Bank notes
Along with coins, bank notes are a major part of the numismatics market. Buyers will often focus on a particular period of history or a region of the world but people also collect paper money by focusing on grade, errors in printing or serial numbers.
This area of the market has been popular globally since the 1950s. Condition is key – banknotes are internationally graded and those in perfect condition, without any damage and that usually haven't been circulated, are rated as uncirculated (UNC), the highest classification available.
![Banknotes](/media/32869/tring-bank-notes-5.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=131808048810000000)
Rare specimen banknotes book sets auction record at Hertfordshire saleroom
10 September 2018A book of specimen banknotes printed for locations across the world has set a house record for Tring Market Auctions (17.5% buyer’s premium) by selling for £205,000.
![img_4-2.jpg](/media/29437/img_4-2.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=131718123380000000)
DNW recruits form banknote department
28 May 2018London auction house Dix Noonan Webb is launching a stand-alone banknotes department and expanding into the next-door premises.
![img_16-1.jpg](/media/24743/img_16-1.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=131629065460000000)
London numismatic highlights of 2017 - from a 1839 Una and the Lion five pound coin to the Smart collection of banknotes
12 February 2018A coin that a set a record for a British five pound piece features among the hammer highlights for coins and banknotes sold across the year at auction.
![img_67-3.jpg](/media/19681/img_67-3.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=131508226900000000)
World Paper Money Fair highlights ever-changing history of currency
25 September 2017Earlier this month the new £10 note featuring Jane Austen hit many of the country’s cash dispensers.
![Philip Skingley of Coincraft](/media/13435/phil-skingley-2290bp01-27-04-17.jpg?rxy=0.5212224108658744,0.32948717948717948&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=131462556340000000)
London coin dealer expands with series of appointments including ex-Spink specialist
27 April 2017Coin dealership Coincraft has welcomed four new members of staff and launched a new website.
![swedish palmstruch banknote 13-12-16.jpg](/media/8997/swedish-palmstruch-banknote-13-12-16.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=131462557860000000)
First European paper money up at auction in Spink in New York
13 December 2016Plastic money has been a bone of contention recently thanks to the strange revelation that the new UK £5 notes include animal fat. But one day the polymer notes will surely be as normal and accepted as the existing paper examples, assuming physical money has not all but disappeared anyway by then.
![Scottish fiver](/media/8444/scottish-fiver-2264nedi-20-10-16.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=131462557590000000)
New and old fivers attract bidders at Spink
20 October 2016The excitement around the new polymer fivers, which were launched by the Bank of England last month, helped boost interest in new and old £5 notes for philatelic and numismatic specialists Spink.
![Ming Dynasty banknote](/media/8391/ming-dynasty-banknote-2263nedi-12-10-16.jpg?rxy=0.4881516587677725,0.25666666666666665&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=131462557570000000)
Rare Ming Dynasty banknote found lurking inside Chinese sculpture
12 October 2016Auction specialists in Australia have found a rare Ming Dynasty banknote hidden within a Chinese wooden sculpture. The discovery came at Mossgreen as they were cataloguing the extensive collection of Raphy Star – one of the most important collections of Asian art ever to be offered in the country.
![Lord Lucan cheques](/media/7152/lord-lucan-cheques-2237ne08a-04-04-16.jpg?rxy=0.49848024316109424,0.57333333333333336&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=131462556960000000)
Lord Lucan’s bounced cheques appear at auction
04 April 2016The man himself may have disappeared in 1974 but a series of cheques showing Lord Lucan’s spiralling gambling debts have now emerged and will be offered at auction later this month.
![14-09-05-2157CO01J Dix Noonan Webb.jpg](/media/1739/14-09-05-2157co01j-dix-noonan-webb.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=131462558390000000)
Money wars – the £1000 note targeted by the Nazis
05 September 2014The highest denomination note issued by the Bank of England, this £1000 banknote is a rare survivor of a limited run that was cut short as the Nazis tried to destabilise the British economy.
![14-07-08-2149NE02A David Lay auctions.jpg](/media/1520/14-07-08-2149ne02a-david-lay-auctions.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=131462558310000000)
Interesting historical documents or receipts for a £306m fortune?
08 July 2014The big question at David Lay’s auctioneers in Penzance next week: Are these bonds worth a few hundred pounds or up to £3.6m each?
![13-05-07-2090NE05B Australia banknote.jpg](/media/6534/13-05-07-2090ne05b-australia-banknote.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=131462558710000000)
For sale: Australia’s first federal banknote
07 May 2013It has a face value of ten shillings but a price tag of Aus$3.5m (£2.3m) at Coinworks, the specialist dealers and auctioneers of Melbourne.
![13-04-29-2089CO01X chinese banknote.jpg](/media/2421/13-04-29-2089co01x-chinese-banknote.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=131462558720000000)
Further evidence of growing interest in banknotes
29 April 2013Recent years have seen a massive increase in the offerings and prices realised by banknotes.
![2034CO01A.jpg](/media/2646/2034co01a.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=131462559000000000)
London coins market grows by another 25%
31 March 2012AFTER 2010 saw the London market grow by a third it would have been a bold commentator to predict a further substantial rise in 2011. Nonetheless, coins and medals auctions in the capital saw totals rise by almost a quarter on the previous year.
June 30 spells end for Elgar £20 note
01 June 2010FROM 30 June, the £20 banknote carrying the portrait of composer Sir Edward Elgar is to be finally withdrawn from circulation.
![1911NE05A.jpg](/media/4149/1911ne05a.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=131462560080000000)
‘Diseased’ Australian banknotes make £350,000
12 October 2009FROM May 1913, the first distinctive Commonwealth of Australia banknotes were issued. They were controversial in that no portrait of the reigning monarch, George V, was included in the design.
Dealer goes back to court over Royal Mail compensation
12 October 2009MORE than a year after his county court victory against Royal Mail, coins and banknotes dealer Bruce Goulborn is taking them to court again.
![1875NE03D.jpg](/media/4128/1875ne03d.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=131462560110000000)
Siege notes in mint condition sold in Bury St Edmunds
26 January 2009Today Robert Baden-Powell is best known as the founder of the Boy Scout movement in 1908, but in the Edwardian era his name was synonymous with the Boer War, and specifically the 217 wretched days from October 1899 to May 1900.
![1857NE02A.jpg](/media/4368/1857ne02a.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=131462560180000000)
The £1m note makes £68,000
20 October 2008A Bank of England £1m Treasury note sold at Spink on October 1 for £68,000.
![1857NE05A.jpg](/media/4463/1857ne05a.jpg?anchor=center&mode=crop&width=125&height=125&rnd=131462560230000000)
For sale: the million-pound note
15 September 2008Spink are to offer a £1m Treasury Note. Dated London 30 August 1948, and printed with the red serial number 000008, it is one of only two surviving examples from the nine thought to have been printed in connection with the Marshall Plan.
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