High Notes

A journal by Fenntucky Mike

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Entries in this journal

Collecting

Baby (I) Did A Bad Bad Thing (Part 4)

Written 9/11 On Friday (9/3) the 10 & 20 Shahiv notes showed up in a registry set, followed by a slot being added to the Registry and the 30 Shahiv being added to the same set on Tuesday (9/7). As I suspected, one of my fellow Ukrainian collectors in the Registry picked up 3 of the 4 notes (myself having acquired the fourth), the 10 & 30 Shahiv having sold for moon money ($281 & $158 respectively) and the 20 Shahiv selling for considerably less. I had purchased the 40 Shahiv (PM
Fenntucky Mike

Fenntucky Mike in Collecting

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Collecting

Baby (I) Did A Bad Bad Thing (Part 5)

Written 10/24 Well, here we are. The End... A few weeks ago, approximately on or around Oct. 1, the seller who had originally listed the first lot of 4 Shahiv banknotes listed two more, 10 & 20 Shahiv banknotes. I was excited to see these listed, and therefore justified my incessive PMG Population Report watching, kind of, but I felt little excitement in wanting to acquiring either of the two notes.  The 10 Shahiv note was a lower grade than the first, the first being graded 55 EPQ
Fenntucky Mike

Fenntucky Mike in Collecting

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Collecting

Why, Why, WHY!...... And It Makes Me Wonder......

Sigh..... Well, I did it again. Went and completely shot myself in the foot AGAIN. Arrghh!  A few weeks ago I wrote a journal entry about how I have been getting skunked at auctions lately and I also eluded to a group of Ukrainian notes being auctioned by Heritage Auctions, a group of WWII issued karbowanez banknotes. Journal entry here... I had bid up the notes that I was going for (Way UP!) and had put noncommittal bids on the other lots. Well guess what? While scouring ebay I came a
Fenntucky Mike

Fenntucky Mike in Collecting

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100 Hryvnia, New Signature.

Want You To Sign Your (Banknote) (Part 1, 2021)

For the second time this year the NBU has updated the signature on a circulating banknote, the 500 hryvnia in March was the first, and the 100 hryvnia is the latest note to receive the signature of the new Governor of the NBU, Kyrylo Shevchenko. The 100 hryvnia banknote was designed in 2014 and measures 75 x 142mm, this is the third signature to grace the 2014 design and is the fourth different pick # to date. The new 100 hryvnia banknotes were put into circulation on Sept. 7, 2021.  PICK #
Auctions

We Chew And Spit You Out!

Well, the trend of getting crushed at auction has continued in earnest this last week with major disappointments, for me, on several fronts. First there was a Ukraine P1b (inverted back, which is the normal orientation for this note. Pick 1a, standard orientation, is the much rarer/harder to find note for this issue.) with a preauction estimate of $400 - $500, it is a lovely note in the old PMG Gen 2 holder with the blue-green tint, I already had a graded example of this note but at a lower grad
Fenntucky Mike

Fenntucky Mike in Auctions

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2021 30th Anniversary Commemorative Banknotes

I Just Want To Celebrate! (Part 1)

While an independent Ukraine has fully embraced commemorative coins from the beginning, with the first commemoratives dated 1995 shortly after the Banknote Printing and Minting Works was fully operational in late 1994, banknotes have not seen the same type of attention. Thank goodness! I currently count six commemorative, souvenir and presentation notes having been issued/released since the BPMW fired up their presses to produce the 50,000 Karbovantsiv notes in 1994. Six commemorative notes in 2
Compensation Certificates

In and/(or) Out Of Love/(The Registry Set)?

The Ukrainian Compensation Certificates issued in the early 90's are a bit of an odd duck, not really a banknote and not really currency. The presence of them in the PMG Registry is a bit iffy but I suppose an argument can be made that they belong, although I'm not so certain that they do.  After the fall of the U.S.S.R and Ukraine's independence, which was ratified in August of 1991 by the Central Rada of Ukraine, there was an immediate need to separate and create new financial institution
Shahiv Issues

Shahiv It Up, Baby, Now

The Ukrainian Postage Stamp Currency of 1918, with denominations of 10, 20, 30, 40 & 50 Shahiv, are odd little ducks but not in the context of the times. World War I would rage most of the year until the Armistice Agreement on November, 11, the Spanish Flu pandemic was beginning, the Russian Revolution was in full swing and the newly established People's Republic of Ukraine (June, 1917) was toppled via coup d'etat complements of the Imperial German Army which was occupying Kyiv at the time a
Fenntucky Mike

