Innehållsförteckning för October 2023 från Banknote Reporter

A rare $10,000 Federal Reserve Note was among more than 1,000 U.S. vintage bank notes that were offered in a Heritage Auctions sale. Bidding opened in late August for the Long Beach Expo US Currency Signature Auction 3593, which was held on Sept. 13-15, 2023. One of the most exciting notes offered in the auction was a 1934 $10,000 Federal Reserve Note (Boston) graded PMG 64 Choice Uncirculated EPQ (lot 21303). The highest denomination of Federal Reserve notes, these were typically used for transactions between financial institutions. The PMG Population Report lists slightly over 100 examples of all $10,000 Small Size Federal Reserve Notes, but only 18 of the Friedberg 2231-A variety, which represent the ones from the Boston Federal Reserve Bank. Of those, none are graded higher than this…

Andrew Shiva unveiled this improbable Series of 1882 brown back from the small town of Slaughter; improbable because the bank was early, lasted only three years, was minimally capitalized for the time and thus had a tiny circulation. The fact that it is from the first sheet probably accounts for its survival because from its appearance it probably was a pocket piece carried by one of the signers. To say the least, Slaughter is a truly unusual town name, which was a primary attraction for Shiva. The town was organized in June 1891, nine months after the bank, being named after Army Lieutenant William A. Slaughter, who was stationed at Fort Steilacoom, 10 miles southwest of Tacoma, a fort built in 1849 to suppress the Indians. Slaughter was at a strategy…

World Banknote Auctions has announced its upcoming sale of the Louisiana Bayou Collection of High Denomination Notes. This collection offers ten lots of $500 notes and 35 lots of $1000 notes. All notes were taken out of circulation in the American South during the 1940s and 1950s and are now offered for the very first time on September 29 at 1 PM PDT on the World Banknote Auctions website. There is a wide variety of series, districts, and grades. Grades range from VG to Choice Uncirculated. Because of the region that the notes were put away in, a fairly large number of notes are from the Atlanta district, although other districts are represented as well. Notes from several series are offered, including several from the 1928 series, known for their…

Perhaps BRICS, the acronym for a proposed currency union between Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa, wasn’t on the official agenda at the 2023 trade meeting of these nations in Johannesburg, but South Africa is already paving the way for a more localized currency union of its own. Prior to the 2023 15th annual trade summit between the so-called BRICS nations, British economist Lord Jim O’Neill told the Financial Times newspaper the group “never achieved anything since they first started meeting.” O’Neill added, “It’s just ridiculous. They’re going to create a BRICS central bank? How would you do that? It’s embarrassing almost.” O’Neill should be careful when he uses the word “almost.” It is true the BRICS intention of developing a currency system that can challenge the U.S. dollar…

The ornate Series of 1878 silver certificates—certificates of deposit is more accurate—were a direct outgrowth of the Populist-driven Free Silver Movement that gained traction in the 1870s. The movement had two major constituencies. The primary driver consisted of western silver interests who lobbied Congress to allow for the unrestricted monetization of silver in order to create a market for the prolific production of silver from the Comstock Lode in Nevada and other western mining districts. They found common cause with rural constituencies who viewed the infusion of this new money as a means to break a perceived stranglehold that eastern bankers had on the nation’s limited monetary stocks of gold that they used to maintain high interest rates. The Bland-Allison Silver Purchase Act of Feb. 28, 1878 was the first…

A vintage U.S. bank note that realized $312,000 was among many paper money rarities that saw impressive results in a recent Stack’s Bowers sale. U.S. and world bank notes were offered in a series of session associated with the Global Showcase Auction, including Session 2 on Aug. 15, 2023, and Session A, held a day earlier. Leading the notes in the sale was a 1934 $5,000 Federal Reserve Note (Chicago) graded PMG 64 Choice Uncirculated EPQ (Session 2, lot 20339) which realized $312,000. This note is one of only 40 examples of this catalog number in the PMG Population Report. It shares its grade with one other example, with none graded higher. US notes with this high denomination are seldom seen at auction, especially in uncirculated grades. Meanwhile, a 1928…

Remember when you could find good coins and paper money in circulation? Well, there is a way to almost recreate that feeling. Look for Mules in the notes you have in your collection and check out dealer stock at small and large shows and dealer’s stock in local coin stores. This can involve Large and Small Size notes. In a long-running series such as Indian Chiefs, Buffalos, or Black Eagles, as issues were released, changes were sometimes made in the location of the plate numbers in new backs. When a new issue was produced sometimes the faces were paired with a different back that was in stock. If face and back plates did not match, a Mule was produced. This was even more frequently done in Small Size notes starting…

This is a curious tale of the fortuitous intersection between two collectors, an unusual way one carved out a region from which to collect nationals, and extraordinary good luck. Tom Conklin is the central figure in this tale. He ranks among the earliest of my currency trading buddies, helpful colleague on our team to sort the national bank note proofs at the National Numismatic Collection and to resolve unclassified date-back/post-date-back national bank note changeover serial number ranges in the Van Belkum data at the National Archives, and probably the leading food coupon collector/author in the country. The origin stories for how we began collecting currency are uncannily similar. I’ll open this piece by letting Tom tell the story of his formative years. “In high school I realized the backs of…