Fenntucky Mike

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 resemblance to Austrian notes of that period. As Gabris likes to base his work, at least in part, on the historic events or times of the subject Nations, the time period of 1917-1920 is an excellent one to draw from for Ukraine as it was a period of brief independence and the Golden Age of Ukrainian banknotes. These are some of the best fantasy banknotes I've seen, they hit the mark in regards to aesthetics, capturing a moment in time and plausibility, they are lovely pieces of art and an excellent addition to my collection. Fantasy notes are a nice break or gap filler to my main collecting interests, when things are slow I'll pick a few up to pass the time. My previous Journal Entry on Gabris fantasy notes. Some Austrian notes from 1919.

Probably, I'm sure I'm over the limit of free articles for the month at any rate. They have a lot of good articles on world finances and shenanigans, every time I search something in those categories for banknote research at least one article from them pops up. Sigh, well the month is half over, I guess I can wait but they do have a three month special that is calling to me. I used to juggle the free 30 day trials from Amazon, sign up, cancel, sign up, cancel....... but they wore me down in the end. I may just go back to that and give Bloomberg and UNIAN (Ukrainian Independent Information News Agency) my $13 a month. I really despise having so many different accounts and passwords but I guess it's all a means to an end. At least 75% of my accounts were started because of coins and/or banknotes.

Good stuff, I think you're spot on with all of this. I like the description of the Z$20, and it has me thinking of what I want my descriptions to be. Is there a place to see old Bloomberg articles for free? I almost got a subscription the other day and now the Zimbabwe article. Guess I'll just have to bite the bullet.

I have to imagine that the country is running on USDs right now anyway. Hmm, I did a little more reading and it seems the RBZ is running a bureaux de change scheme? If I understand this correctly the RBZ has been holding auctions in which they are selling foreign currency to private businesses and individuals. So they flushed their monetary system down the toilet, again, and are selling foreign currencies ($80 million USD worth) to the highest bidder above spot? I might be interpreting this wrong but that's what it seems to be. Yeah, they aren't issuing another bill.

It's been a few months now but the RBZ did issue a press release in mid January declaring their intent to release a $50 note and denying plans to print $100 & $200 banknotes. Who knows, all that may have changed ten times since then. I did read inflation was down to 194% in April, it seems that they are being a little more systematic this time around. Press Release (rbz.co.zw)

HA! Not yet, I've been to busy looking for the elusive skunk banknote. In all seriousness, I'm working on it right now. I might have something cobbled together by Tuesday when they update the Pop Reports.

I have never regretted having NCS conserve my coins when recommended. Since most of my stuff is low dollar I don't think it's ever cost more than $11ish and as an added bonus, after conservation, the coins have always come back at a higher grade. Maybe that's NGC's incentive plan. jk Uh oh, now I have a stake in the game. Nothing like a little pressure to test your skills. That's awesome my friend! Now to work on those fuel coupons. Isn't the RBZ due to release a $50 note soon?

Turnaround times are better at PMG than NGC so...... mid July probably. FYI, no skunks yet but I haven't given up.

+58 = 2,220 Another healthy jump up, see yah Malta. LOL!

Yes, I've never done a bulk submission but according to the website it should run around $20 a note when it's all said and done. Others may chime in who have done bulk submissions. For the most part it's all about the grade, high grades pull in more money. It's all about your skills as a grader or if you can find someone to help you, a local coin shop might be a good place to start. We can only tell so much from pictures having the note in hand is a must to determine grade and if I had to guess, most of your notes are on the fence and you'll have to take a cold hard look at them to make submitting worth your while, if submitting to sell and turn a profit. If your submitting for your own collecting interest it's a different story, I'd still pick out the best ones and only submit a few of each type of note, keep the best ones and sell the low end ones. I've been looking a little more and it seems like 65 is a breakeven point for the more common notes.

Absolutely! That seems to be the norm now and I tend to agree with that decision. I fell like PMG is separating the specimens as people try to add them to sets, at least that's what happened with the Ukrainian sets. One day someone tried to enter a specimen in a set and the next day, POOF, I had three new specimen sets created for me with my notes already added.

Yep, that too. I'll take a key note or a note to fill a hole over a 70 any day. Way to many other things to think about other than top grades.

