Mavin International Auction 43 World Coins and Banknotes ( 9 July, 16 July 2016 )

Looking to expand your collection and investment, the upcoming well-loved Mavin Auction will be held on 9 & 16 July 2016, at the Concorde Hotel Singapore.

Mavin International is the official auctioneer for The Monetary Authority of Singapore

Auction Highlights:

Banknotes from the Monetary Authority of Singapore including 2 sets of $100 Portrait Tharman Shanmugaratnam with prefixes 2DD, 2ED

SG50 Banknotes from the Community Chest including 27 sets of $50 with prefix 50AV and a set of 5 $10 uncut sheet of 45 together with a $50 uncut sheet of 40

A selection of private property Singapore coins

Singapore $1, (1971), orchids, sign. Hon Sui Sen without seal, specimen, 1st prefix, PMG Gem UNC66EPQ

Singapore $1-$100, (1967), orchids, sign. Lim Kim San, specimens, all serial nos. A/1 000000

Singapore $50, (1989), orchids, sign. Hon Sui Sen with seal, specimen, 1st prefix, PMG Gem UNC66EPQ

Singapore $500, (1972), orchids, serial no. A/1 571986, only prefix, PMG Gem UNC66EPQ

Singapore $1, (1976), bird, 16 consecutive 1st prefix notes, all PMG graded

Singapore $2-$100 Portrait HTT 1st prefix OAA together with a $10000 Portrait HTT specimen prefix 8PN, all with same serial no. 003328

Singapore SG50 banknotes, two sets of 5 $10 uncut sheets of 3

China Empire, Kiangnan Province, Dollar, 1898, NGC AU58

China set of four 400 Yuan, 1979, commemoratives, 30th Anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, gold proofs

Hong Kong QV, $1, 1867, PCGS AU58

Malaya & British Borneo QEII, 10 Cents, 1961KN, specimen, PCGS SP64. Rare

Netherlands East Indies EIC, Keping, 1804//AH1219, gilt copper, proof, NGC PF63 Cameo. Rare

Indonesia Bank Indonesia, 5, 100, 500, 1000, 5000 Rupiah, ND(1957), specimens, all PMG graded

Malaya $50, $100, 1942, KGVI, all PMG graded

Malaya $1000, 1942, KGVI, specimen

Malaya & British Borneo $100, 1953, QEII, serial no. A/1 493041, PMG Choice VF35

Malaya & British Borneo $1000, 1953, QEII, specimen, blacked out serial nos. A/1 39761, PCGS graded

Malaya & British Borneo $10, 1961, buffalo, small prefix A, PMG Choice AU58EPQ

Malaya & British Borneo $10, 1961, buffalo, large prefix B, PMG AU55

A good collection of Malaysian Banknotes

Straits Settlements $10, 1935, KGV, consecutive pair, all PMG graded

Viet Nam/South 1000, 5000, 10000 Dong, ND(1975), specimens, all serial no. A1 000000, all PMG graded, all rare

Do check out their Auction 43 catalogue.

Noble Auction Sale 112 on 25-28 July 2016

There is an upcoming Noble Auction on 25-28 July 2016.

Below are the highlights of the auction. 

Auction Highlights

• The Hannibal Collection of Carthaginian Coins
• The Dr George Fenton Collection of Important Australian Coins
• Australian Colonial Holey Dollars and Dumps and Adelaide Pounds
• Australian Patterns and Proofs, 1855-1956
• The Kaldor Collection of Chinese Dollars
• New Zealand banknotes including a Lefeaux fifty pounds

Do check out their catalogue if you are interested to bid. 

Noble Numismatics Pty Ltd is an Australian company trading in coins, medals, stamps, banknotes and related material. Annually the company conducts three major, international numismatic auctions. All auction enquiries are welcomed and free to the public.

Noble Numismatics also trades retail in a variety of numismatic material and offers immediate settlements to purchase all types of collections. Here is their website

MyNumismatics Auction on 19 June 2016

There will be a coins, collectibles and banknotes auction in Malaysia. It is happening on 19 June 2016 ( Sunday ) 9.30am. Do check out their website for more information

http://mynumismatics.net/2016/05/29/welcome-to-mynumismatics/

For Sales : Singapore Portrait Series $2 Unique Fancy Number 911

Self collect locally at Braddell MRT. Email me at see323@yahoo.com.sg for the price.

