Tarekss1

Well there are several reputable sellers of course but as i said its all hear and say around here. So, what happens is that they usually carry out disinformation campaigns against each other and a note with no picture and a pick number that is not currently listed in PMG's tables is an easy target. That is not to say that once the owner is interested in selling he won't be able to sell; a well informed collector might ignore whatever bs is being circulated and buy it anyways. Nonetheless, he might not get what its worth. The highest estimate you came by is 250 dollars, yet given the current sale prices in Egypt I would say that the 67 note could easily be worth at least double the amount. Graded notes and coins in Egypt are generally sold for much higher prices compared to auction houses like heritage or spink. Afterall why bother to bring back the note to Egypt after grading it abroad if it won't be well worthwhile to do so!

Well, some people in Egypt do not buy a note unless there is a picture of it available on the website. In addition, this high grade note lost alot of its appeal simply due the fact that there is no population report to show that its the highest graded note thus far. Unfortunately, the Egyptian market is a very hear say market. The owner of the 66 Epq note still insists his note is the top pop note. Meanwhile, The owner of the 67 Epq note has no intention to sell at the moment, but when he does it would be very easy to dissuade potential buyers from buying his note. They will say its problematic and collectors should steer away from it to avoid future losses on their investment ! I also advised him to contact PMG an wish him all the best in resolving the issue.

Well thank you for your answer Mike. The problem that Egyptian collectors all face is that having to send notes back to PMG for regrading is by no means an easy task. It is very costly and sometimes airport customs confiscate the notes for unknown reasons. For that matter, mistakes on labeling notes are very devstating and unfortunate for Egyptian collectors. On the other hand, I do agree with you that paying top dollar for top pop notes is a gamble that is unlikely to payoff,and that it is possible for later graded notes to achieve a higher grade. Nonetheless, it is a well known fact that Egyptian notes printed during this period are highly unlikely to achieve a grade of more than 67/68. So, for this particular note a 67 seems to be a reasonable top grade unless a magical 68 appears somehow! Either way, I really lost much of the confidence I had in PMG's population reports to be honest. Lastly, bear in mind that this is by no means a cheap paper and the owner of the higher graded note is likely to suffer a huge loss because of this mistake/change in how PMG assigns a pick to these notes. It is unfair for someone who cannot send the paper back for regrading to suffer a loss just because PMG decided to add these notes under a different pick number or because they just forgot the put the letter a on the label. Right now, when you verify the note there is absolutely nothing; no image and no population report!

Just today an Egyptian note of 50 Piasters dating back to the year 1954 was being advertised on a local Facebook collector's group as being Top Pop with a grade of 66Epq. The note is listed as a Pick29a note and PMG's population table confirms that the top grade for this pick is 66Epq and that there are only 8 notes with a grade of 66Epq and none graded higher. However, shortly after the post was made another follower of the group presented similar paper with a grade of 67Epq. After much heated debate on Facebook we realised that despite the fact that both papers are identical, bearing the same signature of Amin Fikry, and their date of print is just one day apart each was listed under a different pick. The one ranked 67 Epq has been listed as pick 29 and the one ranked 66 Epq was listed under pick 29a. Both notes were printed just one day apart and are bearing the same exact marks and signatures! Shouldn't they have been listed under the same pick number? Moreover, when we checked the serial of the higher ranked note on PMGs verification page nothing came up and it says information is unavailable. Now, this seems to be unfair for those who pay a much higher price for a top graded note. Also, the owner of the higher graded note has no way to prove that his note is a Top Pop note while the owner of lower ranked paper has proof his note is top pop from PMG's website. I would like to know the thoughts of other collectors on this issue and after this incident can we really have any confidence in the data PMG has on its website.