Governor’s Charity Sheet Notes - A New Type of Specimen?

To the uninitiated, polymer “Charity Sheet"" notes appear to be a new type of specimen note - as with the polymer specimen notes issued between 1988 and 1996, each charity sheet note features “000000” after the serial prefix, so the initial confusion is understandable.

Charity Sheet notes are not specimen notes however - they served a different purpose, were distributed in a different manner, and are rated differently by collectors.

Even though Charity Sheet notes are not specimens, they are quite scarce and are very collectable in their own right.

One Sheet Donated by the RBA to Charity Each Year

The Reserve Bank of Australia donates one uncut sheet of banknotes, known as the Governor’s charity sheet, to charity each year. The banknotes on the Governor’s charity sheet bear serial numbers with the suffix ‘000000’.  The sheets are auctioned by the ASX Thomson Reuters Australia Charity Foundation in conjunction with the Financial Markets Foundation for Children.

These banknote sheets are quite often purchased and then cut up into single notes, pairs and a block of four, and resold individually.

Unfortunately for those collectors that have bought them, such notes have often been variously described as “specimen” notes, “presentation proofs” or “presentation specimens”.

As such notes are not in the form they were originally released in, they are not highly regarded by a range of experienced banknote collectors.

The First Auction in 1994 Raised $44,000

A full sheet with the serial number AA 93 000000 was first auctioned for charity by Australian Associated Press Group Financial Markets at a dinner in Sydney on February 18, 1994. It raised $44,000. The $10 sheet was signed by Fraser and Cole.

The sheet was later cut into one block of four, one pair and 39 single notes. The single notes were offered for sale at $1,950 each. 

The ASX Thomson Reuters Charity Foundation

The ASX Group and Thomson Reuters Australia (formerly Reuters) joined forces in 1999 to form a Charity Foundation with the objective of helping Australian-based children’s, disability and medical research charities by organising fundraising events in conjunction with the Financial Markets. 

The following information has been compiled from the publicly-available information I’ve been able to locate so far - do let me know if you notice any errors or if you have any additional information available on the notes released to date.

RBA Governor’s Charity Sheet Note - Technical Information

YEAR OF AUCTION

DENOMINATION

# PER SHEET

Serial Start

Serial Finish

COMMENTS

1993

$5

40

AA00 000000

AA00 000000

 

1994

$10

45

AA93 000000

AA93 000000

 

1995

$20

40

AA94 000000

AA94 000000

 

1996

$50

40

AA95 000000

AA95 000000

 

1997

$100

32

AA96 000000

AA96 000000

 

1998

$5

40

AA97 000000

CA97 000000

Recoloured - Serial # range presumed

1999

$10

45

AA99 000000

DF99 000000

Serial # range presumed

2000

$50

40

AA99 000000

DA99 000000

 

2001

$5

40

AA01 000000

DA01 000000

Federation

2002

$10

45

AA02 000000

DF02 000000

Serial # range presumed

2003

$20

40

AA02 000000

DD02 000000

 

2004

$50

40

AA03 000000

DA03 000000

Serial # range presumed

2005

$20

40

AA04 000000

DD05 000000

 

2006

$5

40

AA 05 000000

DA 05 000000 

Serial # range presumed

2007

$5

40

AA07 000000

DA07 000000

 

2008

$20

40

AA07 000000

DD07 000000

 

2009

$50

40

AA08 000000

DA08 000000

Serial # range presumed

2010

$50

40

AA09 000000

DA09 000000

 

2011

$20

40

AA10 000000

DD07 000000

 

2012

$100

32

AA11 000000

CF11 000000

Serial # range presumed

2013

$50

40

AA12 000000

DA 12 000000

Serial # range presumed

2014

 

 

 

 

 

2015

 

 

 

 

 

2016

 

 

 

 

 

2017

$10

45

AA15 000000

DF15 000000

Bicentennial Design, https://goo.gl/NM3rGz

2018

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



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