Interesting Find : FEP replacements in FES

On March 14 of this year a fellow collector, from Blackfalds, Alberta, e-mailed with news that a BoC representative had shown a pair of modified journey tens at the Calgary show. He informed me that the notes were FEP 0078272 and 273.

On Sept 29 I received a fresh, but mixed, 1000 note brick of $10 FES in the range of 357xxxx. The third and fourth notes from the bottom of the brick were FEP 0078340 and 341.

Here is the brick info:

FES 3570254 ( pn 11/48 ), 253, FEP 0078341, 340 ( position numbers 18/53 ), FES 3570252 -160
FES3290302 – 203
FES3578258 – 160
FES3442320 – 286
FES3362320 – 242
FES3354320 – 237
FES3282297 – 198
FES 3386263 – 164
FES3434320 – 281, 179 – 160

FES3498320 – 316, 215 – 160
FES3506320, 219 – 160
FES3426320 – 277
FES3426176 – 160
FES3514224 – 160

This brick had no white sleeves and was bound with the old style heavy bands.

The numbers of the FEP notes seemed familiar so I checked my records and found the original e-mail dated March 14/05. Realizing the BoC representative’s FEP notes were numbered less than 70 away from my recent find I was eager to ask the BoC to confirm these notes as replacements.

A fellow collector sent this e-mail off to the BoC:

Two consecutive $10 FEP 0078340 and 0078341 were found inserted into a fresh 1000 note brick of FES 357xxxx. A Bank of Canada representative used notes FEP 0078272 and 0078273 in Calgary, earlier this year, to show collectors what the new notes, expected out May 18, would look like. The notes found inserted into a fresh brick and those used by the BoC representative are numbered only 67 apart.
My question is: Were the above mentioned FEP notes used only as replacements or are they test notes?

The BoC promptly responded by e-mail:

We can confirm that the FEP notes used by the Bank of Canada Representative in Calgary were not test notes.  They were from a range of legitimate notes printed at the beginning of the note order which were set aside to be used as replacement notes.  

Regards,

Sylvie Dionne

Bank Note Communication and Compliance Team

Bank of Canada

1-888-513-8212

This was the very first time that the BoC has confirmed the use of specific notes “ set aside “ to be used as replacements.

This confirmation by the BoC is good news for both modern replacement collector and brick searchers. It finally gives official status to these notes, which is no different than that of “ asterisk “ and “ X “ notes. Notes printed and set aside for the purpose of replacement.