THE TREVOR WILKIN COLLECTION OF SIEGE NOTES TO BE SOLD BY NOONANS

A remarkable auction of banknote issued during military sieges is to take place at Noonans Mayfair on Thursday, May 30, 2024. Featuring items dating back to the French Revolution and Napoleonic Wars, through to the Boer War, it was amassed by Australian collector Trevor Wilkin (1948-2022). Comprising almost 200 notes, it is estimated to fetch between £65,000 - 85,000.   
 
As Andrew Pattison, Head of the Banknotes Department at Noonans commented: “Siege notes are a niche but popular subsidiary of military banknote collecting. All the notes in this catalogue were produced during incredibly turbulent periods of human history. Most are printed on poor-quality paper never intended for this use, using cheap inks and jury-rigged printing machines. The majority were produced, and hand signed by men, very often soldiers, who certainly never imagined they would be issuing money simply to keep a town or fortification running during weeks, sometimes months, of desperation. Perhaps most humbling is the fact that many of those who signed the notes did not live to see beyond these sieges.”

The earliest items in the collection are in fact ‘paper coins’ made using pages from prayer books pressed into coin dies.  They were made during the Siege of Leyden in 1574, making them exactly 450 years old, and the older paper money ever produced in Europe.  They are estimated between £500 and £1,200 [lots 1001-1003].

Many of the notes in the sale are very rare and unique. Of all the notes in the collection, Trevor’s favourite was an incredible 1 Piastre from the Siege of Khartoum. This small and unassuming note is believed to be the only example in private hands and bore witness to one of the most dramatic events in colonial African history. Dated 25 April 1884, it is hand signed by General Gordon and estimated at £10,000-15,000 [lot 1087].