Innholdsfortegnelse for March 2023 i Banknote Reporter

Historic numismatic items, including a nearly two-pound Kellogg & Humbert assayer’s gold ingot, are included in the second and final auction of never-before-offered California Gold Rush artifacts recovered from the 1857 sinking of the fabled “Ship of Gold,” the S.S. Central America. The auction will be conducted in Reno, Nev. and online by Holabird Western Americana Collections, LLC (www.HolabirdAmericana.com) on March 4-5, 2023. Among the nearly 500 other recovered items in the auction are an intact treasure shipment box, a contemporary counterfeit Mexican gold coin, jewelry made from Gold Rush ore and nuggets, bank notes, coin shipment bags, and leather pokes that had carried miners’ gold and other belongings on the voyage. Even “Nemo,” the 12,000-pound robot submarine that located and retrieved the treasure, is in the auction. Numismatic-related highlights…

Bob Liddell posed a great question. How did The New England National Bank of Kansas City, Mo. end up with that name. The short answer is that it was named after the New England Building, the then tallest building in town. The building is located at the heart of the business district at 112 West 9th (northeast corner of 9th and Wyandotte) in what is called the Library District. The building is now an apartment complex. In the vocabulary of Mark Hotz, the building is a handsome Massachusetts brownstone Italian Neo-Renaissance style structure that was constructed to house the New England Mutual Life Insurance Co. It was erected in 1887-8 as a show of faith by Boston investors in the business future of Kansas City. Each of the seven floors…

All coins and bank notes of Mexico are in the process of being changed. Perhaps the most noticeable change will be that the 20-peso bank note will be replaced with a coin. According to a Bank of Mexico (Banxico) statement, “The bank notes and coins in the withdrawal process still retain their liberating power; that is, they are worth the denomination they indicate, but by resolution of the Bank of Mexico they will be withdrawn from circulation through the banks.” Ironically, the current 20-peso bank note, first introduced on Sept. 24, 2021, was awarded as the most beautiful bank note in Latin America in the Best New Commemorative Bill in Latin America by High-Speed Printing the same year. High-Speed Printing Inc. is based in Hacienda Heights, California. The release of…

World Banknote Auctions has announced its upcoming U.S. Currency Sale 1, featuring a wide range of rare and collectible bank notes from the United States. The auction will take place on February 24 on the firm’s website and will feature notes from the colonial era to modern times, including scarce large-size notes, fractional currency, and error notes. Highlights of the sale include a rare 1934 $5,000 Federal Reserve Note from the Dallas District graded PMG Choice Uncirculated 64, a unique 12-piece 1999 $10 district set with Solid Serial Number 9 and a PMG Choice Uncirculated 64 EPQ 1869 $5 Legal Tender Note. These notes are highly sought after by collectors and investors and are expected to fetch significant prices at auction. In addition to the rare notes, the sale…

My article in the April 2020 BNR pertaining to the scarcity of Series of 1882 $10 through $100 brown backs with vertical charter numbers struck a chord with Steve Schroeder. He wrote that they are particularly scarce from Minnesota and he had looked for one for years, finally landing this Mankato in the April 2019 Heritage sale. We mobilized a number of key Minnesota collectors to determine just how scarce they were. Our finding was that 118 Minnesota banks issued notes from 10-10-10-20 or 50-100 sheets or both. 38 of those banks, one with three different titles, issued the vertical charter variety. Currently there are 158 $10, $20, $50 and $100 brown backs from the 10-10-10-20 and 50-100 sheets in the Minnesota census. Once we turned over every rock available…

The FUN SHOW offered an amazing array of Nationals, 764 and Large Size notes, 403. Values ranged from $360,000 for an 1880 $1,000 note in PMG 35 and $336,000 for a $100 Watermelon Treasury note. California Gold Nationals topped out with a $192,000 $50 from a San Francisco First National Gold Bank charter 1160. Regular Nationals were topped by a $168,000 “Walla Walla’’ Washington $5 1875 Territorial Charter 2380 in PMG 30 EPQ. Two other Nationals registered $144,000 each for a $10 Plain Back in PMG 12 from the First National Bank of Puerto Rico, charter 6484 and a $100 1875 Philadelphia Charter number 1 in PMG 35. Fractional notes were underrepresented at FUN with only 11 notes, but the notes that were present were spectacular. A 25 cent perforated…

Visitors to the American Numismatic Association (ANA) 2023 National Money Show® (www.NationalMoneyShow.com) in Phoenix, Ariz., March 2-4, can see the unprecedented, 64-foot-long display of “short snorter” bank notes autographed by World War II-era dignitaries. The exhibit, courtesy of the nonprofit Short Snorter Project (www.ShortSnorter.org), features over 300 signatures of generals, admirals, presidents, prime ministers, and ambassadors. “This display of 140 historic bank notes will be of great interest to veterans and collectors of militaria. It includes five complete sets of rare specimen-marked Allied Military Currency,” said Tom Sparks, Founder of The Short Snorter Project. The tradition of signing bank notes apparently began in 1925 with Alaskan bush pilots. The term “short snort” was a slang expression for less than a full shot glass of liquor, and “short snorter” became a…