Camp Seven Bank archive stars

By Kerry Rodgers

Any collector of World War II paper, camp scrip, essays, or even Aussie currency, must have experienced some mouth watering moments when reading the descriptions of nine lots offered in Noble Numismatics November 2015 sale in Sydney.

All were from Australia’s Hay Internment Camp where British enemy aliens were housed during WW II (Feller & Feller pp.106-112). Two lots were regular issued sixpenny notes (Feller: AU-910b, -910c). The remainder were archival items or seldom seen rarities.

These consisted of three 1940 lino-cut-printed Christmas/New Year gift vouchers; unsigned specimen sixpence, shilling and two shillings Camp Seven Bank notes with all zero serials; a printed one penny chit (Feller: AU-915a); a purple-stamped, two-shilling chit on hand-signed paper (Campbell: 1235).

Eight of the 12 items from the George Teltscher archive related to the production of the internment Camp Seven Bank issues of WW II: (Fig. 1.) uniface printer’s trial in red of the two shillings face signed Stahl lacking main overprint, left signature and serials; (Fig. 2.) uniface printer’s trial in blue of two shillings face with overprint but lacking date, serial and second signature; (Fig. 3.) uniface printer’s trail in scarlet of common back of notes with overprint; (Fig. 4.) uniface artist’s ink drawing in pink and black of the face the two shillings with a date of March 6, 1941, serial B10001, and “Controller” as Dr. Hardegg at left and “Manager” R. Stahl at right; (Fig. 5.) black overprint for face of two shillings; (Fig. 6.) common black overprint for back of all notes; (Fig. 7.) shield-shaped ink drawing of three huts and numbers “7”; (Fig. 8.) shield-shaped drawing of Merino ram as used on printed notes with initials “A E.” Images courtesy Noble Numismatics.

But the star of the show was undoubtedly Lot 2563. It consisted of 12 artist’s drawings, printer’s proofs and false color specimens for the Camp Seven Bank issues (Feller: AU-910, -911, -912). These had all come from the estate of George Teltscher, the artist whose designs feature on all three notes—as well as an unissued five shillings. It was the fourth time the archive had been offered for sale since its original appearance on the market in 1984 following Teltscher’s death.

They include a uniface printer’s trial in blue of the two shillings face signed Stahl but without a date, top line of legend, left signature or serials; uniface printer’s trial in scarlet of the two shillings face signed by R. Stahl but lacking overprinting; uniface printer’s trial in pink with black overprint of the common back of all notes; uniface artist’s ink essay in scarlet and black of the face of the two shillings with a date of March 6, 1941, serial B10001, and “Controller” as Dr. Hardegg at left and “Manager” R. Stahl at right; shield-shaped ink drawing of three huts with numbers “7,” another of a Merino ram; original large pencil drawing on tracing paper for center of two shillings note with instructions to printer in pencil signed in ink “George Teltscher 1941”; printer’s proofs of overprint for face and back of two shillings on art paper; carbon of type-written AMF Eastern Command letter discussing withdrawal of the notes; photo of the camp taken in 1940.

The first two items were graded uncirculated and others VF to EF. All had to be regarded as unique. Consequently, it was understandable when they were bid up to $20,574 [A$28,620].

Full details of these and associated lots can be found at Noble’s website: www.noble.com.au.

This article was originally printed in Bank Note Reporter.
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