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Comment by jshowa3 | Hacker News Reader

Once they correct the mistake, those notes will be worth a fortune to collectors in a couple decades. Collectors love errors. And since the history is well documented online you get a bonus of free provenance.

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Not with 480 million of them circulated, it won't be.

Perhaps if Australian bills have a similar lifespan to US currency. https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2014/09/12/how-ma...

Our wonderful polymer notes last much, much longer than paper/linen money. Lots of detailed lifespan graphs here:

https://www.rba.gov.au/publications/bulletin/2015/sep/7.html

So the banknote lasts about 20 years, then the plastic takes another 1000 or so to break down?

Except, as you can see from the graphs in parent link there's a lot less of them produced in the first place due to lasting longer.

And then once they are EOL, they are recycled. https://banknotes.rba.gov.au/production-and-distribution/rec...

They don't plan to recall them. Collectors love errors mainly because they're rare. There's 480 million of these and they'll never be worth much more than 50 AUD.

With inflation, they'll be worth less than 50 AUD. :)

Even with inflation, they'll be worth 50 AUD. But you won't be able to buy as much with it.

50 AUD is always 50 AUD, but it's not necessarily worth the same amount of burgers

unless there is a denomination...

I think you mean: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debasement

Thank you for noticing. What I actually meant is redenomination:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redenomination

We should use burgers as currency, then.

https://www.economist.com/news/2019/01/10/the-big-mac-index

As someone has already stated, they recycle these notes as well. Even though they're plastic, they won't last forever. It doesn't help they're high denomination and therefore less used, but I wouldn't be surprised that after about 50 years, there will be a lot less of these.

They'll be even more rare in an un-circulated state.

Aren't the valuable collectibles generally small batches with messed up production, like a skipped layer of printing or a misaligned coin stamping? I would be surprised if a graphic design mistake printed without issue on millions of dollars of currency would end up being very valuable.

Nope, they won't be a fortune. They'll be regarded as a minor variety and get their own catalog entries, but nobody will care very much.

Interesting that a typo could actually create value.

As with most collectibles, it's value is its distinctive.

Rare but otherwise correct coins or bills likewise carry a markup -- wheat pennies, buffalo nickels, etc.

Mistakes are usually scarce enough that their rarity is exceptional. Were currency errors commonplace, they would not be seen as valuable.

In 2007, the U.S. accidentally minted some Presidential dollars that lacked "In God we trust" [1] [2]. In good condition, one is worth a few hundred dollars.

[1] https://www.cbsnews.com/news/godless-dollar-coins-slip-throu...

[2] https://www.factcheck.org/2009/05/godless-dollars/

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