Maurice KOLSKY Indochina Collection - 1st Part
Closing on February 26th, 2004
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PAPIER MONNAIE 4 Maurice KOLSKY Indochina Collection - 1st Part Closing on February 26th, 2004 |
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Part 1 : The trading postsWhen Doctor Kolksky published the second edition of INDOCHINA BANK-NOTES (the high esteem in which I hold this brilliant book is well known), the subject appeared to be closed and after ten years of research, on top of the twenty years spent writing the book, the subject could be considered to have been exhausted. But, no. PAPIER MONNAIE IV present the fabulous collection used by Doctor Kolsky to write his book, and all that he's studied since… that is about forty bank-notes unpublished in any form In reality, there are even more unpublished variations, unpublished dates, in short bank-notes which have come to our attention.. Most of the notes presented here in this article come from a particular group whose history is related here. One day, about 1910/1915, perhaps later ( no note from this group dates from later than 1908 ) a regular customer came into a café near the Ministry of the Colonies. This customer worked at the Ministry, where he was an odd-job man, and his duties included, amongst other things, that of emptying the dustbins. This customer, who consumed a large quantity of alcohol, brought the café owner a group of notes that he'd just found in the Ministry dustbins… It was well-known that the café owner collected everything and anything and the customer exchanged the wad of notes against a certain number of litres of red wine. The group of notes became part of the many collections belonging to the café owner, inherited by his son on his death around 1940. When his son died himself a few years ago, his widow, from deep in the French countryside, contacted a local stamp-collector, for the stamp collections were the most voluminous, and sold the stamps and.. the group of bank-notes. After consulting CGB, the stamp collector made haste to sell them, as they were only of financial interest to him and he got a good price for them. The conclusion to be drawn from this is that what is considered rubbish might be worth something a few decades later. This group of notes will from now on be named « the Treasure of the Ministry of the Colonies »  It was probably intended that the archives of this office, which contained only notes which had no official value and which at the time had no value as collector's items, be destroyed. After a miraculous escape, due to the drunkenness of the bin attendant, the notes are now visible, after several decades lying at the bottom of a cupboard. They will be presented to the public bit by bit, as CGB organises its sales and will not be published nor visible before the catalogues are ready. It will probably take several years to sell all the notes. Most amazing is the fact that no note of this group was already in Dr. Kolsky's collection and that they create no duplication. In view of the quantity of all the notes represented by the Kolsky collection, the notes belonging to the Treasure of the Ministry of the Colonies for Indochina , and the different notes added in complement, the sale is divided into two parts, the first dealing with all the trading-posts other than Saigon and Hanoi, the second dealing with Indochina itself and finishing with the notes of the Associated States. All unpublished notes are obviously not necessarily of an unpublished type . Certain ones were known through sketches, drawings or series values, certain were only known in the form of specimens. All these notes will naturally be referred to again in future editions of Doctor Kolsky's books, especially for notes issued and cancelled because only the illustration of a specimen was available. Michel Prieur prieur@cgb.fr |
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