For Sales : Singapore Portrait Series $2 set with binary fancy number repeater, 010101, 100110

Self collect locally at Braddell MRT. Email me at see323@yahoo.com.sg for the price.

For Sales : Singapore Portrait Series $5 Fancy Number 006666 (Circulated)

Self collect locally at Braddell MRT. Email me at see323@yahoo.com.sg for the price.

For Sales : Circulated Portrait $2, Interesting set of 3 with fancy serial number 888898, 999998, 889988

Self collect locally at Braddell MRT. Email me at see323@yahoo.com.sg for the price.

For Sales : Singapore $2 Circulated Low Serial Number 000015

Email me at see323@yahoo.com.sg for the price. Self collect locally at Braddell MRT.

Hong Kong International Numismatic Fair 2016 ( June 24-26)

The Hong Kong International Numismatic Fair is back. It is happening from 24-26 June 2016. 

For more details : Check it out at :

http://www.eternity-hkinf.com/index.html

Do you need grading service for your coins and banknotes ?

Helping a professional numismatist friend, Vincent Tan on his grading services. Please check out his site if you are interested in his service. He is based in Singapore. 

PMG Announces Revised Services And Fees For 2016

Posted on 12/15/2015

Updated PMG services and fees are effective January 1, 2016. New submission forms will be available on the PMG website later this month.

Paper Money Guaranty (PMG) has announced a few changes to its services and fees that will be effective January 1, 2016. A list of changes is provided below.

• Modern Bulk – Tier is renamed “Mixed Modern (1961-Date)” and fee is changed to $14 (US notes)
• Non-consecutive Bulk – Tier is renamed “Mixed Vintage (Pre-1961)” and fee is changed to $16 (US notes)
• Large Size Bulk (US Notes Only) – Tier has been discontinued. Submit Large Size US notes under an applicable non-bulk grading tier.
• Express (US Notes Only) – Fee is changed to $80
• Unlimited Value WalkThrough – Fee is changed to $100 + 1% Fair Market Value ($2,500 maximum fee)
• PMG Oversize Holder – Fee is changed to $15
• Handling Fee – Fee is changed to $8

The above changes apply to direct submissions to PMG at its US offices and will be effective January 1, 2016. Updated submission forms will be available on the PMG website or by contacting PMG Customer Service. All notes shipped to PMG after December 31, 2015, must be accompanied by the new submission forms. Please note that US and world notes must still be submitted on separate submission forms.

Questions? Please contact PMG Customer Service at 1-877-PMG-5570 (764-5570) or Service@PMGnotes.com.

PMG Collectors Society paid members can submit their notes directly to PMG. Elite Collectors Society members receive a 10% discount on PMG grading tiers. Not a PMG Collectors Society member? Paid memberships start at just $39/year. Join now!

Here is the original link for the article : https://www.pmgnotes.com/news/article/4984/PMG-Announces-Revised-Services-And-Fees-For-2016/

Restarting my Banknote Collecting Hobby / Investment

A fine example of a major error where the banknote was folded during the printing process. The printing process goes through different printing stages resulting in the back design appearing on the front of the note. As a result, some portion of the back design was omitted on the back of the note. The note was the first error note acquired in the 1980s when I first started collecting. It was from a small little banknote dealer shop in the Peninsular shopping centre. 

After laying off for quite a few years in banknote collecting, I decided to restart my banknote collecting and trading. The number of banknote collectors have obviously increase in number over the years. Old collectors whom I knew now are senior collectors / traders. Familiar dealers are still around. Some have passed away especially the really old ones. Some are in semi-retirement stage, reaping their years of collection by selling them off and live comfortably.

The world has become a smaller place with the help of internet. Selling and buying through various portals has made it easier for trading. Information flows freely which it never happen when I first started collecting my banknotes in the 1980s. Something has also change. No longer, collectors / dealers are relying on self grading to grade their collections. With the opening of PMG branch in Hong Kong, we see a trend for collectors around this region to have their banknotes graded based on an International grading body, PMG. PMG is based in USA. Sending your banknotes for grading is not cheap. It is even more expensive if you are not residing in Hong Kong or USA ( How I wish they have one PMG branch in Singapore to serve the entire South-East Asia). You need to pay for the insurance, shipping and other expenses to get your banknotes delivered to the grading company. It is a two way shipping. One advantage is that with international grading, there is no dispute on the grading of the banknotes. Otherwise, seller will always want their banknote to be graded higher and buyers felt it should lower in grade. Grading affects the value of the banknote. Whatever is the grade, this will increase the note value since the seller will need to factor in the grading cost. The question is, should we grade our banknotes ?

