Knight 'Powers' up for St. Louis auction
A group of nearly 500 $5 Brown Backs called the Power Collection will cross the auction block Nov. 16-17 along with Kansas and New Jersey Nationals and the Leon H. Bookman collection of major U.S. types in Lyn Knight Currency Auctions? sale at the National and World Paper Money Convention.
?Bookman was a certified public accountant in Philadelphia. Around 1950, he started a collection of U.S. paper money. The notes in this collection came from a variety of dealers, both well-known and not so well-known, including Aubrey Bebee, Louis Werner, C. Dockhus, William Philpott, William Donlon, David Bullowa, Tom Denly and Roland Hill,? Knight said.
?He worked on building a collection by Friedberg number or major type, including uncut sheets, Fractional Currency, National Bank Notes,? and some previously sold Confederate Currency. ?This collection provides a major portion of our November sale.?
A highlight of the large-size type section is an 1875 $20 Legal Tender Note, Krause-Lemke , Friedberg 128, graded gem Crisp Uncirculated. It bears the highest presale estimate of the auction at $250,000.
The sale also features the W.J. Wakin Collection of small-size Kansas National Bank Notes, which Knight said is missing only two banks, as well as an extensive separate collection of New Jersey Nationals.
The $5 Brown Backs, together called the Power Collection, cataloged for this auction by dealer David Koble, includes nearly 500 notes and two uncut sheets.
?Since the visual appeal of the notes was the main point, condition was of the utmost importance,? said Koble. ?That is why most of the notes in the collection are VF or better. ... You may get tired of reading ?Finest known? or ?None better,? but it is not by accident that those notes are here.?
The collection holds 41 uncirculated notes and 29 almost uncirculated pieces, Koble said, as well as 21 serial No. 1 notes. There are 14 ?circus poster? layouts. Notes in the collection have come from the Glenn Martin Kentucky collection, Bill Sabis New York collection, Bob Steele Wisconsin collection and Emmett Brooks Virginia collection, as well as other famous pedigrees like Grinnell, Donlon, Colver, Irish and Medlar.
For more information, contact Lyn Knight Currency Auctions, P.O. Box 7364, Overland Park, KS 66207; telephone (913) 338-3779 or (800) 243-5211; e-mail lyn@lynknight.com; Web site www.lynknight.com.
