VE Coins

The last day of the Labor Day weekend and then back to work tomorrow morning. Where I live it has been super hot all weekend with temperatures up to 100 degrees or more. This past month has been kind of slow in the acquisition department. Not as many Czechoslovakian note that I am looking for have come on the market recently, and it seems like less quality items as well. I have picked up a few smaller notes for my main set, a 25 Korun from 1961.

I also managed to snag a 500 Latu 1929 note from Latvia. I think that this note is beautiful and while the example that I picked up shows some wear I still think it is a great note.

A couple weeks ago a specimen of the 500 Latu came up for sale from seller out of Canada. I knew that this note was going to sell for a lot of money but it ended up selling for $8000 when it was all said and done.

I'll have to see what the future holds and if anything new or interesting comes up in the next month, currently I'm watching a few interesting items with the hopes that they wont go too much out of my budget.

May and June were pretty big months for my Czechoslovakia set. I got my submission back from PMG the first part of June. Most of my notes came back at about the grades that I had guessed they would, I had a couple come back higher as well! Unfortunately I had 2 notes come back as questionable authenticity. They were both early notes with stamps affixed to the notes to make them legitimate Czech notes and I believe that the stamps were probably added after the fact now. In looking at them the stamps have more wear and are discolored where as the notes are in decent condition. This is a mistake that I should have caught but I guess you learn from your mistakes. 
One of the best notes that I got back was this 10 korun from 1919, this was from the same lot of notes that all the other 1919 ones were from. It is a beautiful note still has good color, a few minor stains but not enough to get any comments on the back or net grade so I was happy that this one straight graded. The H series is also the rarer series of this note with H35 being the last series before it switched to O36-O210.


June was also big for me my first note of this set was graded personally in December of 2020, and after about 3 years of work on this set I now have the number 1 set in the category and I'm closing in on 50% completion. I am still on the lookout and have started acquiring notes for my next submission, maybe sometime next year. I think that realistically my goal for this set is 90% completion, I think that is a doable number for this set because after that there are about 10-15 notes where every note is easily 4 figures maybe 5.
 
Until the next update, thanks for reading!

May and June were pretty big months for my Czechoslovakia set. I got my submission back from PMG the first part of June. Most of my notes came back at about the grades that I had guessed they would, I had a couple come back higher as well! Unfortunately I had 2 notes come back as questionable authenticity. They were both early notes with stamps affixed to the notes to make them legitimate Czech notes and I believe that the stamps were probably added after the fact now. In looking at them the stamps have more wear and are discolored where as the notes are in decent condition. This is a mistake that I should have caught but I guess you learn from your mistakes. 
One of the best notes that I got back was this 10 korun from 1919, this was from the same lot of notes that all the other 1919 ones were from. It is a beautiful note still has good color, a few minor stains but not enough to get any comments on the back or net grade so I was happy that this one straight graded. The H series is also the rarer series of this note with H35 being the last series before it switched to O36-O210.


June was also big for me my first note of this set was graded personally in December of 2020, and after about 3 years of work on this set I now have the number 1 set in the category and I'm closing in on 50% completion. I am still on the lookout and have started acquiring notes for my next submission, maybe sometime next year. I think that realistically my goal for this set is 90% completion, I think that is a doable number for this set because after that there are about 10-15 notes where every note is easily 4 figures maybe 5.
 
Until the next update, thanks for reading!

This evening I got the email notification that my PMG submission had shipped out and so I immediately checked the results. I am super excited by the results and I'll explain why. Last summer I was browsing new Czechoslovakian banknote listings when I came across one with a couple ratty looking bills as the first picture.
 

It said 6 bills so I looked at the pictures and hidden on the next pictures where 3 notes from 1919 that looked beautiful. The seller had it as an auction starting at $5 but they also had a make an offer option. Not knowing if the notes were real and with it not being a banknote seller I made an offer of $120 hoping it would be enough to entice them and they accepted. When I got the notes in the mail the next week my heart sank a little. The 50 korun 1919 felt wrong compared to the rest of the notes and I couldn't find the watermark. The paper felt very slick. I was a bit bummed, still excited that I got the rest of the notes and even if the one was wrong I still got a good deal on the rest. I kept researching the note looking at ones for sale and trying to find resources that talked about it. I still figured it was a fake but kept it with my Czech notes trying to determine if it truly was or not. It is the only Czech note printed using lithography. Eventually when I was getting my submission ready I decided that I would send it with. I was on the fence, the details were all right but the feel was still wrong to me.
But I took the chance.

