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Notaphily is the study and collection of paper currency, and banknotes. A notaphilist is a collector of banknotes or paper money, particularly as a hobby.
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| Numismatics the study of currency |
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Notaphily is the study and collection of paper currency, and banknotes. A notaphilist is a collector of banknotes or paper money, particularly as a hobby.
It is believed that people have been collecting paper money for as long as it has been in use.[ citation needed ] While people began collecting paper currency more systematically in the 1940s, the turning point occurred in the 1970s when notaphily was established as a separate area by collectors.
The term was coined in 1970 by Robert Stanley, a linguist then employed as Public Relations Manager of the collectors and investments firm Stanley Gibbons, in a successful attempt to formalise and encourage interest in the area. The term 'philanoty' had been considered, but 'notaphily' was preferred because of its assonance with the familiar 'philately'.
At the same time, some developed countries such as the United States, Germany and France began publishing their respective national catalogues of paper money, which represented major points of reference literature.
In 1961, The International Bank Note Society, (IBNS), was formed as an international association of banknote collectors. Nowadays it has thousands of members from around the world. The IBNS publishes the quarterly IBNS Journal, holds regular mail bid auctions, and promotes lectures at congresses.
The major contributor to this study has been Albert Pick who published some of the earliest catalogues of paper money and through them explained the objective of collecting paper money and the definition of it. Albert Pick is also the author of the capital part of the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money , now a three-volume set which consists of thousands of pages of almost the entire collection of the world paper money that has ever existed and is updated annually. Almost every note of every country and many special and regional issues are cataloged following a unique format for each entry: [Country Name]P[unique number for the banknote edition]
The following note would thus be cataloged as "Yugoslavia P-87."
An important aspect of collecting banknotes is the condition of items. Banknotes in perfect condition (without any damage), that usually haven't circulated are rated as uncirculated (UNC) and that is the highest classification for a value that a banknote can have. In addition to that, the value for a specific note in the world paper money catalog is listed for UNC condition.
Banknotes are usually graded on a descriptive scale of grades. These grades vary somewhat internationally, and as time goes on more grades have been added. The grades specified by the International Bank Note Society are as follows:
In addition to these grades, it is common to indicate an in-between grade, such as AU-UNC, which is a note that falls between AU and UNC, (e.g., a note with a noticeable counting fold).
Certain vendors and auctioneers break the UNC grade down further, into three grades:
Most collectors will always prefer an Uncirculated note, and these notes command substantial premiums over lower grades. A note in UNC condition is generally worth up to ten times more in this condition compared with merely VG (Very Good). An UNC note can be worth three times as much as a VF one. For notes seldom found in uncirculated condition, the premium may be even higher. The difference between Gem Uncirculated and Uncirculated can also be substantial. As a result, buyers are at risk of grade inflation, in that a dealer failing to notice a fold in an AU note and passing it off as UNC will undoubtedly feel justified in charging a higher price.
Bank notes below VF are usually considered undesirable in a collection, and are generally purchased where better-quality examples are either unavailable due to their scarcity or simply beyond the collector's budget. Common notes in such poor condition, however, are effectively unsaleable for anything above their face value (assuming they are still legal tender).
Various third party grading companies (TPG) offer the service of authentication, grading and cataloging of common varieties of paper currency. These TPGs typically use a seventy-point grading scale to describe the note. Additional notations may be made for exceptional paper quality or other varieties.
Following examination, TPG companies typically encapsulate the currency in what is commonly referred to as a "slab." Similar to the issues surrounding the transition that occurred within the coin collecting field many years ago, controversy exists about the need or value of TPG notes. Without having the ability to closely examine and feel the note due to it being sealed inside the slab, many collectors are not comfortable accepting the opinion of others as to the grade and may either elect not to purchase the note or to cut it out of the slab for examination. Additionally, many noted mistakes in grading by third party grading services have been discovered. However, for collectors less adept at grading, purchasing a note in a slab can provide some additional comfort for the owner in justifying the purchase and cost. It also serves to help protect the collector against unethical activities designed to increase the worth of the note by pressing out folds, washing, repairing tears, or other alterations typically viewed as unacceptable thereby lowering the value of the item.
The vast majority of banknotes are sold using the Uncirculated–Poor grading system, and are never graded with any third party.
Postal order collecting has become a branch of notaphily, especially in England since the 1980s. Some countries, such as Basutoland, the British Somaliland Protectorate, and Northern Rhodesia never issued their own banknotes, however, they did issue their own postal orders. Great Britain, the Isle of Man, and Northern Ireland also issued Old Age Pension Orders as well as postal orders. These have become collectible in recent years.
People collect paper money by:
Coin collecting is the collecting of coins or other forms of minted legal tender. Coins of interest to collectors include beautiful, rare, and historically significant pieces. Collectors may be interested, for example, in complete sets of a particular design or denomination, coins that were in circulation for only a brief time, or coins with errors. Coin collecting can be differentiated from numismatics, in that the latter is the systematic study of currency as a whole, though the two disciplines are closely interlinked.
Numismatics is the study or collection of currency, including coins, tokens, paper money, medals and related objects.