Fenntucky Mike in Shahiv Issues

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Collecting

99 (100!) Luftballoons

Recently I acquired a P127b banknote for one of my Ukrainian sets, NBU 1991 - Date, normally this would not result in much fanfare but it just happened to be the 100th note in the set.  A somewhat noteworthy  achievement in my book and a short time coming in the grand scheme of things. Having started this set in February of 2019, it took only a miniscule 28 months to reach 100 banknotes a goal that I would have anticipated being much more drawn out and that there was submitted such a variety of
Fenntucky Mike

Fenntucky Mike in Collecting

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Musings

Like A Book On A Shelf Rusting

I was rearranging my books and making/installing a new shelf for them in my office at work, the ones that I keep there anyway, and it got me thinking about why I decided to acquire the books that I did for my Ukrainian banknote collection. The rhyme and reason behind my acquisitions of these tomes has swung wildly from start to present, I say present because I'm not done building my library and currently have two more references on the way after winning two auctions last night.  In the beginning
Fenntucky Mike

Fenntucky Mike in Musings

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Ukrainian Banknotes

Who's BAD? (Me?)

Ok, time to fess up. A month or so ago a Ukrainian banknote went up for auction but not just any note a P 125! A note I've been pining over for the last few years and a note whose acquisition has been proving most difficult, so much so that I will have another journal entry about in the near future. A NOTE THAT......OH WAIT A mechanical error. A mislabeled note, the seller had it described as such, interesting.  Now, being the narcissistic panophobic conspiracy theorist that I am, my first t
Pick #1b, 100 Karbovantsiv

It's Never Enough (For Me!)

So, this is me toning down descriptions for my banknotes. I'm not sure why this is such a source of angst for me but I have to believe at the core of it is my desire to produce something that's halfway legible, informative and enjoyable, not just content for the sake of it and my distain of a word limit. Meh, well the only way I'm going to know is if I throw some of it out there for critiquing to the PMG Journal audience, all four of you.  I'm working on a basic structure, well not really, i
High Notes

There's Room Enough Here For Two....

Banknotes, when playing Guess The Grade. As you go along your collecting journey it is almost impossible to NOT end up with a few duplicate notes, whether do to buying a bulk lot that contained a note you already owned, upgrades, winning an auction with a lowball bid, you purposely wanted a second note or you were running up the bid and got stuck with it. Ahem!  No matter the reason I really enjoy having duplicates as it give me an opportunity to further study and learn about the note. My m
Fenntucky Mike

Fenntucky Mike in High Notes

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Matej Gabris Fantasy Banknotes

Is This Just Fantasy? Umm, Yes. (Part 2)

I picked up some more Matej Gabris (he's like the Dan Carr of banknotes ) fantasy notes a few months back to compliment the set I purchased last year. These latest notes are an earlier series having been printed in 2002, the previous series of notes I purchased were dated 2003. I believe these are based, loosely, on Austrian notes towards the end of the Austro-Hungarian Empire (1867-1918). The ornamentation, the position of the profiles, the background patterns, etc. have a very close resemblanc
Collecting

They got an education / And they all been in school

I was taking a stroll through the internet, a week or so ago, searching for information on the paper used by the National Bank of Ukraine - Banknote Printing and Minting Works for banknote production, and stumbled upon a really wonderful document titled Banknote Paper Deterioration Factors: Circulation Simulator Method, authored by Tetiana Kyrychok, Anatolii Shevchuk, Victor Nesterenk, and Petro Kyrychok. Normally I like to skim over items such as this, gleaning what I think is pertinent to my f
NBU

But I Would Walk 500 (Hryven)

Turn over at the executive/legislative level always seems to be high, whether due to term limits, scandal or forced retirement and the NBU is no exception. On July 16, 2020 the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine confirmed Kyrylo Shevchenko's appointment as Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine, replacing Yakiv Smoliy.  The process is much the same as it is here in the States, the President taps someone on the shoulder, they are grilled before a committee and then a vote to confirm. The previous Govern
Fenntucky Mike

