callahiljo wrote: ↑01 Oct 2021 15:49
I took a close look at that Ploughman £1 when it was in DNW. It is not conclusive, in my view at least, that it was an error as distinct from a note that may have been subsequently "treated". I say this because from reading much of the correspondence between the CC and DLR it is very clear the CC checked every shipment very closely for such errors and returned the offending notes for replacement. Not only had DLR to fail to do their quality control but also the CC had to miss an obvious one. The CC struck me as particularly exacting in examining all incoming notes.
What kind of "treatment" do you suggest as possible on this, I wonder.
A complete removal of serial numbers or any other printed feature from the surface of a banknote would likely leave some physical residual evidence of that removal, such printing is designed to not be removable.
Under what conditions did you examine the note?
We had a close look at this note when it first appeared, (in 2003, I think) as it was a consideration that the serial numbers might have been erased. I had the opportunity to take a 2400dpi scan of it for a closer look.
We found no trace whatosever of the red ink of the serial numbers on this note, and no damage whatsoever on any other of the inked features of the note.
Among other features, the
sizing on this note is uniformly intact across all of its surface. Any surface abrasion would very likely have damaged this feature to a detectable extent, as has been observed on other banknotes which have had areas cleaned of abraised.
We found no evidence to suggest that this Ploughman note had been tampered with, and concluded that it was a genuine error with serial numbers missing.
The imprint of the number is discernable in part on the note.
It is somewhat unlikely that the Currency Commission (CC) would have examined every individual One Pound note prior to it entering circulation, given the quantity of notes involved.
Partial or total missing serial number errors are not the scarcest error types for Irish notes.