Which banknotes to collect

Necessary cookies Analytics cookies Yes Yes Accept recommended cookies Yes No Proceed with necessary cookies only Necessary cookies Necessary cookies enable core functionality on our website such as security, network management, and accessibility. Analytics cookies We use analytics cookies so we can keep track of the number of visitors to various parts of the site and understand how our website is used. Skip to main content. Museum Collection Banknotes. Banknotes Explore the highlights of our banknotes collection.

Related links Related links. View more of our online collection highlights. Our banknotes collection The Bank of England has produced banknotes since the late s. Early banknotes Learn about some of our earliest cheques and banknotes. Banknotes are a popular collectible and offer a perspective on Australia's culture and history.

Many investors collect banknotes based on serial numbers or signature combinations. Australian banknotes issued since include the year of manufacture in the banknote's serial number, enabling collectors to acquire banknotes based on the year they are produced.

Back to Guides. Banknote Collecting Guide. A beginners guide to banknote collecting Collecting banknotes is a hobby which gives thousands of people pleasure around the world. Known as Notaphily, collectors are often referred to as notaphilists. Basic banknote terminology Paper money was first invented around AD by the Chinese. Back: The other of the note, often known as the underside.

Vignette: The scene or portrait on the face. Denomination: The numerals or text denoting the value of the banknote. What type should you collect? I told him to collect whatever interested him. I suggested he start by collecting the current banknotes of his own country Australia. I advised him to collect common current banknotes until he became familiar with the collecting and handling of them.

Once he had those, he might want to learn about the now obsolete series, going back further in time as he progressed. He also indicated he liked to travel, so I recommended he try to get banknotes from as many of the countries he had visited as possible.

Then, if he found he favored certain countries, types or themes, he could focus on putting together a more specialized collection of those types of banknotes. As a student, his travels have been limited, but after only a year, he already has nice representative collection of Australia and Papua New Guinea, the countries he has been in since talking to me.

Many, if not most collectors, start by collecting the banknotes of their own country. The first notes are usually those used every day and a set is easily put together. This can become more challenging if one tries to find notes from a previous series, but only occasionally still found in circulation. Reaching this point, the budding collector starts recruiting friends and relatives to help look for less common, still circulating specimens.

As soon as the first banknote is acquired for collecting and not for spending, the second challenge becomes upgrading the finds. Since the first notes are usually saved from circulation, each time the new collector gets a better one, he or she can spend the old note and keep the better one, until the example in the collection becomes the ultimate — a pristine, perfect, uncirculated specimen.