And I am super excited that it came back legitimate. It is unfortunately not in the best condition. It has tears and annotations on the back. But I am stoked. The last one to sell on heritage was in 2019 it was graded a 30 and went for $1500 and currently on Aukro.cz there is a graded example in 25 very fine that is listed for 55000 czk = ~$2500 usd. I cant wait to get this back and see it in person.
I'll probably have another post here soon because I have some other notes that I'm excited about in this submission but I just wanted to share this.
 
 
 
 
 

This evening I got the email notification that my PMG submission had shipped out and so I immediately checked the results. I am super excited by the results and I'll explain why. Last summer I was browsing new Czechoslovakian banknote listings when I came across one with a couple ratty looking bills as the first picture.
 

It said 6 bills so I looked at the pictures and hidden on the next pictures where 3 notes from 1919 that looked beautiful. The seller had it as an auction starting at $5 but they also had a make an offer option. Not knowing if the notes were real and with it not being a banknote seller I made an offer of $120 hoping it would be enough to entice them and they accepted. When I got the notes in the mail the next week my heart sank a little. The 50 korun 1919 felt wrong compared to the rest of the notes and I couldn't find the watermark. The paper felt very slick. I was a bit bummed, still excited that I got the rest of the notes and even if the one was wrong I still got a good deal on the rest. I kept researching the note looking at ones for sale and trying to find resources that talked about it. I still figured it was a fake but kept it with my Czech notes trying to determine if it truly was or not. It is the only Czech note printed using lithography. Eventually when I was getting my submission ready I decided that I would send it with. I was on the fence, the details were all right but the feel was still wrong to me.
But I took the chance.

And I am super excited that it came back legitimate. It is unfortunately not in the best condition. It has tears and annotations on the back. But I am stoked. The last one to sell on heritage was in 2019 it was graded a 30 and went for $1500 and currently on Aukro.cz there is a graded example in 25 very fine that is listed for 55000 czk = ~$2500 usd. I cant wait to get this back and see it in person.
I'll probably have another post here soon because I have some other notes that I'm excited about in this submission but I just wanted to share this.
 
 
 
 
 

Been a little while since I posted. The winter has been kind of slow for acquiring banknotes, I picked up a few good pickups and lost out on quite a few others. Czech notes are still pretty hot and most of the ones that I lost out on I had solid bid that I thought would be enough, but alas.
  I actually just got a submission packed up to send off to PMG. I haven't submitted notes in a little over a year so I have 16 notes that I am looking forward to getting back. All Czechoslovakia notes, most of them are early notes that you just don't see come up for sale graded often, and when they do they are usually buy it now for way too much.

The most exciting pickup that I had last month was the Czechoslovakia P 1a, it is part of the first series of notes that were just Austro-Hungarian notes with provisional stamps attached. This one is in pretty good condition all things considering, it has a small fold at the top left corner and a couple corners show some dings or rounding, but it doesn't have any folds in the center. I'm guessing that it would be about a 55 when graded.

A pickup that doesnt fit into any of my current sets was this Croatia 5000 Kuna from 1943. I really liked the design and the traditional dress.

This 50 korun P 85a came out of nowhere and I ended up picking it up pretty quickly from the seller.

The last main pickup that I had was this 100 korun P 86a. I'm slowly filling out the socialist republic notes in my set. Most of those have been through sellers, as more of them are available and graded. I think the notes of the Socialist Republic era of the 50's and 60's are cool, the communist influences are very strong throughout. While I personally think the early notes of 1919-1920 are some of my favorites these are great as well.
Until next time.

This month all of the notes added are from Mexico, some of which have been covered in other Journal posts as examples for the States of Chiapas, Campeche and Jalisco (‘Chiapas is Mexico State No. 5’, ‘Campeche takes the No. 6 slot’ and for Jalisco ‘The land of Tequila’)

https://notes.www.collectors-society.com/registry/notes/ViewPersonalCollection.aspx?UserCollectionID=1822&Tab=list

The first of the other notes added is the earliest date for the 10 pesos notes issued by the Banco Minero de Chihuahua, a reinvention of Banco Minero during the Revolution, and is dated 9th May 1914. The whole issue ran from Series A29 at S/N 330,001 with a Series change every 2500 notes continuing until S/N 630,000. This note is Series D29 and S/N 339498, so close to end (S/N 340,000) of this initial group. Collecting examples of all of the Series would be a real challenge, and probably much more difficult than searching for die numbers on Victorian sixpences.


