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The Aussie banknote worth $4.5k

These Aussie banknotes are worth thousands today. Source: Getty
These Aussie banknotes are worth thousands today. Source: Getty

A regular $5 dollar note might buy you a coffee or a block of chocolate at Woolies, but one particular type of five dollar note might buy you something a little pricier - something worth thousands.

Collectors of coins and stamps will tell you that specific kinds of these items are treasures, and people will pay big dollars to have them in their collections.

In fact, one particular kind of $1 coin that was incorrectly minted with the obverse die for a 10 cent coin - dubbed a Mule dollar - is worth up to $5,000 on eBay.

But collectors have the same appetite for old Australian banknotes, it turns out.

In fact, a 1969 Philips-Randall $5 note is selling for a whopping $2,250 on collectors site M.R Roberts Wynyard Coins.

This kind of note is wanted by collectors, as they were part of the ‘star’ replacement notes issued by the Reserve Bank to replace ones that had been damaged or were faulty.

A 1969 Philips-Randall $5 note is selling for a whopping $2,250. Source: M.R Roberts Wynyard Coins.
A 1969 Philips-Randall $5 note is selling for a whopping $2,250. Source: M.R Roberts Wynyard Coins.

These particular banknotes are missing the last serial number, with a ‘*’ in place of it, and command “a huge premium” over the value of a standard note, according to a blog post on The Australian Coin Collecting Blog.

Star notes were phased out in 1972 when automated counting systems were introduced,

But it’s not just star notes that are worth thousands.

A $2 note and $10 note from 1966 are both selling for $4,500 on the site, as they were printed with the word ‘specimen’ on them.

A $10 'specimen' note from 1966 selling for $4,500. Source: M.R Roberts Wynyard Coins.
A $10 'specimen' note from 1966 selling for $4,500. Source: M.R Roberts Wynyard Coins.

According to the site, specimen notes were presented to dignitaries, major banks and libraries, and are therefore worth more.

Another $2 note from 1969 featuring the million serial number has an asking price of a whopping $10,000.

“Compared to star notes where in most cases there were over 200,000 notes in every signature printed, there was one note per prefix only of the one million numbered notes produced,” M.R Roberts stated.

The $2 note from 1969 featuring the million serial number. Source: M.R Roberts Wynyard Coins.
The $2 note from 1969 featuring the million serial number. Source: M.R Roberts Wynyard Coins.

The million numbering system was done by hand, but it was more complex than the star notes, according to the dealer.

“Firstly a sheet was reprinted with the appropriate prefixes and number 100000 on each note,” the site states.

“Singularly each note was then taken over to a special machine and lined up for the last zero to be printed by hand separately.

“The operator covered the note with a pink paper mask that had a hole where the last zero was manually printed. A perfectly aligned strike was difficult to achieve, hence the last zero is often out of alignment.”

Time to check if nan has any old banknotes lying around.

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