I started collecting Straits Settlements banknotes and coins. In those days, Straits Settlements banknotes are very much in demand especially for high grade ones. Today, the supply of these high grade Straits Settlements banknotes have dried up. Most of them have already been locked up in the collectors' collection. Unseen and unheard. If they do surface in the market, they are going to cost a bomb. Only the serious collectors will gun them down especially for those new collectors where money is never an issue. There is really no market pricing for the rare or scarce banknotes whether in type or grade. It is the mutual agreement between buyer and seller. If you refer to auction market pricing, then it is only for common banknotes which appear quite often in auction.

Straits Settlments 1925 $5. Extremely rare in grade. Original AU / UNC. Acquired this in 1987 at the Singapore International Coin Convention. 

Collecting banknotes for investment can be quite tricky. Keen knowledge on the scarcity of banknotes is important. Areas of keen investment collection include first prefix, last prefix, as well as the mintage of the notes. Some banknotes have very short circulation. An example is the Singapore Ship series $2 in orange colour. As there were complaints on $2 having the same colour as the $10, the Currency Board decided to withdraw the $2 and replaced with a purple coloured $2 note. Based on this fact, the orange coloured $2 should be a favourite collector's banknote but unfortunately it is not so since there are abundance of them collected by collectors. That can be quite tricky as well. In Singapore context, Orchid, Bird and early Ship series solid number banknotes tend to have a better market value than the current Portrait series.

The Singapore Government started to auction out the solid number Ship $2 notes sometime in late 1980s or early 1990s. if my memory never failed me. It didn't received very well initially as most of the early solid numbers comes from the bank tellers whom spotted them while they were working in the bank. They were then sold to banknote dealers and collectors buy them. The earlier solid numbers banknotes may not be spotted and may not survived the circulation. Here is a good example in my collection where a rare solid number large denomination note survived the circulation. An orchid $100 last prefix A/6 555555. Because of the abundance and easy availability of auction solid number banknotes, collectors felt that it is no longer a challenge to own solid number banknotes. Over the years, these auction solid numbers have also steady rise in value as well as collectibles.

Most collectors will want to believe that commemorative banknotes are a must to collect. That is not very true for modern commemorative notes. Today, collectors collect such notes in bulk. To get them to become scarce will probably taken many years, maybe not in our lifetime. But collecting the rare serial number such as the first prefix solid number is still a good piece for collection. Here is an example in my collection where there is only one prefix A/1 for a solid serial number. They were auctioned out in Singapore.

Celebrating Singapore-Brunei 40th year relationship, this commemorative Brunei $20 was released together with the commemorative Singapore $20.  Most collectors collected them but the rare ones are the solid number ones. 

Finally, all my Straits Settlements, error and world solid numbers collection notes still reside in my collection. If interested parties are keen, they can offer to buy my collection notes. If the price is right, I will let go my collection notes. As for my investment banknotes, they are for sales and you can pm me for the price if you are interested in a particular banknotes that is showcase in this blog.

Lastly, banknotes collecting or we termed it as numismatics is both a hobby and investment. You must be passionate about it and have a full understanding of this hobby cum investment. I find it rewarding over the years. Acquiring a piece and understanding the history behind the banknotes makes it even more interesting. At the end of the day, if you decided to sell it, if the banknotes is a rarity, you should be able to make a small fortunate out of this investment banknote.  Enjoy your collecting and increase your knowledge for a better investment.

Collecting foreign solid number such as Macau 1991 can be quite rewarding since it was then still a Portuguese colony. A relative small country with a low mintage of banknotes circulated within the country. Today Macau is part of China. Collectors may have an interest in Macau banknotes especially those before China took back the tiny colony. 

Look out for more posting on my blog on various interesting topics on banknote collecting. Posting may also list some of my collection and investment banknotes for sales or for sharing. Happy Collecting !