Isn't it odd how some conditions seem to be age-related. It is like when you reach the age of 58 years 3 months and a couple of days you can almost guarantee that the focus of your eyes will change and whatever spectacles got you through the previous fifty odd years now need changing. Or the laugh lines that for so many years lit up your face now, like an unwelcome visitor, refuse to leave. And it is like the depressing desire to "put your affairs in order" in anticipation for what is euphemistically described in those daytime TV advertisements for old-age insurance as "that final expense". My parents were very much into putting their affairs in order and did little else during the last thirty years of their life other than labelling their Prudential Insurance policy in large letters so I could easily find it when the time came to draw the £47.38p which was the result of a lifetimes' weekly penny contribution. I always said that I would never tread that particular path, determined to go out in a blaze of disorganisation, but the other day I found myself making a mental note to my son telling him not to throw my German banknotes away as they might be worth a pretty pfennig or two.
So the purpose of this particular blog post is to lie dormant for a year or so (I am hoping for the "so" option) until the time comes and then for it to be read by The Lad before he embarks on a frenzy of house clearance. There is a small collection of old German banknotes in a file on the third bookshelf down from the right in my room that you might want to get valued before you dump them in the bin with everything else. I know you are busy and therefore I will do a search and try to get a current price on that 1915 20 Mark note; who knows it might put young Holroyd through university. I will let you know what I find out.
UPDATE : Just checked on eBay. Similar notes in good condition are currently selling for as much as £3. Now that was a lot of money when I was a lad.
Have you tried double sided printing? :)
ReplyDeleteHee her you made me laugh. Those insurance policies were silly. My grandparents had one for my mum I think it was worth Five quid when she got it and yet for the grandparents to put away what ever every month would have been hard for them.
ReplyDeleteBad luck about the lad's inheritance.
I better have a good look around. There must be a few pieces of value among the junk we have collected over the years. I better have a valuation of the more than 100 years old South African map.
ReplyDeleteThis made me laugh out loud. My parents collected stamps and coins, almost on the penny a week method. The coins were mostly Mercury dimes, held in little books with cellophane tape, which left a residue sixty years later that finished off their value, not that they even rose to "good" after being sorted out from my dad's pocket change. The same with the stamps, held down by those silly stick-ums, that also ruined the backs and devalued the stamp.
ReplyDeleteI just discovered (while blogging about M&S Full on Flavour Salt & Vinegar Twists) that some of my Barbie's original late 1960s outfits would be worth a pretty penny (or more likely dollar) if I could ever get my act together to sell them on ebay. $50 for a dress I know I still own, although it is currently in storage. Even the earrings could sell for almost $40!
ReplyDeleteMaybe your bank notes would raise more if sold as works of art?
I have decided that to save my kids the admin problem of sorting out the inheritance I will spend it now and so avoid any future problem.
ReplyDeleteA good laugh came from here as well, Alan.
ReplyDeleteWith the forlorn maiden and the glowering gent with the rolled up sleeves, that's a banknote that doesn't inspire confidence as much as remorse.
I have a few oddments that I collected from my parents who collected them from their parents. As for my paintings, if I ever become a David Hockney my kids will be millionaires several times over !! I have a couple of hundred I've done over the years and I've never tried to sell them. The best thing we ever did was buy a house when the kids were little and watch the value sky-rocket in our area. As an average paid pastor with no pension, we had no idea that house would become our retirement income. I guess the Lord knew!
ReplyDeleteIs it the season, Alan? Has there been a cosmic pulse? Has there been a faint, warm-up note on the archangel's trumpet? For whatever reason, my thoughts today have been along the same line. Jim
ReplyDelete