Governor’s Charity Sheet Notes - A New Type of Specimen?

To the uninitiated, polymer “Charity Sheet"" notes appear to be a new type of specimen note - as with the polymer specimen notes issued between 1988 and 1996, each charity sheet note features “000000” after the serial prefix, so the initial confusion is understandable.

Charity Sheet notes are not specimen notes however - they served a different purpose, were distributed in a different manner, and are rated differently by collectors.

Even though Charity Sheet notes are not specimens, they are quite scarce and are very collectable in their own right.

One Sheet Donated by the RBA to Charity Each Year

The Reserve Bank of Australia donates one uncut sheet of banknotes, known as the Governor’s charity sheet, to charity each year. The banknotes on the Governor’s charity sheet bear serial numbers with the suffix ‘000000’.  The sheets are auctioned by the ASX Thomson Reuters Australia Charity Foundation in conjunction with the Financial Markets Foundation for Children.

These banknote sheets are quite often purchased and then cut up into single notes, pairs and a block of four, and resold individually.

Unfortunately for those collectors that have bought them, such notes have often been variously described as “specimen” notes, “presentation proofs” or “presentation specimens”.

As such notes are not in the form they were originally released in, they are not highly regarded by a range of experienced banknote collectors.

The First Auction in 1994 Raised $44,000

A full sheet with the serial number AA 93 000000 was first auctioned for charity by Australian Associated Press Group Financial Markets at a dinner in Sydney on February 18, 1994. It raised $44,000. The $10 sheet was signed by Fraser and Cole.

The sheet was later cut into one block of four, one pair and 39 single notes. The single notes were offered for sale at $1,950 each. 

The ASX Thomson Reuters Charity Foundation

The ASX Group and Thomson Reuters Australia (formerly Reuters) joined forces in 1999 to form a Charity Foundation with the objective of helping Australian-based children’s, disability and medical research charities by organising fundraising events in conjunction with the Financial Markets. 

The following information has been compiled from the publicly-available information I’ve been able to locate so far - do let me know if you notice any errors or if you have any additional information available on the notes released to date.

RBA Governor’s Charity Sheet Note - Technical Information