trying something different: the new nickel features Thomas Jefferson, facing forward, with the hint of a smile.

   "It isn't a silly smile or a smirk but a sense of optimism that I was trying to convey with the expression," said Jamie Franki, an associate professor of art at the University of North Carolina-Charlotte. His drawing was chosen out of 147 entries.

   In unveiling the design Tuesday, mint officials said they believed the new image of Jefferson was an appropriate way to commemorate his support for expanding the country through the Louisiana Purchase and sending Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the territory in 804-05.

   "The image of a forward-looking Jefferson is a fitting tribute to that vision,” said David Lebryk, acting director of the mint.

   For the last two years, the mint has changed the design of the nickel every six months to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase and the Lewis and Clark expedition, both f which occurred during Jefferson's administration.

   The new five-cent coin, which will go into circulation early next year, is the last scheduled change in the nickel's appearance. It will feature Jefferson's Monticello home on the reverse side of the coin but in an updated image from the Monticello that first began appearing on the nickel in 1938.

--- Associated Press

An artist rendering provided by the U.S. Mint shows the front and back of the new nickel that will go into production in 2006. After nearly 100 years of depicting presidents in somber profiles on the coins, the mint is trying something different: The new nickel features Thomas Jefferson, facing forward, with the hint of a smile.

Value of a nickel hits $3 million in sale

Value of a nickel hits $3 million in sale

 

Photograph of a 1913 Liberty
Head V nickel released by Blanchard
& Co. in New Orleans on Thursday.

  NEW ORLEANS -- A 1913 Liberty Head nick-el minted under myste­rious circumstances, owned by royalty and celebrated in an episode of TV's Hawaii Five-O sold Thursday for $3 million US.

  "Many argue this is the most important coin in our history," said Bruce Smith of Blanchard and Co., which brokered the sale.

  Neither buyer nor seller was identified.

  At least two other coins have sold for more, both at auction. In 1999, an 1804 silver dollar sold for $4.14 mil-lion. Two years ago, a 1933 $20 gold piece went for $7.59 million.

  The $3-million coin is one of only five Liberty Head nickels minted in 1913. The design had been discontinued in 1912 and the mint was switching over to the Indian Head nickel.

  The mint sometimes ran off coins as tests and the coins may have been struck that way, Smith said. They sur­faced in 1920 in the pos­session of Samuel Brown, a former mint employee, and have soared in value ever since.

  The coin sold by Blanchard is consid­ered the second-best in quality and the one with the most colourful history.

  Called the Olsen Specimen for a previ­ous owner, it once belonged to King Farouk of Egypt, an avid coin collector.

  It was also owned by Los Angeles Lakers owner Jerry Buss, and was the subject of a 1973 episode of Hawaii Five-O, titled The $100,000 Nickel.

Associated Press

B.C. stamps should fetch $1 million US

COLLECTIBLES--Collection of pre-Confederation stamps set to be auctioned in New York

BY JOHN MACKIE

VANCOUVER SUN

            THE PROVINCE--A legendary collection of pre-Confederation stamps from British Columbia and Vancouver Island is going to be auctioned off Tuesday in New York, and sales are expected to top $1 million US.

  The 370 lots include exceptionally rare stamps, proofs and "covers" (envelopes) bearing both stamps and express company marks, which are collectible in their own right.

  The sale offers a fascinating glimpse into a little-known era between the Fraser and Cariboo gold rush and Confederation.

  Eighteen separate stamps were issued between 1860 and 1871, when B.C. joined Canada. The earliest stamps bear the legend "British Columbia and Vancouver's Island," because they were separate colonies until 1866. The early stamps also bear a profile of a relatively youthful Queen Victoria, who was 41 in 1860.

  The cover letters have all sorts of historical quirks. Lot no. 273, for example, bears stamps and addresses on both sides of the cover — one for getting out of Canada, one for getting to its destination in the U.S.

Shown above is Lot 1 of 370 lots
that are to be auctioned off in New
York. These 'five-cent rose' stamps
were issue by B.C. and
Vancouver Island.

