My opinion:-
Collectors sometimes asked the question as to why people go for first and last prefix notes only.
Why,
when some printers print notes with a special prefix (replacement) to
replace those errors or rejected notes. Won't the replacement notes are
worth much more than the first or last prefix? In most cases, there are,
as replacement prefixes are unique and are usually issued in much lower
quantity than any other prefixes printed. So why the First and Last
prefix?
Personally, I
do not have an answer for you. Perhaps this has something to do with
the collectors trends; especially the first prefix can be easily
recognised by collectors i.e. A, AA or A/1 etc. But the question is still
why? Isn’t every serial number unique and no two serial numbers are the
same? Well, of course if you have notes with extremely low serial
numbers, solids, radars, ladders, repeaters or whatever numbers that
pleased a collector’s eyes, then of course such notes would command a
premium as compared to others with normal serial number/prefix notes.
Whilst many collectors around the world specifically collect these first
and last prefix notes, like collectors from Australia, New Zealand,
Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, South Korea, the UK, Canada
and many part of the world,
I
believe that the last prefix notes would usually have a much better
investment return than the first. Generally speaking, my explanation is
quite simple. Every collector, regardless of how knowledgeable they
are, one should be able to identify the first prefix note. But how do
they know what the last prefix series is? Most Central Banks would not
or are unwilling to provide such information due to confidentiality reasons.
And in some cases, because of the lack of such information, most
collectors would not know until the final print is issued, and by that
time, it may be too late to get one at a decent price.
I
understand that there are advanced collectors that make a habit to
collect every single prefix issued, but then one must have the financial
resources to do that, especially those high value notes, and not many
collectors can afford that kind of collection. Keeping them is like
having death money not generating any returns at all. Based on past
experience, Australian last prefix notes tend to have much better
returns than those first prefix notes. Generally speaking, I am
referring to polymer notes here only as Australia has creased printing
replacement notes in the 70s. Just to give an example, if you are
looking for a 1995 $50 with AA prefix, this note may cost you a few
hundred dollars to get one. But if you are looking for the last prefix
i.e. VG95, be prepared to fork out a few grand to have one. I am not
sure what the current market value is, but I am having difficulty in
just getting one in any condition at the moment. There are still plenty
of 1995 prints in general circulation, but finding one with VG letters
is like looking for a needle in a haystack! For those who may not be
aware of this, the Australia 2008 $50 prints, a million were printed for
the AA08 first prefix. However, less than 50,000 pieces were printed for
the last prefix MD08. At this moment, I have not seen any sudden
appreciation on this last prefix note yet, however time will tell.
However if you have bought one for the AA prefix, perhaps it is not too
late to get one MD prefix too.
Update:
Just
saw a dealer listed the following selling price for the $50 2008
prints; - AA08 First prefix = $90; and MD08 Last prefix = $150