By Christopher Dahncke – Currency Auction Associate, Stack’s Bowers Galleries ……
Scarce Fr. 172 1880 $100 Legal Tender Note
The official Stack’s Bowers Galleries United States Currency auction for the ANA World’s Fair of Money will feature lot 20170, a Fr. 172 1880 $100 Legal Tender Note graded Choice Uncirculated 63 by PMG.
The 1880 $100 Legal Tender Notes continue with the portrait of Abraham Lincoln, a small vignette of Miss Liberty, and the vignette titled Reconstruction. A large brown spiked Treasury Seal is seen right of center. Boldly printed blue serial number Z27004 is displayed to the bottom left and upper right.
This rare catalog number displays the engraved signatures of Treasury officials Blanche K. Bruce and James Gilfillan. Just nine of this rare Friedberg number are available to collectors, while three are permanently impounded in institutional collections.
Third-party grading service PMG has graded and encapsulated this note as Choice Uncirculated 63 with the comment “Ink Lightened” added to the back of the holder. The paper is bright and well margined while the printed inks are bold and vividly detailed. This is a wonderful representation of this very scarce design type.
Highlights from the Gary Burhop Collection of Federal Reserve Bank Notes
Our August 2021 CCO auction, scheduled to close on August 31, will feature The Gary Burhop Collection of 1929 Federal Reserve Bank Notes. This cabinet consists of 102 Federal Reserve Bank Notes from various districts and denominations, including replacement notes and quite a few treasures.
We previously offered the Gary L. Burhop Type Coins of Canada in our Bowers and Merena sale of 1996, which at the time was considered the finest and most complete collection of Canadian type coins ever assembled. Mr. Burhop has collected coins and currency for over 60 years and is a life member of the American Numismatic Association (ANA), along with other numismatic groups. Gary has been an active bidder with various auction houses since 1973 and an active trader since 1974, participating in various local and regional shows often attending six or more shows a year. He has held various numismatic related jobs, such as being appointed chairman of the Tennessee State Quarter Commission to select the design for the 2002 dated twenty-five cent coin honoring that state. He also served as the Tennessee state editor of the reference on circulating banknotes of the 1830s-post Civil War titled Obsolete Paper Money, Volume 7 – Southern States from Whitman Publishing (2016).
We are proud to offer Gary’s notes in our upcoming sale – the second-finest-assembled registered set of PMG FRBN’s.
One treasure from Gary’s collection featured in our August CCO auction is a Fr. 1880-J* 1929 $50 Federal Reserve Bank Star Note from the Kansas City district, graded Extremely Fine 40 by PMG. This replacement note offers good color and eye appeal. Only 12,000 Kansas City Stars were printed, and this note is likely missing from many small-size or replacement collections. This mid-grade example is free of problems, and any collector would be proud to own it. PMG Pop 1/6 finer.
Another specimen from Gary’s collection is a Fr. 1860-K* 1929 Federal Reserve Bank Star Note from the Dallas district graded Very Fine 20 by PMG. This note is historically important as just four replacements are known for the Friedberg number according to Track and Price’s census. Replacement notes have always been sought by small-size collectors, especially from the Dallas district. According to the Standard Guide to U.S. Small Size Paper Money by John Schwarz and Scott Lindquist, Dallas is tied with just one other district (Chicago) as being the lowest issuer of replacement notes for the 1929 $10 FRBN series. Dallas issued just 12,000 replacements, and as of 2021 four are reported to have surfaced.
The Burhop example offers dark brown overprints while the primary design displays still attractive black ink. The design of the Treasury Building on the reverse faces up well in forest green ink. Mostly even wear and circulation is noticed. The last time we offered a $10 Dallas Star was in our November 2017 Baltimore auction, and that example realized $14,400. PMG Pop 1/1 Finer.
The Stack’s Bowers Galleries August CCO auction will be posted to our website by August 20.
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To consign your U.S. paper money and world paper money to a future sale, contact a consignment specialist at 800-458-4646 or visit StacksBowers.com. For more information on viewing lots or for assistance in registering to bid, email your inquiry to [email protected]
