A 1935 Series $20 note with French text (BC-10) and a low serial number, described by auctioneers as an “incredible example” in Gem condition, is expected to attract bidders’ attention at a March 23 auction in Texas.
With a serial number reading “F000007,” it will cross the block alongside 57 other lots of Canadian banknotes during Heritage Auctions’ next World Paper Money Signature Auction. The first note to feature the eventual Queen Elizabeth II (then an eight-year-old princess), the note circulated for just a few years before being replaced by the 1937 Series. While the Canadian Bank Note Company printed one million English-language notes, it printed only 202,500 notes in French.
“This incredible example is not only original and Uncirculated, it is serial number ‘7,’” according to its lot description, which called the note “iconic, exceptional, very rare and incredibly impressive in this grade and with such a good number.”
Paper Money Guaranty certified the note as Choice Uncirculated-64 while adding its “Exceptional Paper Quality” designation. Its provenance includes the Harry Eisenhauer Collection, whose namesake, a well-known Canadian notaphilist, died in 2020. It’s estimated at $25,000-plus US (about $34,000 Cdn.).
Online bidding opens on March 3 with 549 lots slated to be offered altogether.