1928 Ten Shilling Riddle/Heathershaw R7 PCGS Choice UNC 64

Front: National crest at left, KGV at right

Back: Goulburn Weir

Period on Issue: February 1928 and January 1933

Provenance:

Lot #2792, Noble Numismatics Auction 34 (November 1990). Estimate: $400, Hammer: $760, Nett: $760.

This note has fantastic paper quality and is as good as notes from this period come.

Most collectors working towards a type set of Australian pre-decimal ten shilling notes start at the easiest end and work back from the more readily available Queen Elizabeth (QEII) notes issued in the 1960s to those issued before World War I.

The first really tough note these collectors come across is the Gold Bearing ten bob of the 1920 - all of the QEII and King George VI notes can be sourced with patience, while the total number of Gold-Bearing notes is so small that some collectors will take them in any condition they can get.

Internal records held by the Commonwealth Bank showed that as of October 1945, 99.69% of all of the Gold Bearing ten shilling notes ever printed had been destroyed - we can only imagine just how few have survived the seven decades that have passed since then.

The first thing a collector notices when they handle a Gold Bearing Ten Pound note is the light texture of the paper - they were printed on paper with a 1,500 MDF rating. KGVI notes had a 2,500 MDF rating, while our paper decimal notes had a 3,150 MDF rating.

These technical figures clearly show that the Gold Bearing notes were half as strong as our decimal notes. When we consider that most decimal notes lasted for less than 2 years, we understand why there are so few Gold Bearing notes around today in high grade.

This particular note retains all of the original body and crispness to the paper that an Uncirculated note should have - it has great colour, as well as perfect edges and corners.

It was interesting to go through the auction history for this item - it first became available in November 1990, where it was graded by the auctioneer as being in good EF condition. The Rennik's catalogue value at that time was $750 (25th anniversary edition), which indicates the grade attributed by the auctioneer may have been rather conservative. The preceding lot was graded as being in about Unc condition, yet only made a hammer price of $400, against an estimate of $500.

It is a great example for the discerning type collector.

Click the PCGS icon below to verify the certificate details for this note directly on the PCGS website.

PCGS Certificate Number: 45874123

SKU: 2314