Collection assembled by two legends in the field

  This is because in the 1860s, there was no cross-Canada mail service — because there was no postal delivery through the mountains. Most mail was taken by express companies from the gold fields to New Westminster or Victoria, then by ship to San Francisco.

  The cover was sent by someone who couldn't spell (it's addressed to "Pioner City, Idiho Teritory") from Richfield, B.C., a gold-mining town near Barkerville that no longer exists.

  It features a pair of British Columbia stamps and a pair of American stamps, and bears the marks of three express companies, two Canadian (Barnard's Cariboo Express, and Dietz & Nelson's B.C. and V. Express) and one American (Wells Fargo and Co.).

  "The Cariboo Express [and Dietz] got it out of inland, the British Columbia stamps got it out of the country, then it got to the United States," explains Keith Harmer of H.R. Harmer Philatelic Auctioneers, which is conducting the sale.

  "Because it had to get to Idaho territory, which wasn't even a state at that time, now it had to go by Wells Fargo. So you have three express companies and two different countries involved.

  "You know something? That could bring $45,000 [US, about $60,000 Cdn], that cover."

  Another interesting cover is Lot 199, which has 10 blue Vancouver Island stamps and is addressed to The Bank of

Lot 1 includes an 1860 die proof of a
stamp from B.C. and Vancouver Island. 

British Columbia, 5 East India Avenue, Leadenhall Street, London (estimated value, $2,700 to $4,100). Lot 181 is addressed to Aylmer, Canada West — pre-Confederation Ontario (estimate $2,000 to $2,700).

  Lot 24 is a pair of rose-coloured five-cent British Columbia and Vancouver's Island stamps, arranged vertically. The catalogue states that it is the only known unused multiple of "this most famous of British North America rarities," and notes it is listed in stamp catalogues at $60,000, although it will probably go higher. Lot 51 is an uncut sheet of 24 blue 10 cent Vancouver Island stamps, which has a catalogue value of about $47,000.

  The collection was assembled by two of the most legendary names in American stamp collecting, the father/daughter team of Alfred F. Lichtenstein and Louise Boyd Dale.

  Lichtenstein was the founder of the Philatelic Foundation in the U.S., and is the namesake of the Alfred F. Lichtenstein Award, which Harmers calls "the most prestigious award in philately." His daughter carried on his collection after he died in 1947.

  After Dale died in 1967, their British North America stamp collection (featuring rare Canadian and colonial stamps) brought $3 million U.S. at a Harmers auction.

Lot 273 features a Barnard's Cariboo
Express stamp from British Columbia
and Vancouver Island.

  Harmer said the 1969 auction was so big — there were 5,000 lots — that at first, most collectors didn't realize there was. no B.C. material. Later on, the missing B.C. collection became the stuff of legend, a near-mythic collection that many thought had been donated to an institution and would never hit the market.

  It turns out Louise Boyd Dale had given the collection to her son John, who has now decided to auction it off. There has only been one collection to come on the market to rival it — the 373-lot Gerald E. Wellburn collection, which was auctioned for $800,000 Cdn in 1988.

  The Wellburn Collection was so famous, the auctioneer, Eaton & Sons, issued a limited edition coffee table book featuring it. Brian Grant Duff has it for sale for $150 at the Bay Coins and Stamps in the Hudson's Bay store in downtown Vancouver.

  Grant Duff said the Dale/Lichtenstein collection is just as famous, and will

attract the elite of the stamp world.       

  "It's one of the great events of a lifetime for many collectors," he said.

  "Much of this material is held privately or in institutional collections, and trades hands once a generation, if that."           

  Catalogues for the auction are $15 US, and can be obtained by e-mailing the auctioneers at hrharmer@hrharmer.com. If you want to bid, call Harmers at 212-532-3700.

$6.6 million US paid for rarest of coins

   NEW YORK — An anonymous buyer submitted the winning $6.6-million US bid at an auc­tion of the U.S. double eagle gold coin still in existence, eclipsing by $2.5 million the previous record for the sale of a coin. The coin never went into cir­culation because then-presi­dent Franklin D. Roosevelt decided to take the country off the gold standard.

only known 1933

New $5 note will feature scenes of youngsters playing in winter

   Cold hard Canadian cash is getting a cold new Canadian look. Icy winter sports will be the theme decorating the back side of the new five-dollar bill being unveiled today by the Bank of Canada in Montreal. But an image of the bill was dis­played Monday on eBay, where the bill was being offered for auction.

