While more than 100 Canadian notes crossed the block in a recent Stack’s Bowers sale, two of them reached six-figure realizations.
Part of the Paradise Collection of world banknotes, the Canadian rarities included a 1911 $500 note plus a 1935 Series $500 note in English.
The 1911 issue, offered as Lot 40125 in Choice Fine-15, brought $240,000 US (about $320,000 Cdn.). Described by auctioneers as the “holy grail of Canadian currency,” it’s one of just a handful of examples of this type available to collectors.
A 1935 $500 note with the low serial number ‘A00100’ realized about $135,000 as Lot 40137 of the Heritage sale.
The 1935 note, offered as Lot 40137 in Very Fine-20 (VF-20), sold for $102,000 US (about $135,000 Cdn.). The Charlton Standard Catalogue of Canadian Government Paper Money lists just nine English-text examples in its census. The example offered by Stack’s also featured the low serial number “A00100,” which includes a radar (also known as a palindrome, with the number the same both forward and backward), a rotator (with the number the same when rotated 180 degrees) and a binary (with the number featuring only ones and zeros).
Last year, the Canadian Numismatic Company sold a 1911 $500 bill in VF-20 for $528,750 and a 1935 $500 bill in Extremely Fine-45 “PPQ” (premium paper quality) for $337,812.50. Both realizations set the price records for those respective notes.