A banknote – also called a bill, paper money, or simply a note – is a type of negotiable promissory note, made by a bank or other licensed authority, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued by commercial banks, which were legally required to redeem the notes for legal tender when presented to the chief cashier of the originating bank. These commercial banknotes only traded at face value in the market served by the issuing bank. Commercial banknotes have primarily been replaced by national banknotes issued by central banks or monetary authorities.
Coin grading is the process of determining the grade or condition of a coin, one of the key factors in determining its collectible value. A coin's grade is generally determined by six criteria: strike, preservation, luster, color, attractiveness, and occasionally the country/state in which it was minted. Several grading systems have been developed. Certification services professionally grade coins for tiered fees.
Exonumia are numismatic items other than coins and paper money. This includes "Good For" tokens, badges, counterstamped coins, elongated coins, encased coins, souvenir medallions, tags, wooden nickels and other similar items. It is an aspect of numismatics and many coin collectors are also exonumists.
Notgeld is money issued by an institution in a time of economic or political crisis. The issuing institution is usually one without official sanction from the central government. This usually occurs when not enough state-produced money is available from the central bank. In particular, notgeld generally refers to money produced in Germany and Austria during World War I and the Interwar period. Issuing institutions could be a town's savings banks, municipalities and private or state-owned firms. Nearly all issues contained an expiry date, after which time they were invalid. Issues without dates ordinarily had an expiry announced in a newspaper or at the place of issuance.
Albert Pick was a German numismatist. An internationally acknowledged authority on the subject of paper money, Pick wrote the first modern catalog of banknotes in 1974, and is widely credited with establishing the modern face of banknote collecting. His Standard Catalog of World Paper Money is the standard reference work for banknote collectors worldwide.
National Gold Bank Notes were National Bank Notes issued by nine national gold banks in California in the 1870s and 1880s and redeemable in gold. Printed on a yellow-tinted paper, six denominations circulated: $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, and $500. A $1,000 note was designed and printed but never issued. During the issuing period of national gold banks (1871–83), the U.S. Treasury issued 200,558 notes totaling $3,465,240. Today, National Gold Bank Notes are rare in the higher denominations with condition generally falling in the good-to-fine range. Approximately 630 National Gold Bank Notes are known to exist, and roughly 20 grade above "very fine".
The pound was the currency of the breakaway Republic of Biafra between 1968 and 1970.
This glossary of numismatics is a list of definitions of terms and concepts relevant to numismatics and coin collecting, as well as sub-fields and related disciplines, with concise explanations for the beginner or professional.
The pound was the currency of New Zealand from 1933 until 1967, when it was replaced by the New Zealand dollar. Prior to this, New Zealand used the pound sterling since the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840. Like the pound sterling, it was subdivided into 20 shillings each of 12 pence.
The Cook Islands dollar was the former currency of the Cook Islands, which now uses the New Zealand dollar, although some physical cash issued for the Cook Islands dollar remains in use. The dollar was subdivided into 100 cents, with some older 50-cent coins carrying the denomination as "50 tene".
The Del Monte note is a misprinted U.S. twenty-dollar bill on which a multicolored Del Monte sticker appears next to Andrew Jackson's portrait. The sticker became affixed during the printing process, before the application of the overprint but after the face print had been made. The result is a note with part of the seal and serial numbers printed on top of the sticker. In the paper money hobby, this error type is called a "retained obstruction." The vast majority of such errors do not retain the source of the obstruction but those that do sell for a substantial premium. The note is very famous among currency collectors and has appeared on the covers of industry magazines such as Bank Note Reporter and Numismatic News.
Third-party grading (TPG) refers to coin grading & banknote grading authentication, attribution, and encapsulation by independent certification services.
This page is a glossary of notaphily. Notaphily is the study of paper money or banknotes.
The Sheldon Coin Grading Scale is a 70-point coin grading scale used in the numismatic assessment of a coin's quality. The American Numismatic Association based its Official ANA Grading Standards in large part on the Sheldon scale. The scale was created by William Herbert Sheldon.
Collectors Universe Inc. is an American company formed in 1986, now based in Santa Ana, California, which provides third-party authentication and grading services to collectors, retail buyers and sellers of collectibles. Its authentication services focus on coins, trading cards, sports memorabilia, and autographs. The company reached the combined total of 75 million certified collectibles in 2019. Collectors Universe is also a publisher in fields relating to collecting.
Paper currency grading is the process of determining the grade or condition of a bank note, one of the key factors in determining its collectible value. A banknotes grade is generally determined by crispness, brightness, and depth of color. Other factors that are taken into consideration include centering of the printed area, artificially suppressed folds, repairs, and pinholes. Certification services professionally grade banknotes for tiered fees.
Professional Sports Authenticator (PSA) is a US based sports card and trading card grading company.
The United States 10,000-dollar bill(US$10000) (1878–1934) is an obsolete denomination of the United States dollar. The $10,000 note was the highest denomination of US currency to be used by the public and was no longer issued after 1969. These notes are valuable to collectors and, since they are still legal tender, banks will redeem the notes for face value.
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