Canadian Paper Money- New Signature Out In Circulation

-What makes a bill worth keeping is condition & how uncommon it is. For new polymer notes collectors expect UNC (uncirculated or perfect notes with no wrinkles, etc) even for radars, repeaters or other special serial numbers. You really need to find something rare or scarce to expect a premium above Face Value (FV) for circulated newly released notes. Some circulated 2-digit radars or solids may "fit that bill" & may command a premium (but many collectors won't look at these).

The other tough notes are signature change-overs. Yesterday, I explained how the Wilkins-Macklem IND $5 is a tough signature change-over to find (due to low #). The signature changes again to Lane-Macklem for the INK prefix but it is too soon to know whether Wilkins-Macklem (up to 6.2M released) or whether the new Lane-Macklem INK (3.6M) will be tough (or scarce).

I explain 3 types of change-overs on Notaphilyc Culture's Notable TERMS page (but the other 2 types of change overs happen with older series):
https://sites.google.com/view/notap...otable-terms

If you register with the Canadian Paper Money Forum (CPMF), you can access their Serial Number Data Base (SNDB), which tracks the # of notes reported by collectors. The data is all there. This gives a collector better insight into what is out there (easy or tough to find) & a bit of a jump on the avg collector.
https://cdnpapermoney.com/forum/

-That's great & dabble all you like (& yes the INH is a spender). That's what's fun about this hobby - you go as far as you want! The cool thing about the internet is we now have this data at our fingertips so we no longer need to let rare notes pass through our hands back into the wild (or we can let them go). No worries/no pressure! I thought I'd explain the change-overs (of BoC Governors/Sr Deputy guvs) to those who might be interested.

Here's a note my wife gave me when I left my wallet in the car. I was about to spend it until I turned it over:

-Its in pretty rough shape but it only costs me $5 to keep.

There are thousands of collectors who just tune into their currency periodically (like once every 2-3 years). I would even say they're the majority (unlike us hard nuts!) LOL

-It's really important to remember that the prefix is part of the serial number. You can't have one without the other (it would be like calling long distance without the area code- just doesn't make sense).

I remember when I first looked at a copy of the Charlton Canadian Government Paper Money (CGPM) at the library & thinking, "what kind of idiot would pay that much for a 1937 $1.00 just because it has an H/A or J/A prefix? This was in the 1980's & I don't think I bought my first catalogue until the mid-90's. Anyway, it finally dawned on me that the H/A "Narrow signature Panel" banknote was just like the Osborne-Towers (rare) signature note except with the Gordon-Towers signatures. They were, in fact, BoC's first design change-over & that's when I realized I really wanted one. So I guess the joke was on me as I turned out to be that kind of "idiot"

In 2012, when the polymer notes came out, I was like most of my buddies swearing to stop collecting. Who wanted to collect plastic? None of my former pals I met at shows were into the new series. And then I heard about the $20 BSW short prefix. A short prefix is one where the printers decide to stop the run before the entire 10 Million numbers are used. Sometimes they're even more rare than the change-overs. Anyway, as of today, only 17 have been discovered & it took me 5 years to find this one:


-Later, Charlton noted only 270,000 BSW were produced but the # reported suggest only a fraction of that 270,000 were issued. It turns out that even now, the Bank of Canada will release super rare prefixes (you just have to know which ones). That's the type of stuff I cover on my site.

-Yes, the earlier prefixes could potentially be in circulation. We just don't know unless some collector reports it on the SNDB



The BoC typically releases large boxes (several bricks) of new notes to the individual banks distribution centres. These are (TD, RBC, BMO, etc) HQ's, located in our largest cities (TO, Vancouver, Edmonton, etc) so it only stands to reason that some prefixes can get buried in the vault. It's happened many times & as always keeps things interesting.

For example, when the 2013 Tens/Fives were first released we saw the first 4-6 prefixes of (FEW-FTB for the $10) with the Macklem-Carney signature combo & then HBG-HBM with the new governor Macklem-Poloz signature.

Wait! What the new Macklem-Poloz signature? Everybody I knew were scratching their heads since the lowest HBG was 4.7M. About 1/2 year later a collector reported a Macklem-Carney HBG (below 4.7M). We thought these would be ultra rare but then about 2 years later they began to slowly trickle out. Most came from out west (so the location they're issued from is also random).

Another interesting thing happened: very few Macklem-Carney FTH $10 were seen while the Macklem-Poloz FTH were being released. Even though, the BoC reported # up to 8.3M nobody saw them. Here is today's screenshot of the FTH reported on the SNDB for the Macklem-Carney FTH prefix:



-This 13 is less than the scarce $20 BSW! There were 684 Macklem-Poloz FTH reported but Charlton still (incorrectly) lists the Macklem-Poloz FTH as being the scarcer of the two change-overs!

That is one of the reasons I started my website- to help collectors understand that the catalogue isn't always gospel & to use the data that's available!

I hear you but I would also just wait a bit yet: just give it some time as the polymer gets released in a trickle (compared to previous Journey paper). Only 60 INK have been reported & the $10 are even slower.

Revised at 3:38pm
-No Lane-Macklem notes have been reported on the CPMF SNDB (just fyi).

I would not consider a "Good-over" the same as a "Change-over." It's like comparing apples & oranges.

Most collectors expect Change-overs. In a few cases, the # released don't make sense (& they become like MICRO change-overs) & then prove to be super tough, just like the 2003 $10 BER (most of which were recalled) or some of the 2003 $10 BEK. The Macklem-Carney 2011 $5 HAE would be another good example as the notes were being recalled at the onset of the polymer- but many collectors scrambled for them & they could be purchased. While these "micro-change-overs" were very tough they were not as scarce (nor as rare) as the Good-overs.

Nobody has made any comments about the lack of $20 BSW (short prefix), the M-C $10 FTH (change-over) nor the $50 AMK (short prefix) & $100 EKZ (short prefix). Most collectors would agree that only a small ream of notes were released & not the official numbers. Charlton has not acknowledged the true scarcity of each of these prefixes (likely preferring to see what happens when the entire series has been replaced). Perhaps this is due to the "back-of-the-vault phenomenon" I described in my earlier post.

Re: Good-overs
The Bonin-Thiessen HNB was never expected: only discovered after the next signature, Knight-Thiessen HNA-HNB, came out. There's really no explanation for it other than to draw on what happened with the 1971 $10 EET "Good over." Keep in mind that the EET prefix was discovered before the EEP & EES Good-overs with the Lawson-Bouey (earlier) signatures. [The explanation was that the Lawson-Bouey sheets were discovered (later) & used (either intentionally or accidentally) in place of the Crow-Bouey sheets].

These have been compared to the rare Test notes (because test notes were not expected either) but in general Test notes have larger registries (recorded numbers) than the Good overs.

-yes, not sure whats the hold up (but likely just lack of data). It's doubtful you will see the M-C FTH $10 up for auction any time soon. The other scarce polymer prefixes rarely come up for auction (or for sale) so it is hard to determine an approximate BV.

My 3 y.o. CGPM has the B-T HNB $5 listed for $11,500 (UNC) but no date that price was met so $18000 doesn't seem unreasonable.