2017-09-04 Mon

Indian Ocean nation’s first paper money, a six piece set of bank notes from Zanzibar, has been reportedly sold in a private transaction. However, the amount has not been disclosed. Stack’s Bowers Galleries, one of the three firms involved in the transaction between the seller and the buyer, gave out some insight about the deal. Stack’s Bowers acted as a broker, working with Spink London and Trusted Traditions, the latter from Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

Zanzibar, an island off the east coast of Africa, now part of Tanzania, was a British protectorate when it began printing its own money through Waterlow and Sons in 1908. The first issues were 5-, 10-, 20-, 50-, and 100-rupee notes. In 1920, the English firm also printed a 500-rupee note, said by Stack’s Bowers to be one of the most difficult bank notes in the world to obtain.

Stack’s Bowers Galleries has confirmed that the recently disclosed deal is the latest of several recent transactions involving these rare notes.

In the year 2015, graded by PCGS Currency, the same six note set of these pieces were sold by private treaty, that too for an undisclosed amount. Then, in January 2017, Stack’s Bowers sold a 5-rupee note graded Very Fine 35 by PCGS Currency for $129,250.

Aris Maragoudakis, responsible for the world paper money at Stack’s Bowers, recalled that Spink’s Barnaby Faull represented the buyer of the six-note set when it sold two years ago. He also states John Markis of Trusted Traditions represented one of the underbidders on the 5-rupee note in the other auction. Maragoudakis then worked with Faull and Markis to again sell the set that sold in 2015.

Maragoudakis also added that such deals are not common in paper money collecting, but in world paper, they are unheard of. John Markis of Trusted Traditions said, “This sale is really exciting for the buyer and me, and my area of expertise is finding the holy grails of bank notes for my clients so that they can fill gaps in their collection”.

The dealers are keeping the name of the seller, buyer, and the actual price confidential, but it is possible to speculate on the price. Recently realized prices, for the four of the six notes for which records exist, exceed $340,000 in comparable or lesser grades. No recorded prices exist for the exceedingly rare 50-rupee and 500-rupee notes.