 
Whereas the Series for the Minero note are essentially known the next entry is included in the Set as it represents an unrecorded Series; Z. R. and, for me, just demonstrates that there is still so much to discover. The ‘note’ is a 20 centavos issue from Series 2 for the Gobierno Constitucionalista del Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz Llave. This note is also interesting as it is the first pasteboard note in the collection and also the smallest note at 53 × 31 mm.


Another local issue is represented by a 5 pesos note from L. Guiterrez, Merida, Yucatan. In the late 1800’s there was a shortage of banknotes in Yucatan compromising trade so the major companies based in the capital city, Merida decided to issue their own notes from ~1874, one of these companies was L. Guiterrez Sucesores, established in 1860 and the largest hardware and haberdashers in the State.

The last note added during March 2023 is another important Revolutionary Issue, a 1 peso note issued by the authority of Gustavo Baz as Estado Libre y Soberano de Mexico, Toluca. Similar to the notes above there is still much to understand about this Toluca Series, particularly related to the S/Ns for different printing runs across all of the denominations. This note is probably from the second printing of Series F as the attribution on the note is in italics.


 
It is great that this month the Set is back on track, growing by at least 5 notes per month, however every note added highlights gaps in the references and thus seems to generate a completely new area of research.

How’s everyone been lately, hopefully the holidays have been treating you well and the weather hasn’t been too bad. It’s been pretty quiet around here lately, although I had problems accessing the chat boards during December. I figured I would post an update. The last couple months have been slower months for my banknote collection, mostly just acquired a few odds and ends. The Latvia note fits into my collection as I would like to work on expanding my Latvia set since I collect Latvia coins as well. The Somaliland note was just a fun purchase, I watched a video about the country and went searching and thought it looked cool.

I’ve been contemplating sending in a submission of mostly Czechoslovakia banknotes, and I’m thinking I might send it in sometime in the next couple months, I currently have an NGC submission of Moderns being graded so probaly sometime after those come back. I currently have about 15 or so notes that I have been acquiring over the past year that would fit into my sent and fill it out nicely. Most of the notes that I have to submit are ones that I don’t really see for sale graded or if they are available, they are asking way more than I’d like to pay. Maybe when I get my submission ready, I’ll highlight some of the notes I’m excited to send off.

I don't know about most people but I prefer to have physical copies or coin and banknote books for reference. And while the Standard Catalog of World Banknotes is a great resource sometimes it leaves some to be desired. For a while I have been looking for a book that is specifically about Czechoslovakia, unfortunately a book like that simply doesn't exist in English. I have great resource for Latvian Banknotes by Lee Gordon. It is in English, readily available, and has large full color photos of notes as well as specimen and test sheets.

A few months ago through probably a few rabbit holes I discovered that a new book covering Czechoslovakian, Slovak, Czech, Bohemia and Moravia, and even earlier Austro-Hungarian notes had been published by Aurea Numismatika and Pavel Hejzlar in the Czech Republic. It was available through aukro.cz which is basically Czech eBay, and after finding a seller that shipped internationally and wiring money to them to pay for my book and waiting about 3 weeks it arrived. 

Now from the beginning I knew that there would be a barrier between using this book to its fullest. I do know some Czech, not enough to hold a conversation but enough to read words here and there. I will say this is a fantastic book, it goes into great detail about individual notes. It includes pictures or varieties as well as the placement of specimen stamps and their rarities. The values are fairly accurate as the book is recently published.


Sometimes finding country specific books can be difficult but the hunt continues. All in all I am glad that I was able to find this resource and while it still isn't quite as useful as it could be it is a wonderful addition to my book collection.

I don't know about most people but I prefer to have physical copies or coin and banknote books for reference. And while the Standard Catalog of World Banknotes is a great resource sometimes it leaves some to be desired. For a while I have been looking for a book that is specifically about Czechoslovakia, unfortunately a book like that simply doesn't exist in English. I have great resource for Latvian Banknotes by Lee Gordon. It is in English, readily available, and has large full color photos of notes as well as specimen and test sheets.

