PREVIEW: WORLD BANKNOTES: 27 & 28 NOVEMBER

The Southern Rhodesia Currency Board enjoyed a short existence from 1938 to 1955, when it was renamed the Currency Board of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (Central African Currency Board) after its ownership changed from the Southern Rhodesia government to the Federal government of Rhodesia and Nyasaland.

This was the latest development in a history of issuing banknotes in the region that stretched back to 1896 and was soon accompanied by the replacement of the Southern Rhodesian pound with the Rhodesia and Nyasaland pound.

Surviving Southern Rhodesia Currency Board notes are rare enough, bearing in mind its brief tenure and the decades that have intervened, but what added to their rarity was their wholesale dependence on backing by sterling reserves in London. This meant that as the territories’ foreign exchange reserves rose and fell, so the volume of notes issued by the Board rose and fell accordingly – there was no room for discretionary credit to allow for an extension of print runs.

Against this background, notes issued by the Southern Rhodesia Currency Board command significant interest today, a number of surviving issues being very rare indeed, as this auction demonstrates.

A prime example is the 10 March 1954, £10 note, issued with the serial number E/3 011063, and Pechey and Grafftey-Smith signatures. In very fine condition and the second highest PMG graded example of this exceptional rarity, it is thought that only six to eight examples remain extant globally. The estimate is £10,000-15,000.

Two examples of the £10, dated 15 April 1953, with serial number E/1 055675, and Jeffreys and Grafftey-Smith signatures, also feature. One is considered to be among the finest extant examples of this rare note, while the other has a tiny tear along top central fold. Each is pitched at £4,000-5,000.

A £5, dated 1 July 1942, with serial number C/4 011879, and Tucker and Fox signatures, is a very fine survivor of an extremely rare date. Only around 20,000 of this type were printed before the white underprint was added. The guide is £1,500-2,000.

A £5, dated 3 January 1953, with serial number C/26 023388, and Grafftey-Smith and Pechey signatures, is a very fine example and extremely nice grade for this type, and so rare. It is also expected to fetch £1,500-2,000.

Other notes of the period issued by the board appear with similar estimates.