Note of the Month

By Neil Shafer

For a number of years, I’ve been interested in an area of collecting that I believe has not had a well deserved spotlight centered on it. I refer to the little known or seen private bank issues of Sweden. In the United States they do not appear for sale very often, but I’ve been successful in locating a few attractive examples.

Most are quite scarce, and many of the squarish larger-size pieces are unpriced rarities. The series is quite extensive, occupying no less than 39 ½ pages in the Standard Catalog, Volume One. Most date from the mid to late 19th century.

I’ve chosen P-S149, a favorite of mine; it’s a 10 kronor of 1884 from the Christinehamns Enskilda Bank to discuss this time, and there’s a special reason such a note deserves to be featured. But first it needs a bit of explanation.

The $10 United States Note, issued from 1869 to 1880, has a small vignette of an eagle at bottom center. I don’t know when, but probably shortly after its initial issue, someone discovered that when the note is turned upside down, that little eagle appears to turn into a jackass. Thus the note gained its present nickname of “jackass note.”

If you take a look at the eagle on this Swedish issue, it seems to me to be a nearly exact copy of the image on the $10 note. Don’t you agree?

More Collecting Resources

• Order the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money, General Issues to learn about circulating paper money from 14th century China to the mid 20th century.

• When it comes to specialized world paper money issues, nothing can top the Standard Catalog of World Paper Money, Specialized Issues .