Well, its been a great month for the website. Aside from some advertising, which is an unfortunate reality, I have added a bunch of content and now the website features 34,350+ banknote listings, 3,650+ banknotes with images, 21350+ catalog values, 5,550+ eBay sales values, and banknotes views just under 30,000! More importantly, however, I have recently added two authors to the blog: om007 and Babar. I can’t wait to see some blog entries from these two. And for those of you who are visiting the blog only, remember that the main website is www.RealBanknotes.com.

As I have stated, and continue to state, banknotes with British royalty on them will, in my opinion, be quite valuable down the road, especially from countries that are no longer in existence. And with that thought in mind I came across, and purchased Malaya and British Borneo’s p3a which is a $10 bill featuring Queen Elizabeth II. This is the highest denomination of the 1953 set which can often be found on eBay, though I have seen a few rare examples of the $50 bill and the $100 bill up for auction, and selling at a very high premium. Too rich for my blood! Its $10′s for me!

I cannot believe that there are still tons of one dollars bills from Malaya from 1941 available for under ten bucks. Occasionally you can still come across 20 and 50 cent bills as well, though they are usually a little more costly than the one dollar bills. Ofcourse, their availability hints at a fairly healthy supply, but considering the age of the banknotes, the fact that they feature King George VI, and the fact that they are from a non-existent country, I would think that they are a solid investment for those who are buying paper money for the purpose of selling it down the road.

How can this kind of bill not grow exponentially in value, considering I have bought many examples in VF condition for $7.51 – $14.55?? I’m stocked up. I suggest you do the same.

Malaya p11 from 1941.

A seemingly good bargain and investment, when compared to catalog values, is the purchase of paper money from Biafra. Personally, I am a big fan of collecting money from countries with few issues, as I am quite fond of having complete collections, but anything less than 5 and 10 pound notes, in my mind, is a waste of money in terms of collecting banknotes as an investment.

Here is the rationale: just prior to Biafra’s fall and re-instatement into Nigeria it had a money shortage. In particular, there was a major shortage of 5 and 10 shilling notes, as well as one pound notes. So a major order was made to the company that was printing Biafran money. The money was printed, and was about to be shipped to Biafra, when Biafra came to an end. And so there are bricks and bricks of paper money from Biafra somewhere in the world (in the UK, I think). My understanding is that there were not 5 and 10 pound notes in the printing. Hence, all five and ten pound notes are actually from Biafra. It is my belief that many lesser notes have never seen Africa, and that is why many notes in uncirculated condition are available for purchase.

I was led onto this when I purchased a lot of five and ten shilling notes from a seller on eBay. I asked the seller if he had more of the same, and he told me that he had tons, and that he had just sold 1000 five shilling notes to someone in the US. I’ll let you draw your own conclusion …

Biafra paper money. Five and ten shilling notes are NOT good investments.

Well, after quite a bit of this-and-that, I have finally started a blog pertaining to one of my hobbies:  collecting paper money as an investment.  I have not found many interesting blog resources on the subject, and so I hope to add this as a complement to my paper money site: RealBanknotes.com.  Stay tuned, and I will have some interesting things to post … I promise.