LONDON.- An Irish £10 Banknote from the iconic ploughman series sold for £22,320 at Dix Noonan Webb in their auction of British, Irish and World Banknotes on Wednesday, February 24, 2021. The very fine and extremely rare Northern Bank Ltd note dated from May 6, 1929 and was being offered by a private collector. It was bought by a private collector of Irish notes using DNW’s online bidding system [lot 240].

The second highest price of the sale was paid for an extremely fine Government of Iraq 1/2 Dinar note, dating from 1948 that sold for £12,400 – five times its pre-sale high estimate of £2,200. The superb note, which was in fantastic condition was part of the Red Ox collection and was being sold by a long-term collector. The incredibly rare note was only issued for a very short time, featured the Boy-King Faisal II and was bought by a private collector of Iraqi notes [lot 569]. Another note from Iraq featuring a slightly older portrait of Faisal II sold well too. The lovely example of a 10 Dinar note from the Central Bank of Iraq, dating from 1947, sold for £7,440 against an estimate of £1,500-2,000. This was one of the last notes issued before he was deposed and killed and it went to a private Iraqi collector in the UK [lot 580].

Also from the Middle East was a fine example of a rare denomination - a 50 Riyal note, dating from 1966 from the Qatar & Dubai Currency Board which sold for £6,820 against an estimate of £4,000-5,000. This note was discovered in the UK recently and was sold to a private collector in the Middle East [lot 693].

The highlight of the British banknotes was a superb specimen of a Bank of England £50 - a design that remained unchanged for almost 150 years. The note, which sold for £10,540 was hand-annotated by the then Chief Cashier, Matthew Marshall, stating “Specimen, M. Marshall, Bank of England, 30 December 1858,” presumably offering his approval for the design. This fantastic item was bought by a relatively new collector of British notes and all interest in this was UK-based, as expected [lot 112].

Other Irish notes that sold very well included the only known example of a £50 note from the Belfast Banking Company Limited, dating from December 7, 1917 which sold for £12,400 against an estimate of £8,000-10,000. After fierce competition between two long-term private collectors, it went to a European bidder [lot 185]. The same bidder purchased an extremely rare £1 note from the Bank of Ireland (Dublin and Westport) dating from 1838, which sold for £11,780 [lot 175] as well as a very attractive £20 printed in blue, from the Provincial Bank of Ireland Ltd, dating from October 20 1904, which sold for £9,300 against an estimate of £5,000-6,000 [lot 216], and an extremely rare and early £1 Bank of Ireland note dating from September 7 1819, that sold for £5,952 against an estimate of £3,000-4,000 [lot 174].

Elsewhere from the States of Guernsey was the obverse and reverse black and white die proofs for 5 Shillings / 6 Francs, which sold for £6,820 against an estimate of £600-800. Dating from September 1, 1914, the die proofs had no signatures or serial numbers, just blue pencil numerals on each. It saw a genuinely remarkable fight between two committed collectors of Guernsey notes and has gone back to the Island [lot 353].