Discovery note adds luster to CPMX show

A new discovery in small-size paper money and Lyn Knight?s $2.7 million bank note auction highlighted the 14th annual Chicago Paper Money Expo March 27-30.

John Schwartz, co-editor with Scott Lindquist of the Standard Guide to Small-Size U.S. Paper Money, currently in its eighth edition, brought to the hobby?s attention a yellow seal $1 Silver Certificate printed for use in North Africa during World War II.

The note?s serial number is outside the range of numbers previously seen by researchers. Further, Schwartz added, this serial number indicates that there was an entire print run that went unrecorded in the official sources researchers have relied upon for decades.

?All previous finds had comported with the data ? Donlon, everybody,? Schwartz said. ?With all these people collecting for 60 years, how could one never have turned up??

The Series 1935A note is a replacement note, or star note, as indicated by the star at the start of the serial number, *91116980A.

Schwartz said the new find would be added to the next edition of the Standard Guide to Small-Size U.S. Paper Money. He is seeking reports of serial numbers for this Series 1935A $1 *A block on blue seal or yellow seal notes, particularly numbers near that of the new find.

Schwartz?s find came out of Lyn Knight?s two-session auction at CPMX, which was highlighted by a four-note uncut sheet of National Bank Notes from Montana Territory. The Original Series 1-1-1-2 sheet came from the First National Bank of Helena, Montana Territory, charter number 1649. Knight graded it very fine, and it sold for $299,000 including 15 percent buyer?s fee.

While not constant, a buzz of activity was observed on the bourse multiple times during the show, notably on Friday and Saturday mornings. Dealers with customers at their tables did linger for a time past the official closing hour on Saturday evening.

Among tabled dealers participating in the bourse was Tim Kyzivat of www.KyzivatCurrency.com, who said he was pleased with activity.

?The show has been very active, a lot of dealer interest in a wide variety of notes,? Kyzivat said. ?The biggest area of interest has been large-size type. I was fortunate enough to have some nice, new, orginal large-size type notes to offer to my customers and they were gobbled up very quickly. The market seems to be looking very intently for nice, collector-quality notes, nice original pieces, and they met with a very favorable response here at the show.?

The 15th annual CPMX is scheduled for March 5-8, 2009, at the Crowne Plaza Chicago O?Hare hotel.

For more information about the show, or to reserve a bourse table, contact show chairman Kevin Foley at telephone (414) 421-3484, or e-mail kfoley2@wi.rr.com.