SPECIAL BANKNOTE AUCTION FEATURING 660 PORTRAITS OF H.M. THE QUEEN ATTRACTS WORLDWIDE INTEREST

More that 660 banknotes from all corners of the Commonwealth, but all featuring portraits of H.M. The Queen were sold by Mayfair-based Auctioneers Noonans, who specialise in coins, medals, banknotes and jewellery on Tuesday, May 31, 2022 in a special sale titled The Platinum Jubilee Collection. 

Among the highlights was the first lot of the sale which attracted a lot of interest: a wonderful and unique framed Vignette of Her Majesty the Queen, after the 1955 portrait by Pietro Annigoni which sold for £1,300 to a collector of Royal memorabilia and banknotes. Hand-signed and approved by the artist himself, it was estimated at £400-500 [lot 2001].

The highest price of the sale was for a presentation £5 note, numbered no. A01 000013, dating from 1971 in a leather wallet. This was presented to Sir Jasper Quintus Hollom KBE (16 December 1917 – 29 August 2014) who was Chief Cashier of the Bank of England 1962-66 and subsequently the Deputy Governor of the Bank of England 1970-80, and sold for a hammer price of £3,200 to a collector of rare British material [lot 2040].  

From Belize was an uncirculated $100 note dating from 1 June 1980 which sold for £2,000. As expert-in-charge Thomasina Smith said: “This was one of the key notes for Belize collectors and is in exceptional condition. Considering it is a fairly modern note, issued in 1980, there are very few surviving today. It sold to a collector of British Commonwealth notes in the Far East” [lot 2294].

Expected to fetch £600-800 was a rare presentation set of specimen notes from the Central Bank of the Bahamas featuring $1/2, $1, $3, $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100. Dating from 1984, they all had the serial number A 000000 and sold for £1,900 to an American collector of Queen Elizabeth II notes  [lot 2282]. Also from the Bahamas was scarce $20 from 1974, that sold for £1,500 against an estimate of £600-800 to a collector of Bahamas notes [lot 2238].

This was a spectacular example of one of the most beautiful of all notes to feature The Queen which realised £1,700. This example of a $5 note was from the British Caribbean Territories, dated from 2 January 1959, and sold to one of the most advanced collectors of The Queen in the world [lot 2346].

Two Australian $5 notes, dating from 1988 and 1995, which were very rare specimens for some of the first polymer notes to feature The Queen, anywhere in the world, sold for £1,400 each - double their low estimate to collectors in the region [lot 2169 & 2170].

A group of mint condition notes with very low matching serial numbers sold for £1,500 - three times its high estimate to a collector from Asia. From the Cayman Islands, it was a group of six notes: $1, $5, $10, $25, all ND (1971), $40 and $100, ND (1974) [lot 2365].

One of the most iconic note designs to feature a portrait of The Queen is the 100 shilling note from the East African Currency Board dating from 1962. As it is becoming extremely difficult to obtain an example in nice condition, this attracted a lot of interest and sold for £1,300 against an estimate of £600-800 to a collector in the USA [lot 2443].