Stack’s Bowers Galleries Announces the Olive Sprig Collection of Palestine Paper Money

Headlining Stack’s Bowers Galleries’ Spring 2026 Maastricht Auction, the Olive Sprig Collection is a near complete offering of 1927-1945 paper money of the Palestine Mandate featuring key treasures from this well-collected series. The 63 notes in the collection, slated to cross the auction block in early May 2026 immediately following the MIF World Paper Money Show, are expected to bring in excess of $1 million when the hammer falls on the collection’s final piece.

Formed over many decades with patience and focus, the collection brings together a selection of PMG-certified notes meticulously chosen for their quality, eye appeal, variety, and historical importance. The goal was to amass as comprehensive a collection of the circulating issues, not only by issue and denomination but also by prefix. “This is perhaps the most complete collection of Palestine Mandate notes ever to come to auction. Of the four prefixes not represented in the collection, only the 1944 1 pounder with the C/1 prefix is not one of the very rare and expensive 50 or 100 pound notes. This feat of completeness would be next to impossible to repeat today,” commented Aris Maragoudakis, Stack’s Bowers Galleries’ Director of World Currency Auctions.

The “Olive Sprig” moniker reflects a symbol long-associated with this olive-growing region of the world, and is a nod to the watermark that appears on all the pieces. The notes themselves come from a time of seismic change in the region and are among the most widely collected Middle Eastern paper money. Several examples rank among the finest certified known today, with many carrying EPQ (Exceptional Paper Quality) designations and displaying strong eye appeal. “Of the 63 notes in the collection, more than a third—22 notes—are graded EPQ. This is an unprecedented concentration of EPQ notes in a collection whose focus goes beyond just grade into the realm of technical completeness by prefix,” added Maragoudakis.

Key pieces from the collection include a coveted Prefix A, 1927 100 Pound that was found in the most unlikely of places: buried in a donation to an Oxfam branch store in eastern England; it is just the fourth known example of this coveted denomination in private hands. Also included are two extremely rare 50 Pound notes from 1927 and 1929 that were originally sold by Sotheby’s as part of the famed Arnold H. Kagan Collection. Condition rarities include a tied-for-finest-graded 500 Mils in 65 EPQ, a 1 Pound in 55 EPQ, a 5 Pound in a PMG 45 EPQ that is among the finest graded, and a 10 Pound in PMG 25—all with the A Prefix and 1927 date that will be offered alongside other key prefixes and significantly graded pieces.

More information regarding the sale of these treasures will follow in the coming weeks, or can be obtained by contacting the firm’s Director of World Paper, Aris Maragoudakis at Aris@StacksBowers.com or Executive Vice President Vicken Yegparian at VYegparian@StacksBowers.com.