Banknote Reporter March 2023

This month we will continue a visit to Western Pennsylvania to visit a town from which I just added a very nice grade large note to my collection. In rural Somerset County, southeast of Pittsburgh and close to the Maryland line, let’s visit quaint Rockwood, Penn. Rockwood is a borough in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. The population was 850 at the 2020 census. It is around 57 miles southeast of Pittsburgh and easily reached from U.S. Route 219 via State Route 653. It is located due north of Pennsylvania’s highest peak, Mount Davis, and around 10 miles north of the Maryland state line. Rockwood was initially known as Shaff’s Bridge and then Mineral Point. John Rockwood was an original settler, and the town is named for him. Farmers and lumbermen were originally drawn…

The First National Bank of Rondout, N.Y. is one of the most fascinating national banks I have encountered in all my years of analyzing national bank notes. I like technical issues that caused varieties on notes and it doesn’t get better than with this bank. Just about everything peculiar that could happen, happened! The bank was chartered in 1863 with charter number 34. It was organized under the Act of Feb. 25, 1863, wherein the bankers got to select the length of their corporate life. The bank was forced to liquidate and reorganize in 1880 under charter 2493 because the bankers had chosen a corporate life of less than 20 years and their clock was running out. The Comptroller, in the interests of economy, had the BEP reuse the old plates for the…

The FUN SHOW offered an amazing array of Nationals, 764 and Large Size notes, 403. Values ranged from $360,000 for an 1880 $1,000 note in PMG 35 and $336,000 for a $100 Watermelon Treasury note. California Gold Nationals topped out with a $192,000 $50 from a San Francisco First National Gold Bank charter 1160. Regular Nationals were topped by a $168,000 “Walla Walla’’ Washington $5 1875 Territorial Charter 2380 in PMG 30 EPQ. Two other Nationals registered $144,000 each for a $10 Plain Back in PMG 12 from the First National Bank of Puerto Rico, charter 6484 and a $100 1875 Philadelphia Charter number 1 in PMG 35. Fractional notes were underrepresented at FUN with only 11 notes, but the notes that were present were spectacular. A 25 cent perforated…

Historic numismatic items, including a nearly two-pound Kellogg & Humbert assayer’s gold ingot, are included in the second and final auction of never-before-offered California Gold Rush artifacts recovered from the 1857 sinking of the fabled “Ship of Gold,” the S.S. Central America. The auction will be conducted in Reno, Nev. and online by Holabird Western Americana Collections, LLC (www.HolabirdAmericana.com) on March 4-5, 2023. Among the nearly 500 other recovered items in the auction are an intact treasure shipment box, a contemporary counterfeit Mexican gold coin, jewelry made from Gold Rush ore and nuggets, bank notes, coin shipment bags, and leather pokes that had carried miners’ gold and other belongings on the voyage. Even “Nemo,” the 12,000-pound robot submarine that located and retrieved the treasure, is in the auction. Numismatic-related highlights include a…

World Banknote Auctions has announced its upcoming U.S. Currency Sale 1, featuring a wide range of rare and collectible bank notes from the United States. The auction will take place on February 24 on the firm’s website and will feature notes from the colonial era to modern times, including scarce large-size notes, fractional currency, and error notes. Highlights of the sale include a rare 1934 $5,000 Federal Reserve Note from the Dallas District graded PMG Choice Uncirculated 64, a unique 12-piece 1999 $10 district set with Solid Serial Number 9 and a PMG Choice Uncirculated 64 EPQ 1869 $5 Legal Tender Note. These notes are highly sought after by collectors and investors and are expected to fetch significant prices at auction. In addition to the rare notes, the sale will also feature…

A set of 12 U.S. bank notes featuring Solid-9 Serial Numbers is being offered at auction. Several weeks before the sale, bidding has already reached $100,000 for the unique set, which is part of World Banknote Auctions’ U.S. Currency Sale 1 being held on Feb. 24, 2023. The set comprises 12 PMG-graded 1999 $10 Federal Reserve Notes with Solid-9 Serial Numbers (lot 1146). It has an estimate of $150,000-$250,000 and it includes one note from each Federal Reserve District bank. The set’s 1999 $10 Federal Reserve Notes are: • a Boston district note with serial number BA99999999Y graded PMG 67 Superb Gem Uncirculated EPQ • a New York district note with serial number BB99999999Y graded PMG 67 Superb Gem Uncirculated EPQ • a Philadelphia district note with serial number BC99999999Y graded PMG 67 Superb Gem…