Those look pretty good, they appear to be in good enough shape where they might benefit from grading. The Mickey looks to be a little worse off than the Splash Mountain, on the Mickey the lower left corner looks like it has a stain and the corner is rounded, the upper left corner seems rounded as well and the margins are off left to right. I'm only saying this to give you an idea of what to look for on you notes, the margins aren't a deal breaker but if that's a stain and corner damage those could be. If you did a bulk submission, 50 note minimum, it would probably run you around $20 a note, including the shipping and handling, to have them graded. I don't know enough about this series to tell you what the break even grade would be for each note but I suspect you have a few that are worth the price of grading if you know what to look for. A couple of other things to consider is you probably don't want to flood the market with similarly graded notes and you might have to sit on these for quite awhile to get top dollar after they are graded. If your just looking to turn a quick buck, I'd probably just sell them as is. Especially if you're unsure of what to look for in terms of grading notes.

If I found one, in a series that I collect, for around $200 I would think about it and more likely than not would pick it up. That would be right around my limit for what I would consider a onetime novelty purchase, there are just to many cool notes out there that you can get for much less money in 68 and 69.

Maybe. Can you post a picture of the note you think is in the best condition, front and back? In general, having a note graded can help increase the value IF it grades high enough but the grade is 100% based on condition and too often what people think is an uncirculated note ends up being not. There are of course rarities where condition is not as important but those are few and far between.

Sir, I accept your challenge! My initial search results are not looking good. I know I saw one the other day, last weekish, there has to be one right? I'll have to pick this back up in the evening.

For that price I'd definitely think about it. What would that note go for today? .Been thinking hard about a themed set, just haven't found the right thing yet.... A stench of skunks nah.

LOL, ditto. That's what happened to me on Sunday evening, we were both way out of the realm of what that note should cost but I guess it will drive more submissions by sellers. I've been gathering up raw notes for a submission, most of what I'm looking for I won't find graded anyway and It'll save money in the end. There are two other very active collectors in Ukrainian notes now and it's getting a little too competitive. Probably should have kept my big yap shut but I doubt there would be the number of notes available now if it was just me colleting, so....IDK

Well said my friend, some very similar thoughts have been rolling through my head since an auction that ended yesterday evening. Condition rarity is laughable when talking about most modern notes, even a 70 at times. It's all about the numbers, how many people collect a series, how many notes are submitted by sellers and how much notes sell for. Even populations of 100 year old notes can be completely upheaved if a significant number are submitted and double or triple the number graded. These are questions I often struggle with (against my impulse to buy) is this note worth the price, were there multiples submitted, who am I up against, how high will it go, will a high sell price force more notes onto the market etc.. Those are some of the reasons I pay close attention to the population reports. It's all a means to an end, a double edged sword, more collectors mean higher prices, more notes submitted, higher grades and more notes for me to cherry pick. I'll probably never pony up for a 70 but I'm probably a little looser with the purse strings, for me anything under the cost of grading is fair game and I don't mind multiples. If the price is dirt cheap they work well as gifts, keep the cycle of notes moving and keep the collector base growing. Hopefully. ....... How are the Travellers Cheque's going, sent them in yet, are they moving through PMG?

All you need is the $1 & $5 to complete the set, you could probably pick up the other two denominations for $10 - $20 a piece in UNC condition. Or the whole set for around $45, uncirculated.

+10 = 2,162

That is GREAT find in the wild, congrats on acquiring it. I'm not sure if PMG will grade and holder it for you but you can ask in the ASK PMG section of the forum, they probably would. As far as preserving it, I would just stick it in a nice currency sleeve and/or album and hold on to it as is.

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 field of interest, but after "skimming" I saw that a Ukrainian banknote was used for testing in the simulator, I was hooked (a 2 Hryvnia, pre 2014 issued note was used, as the banknote paper composition has been changed by the NBU since publishing). The paper is 15 pages of technical jargon and I loved every word of it. While the paper strictly focuses on banknote "Deterioration" I think that it also translates well to other areas of banknote collecting, for example. Knowing how/why the breaking down (deterioration) of notes happens and the root causes help with grading (I think), in that you are better able to identify problem areas such as types of waviness, changes in color in certain areas of the note and in certain color spectrums, yellowing, brightness, effects of thermal effects, UV degradation, weight loss and on and on and on.. It also helped shed more light on (again for me) proper storage, mainly what not to do, and how climate/storage area will effect notes. While the simulation results are probably not going to be relatable to most notes as banknote paper composition is frequently changing, polymer is becoming evermore popular, and the results are no longer valid for post 2016 Ukrainian notes as the paper makeup was changed at that time but the reasons for deterioration all remain valid. Below are a couple of charts from the paper showing general methods of deterioration and factors from circulation. If you have a free moment or a quite evening this paper is definitely worth checking out. Banknote paper deterioration factors: Circulation simulator method :: BioResources (ncsu.edu) Ukraine 2013 issue 2 Hryven banknote. This series was printed from 2004 - 2013, presumably this series note was used during testing.