The Trevor Wilkin Collection of Siege Notes

Trevor Wilkin

I first met Trevor at a meeting of the International Bank Note Society, Sydney Chapter back in 1986. Then we got to know each other better in a truly Australian globe- trotting way when we were both in London, him for work and me to attend my father’s funeral.

He introduced me to some of the London banknote dealers and one night we attended a meeting of the London Chapter. This was the start of a friendship that lasted for 36 years until Thursday 15th September 2022 when he was called to what collectors might call banknote heaven, described by one collector as a place of entirely uncirculated notes at below catalogue price.

I was sitting beside him at an auction in Sydney in the early 1990s when he raised his paddle to bid on a bulk lot of world banknotes. It was a great lot and attracted several bids. As the price went up and up, his hand started to shake but he held firm and was finally victorious and, as I remember it, his winning bid ended up being mid four figures. This was possibly the beginning of his career as a serious dealer. I asked him many years later, when he had sold the last of the notes from that lot and he said he only got rid of the last one a few years ago!

Trevor started attending international coin and banknote shows in Singapore and Hong Kong and was soon having a table at what is traditionally, the world’s highest-ranking banknote show held each April in Maastricht, Holland. Shortly afterwards he combined this with the spring and autumn shows and auctions in London.

He never forgot the Australian collectors, fitting in national and local shows around his international travels and many is the time that I heard the complaint “I tried to get to Trevor’s table but there was no room.”

To quote from his CV when he was admitted to the IBNS Hall of fame in 2016

“Despite a gruelling travel and banknote show schedule which he handles with good humour, Trevor always takes time to support the IBNS at home and abroad. At conventions he will always be found to have made up a display and is prepared to talk. For one who travels so extensively as a professional banknote dealer, Trevor could easily justify not volunteering for IBNS activities yet to the contrary he is always the first to volunteer. He has long been a significant part of the glue that holds banknote collecting and IBNS activities together not only in Australia but across most regions of Pacific Oceania and Southeast Asia. The IBNS has no greater advocate and world ambassador than Trevor Wilkin.”

Stories are legion about the merry band of collectors and dealers who make up the Sydney Chapter of the IBNS that has continued strongly from the days when half a dozen collectors gathered in Martin Place at Spink Australia (now Noble Numismatics).

Trevor was a driving force in the efforts of the Sydney Chapter to be a banknote presence at numismatic shows in Sydney where the chapter had information tables and displays. Funds were raised through the sale of souvenir cards of Australian banknotes. Our friendship was enhanced by our collective endeavours, getting notes and mounting them on cards.

The first Sydney Chapter banknote convention was held in the early 1990s and I don’t remember Trevor missing any one of them. He was always ready to give a presentation. His true love, siege notes, was a superlative tour of European history as well as his knowledge of notes of Great Britain and Ireland. Sydney Chapter lore was enhanced by his peerless performances as auctioneer at the fund-raising auctions held each conference. The performance was further enhanced by his wearing of a suitable or unsuitable form of head gear which was usually the last item to go on the auction block.

He was also tremendously social and hospitable, with a sense of fun and fairness, with collectors and dealers, as he considered both his friends. Dinners and drinks were an integral part of the business. Those present, remember him being the life of the party as well as a tough negotiator when organising events.

I have lost my longest standing friend in Australia, generous, considerate with a wealth of knowledge, even if he was a Queensland supporter when it came to the State of Origin rugby league games.

Trevor will be sorely missed at Sydney Chapter meetings and by his friends and clients around
the world. Our chapter vice-president Graham Owen concluded the Chapter’s eulogy “...You left us way too soon Trevor, on behalf of your friends in the IBNS may I say thanks for the good times, camaraderie, and the memories that we will cherish for ever.”

Tony James
Hon. Secretary Sydney Chapter IBNS & International Director for Australasia, East and South Asia and the Pacific Islands