Highlights Include 10 Continental Currency and Detector Sheets from the Bunker Hill Collection, and the Finest Known Revere Sword in Hand Note
IRVINE, Calif. – The Stack’s Bowers Galleries November 2011 Official Auction of the Whitman Coin and Collectibles Baltimore Expo will feature more than 8,000 total lots, including over 950 lots of U.S. currency and in excess of 4,200 lots of U.S. coins, plus an additional 2,800 lots of world coins and world paper money. Lot viewing will be conducted by appointment at the firm’s Irvine, California, headquarters October 27-November 2, at the firm’s New York office 
November 8-11, and onsite at the Baltimore Convention Center November 14-19. The auction will be held at the Baltimore Convention Center beginning Tuesday, November 15, and concluding Saturday, November 19. There will be four U.S. coin sessions and one U.S. currency session, which is slated for Friday, November 18.
Spotlighting the session, and continuing an emerging Stack’s Bowers Galleries tradition, are 10 stellar Continental Currency and detector sheets from the Bunker Hill Collection. Forefront of these is a Unique May 20, 1777, First United States sheet, an exemplary specimen of the elite class of Continental Currency items. Each bill is signed by Hahn and Houston and all Dollar denominations are included in the two-by-four bill alignment: $30, $2, $3, $4, $8, $7, $6, $5. For the first time, border cuts bearing the words UNITED STATES rather than UNITED COLONIES were employed, and catalogers believe this sheet to be unique; the only example of which Stack’s Bowers Galleries has ever seen or heard. Also significant is a complete set of issued May 9, 1776, sheets, also Unique.
The finest known Revere “Sword in Hand” note, an August 18, 1775, 4 Shillings graded PCGS Choice New 63 that last sold in Ford over six years ago, will also be a showcase item. This No.351 Paul Revere “Sword in Hand” Issue is engraved and printed by him and signed by Thurber and Plympton, and is described as Choice Uncirculated – the bill remains essentially as printed, as if it were just taken from the press in Revere’s shop long ago, in 1775.
The auction offers an impressive array of United States currency, beginning with a highly comprehensive selection of New Jersey Scrip notes from the Thomas F.X. O’Mara Collection, which was formed over two decades. Obsolete Currency will follow with exceptional highlights from Minnesota, featuring several new discoveries, rare obsolete proofs, and Pennsylvania proofs from the Kensington Collection are also included. A diverse assortment of Postage Envelopes with key rarities will be offered from the Chester L. Krause collection. Federally issued currency will then attract bidders with a remarkable complete pack of 1917 Legal Tenders Notes, crossing the block only a few lots into the large size offering.
The small size notes include several pleasing high denomination gold certificates followed by a significant error section. National banknotes will be well represented with a newly discovered 1902 $20 Plain Back note from the Quaker City National Bank of Philadelphia which, although not rare as a type, has a currently unique six-digit ascending ladder serial number. Also of importance is an original pack of one hundred Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, $5 type two notes on charter number 580.
U.S. currency highlights of the Stack’s Bowers Galleries Official November 2011 Baltimore Auction include:
- Vienna, Illinois. Narragansett Bank. ND (18xx). $3. Choice Uncirculated. Proof.
- Bowling Green, Kentucky. Peoples Bank of Kentucky. ND (18xx). $20. Choice Uncirculated. Proof.
- New York, New York. Mechanics Bank in the City of New York. ND (18xx). $1000. Choice Uncirculated. Proof.
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Bank of Pennsylvania. ND (18xx). $5000. Uncirculated. Trimmed. Proof.
- Lot of (100) Fr. 39 & Fr. 39*. 1917 $1 Legal Tenders. Uncirculated to Gem Uncirculated. Original Pack.
- Fr. 126b. 1863 $20 Legal Tender. PMG About Uncirculated 53.
- Fr. 248. 1896 $2 Silver Certificates. PMG Gem Uncirculated 65 EPQ.
- Fr. 311. 1880 $20 Silver Certificates. PMG Very Fine 30.
- Fr. 1133-C. 1918 $1,000 Federal Reserve Note. PMG Choice Fine 15.
- Fr. 1216b. 1882 $500 Gold Certificate. PMG Very Fine 25.
- Fr. 2408. 1928 $1,000 Gold Certificates. PMG Very Fine 30.
- Fr. 751. 1918 $2 Federal Reserve Bank Note. PCGS Very Fine 20. Double Denomination Error.
- Poughkeepsie, New York. $10 1882 BB. Fr. 482. The Poughkeepsie NB. Charter #1306. PMG Choice Very Fine 35.
- Lot of (100) Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. $5 1929 Ty. 2. Fr. 1800-2. The Harrisburg NB. Charter #580. Uncirculated to Gem Uncirculated. Original Pack.
- Likely Unique Wilard Looking Glass Postage Stamp Envelope. From the Chester L. Krause Collection
- Finest Known Revere Sword in Hand. PCGS Choice New 63. From the Bunker Hill Collection
- Unique and Superb May 20, 1777 Continental Currency Sheet.
All lot descriptions and images in the November 2011 Baltimore Auction can be viewed online beginning in late October at the Stack’s Bowers Galleries website, www.stacksbowers.com. Printed catalogs are available upon request by calling 800.458.4646. Online bidding and pre-auction bids will be accepted at www.stacksbowers.com; by e-mail at [email protected]; by phone at 800.458.4646; by fax at 949.253.4091; and by postal mail addressed to Stack’s Bowers Galleries, Baltimore November 2011, 18061 Fitch, Irvine, CA, 92614. Interested bidders are also encouraged to view lots onsite in Baltimore in November and bid in-person at the live auction, or live online through the Stack’s Bowers Galleries website. A complete auction and lot viewing schedule is available at www.stacksbowers.com or by calling 800.458.4646.
About Stack’s Bowers Galleries
Stack’s Bowers Galleries, a division of Fortune 500 Company Spectrum Group International Inc., was launched in January 2011, combining the extraordinary histories of Stack’s, the oldest rare coin auction and retail company in America, with Bowers and Merena Auctions, one of the world’s pre-eminent auctioneers of rare coins and paper money. The two companies unite to share a combined legacy that spans more than 100 years, and includes the cataloging and sale of many of the most valuable collections to ever cross an auction block – the John. J. Ford, Jr. and Louis E. Eliasberg collections, the Harry W. Bass, Jr. Collection, and the Norweb Collection, to name just a few. Topping off this amazing numismatic history is the inclusion of the world record for the highest price ever realized at auction for a rare coin, the legendary 1933 St. Gaudens Double Eagle that realized an astounding $7.59 million (sold in partnership with Sotheby’s). The company is headquartered in Irvine, California, with offices in New York and New Hampshire. Stack’s Bowers Galleries is the Official Auctioneer for several important numismatic conventions, including the ANA World’s Fair of Money and ANA/ PNG Pre-Show, and the Whitman Coin and Collectibles Expos in Baltimore, three times yearly, and Philadelphia.
For more information about Stack’s Bowers Galleries November 2011 Baltimore Auction, call 800.458.4646 or visit www.stacksbowers.com. For media inquiries, call Kris Briggs, marketing manager.