Fenntucky Mike in NBU

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NBU

She Gets More (e)Mail Than The Pope

In late 2019 the NBU announced that it was reviving it's annual "Banknotes and Coins of Ukraine" catalog. They followed that announcement with the free release of the catalog for the years 2015 - 2019 in .pdf format, 2014 being the last year the catalog was released prior to 2019. Now here we are, 2020, and the NBU has remained true to their word, releasing the 2020 catalog just a few days ago.  They had some big releases in their commemorative coin line up but the banknote issues/releases were
Fenntucky Mike

Fenntucky Mike in NBU

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Musings

You Can't Hurry (Notes) / No, You'll Just Have To Wait

Moving past the you/you'll lyric debate, , and now having grabbed all the low hanging fruit of Ukrainian banknotes, I'm realizing that further progress will be slow in the acquisition department. In my Ukrainian 1917-Date set I have 37 slots left to fill, out of 112, two of those empty slots (Picks 50 & 125) are $1,000 + notes in any grade so I don't really consider them required for completion. Another two slots (Picks 87A & 87B) were never printed/issued, other than proofs and specimen
Fenntucky Mike

Fenntucky Mike in Musings

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Ukrainian Banknotes (Security Features)

Take A Look At My New Toy!

In part to help enhance a Journal entry I'm currently working on, also to "level up" my current banknote skills and what the heck because it's fun and cool I've added a new contraption to my banknote collecting arsenal, an IR Camera. I've been reading up on Infrared, lights, wavelengths, and cameras for a few weeks now along with researching the IR ink features on banknotes. I was considering constructing my own Infrared station for banknotes but since I had a bunch of Rewards Points through Ama
NBU

The One Thing The Whole World Loves Is A WINNER!

The International Journal of Central Banking, often referred to as Central Banking, a well respected global publication for policymakers and researchers in the field of monetary policy has announced the winners for the 2021 Central Banking Awards. An annual event recognizing "excellence in a community facing difficult monetary policy and financial stability challenges that will need to be tackled and effectively communicated, while prudently embracing technological change in reserves, financial
Fenntucky Mike

Fenntucky Mike in NBU

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Ukrainian Banknotes

Under the (UV)light / You see a sight that almost stops your heart. Part 3

Uh oh... The new UV lights arrived earlier this week, I ordered both through Amazon, one a fluorescent UV light from Banknote World the other a LED UV flashlight. Both seem to be of good quality and I would have no problem recommending either one of them, depending on what you are using them for. Buuuut, we're talking banknotes here and one is better than the other, which will bring the question of "whether or not the label for anP82b in PMG holder is accurate" to a close. For reference, I
Ukrainian Banknotes

Under the (UV)light / You see a sight that almost stops your heart. Part 2

The Pick# 82b (with latent imprint) has been stuck in my head for the last few weeks. I don't know, just a feeling that I haven't investigated the note completely enough and some reservations with the capabilities of my equipment. Since I had no other 3 Karbovansti notes to compare it to I went and acquired several for a control group, they are fairly cheap for raw notes. Upon their arrival and inspection they looked as they should, in regards to the latent imprint, under normal lighti
Ukrainian Banknotes

The (note) is HIGH but I'm holding on

I've previously mentioned I wasn't planning on upgrading any notes, except for replacing a few AU notes and that I would consider an upgrade for a +2 note. I've been sticking to my guns but it's been much less of a choice to do so as the popularity of Ukrainian notes as increased. PMG graded Ukrainian banknotes have been increasing in popularity, number and price over the past year, with the largest price increases being seen for the higher grade notes. I'll have to go back through my records bu
Ukrainian Banknotes

Maybe time is (an empty slot), endlessly mocking.

That empty slot for the P-125, 50 Hryven commemorative is sticking out like a sore thumb now that I have all the slots surrounding it filled.  I've had so many opportunities to purchase this note raw but other things keep popping up, the latest was an Isle of Man half sovereign last week. I have had the funds several times, I know were one is. Why can't I pull the trigger on this note!?  Well, I'm in the same position I was almost a year ago, waiting to accumulate funds to purchase thi
Ukrainian Banknotes

Upgrade my system (sets) at least twice a day.

Not really, but....  Most of the Ukrainian notes coming up for auction/sale as of late are duplicates of examples I already have but some would be upgrades for me. So do I take the opportunity to replace a few low grades in my set or not, I'm not so sure right now. There are many factors in a decision to upgrade your collection, as a collector you would of course want the best examples available (that are within your means). I'm definitely not upgrading anything unless it's a 2+ increase in
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