Innholdsfortegnelse for April 2024 i Banknote Reporter

Martha Dandridge Custis Washington (1731-1802) is a revered icon in American history. Our first First Lady was, of course, married to George Washington, the commander of the Continental Army during the Revolutionary War and the first President of the U.S. As First Lady, Martha established many of the traditions and precedents that have come to define the role to this day. Martha Dandridge was born on June 2, 1731, at Chestnut Grove, a tobacco plantation in New Kent County, Virginia. She was the oldest of eight children of John Dandridge (1700-1756), a Virginia planter, militia officer, and county clerk who immigrated from England, and Frances Jones (1710-1785). Though Martha was never formally educated, typical of that era for a woman in her class, she learned needlepoint, housekeeping, religion, music, reading,…

In 1928 the United States Treasury reduced the size of United States currency from its dimensions going back to the early 1860s. The new currency would measure 6.14 inches in length and 2.61 inches in width. Notes would be .0043 inches thick, a stack of 233 notes would measure one inch in height, and 490 notes would weigh one pound. This reduction would reduce the costs of paper and ink dramatically. This size had been used in the Philippines after the Spanish-American war and proved quite popular there, as the notes could easily be stored in wallets. Action in this size of notes, however, was dropped with the onset of World War I. In 1928 these sizes had been adopted. The new notes were sometimes referred to as “funny money”…

Creede, Colo. is a scenic old mining town with a current population of under 300. The town is situated along Willow Creek on flat ground that opens to the south of a deep cliffed gulch through which the creek flows. The town is billed as the last silver boom town in Colorado. The boom began in 1889 and ran to 1893. It was served by the Denver & Rio Grande Railroad. The population peaked at 10,000 in 1891. Mines continued to operate until 1985. After 1900, the mining activity switched primarily to the production of lead and zinc. The town was named after Nicholas Creede, discoverer of the Holy Moses Mine. Today it is, of course, a tourist destination where folks revel in its bawdy past and buy some tee…

APRIL 2024 U.S. Paper Money Price Guide In the January 30 Letters to the Editor in Numismatic News, a reader wrote that the reader has concluded stamp collecting is a dying hobby. Stamps are seldom used on letters anymore. For that reason, our attention is rarely drawn to them. No wonder encouraging new collectors to the hobby of stamps is a problem. A majority of the financial transactions made by the general public no longer involve cash—specifically bank notes. Various forms of electronic payments appear to be replacing cash as the favored form of payment. The difference between stamp and bank note collecting is that there is no indication bank note collecting is going away. Bank note collecting could still use a boost, some sort of attention-getter to encourage new…

This is a follow-up to the March 2021 Notes from Washington reporting the discovery of a typo on a Series of 1929 $5 from Mt. Orab, Ohio. Notice that County is misspelled as “Gounty”. This mistake was made on a 6-subject stopgap electrotype plate made for the bank by the Government Printing Office. The information on GPO electrotype plates was reproduced from molds made at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing where the text material was composed by a linotype operator. He made the typo only in the B-position of the composition. GPO plates came about because the firm that held the contract for supplying logotype plates for overprinting the Small Size nationals couldn’t keep up with orders so BEP Director Alvin Hall enlisted the help of the GPO to…

An exceptionally rare Bank of Canada $500 1935 BC-17 English Text PCGS Banknote About UNC 53 PPQ sold for $228,000 to lead Heritage’s World Paper Money Signature® Auction to $1,975,746 March 7-8. When the Bank of Canada opened in March 1935, its first issues were small-sized bank notes to replace the larger format notes previously issued under the Dominion of Canada and by government-chartered private banks. It produced notes in denominations ranging from $1 to $1,000 — some with English text and some with French — and the $500 had the smallest print total for both languages. One of just a dozen examples believed to remain in private hands, this example is stunning, graded About Uncirculated, and carrying the PPQ designation. “This auction brought exceptional results for bank notes from…

It may have taken six years for it to become general public knowledge, but recent publicity surrounding a spelling mistake on an Australian bank note is drawing attention to the note both inside and outside Australia. Apparently, someone at Note Printing Australia Ltd. can’t spell. Although the mistake on Australia’s current $50 bank note has been known since 2019, it is only now the misspelling of the word ‘responsibility’ in micro text is being publicized outside of the Land Down Under on its 2018 $50 notes—all 46 million of them now in circulation. The misspelled word is missing the third ‘I,’ reading ‘responsibilty’ three times in the text taken from Edith Cowan’s maiden speech to parliament. With mainstream publicity now being given to the note people are beginning to re-think…

Small Size U.S. variety collector Derek Higgins set another record with the $2 LT 1928C mule pictured here. This is now the highest reported serial number for this very scarce variety. His find is C03716665A G190/289, which extends the known range by a quarter million serials. The total reported range for the variety is now B97675359A-C03716665A. He bought the note at the August 2023 American Numismatic Association World’s Fair of Money show in Pittsburgh. The find was a one-two punch for him within the past year because in March 2023 he reeled in the previous high serial for the variety in an eBay purchase. That find was reported in the September-October issue of Paper Money. Ironically, that report came out just after he found the note featured here. A mule…

Ever since the death of Queen Elizabeth II in 2022, the question has been raised about if once her son Charles III’s portrait began to appear on coins and bank notes would currency with her portrait remain as legal tender? The answer is “yes,” however this is not always true regarding coinage on which a nation’s leader is concerned. Politics plays a role in who gets to appear on coins and bank notes, who doesn’t get to appear, and whose money may be demonetized quickly following that leader’s demise. Coins on which such leaders such as Alexander III “the Great” of Macedon not only remained as legal tender long after the Macedonian ruler died, but in the case of Alexander coins on which he appears continued to be struck long…

Stack’s Bowers Galleries presented its Spring 2024 Showcase Auction of U.S. Currency. Two sessions will be hosted at Griffin Studios in the firm’s Costa Mesa, Calif. headquarters, one on Wednesday, March 27, and one on Thursday, March 28. Both sessions offer diverse rarities drawn together from multiple areas of interest. Session 6 begins with offerings from the colonial era up through the American Civil War. Obsolete selections drawn from the Caine Collection offer a multitude of proofs and issued notes that are seldom encountered at auction. A scarce and visually stunning Continental issue of May 10, 1775, $20 CC-9 graded PCGS Banknote Very Fine 30, printed on marbled polychrome paper supplied by Benjamin Franklin and featuring vignettes adapted from those drawn from his own hand highlights the Colonial-era and Continental…