LATVIA. Latvijas Banka. 20 Latu, 1924. P-15a. PMG Very Fine 30.A highly important offering that represents a duplicate from the Al Kugel collection, giving collectors one more chance to acquire this rare type. Printed by Waterlow & Sons in England, who delivered 1 million notes to the Bank of Latvia in November of 1925. Upon receipt of the notes, it was found that the printing quality was rather poor, and it was decided not to issue them. However, approximately 400 notes were mistakenly released into circulation, but they were quickly withdrawn. A small number of pieces would eventually find their way into collectors hands. Most others were returned to the bank during the recall, which lasted until May of 1926. Not surprisingly, this is a major rarity that is on the wish list of many advanced collectors of the region. PMG has graded just three notes of this type in issued format, the finest of which is a single PMG Very Fine 30 EPQ also from the Al Kugel collection, which we sold for $14,400 in October 2024. Like all known issued examples this note features a fairly low 3-digit serial number. PMG comments "Annotation."From the Al Kugel Collection.
