Heritage sells paper
The most important offering of Fractional Currency notes to go on the auction block in five years will appear in a Signature Currency Auction that was to be conducted Jan. 7-11 in Orlando in conjunction with the Florida United Numismatists convention.
Created during the Civil War to replace coinage that was hoarded, notes with denominations of less than a dollar were issued in five series during the years 1862-1876.
At the official FUN auction, these Fractional notes from the Cocoa Beach Collection are in many cases pedigreed to the late Milton Friedberg and Thomas O’Mara collections, Heritage said. Friedberg authored a definitive guide to Fractional Currency.
The highlights include a Fr. 1241 10 cent First Issue Vertical Strip of Four PMG Choice Uncirculated 64 EPQ, another uncut strip, Fr. 1280 25 cent First Issue Vertical Strip of Four PMG Gem Uncirculated 66 EPQ, Negative Essay Denomination Set in Blue Milton 2E5R.2c, 2E10R.5c, 2E25R.1b, 2E50R.1e PMG 64, 62, 64 and 65 EPQ, and a Fr. 1296 25 cent Third Issue PMG Superb Gem Unc 67 EPQ.
Heritage said the collection also features three shields, including a very rare and very high grade pink shield.
Fractional Currency Shields were an attempt by the Treasury Department to provide banks and other financial institutions with samples of actual notes as a means of counterfeit detection and prevention.
It has been estimated that as much as one-third of the paper money in circulation in the United States at this time was fake.
The shields were produced between June of 1866 and May 1869 and contained a type set of notes from the first three of the five issues of notes. They were mounted on heavy cardboard within a shield design that features an eagle and 13 stars at the top.
Other paper money highlights in the auction include a Series 1934 $10,000 Federal Reserve Note from the Dallas district. It grades Very Fine 30 by PMG.
An example that graded 35 with restorations brought $103,500 at a prior auction, wrote the cataloger.
Also in the sale is a previously unreported $5,000 of the same series from the Richmond district with a light green seal grading Choice About New 58 by PCGS.
The cataloger said the original print run was 2,400 notes.
Another newly discovered $5,000 of the same series, New York district, grading PCGS Choice New 63 will also go on the block.
Overall, the paper money auction will include more than 4,800 lots.
For more information and full-color, enlargeable photos of each lot, visit the Heritage Web site at www.HA.com.
More Resources:
• 2010 U.S. Coin Digest, The Complete Guide to Current Market Values, 8th ed.
• State Quarters Deluxe Folder By Warmans
• Standard Guide to Small-Size U.S. Paper Money, 1928 to Date