A few months ago through probably a few rabbit holes I discovered that a new book covering Czechoslovakian, Slovak, Czech, Bohemia and Moravia, and even earlier Austro-Hungarian notes had been published by Aurea Numismatika and Pavel Hejzlar in the Czech Republic. It was available through aukro.cz which is basically Czech eBay, and after finding a seller that shipped internationally and wiring money to them to pay for my book and waiting about 3 weeks it arrived. 

Now from the beginning I knew that there would be a barrier between using this book to its fullest. I do know some Czech, not enough to hold a conversation but enough to read words here and there. I will say this is a fantastic book, it goes into great detail about individual notes. It includes pictures or varieties as well as the placement of specimen stamps and their rarities. The values are fairly accurate as the book is recently published.


Sometimes finding country specific books can be difficult but the hunt continues. All in all I am glad that I was able to find this resource and while it still isn't quite as useful as it could be it is a wonderful addition to my book collection.

https://notes.www.collectors-society.com/registry/notes/mysets_listing.aspx?PeopleSetID=34594
This year has seen a couple of milestones in my collection, the first dealing with coins and the second banknotes. After more than a decade, I finally managed to complete my NGC Registry Set consisting of the main types of Napoleonic Francs and, much to my surprise, I have also managed to complete my first PMG set, this was much quicker but then it was 5 notes rather than 30 coins!

The Set consists of the 5 to 100 pesos notes issued by the Banco de Tamaulipas in Mexico from 1902 to 1914 with all denominations represented by remainders* as these were available in high grades to allow appreciation of the design. My collection also has a 1000 pesos specimen note although it still lacks an example of the 500 pesos note and then there are the notes from earlier and later periods issued in the State, all with fascinating designs and history. You have to start somewhere and Tamaulipas appears to have been it as very few of my Banco Sets corresponding to the other Mexican States (pre and post revolution) have even been started and those, which are actually underway in my collection typically, comprise a single note. Then there is the rest of Central and South America so I have no idea where completed PMG Set No. 2 will come from.
 
* Collecting issued notes by Series, signatories and dates appears to be possible and would make an impressive reference collection but would probably drive me mad. If anyone is considering this, look at the information on ‘papermoneyofmexico.com’ first and then change your mind!

In further researching the subject of Type 1 & 2 notes of the second series control coupons of 1992, 500 Karbovantsiv notes only, and acquiring and examining roughly 75 circulated notes and a dozen uncirculated, in addition to viewing another 100 or so examples online, there appears to be additional identifying markers between the two variants. Whether these markers are due to plate, ink or production variations is not known, by me anyway,  but they have so far held true when used with the original fractional prefix denominator number ranges given in my previous Journal entry for T1 & 2 notes and the initial indicators used i.e., gapping between prefix and serial number and light or dark shading in the area of the prefix and serial number. 
In addition to the original diagnostics, it would appear that the T1 notes with denominators of 5,6,7,8 &15 were more heavily inked, or a darker ink mix was used in certain areas, specifically, on the face, the word КУПОН (COUPON) and the numerical denomination 500 located immediately below, on the back, the ornamentation has the same light and dark variations. On the face of T1 notes the word КУПОН is darker than on the T2 notes, as is the numerical denomination below, and on the back of the T1 notes the ornamentation around the numerical denominations is lighter than on the T2 notes, also, the central ornamentation on the back of T1 notes is again lighter than on the T2 notes. Also, all replacement notes (denominator 99) seem to be universally of the T2 variety, having the same diagnostics that are associated with the T2's.

T2 notes (including replacements) are much more easily found in uncirculated condition which would suggest a common printing date/production after the T1 notes and this would follow an ascending numbering sequence for the denominators. T2 notes with denominator 28 seem to be rare at best, as I have yet to cross paths with one. Of the 75 circulated notes I have 48 are T1's and 27 are T2's, this falls in line with the number of denominators used for T1 and T2 circulating notes, five denominators for T1 notes and three for T2 notes, 5:3, assuming all production runs with unique denominators were of roughly the same size.

