The month of June is always one looked to with anticipation, as the annual International Paper Money Show provides the opportunity to connect with friends in the currency community and of course add some new jewels to the collection. It is an opportunity for dealers to bring fresh inventory and new deals, and these are eagerly awaited by attendees. This year marks a new era in the history of the show, as it will be held in Kansas City as opposed to its prior home of Memphis. Lyn Knight, the organizer of the show, will be holding their annual U.S. and world paper money auctions beginning Thursday the 8th with the main world paper session. The following day starts the U.S. paper sessions, along with a specialized collection of notes from Colombia and the Philippines being dedicated to its own session. The final live session will be held on Saturday the 10th featuring U.S. large size type notes and nationals. There will also be multiple online-only auction sessions held the week following the show for both U.S. and world currency.
GOLD NATIONALS TAKE TOP HONORS @ HERITAGE CSNS
The Heritage Central States U.S. and world paper money auction sale took home more than $9.4 million last month. United States currency took $8.4 million and the world sale brought in just over $1 million. The top four places in the sale were held by National Gold Bank Notes from the extraordinary Eureka Collection. Top lot honors went to the unique $50 from the Farmers National Gold Bank of San Jose, graded PCGS VF20, at $376,000. The next three lots were occupied by $100 denomination Gold Nationals, which is remarkably 40% of the total surviving population of this type. The $100 from the First National Gold Bank of Santa Barbara sold for $282,000, the note from the First National Gold Bank of Petaluma brought $246,750 and the piece from the Union National Gold Bank of Oakland hammered for $235,000. Rounding out the top five was a small size rarity, a series 1928 $100 Gold Certificate Star note certified PMG CU63 selling for $223,250.
For new listings this month we have begun pricing small size Legal Tender replacement notes. These notes are actively collected and traded and like our small size Silver Certificate replacement note listings, we feel that pricing them will increase awareness of their value. We started by pricing the all the series 1928 notes. We also made some additions to the Third Issue Fractional notes, with a special mention to Fr-1296, which is a Fractional rarity that it perhaps a bit underrated.
NOTE IN FOCUS: SERIES 1875 $1 LEGAL TENDER FR. 24
One area which showed significant strength in the Heritage CSNS auction were the early $1 Legal Tenders. The series 1869 $1 Legal Tender is a classic type note and has historically enjoyed steady demand. It was issued for nearly five years and more than 41 million pieces were printed by National Bank Note Company. The series 1874 $1 is similarly a distinct type, with a new reverse and the Treasury seal moved from the right to the left. Despite that there were far fewer originally printed (just short of 19 million notes) and fewer extant today, the series 1874 trades for lower prices than the series 1869. In all of this, the series 1875 $1 Legal Tenders have been overlooked because type collectors generally do not need them. There are seven different note varieties within the series 1875 Legals, and their distinction is important. Friedberg-20 has the Allison-New signature combination and is relatively available. Friedberg-26 has the Allison-Wyman signature combination and is also common. However, the five Friedberg numbers between are significantly more scarce. They each have a red overprint with an additional series letter, A through E, with 1 million of each note printed. The scarcest of these is the Series D note, Friedberg-24. The current known population is just 22 notes, with no uncirculated examples known to the third-party grading services. In the Heritage CSNS sale, lot #21296 was a Fr-24 certified PCGS VF25 which sold for $7,050. The last Fr-24 to sell was more than two years ago in January 2015, when a PMG VF35 Net sold for $6,463. Other strong results for this subset of notes in the same sale include a Fr-23 graded PCGS XF40PPQ at $4,465 and a Fr-22 of the Doubled Series variety graded PCGS AU58 at $15,275. Look for future appearances of these notes to be strong at auction as the market recognizes the scarcity of this series.
BY PATRICK IAN PEREZ, EDITOR
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