By CoinWeek ….
On Sunday, June 30, GreatCollections is offering a Series 1896 Silver Certificate Educational Note Set consisting of bills graded Gem New 65 PPQ by PCGS Currency. The notes of the Educational Series are among the most beautiful banknotes ever printed by the United States, and as such are immensely popular with collectors of U.S. paper money. Gem-quality examples like the ones in the matched set offered here often sell for five figures.
As seen in The 100 Greatest American Currency Notes (Whitman, 2005) by Q. David Bowers and David M. Sundman, the series includes three silver Certificates: the $1 History Instructing Youth, the $2 Science Presenting Steam and Electricity to Industry and Commerce, and the $5 Electricity Presenting Light to the World. Friedberg lists multiple numbers per note; the ones on offer in this set are Fr. 224 ($1), Fr. 248 ($2), and Fr. 268 ($5). Starting in 1893, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) commissioned new Silver Certificate designs from American painters Will H. Low ($1), E.H. Blashfield ($2), and Walter Shirlaw ($5). This unusual approach resulted in the exquisite tableaus seen on the fronts of the bills; the engraving on the backs was done by several BEP team members led by Chief Engraver Thomas F. Morris
Beyond the quality and condition of the notes, signatures are also important to collectors of U.S. paper currency. The $1 and $5 certificates feature the signatures of James Fount Tillman, Register of the Treasury from 1893 through 1897, and Treasurer of the United States Daniel N. Morgan, who also served from 1893 through 1897. The $2, however, features the signatures of Treasurer Ellis H. Roberts (1897-1905) and Register of the Treasury Blanche K. Bruce, the first African-American to serve in the role whose eventful life story outside of numismatics is fascinating in its own right.
The starting bid for this matched set of outstanding Educational Notes offered by GreatCollections is $44,000.
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To search through GreatCollection’s archive of over 600,000 certified coins and notes the company has sold over the past eight years, please visit the GreatCollections Auction Archives.
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