The Cook Collection of Central and Eastern European Banknotes

Foreword

It is always very gratifying when a client gets it right - buying when the market is low and selling when it is doing well. I have always managed to do the opposite, but that is another story! I met Joe several decades ago and needless to say I was delighted. At the time (the early 2000s) I could sell Hong Kong and China, British Commonwealth, and other traditionally strong areas with ease. In general, the market was exciting but there was very little interest in notes from Central and Eastern Europe. Joe quickly became my go to collector for this chosen field.

Joe first came to Spink, where I was working at the time, just as we had been entrusted with the dispersal of a varied archive of worldwide proofs and specimens. We had access to numerous examples of hitherto extremely rare items from Albania, Bulgaria, Czechoslovakia,Romania and so on. Despite their obvious beauty, there was little interest from the general market but to his credit, Joe was an avid buyer. Of course, there was still competition for the best pieces but true collectors always seem to go the extra mile and with the courage of his convictions Joe has assembled a splendid collection of notes from a collecting area that has suddenly exploded into life.

My particular favourites in the collection are the spectacular Albanian and Bulgarian colour trials printed by Bradbury Wilkinson but the beautiful American Banknote Company specimens and proofs for Czechosolvakia and Romania are also very striking. I still find it incredible that so much of the contemporaneous material that was readily available for face value 20 years ago is now in such high demand. I don’t think I have ever held an auction with 20 lots of Slovenia before, but am delighted that this is a personal first after more than 50 years in the business.

If Joe was to start again now he would need far deeper pockets than he had in the late 1990s and early 2000s and so many of the notes in the collection would be nigh on impossible to source at all. At the time, I no doubt rolled out my usual expressions such as ‘buy what you love and you can’t go wrong’, but I think this really was a case of a passionate collector being in the right place and right time
I am sure that today’s collectors will validate Joe’s choices and I wish him a well deserved success, a testament to his foresight and indeed courage.
Barnaby, Andrew and Thomasina