Specimen

I'm pretty new to notaphily, so I when I saw the “specimen” lettering, I was confused. Now I know that specimen is something like test banknote. But what about rarety? Is it worth more or less? 

Depends, most often only a limited number were given out to banks to  make tellers familiarize with new notes but sometimes they are sold directly to collectors and produced in large quantities making them sometimes cheaper then normal notes.

I am sure all modern new banknote prints do come with specimen notes. In most cases, the printer would print between 300-500 pieces, and some even print more (1000+ pieces). This is how I understand them.

Specimen notes are printed mainly for public education and awareness. Such notes will get distributed to commercial banks both locally and internationally so that those who come into contact know that they are genuine banknotes etc.

Not all specimen notes are expensive. You can buy some of them in the open market at a very affordable price and some of them may cost thousands of dollars for one.. Below are some of the specimen notes examples:

1) As far as I know, Bermuda was one of the very few countries that sold specimen notes as collectables or souvenirs to collectors. This set that I am referring to was the 1984 full set all with punched holes. Instead of printing the notes with all zeros as serial numbers, the bank just used normal notes and added the word 'Specimen' on them. I have no idea what the selling price was then. I believe this set is getting expensive now. I got mine for around US$50 back in 2011. Other specimen notes that were deliberately sold to collectors are the Franklin Mints collector sets that all printed with the Maltese cross prefix. In all there are 16 sets or a total of 72 notes. To get a complete set it will cost you more than a thousand dollars now. The Issued price was US$14 per set (£7 for the Northern Ireland set) back in the 1970s. The Bahrain set is the most expensive of the lot now.

2) Specimen notes printed but hardly get released. In Malaysia, specimen notes are printed but to get one (if lucky) it will be very expensive as every collectors in the country all chasing for them 😁

3) Whilst banks do release specimen notes to overseas banks, that does not mean that the ownership of these notes are transferred. In the early 2000s, an auction house in Europe tried to auction a few of the New Zealand new polymer notes series. The Reserve Bank of NZ then issued a letter to the auction house informing them that whilst the notes were distributed, the ownership still remained with them. The auction house had no choice but to withdraw the item. I wonder who has these notes now? 
 

4) Cheap specimen notes. Nowadays, you find some bank decided to release their stock pile of specimen notes to get some space back from their vault. You will find them fairly cheap. Check out those specimen notes from Bangladesh. You can buy them for less than $10 each.

5) The value of the specimen notes is not determined by the quantity printed. A quantity print of 300 pieces may not be more expensive than those that have printed more than 1000+ pieces. The Northern Ireland Northern Bank issued a £5 polymer note in 1999. More than a 1000 pieces were printed as specimens. Today it will cost you $1000+ to get one if you are lucky. The reason is that most of these specimen notes were hogged by senior managements of the bank and only a limited quantity were made available to collectors. Each note is printed with a tiny control number on the note. I have one with #1192, and one that is below #1000. I have seen #2 and #3 owned by a collector. I believe this collector is from Croatia or from Slovenia.

6) Some specimen notes are just outright ridiculously expensive. The Australian polymer note is one of them. Some years ago, I got a message on my site asking me what the value of the Australian $50 specimen would be worth? She told me that the specimen note was given to her by her uncle, who happened to be the Governor of the Reserve Bank. It was given to her as a birthday gift when she was 7 years old (I remembered). She said that a dealer told her that the note is worth over A$100k. The note is presented in a folder. If only I had such a generous uncle. Why, why, why??🤣. Some years ago, the A$5 and A$10 were auctioned in Singapore. Both notes were not in UNC condition and the lot was sold for S$18,000 plus buyer's commission.

In general, specimen notes are more expensive than those normal notes, and by how much will all depend on the circumstances of the specimen notes issued.

BTW, specimen note is not a test note. 😁

Just to follow on from Ahkai's excellent description.

Test note = Trial. The bank is trying out some new designs, or printing methods, or something like that. Basically, the “Design” stage.

Specimen note = 0 value version of a real note.

These are often distributed for awareness of a note shortly before the non-specimen version is released into circulation. Imagine you work in a bank, you're the director. You'd want your employees to know what the new banknote will look like, security features etc.

Now imagine you have 1,000 bank branches, and the bank is releasing a new £100 note. To get them at face value from the issuer (usually a government department), you'd need to give them £100,000 to get just one into each branch! Yikes!

So the issuer produces a 1,000 real notes, then punches “Specimen” into it and says you can have them at cost value. Let's say £1 each. Now you only have to spend £1,000 to get them in.

Plus your employees can't accidentally give it away to a customer.

Basically, think of specimens as “Training tools”.

Of course, it's a bit more complex than that. Some nations issue them exclusively as collector pieces, for example.

You'll see quite a few images on Numista with specimen on them, especially at higher values. This is because these specimen notes obviously never circulated so remain in much higher quality than most other notes.

Values can be higher or lower than the genuine issued version of the note. As with all things, depends on supply! Some specimen notes are common compared to the real deal. Some specimens barely exist at all.

Great descriptions of Specimen banknotes!  Specimens don't have value because they're not issued to the public for circulation. They are (or were) privately used as training instruments (or stored in vaults since they never were used to train bank employees).  

Specimens generally have all “000000” serial numbers but may have just regular numbers or what some special number collectors call “ladder serial numbers” (or "123456").  They may be punch-holed “SPECIMEN” or stamped “SPECIMEN” or both.  Typically, specimens without the punch holes are often preferred over punch holed examples if both versions exist.

5) The value of the specimen notes is not determined by the quantity printed. A quantity print of 300 pieces may not be more expensive than those that have printed more than 1000+ pieces.

-This niche of collecting sort of highlights banknote value in the big picture as well.  Its not always numbers printed (& released) that determine "collector value" but awareness & demand.  

4) Cheap specimen notes. Nowadays, you find some bank decided to release their stock pile of specimen notes to get some space back from their vault. You will find them fairly cheap. Check out those specimen notes from Bangladesh. You can buy them for less than $10 each.

-There are many cheap specimens still available from several nations which released large quantities. Often you will also see radar & special serial numbers (or sets) sold by these nations cheaply as well. 

Specimens tend to have much higher collector value from former colonial administrations or first series where the issued note is nearly impossible to find. An example of a highly sought specimen would be the 1954 5 Pounds from Southern Rhodesia since few examples of the issued note have survived (& more specimens likely exist today). 

Specimens, since they don't get circulated are usually collected in high grades (UNC+) but in the case of Rhodesian 5 Pounds (above), any condition would be desirable.  Collecting specimens is a lot like collecting error notes- you really should know which ones to seek (just like you should understand how errors are printed or “manufactured”) before you take on this corner of the hobby.