   While the fiver's front will still feature the stern counte­nance of the early 20th century prime minister, Wilfrid Laurier, the back will contain the all-Canadian scene of youngsters playing shinny on a frozen pond, another child riding a toboggan and what appears to be a father holding his daughter's hand as they go skating out of doors.

   The unveiling will take place at the old Montreal Forum, for­mer home of the NHL's Mon­treal Canadiens franchise. For­mer Habs star Jean Beliveau, Kim St-Pierre, a goalie for Canada's Olympic gold-medal-winning women's hockey team, and Myriam Bedard, an Olympic gold medallist in biathlon, are expected to be on hand when Finance Minster Paul Martin and David Dodge, the governor of the Bank of Canada, introduce the bill.

Vancouver Sun and Ottawa Citizen

Rare bills featured at Bank of Canada auction

ROYAL TRIBUTE: A $25 Canadian bank note from 1935.

   (VANCOUVER SUN) --- Some of the rarest and most intriguing currency in Canadi­an history goes on the auction block Saturday in Toronto.

   With the millennium winding down, the Bank of Canada has decided it's time to clean out its archives.

   About 8,000 bank notes and "specimen" notes are up for grabs, including a $25 bill from 1935, a $500 bill from the same year, and a complete set of 1954 "Devil's Face" currency.

   There is a note bearing the likeness of Queen Elizabeth when she was Princess Eliza­beth, a note with King Edward VIII when he was the Prince of Wales, and "Banque Du Cana­da" notes with all-French text.

   "It's basically a once in a life-time opportunity for collec­tors," said Brian Grant Duff of Vancouver's All Nations Stamp and Coin Shop.

   "It's the first time a central bank has auctioned a portion of their holdings. When similar auctions have happened, like the Christie's American Ban­knote Company archives auc­tion a few years ago, it's been the printers that have sold the material, and not the banks. So it's an unprecedented auction."

   A little history is in order. The Bank of Canada started issuing paper currency in 1935, and took over the entire paper currency market in 1944. Up to that point, individual banks like the Bank of Montreal and the Royal Bank produced their own currency. Just to complicate matters, the federal government produced paper currency for the Province of Canada from 1841 to 1870 and for the Dominion of Canada from 1870 to 1934.

   The notes in the auction are from 1935 to 1979, and each one comes with a story. The 1935 $500 bill, for example, is a "specimen" note, a type that almost never leaves the bank's archives. (The word "speci­men" is printed or punched into the face of the note.)

   "Specimen bank notes are ex­ceedingly rare, because they're printed as examples for banks to use," Grant Duff explained. "Clients of the bank who are trying to understand what a bank note should look like nor­mally get these. They don't nor­mally fall into collectors' hands."

   The 1935 $25 note is the only $25 bill in Bank of Canada his­tory (a specimen is being auc­tioned). It was struck to com­memorate the 25th anniversary of King George V and Queen Mary's ascension to the throne (they're featured on the front).

   The bank printed two sets of notes in 1954, after some imagi­native souls argued that you could see a "devil's face" leering from behind Queen Elizabeth's curls.

   "If you use your imagination, it looks like a little hook nose, or a gargoyle or a demonic face," Grant Duff said. "No one would care today, but back in 1954 there was a tremendous hue and cry about `how dare they put the devil's face in the Queen's hair!' "

   Auctioneer Charles Moore expects about 150-200 bidders to attend the auction at the Four Seasons Hotel in Toronto, and another 500 to place bids by mail, e-mail, the Internet (at http://www.coinuniverse.com) or phone.

   Moore estimates the auction will bring in at least $600,000, but the final tally could be much higher. Five "specimens" of the 1935 $500 bill are estimated at $1,500 apiece. But there are only 46 examples of the 1935 $500 note outstanding, and only 14 are known to still exist. The new Charlton's Standard Catalogue of Canadian Government Paper Money lists the note at $27,500 for an English copy, and $35,000 for a French one, if they're in "extremely fine" condition.