 
Unfortunately, even though additional diagnostic markers have been found to differentiate between T1 and T2 notes I am no closer to figuring out what is going on with the UV ink in the numerical denomination and background on the face of the note, as all of the circulated notes either have none or only slight traces of UV in those areas. Most of the circulated notes show no signs of UV, leaving me to believe that it has worn off? The uncirculated notes that I have are too few to come to any conclusions on what notes may have UV ink and which do not. The only notes of this type that have had UV ink in the denominator and background every time are the replacement notes, this would lead me down the path that all T2 notes would also have UV ink since they share everything else in common and yet the circulated notes do not reflect this assumption.   More on that later, I hope, as I have another hundred circulated notes from a different source on the way. 
Just for fun I took a pic of the face and back of a mix of twenty-four T1 and T2 notes, not having been previously identified in this journal entry, and I wonder if anyone wants to take a shot at identifying the T1 and T2 notes in the image. Most of the prefix and serial numbers are covered up so you'll have to use the second set of diagnostics given in this Journal entry to identify them.   Although I guess you could go back, using the totals and notes I've already posted, to come up with the numbers.  So no cheating.  I'll post the answer key later in the week, all notes are in the same location in each picture. Good luck. 

So recently Mike has been sharing a lot of contemporary counterfeit Ukrainian notes and so I figured that I would share kind of along the same lines. 
The Czechoslovakia P#5 1000 korun which is an Austrian 1000 korun with a red stamp printed onto the Hungarian side of the note. This stamp turned the old currency of the Austro Hungarian Empire into "new" Czechoslovakian currency. These were issued in the newly founded nation for a short time period in 1919 and 1920 before new banknotes were printed and issued.

Counterfeit bills were handstamped with an additional stamp over the red stamp that read "BANK UR MIN FIN PRAHA", (Banking Office of the Ministry of Finance Prague. This was to indicate that these bills were not legitimately stamped. I'm unsure if they were stamped with the extra stamp to make them legal currency or help identify them later when the new banknotes were swapped out . But it makes me wonder why they were stamped as opposed to being pulled from circulation.
My example of this note is heavily circulated and damaged but the ink of the handstamp is still mostly visible. I don't know if this damage was from circulation under Czechoslovakia or Austria. Or just improper storage later.

I am unsure what the total population of these notes is and how many survive to today. They were issued for a very short time period in the new nation of Czechoslovakia and they were a high denomination that was not used as much as smaller currency. Currently only 1 has been graded by PMG and no counterfeit notes have been graded, and these do not come up for sale very often. 

So recently Mike has been sharing a lot of contemporary counterfeit Ukrainian notes and so I figured that I would share kind of along the same lines. 
The Czechoslovakia P#5 1000 korun which is an Austrian 1000 korun with a red stamp printed onto the Hungarian side of the note. This stamp turned the old currency of the Austro Hungarian Empire into "new" Czechoslovakian currency. These were issued in the newly founded nation for a short time period in 1919 and 1920 before new banknotes were printed and issued.

Counterfeit bills were handstamped with an additional stamp over the red stamp that read "BANK UR MIN FIN PRAHA", (Banking Office of the Ministry of Finance Prague. This was to indicate that these bills were not legitimately stamped. I'm unsure if they were stamped with the extra stamp to make them legal currency or help identify them later when the new banknotes were swapped out . But it makes me wonder why they were stamped as opposed to being pulled from circulation.
My example of this note is heavily circulated and damaged but the ink of the handstamp is still mostly visible. I don't know if this damage was from circulation under Czechoslovakia or Austria. Or just improper storage later.

I am unsure what the total population of these notes is and how many survive to today. They were issued for a very short time period in the new nation of Czechoslovakia and they were a high denomination that was not used as much as smaller currency. Currently only 1 has been graded by PMG and no counterfeit notes have been graded, and these do not come up for sale very often. 

Been wanting to start a journal to detail my journey as I work towards as complete as I can get collection of Czechoslovakia P1-98. I say as complete as possible because 100% completion is unlikely to happen since some issues are incredibly rare. 
I got back a submission of 9 notes last month and am happy with the grades that I received for the most part. All notes were acquired raw and self submission which will probably be how most of the early notes are added. Most of the later, Soviet Era, notes are available graded from time to time and I plan to add them as I can.
My most recent addition is a beautiful 24s. I love the design of this bill especially the colors.