Pam West (2011)

Pam West is a paper money dealer, publisher of award-winning books on paper money, entrepreneur and for 30 years the driving force behind the London Chapter of the IBNS.

Since the age of 14, Pam has been a collector, first of coins, then of paper money after she became fascinated with the old notes customers sometimes gave her for the goods she sold in Petticoat Lane and Upton Park market. Seeing some framed mauve British 10/- notes in a stamp shop was the final push she needed to become hooked as a collector. Pam joined IBNS in 1977 and the following year was on the organizing committee for the annual IBNS Congress (now re-named the World Paper Money Fair). She became London Chapter chairman in 1981, a post she has held ever since. Her first commercial venture was having rigid sleeves made for banknotes, followed by archival quality sleeves manufactured in the UK and supplied to various companies, including the Bank of England and the Guernsey Treasury. Pam became a full-time paper money dealer in 1995, three years after the birth of her son.