NOONANS achieve world record price for an english provincial banknotE - A £100 note from the Macclesfield & cheshire bank fetches a hammer price of £4,000-

A £100 note from the Macclesfield & Cheshire Bank sold for a hammer price of £4,000, which was a world record price for an English Provincial Banknote and double its low estimate in a sale of British & Irish Banknotes at Noonans Mayfair on Thursday, March 13, 2025. Dating from 1840, it was purchased by an enthusiastic collector of English banknotes [lot 38]. 

Following the sale, Andrew Pattison, Head of the Banknote Department at Noonans commented: “We justifiably called this ’the finest provincial note ever offered at auction’ and the bidders clearly agreed.”  

Comprising 643 lots, the sale, which fetched a total of £348,065, also included several important Bank of England Notes that were unique in private hands. A £15 note from 1798, signed by Abraham Newland who was Chief Cashier at the Bank of England from 1782 to 1807, sold for £30,000. The £15 was never repeated after Henry Hase became Chief Cashier, after Newland in 1807 [lot 136]. Also included was a £20 signed by Matthew Marshall, dating from 1850, which is fetched a hammer price of £30,000 [lot 138] and so did a £5 from 1866 signed by William Miller [lot 139].

As Mr Pattison said before the sale: “Miller notes are almost impossible to find, with this being the first to come up anywhere for more than a decade.”

From the regional branches of the Bank of England; a £100 note from the Leeds branch signed by Cyril P. Mahon, dated 27 March 1926 – one of only four examples known in private hands sold for a hammer price of £12,000 against an estimate of £6,000-£8,000 [lot 156]; while from the Bristol Branch; a £5 note signed Ernest M. Harvey and dated 22 August 1918, and one of only eight examples known fetched a hammer price of £9,000
[lot 147]; and from the Bank of England in Liverpool; a £10 note signed by John G. Nairne on 26 November 1914, and one of only six examples known,
sold for a hammer price of £8,000 against an estimate of £3,000-£4,000 [lot 142]. These were bought by a combination of three different collectors.

As Mr Pattison also added: “The strong interest in the Bank of England notes really highlights the current strength of the market for the finest English banknotes.”  

Also included is a special group of 19 notes that were collected by John Page during his tenure as Chief Cashier of the Bank of England. This section contained some of the rarest ‘first prefixes’ in the whole Bank of England series. The highest price was paid for a £1 note dating from 1970 with the serial number S87L 000001, which was in fact the very first note to bear the Page signature and fetched a hammer price of £6,000 against an estimate of £2,400-3,000 [lot 194].

Mr Pattison finished with: “The notes sold as part of the John Page collection achieved prices far beyond our wildest expectations and were all heavily contested, with six or seven bidders all competing at the highest levels.”