THE first batch of banknotes printed in Australia is expected to fetch up to $5.5 million in what will be the largest sale of its kind in Australia’s history.
Celebrating the centenary of the notes’ creation, The Rare Coin Company managing director Robert Jackman expected the sale to break Australian records for a collection of its rarity.
Mr Jackman, who holds the notes on behalf of their owner while he negotiates the private sale, said it was the largest deal he had ever been involved with.
The eight notes are known as ‘early specimen notes’ and were produced as samples to illustrate what future Australian notes would look like.
Six of the notes were discovered in a bedside table drawer in a Yorkshire home and sold to the current private investor in 2009.
The Collins/Allen collection is named after the two secretaries to the Treasury whose signatures appear on the notes.
Printed in 1913, the set comprises a £1 note all the way through to a £1,000 note.
Generally found in banking and museum archives, the notes were occasionally presented to dignitaries and then sold to collectors over the years.
According to Mr Jackman, rare coins and notes have retuned an average of 13.8 per cent during the past 22 years, and he expected the upcoming sale to capture the attention of international collectors.
While the internet has changed the way Mr Jackman does business, providing immediate access to sellers and buyers the world over, he still relies heavily on face-to-face meetings.
He said things were very different when he started the Albany-based business, with the early 1980s a challenging time to build his young company in regional Western Australia, principally because of the isolation.
‘‘It was a lot of travelling, coming up here to Perth constantly; sometimes we did coin shows, we travelled a lot around the state into places like Esperance, Geraldton and Bunbury,’’ Mr Jackman said.
He hopes the collection will be sold to an Australian or someone who will keep the set together.
“I hope it doesn’t go to a museum, but if a museum puts the money up we will sell it to them. Once it goes into a museum it is lost forever,” Mr Jackman said, adding that it was possible the collection would be locked in a vault away from public view.
Potential buyers include wealthy Australians or collectors from Asia, he said.
Mr Jackman said research from banking giant Barclays indicated that: “High net worth people generally have 10-20 per cent of their portfolio in what are called ‘treasure assets’ such as coins, banknotes, and art.”
The first dollar coin created by the US government is the most expensive coin ever sold, fetching $10 million last month. Known as the Flowing Hair dollar, it portrays a lady with long locks and was was minted in 1794.
It’s expected the banknotes will be sold within coming weeks.
