In 1990, the sale of the Thompson Collection was the first public offering of the unique Fr. 1219b Series 1907 $1,000 Gold Certificate. Only 12,000 examples of the Series 1907 $1,000 Gold Certificate were issued during the joint tenure of James C. Napier and Lee McClung. They served together as Register of the Treasury and Treasurer for less than two years, between March 1911 and November 1912, making their signature combination on currency scarcer than most joint tenures of the time. The almost exclusive use as carefully accounted for, interbank monetary instruments nearly assured the redemption and subsequent destruction of most high denomination notes.

The design of this high denomination gold certificate is regal, employing a golden-yellow overprint and back design intended to remind the user of its status as a monetary instrument redeemable in gold coin on demand. Changes to the Federal Reserve Act on December 24, 1919 resulted in a minor design change to the $1000 Gold Certificates, a clause was placed over the bright $1000 overprint on the face. The change called an end to the Series 1907 issues and ushered in the slightly altered and not nearly as beautiful Series 1922 issues.

While many rarities considered unique among collectors since their kin are permanently impounded in institutional collections at the Smithsonian and Federal Reserve Banks, this note is the only example known in or out of government hands. Collectors now are even more determined to take home a rarity like this than ever before, and its status as a true numismatic rarity will command a price likely to well exceed its 2005 realization of $241,500 in the Taylor Family Collection Auction. The piece is part of the impressive Jupiter Collection being offered in Heritage’s September 17-19, 2008 Long Beach Currency Signature Auction.

Photos and descriptions used with permission and courtesy of Heritage Currency Auctions

This note was introduced to the numismatic community when it appeared in the September 1996 Heritage Auction. The discovery increased the number of known Series 1874 pieces to five, though that number is misleading.

Two pieces are permanently impounded in the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago and the Smithsonian Institution and a third is reported but it lacks sale information, its grade is even unknown. The last, and presumably the only other piece in collector’s hands, appeared at public auction once; it realized $44,500 in 1983.

As a basic type, this note is incredibly scarce. The design encompasses fourteen Friedberg numbers made up of the 1874, 1875, 1878, and 1880 Series’ and many different signature combinations. In total those fourteen Friedberg numbers show only thirty six survivors but more than two thirds of the notes are permanently impounded in various museum and government collections, thus only eleven of those specimens are presumably available to collectors.

At left stands the allegorical figure of Victory, her face long and her posture, a state of calm. Below her rests a tipped cannon and unspent cannon balls, the remnants of a war that affected a nation in a way that can never be captured in a single vignette.

At right is Major General Joseph K. Mansfield, one of only a few men immortalized on United States currency for their contributions to the Civil War. The power of Charles Burt’s design really comes to light with the knowledge of Mansfield’s fate. Victory looks to Mansfield who was himself a casualty of the Union victory at Antietam. He was taken in his prime on the bloodiest day in American history where more than 22,000 soldiers were killed or wounded in battle.

The physical description from the Heritage Catelog:

“At a glance, the colors and brightness give the impression of a fully uncirculated note. The seal, the two large red “D’s” and the “500″ between them are all bright red — not the annoying pink that so often occurs on 1874 Series notes.” PMG’s grading opinion includes the comment, “Restoration”, though thorough examination of this note reveals little more than a few closed pinholes, a refreshing departure from the heavy repairs usually associated with major currency rarities as well as the other known examples of this type.

This Note was sold in the Heritage 2007 January Orlando, FL Signature Currency Auction #424 Lot 14543 for $517,500

Photos and descriptions used with permission and courtesy of Heritage Currency Auctions

The $1000 “Grand Watermelon” note pictured above is, as of this date, the most expensive US banknote ever sold. A world’s record price of $2,255,000 was paid for this note, more than double the previous record. Heritage Auction Galleries of Dallas, Texas (www.HA.com) brokered the private transaction between two collectors.

The only other known red seal Grand Watermelon is in the museum at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco.

According to Greg Rohan of Heritage, “This note is graded PMG VF-35. It is pedigreed to the famous Albert A. Grinnell collection and was sold at auction by Barney Bluestone for $1,230 in November 1944. The anonymous seller of the record-breaking bill is described as “a private collector who owned the note for a number of years, and the anonymous buyer is very advanced and sophisticated East Coast collector of art and rare currency.”

The portrait on Grand Watermelon notes is of Civil War-era General George Gordon Meade who commanded Union Army troops at the Battle of Gettysburg. The Grand Watermelon notes are at the top of the list in the recently-published reference book, The 100 Greatest American Currency Notes, by Q. David Bowers and David Sundman.

Photos and descriptions used with permission and courtesy of Heritage Currency Auctions

A NewYork Times article from March 12, 1989 gives some general background on “Watermelon” notes, in this case one being sold in the Stack’s auction of the Howard W. Gunlocke Collection :

The bills are called ”Grand Watermelons” from the design on the reverse. Large numerals fill the middle and the zeros in the hundred-dollar and thousand-dollar notes are shaped and colored like large succulent watermelons, oblong and dark green with black streaks. Of course, the not-so-grand hundred dollar bill is known as the ”Watermelon”.

While ”Watermelon” notes are pretty, they have a rather nefarious past. Forget that the bills were printed at a time when most of the people would never earn a thousand dollars a year.

By looking closely, a clever little phrase can be seen on the front. Just to the right of the portrait of Gen. George Meade and just under the large gothic script reading ”One Thousand Dollars” are the words ”in coin.”

It is this little phrase that caused so much trouble and the early demise of the ”Watermelon” notes.

When miners suddenly struck silver within the great Comstock Lode in Nevada in the late 1800’s, the newly-rich silver barons lobbied Congress for some way to absorb the massive amounts of silver that were being unearthed.

Congress responded to the silver lobby by passing the Bland-Allison Act of 1878. That act ensured that the Treasury would buy two million dollars of silver each month at the highest market rate.

In the 1890’s, after more than 10 years of the Treasury propping up the silver market, the silver lobby wanted even more.

Thus was born the Legal Tender Act of July 14, 1890. In it, Congress legislated that a new issue of ”Treasury Notes” would be created, notes that could be used only for the purchase of silver.

Both Treasury Notes and Silver Certificates purchased silver from the silver barons but only the Treasury Notes could be redeemed in coin – gold coin. Silver Certificates could only be redeemed in silver.

Holders of large amounts of silver could now sell their bullion to the Treasury at the highest prevailing price and receive the lovely ”Grand Watermelons” in return.

These notes could then be used to buy gold coin from the Treasury. Because of the relative disparity in bullion values, anyone with large holdings of silver could make a fortune selling these Treasury Notes for gold.

By 1893, when Congress finally negated the benefits of the Treasury Notes, many fortunes had been made and the reserves at the United States Treasury were seriously depleted.

Certainly the key piece in this offering of Legal Tenders, and one of the key pieces in all of Federal currency. The Dauers have illustrated both sides of this note on page 142 of their American History As Seen Through Currency.Along with the photos comes the following caption: “All the $5,000 and $10,000 Legal Tender notes of 1878 have been redeemed and destroyed by the Treasury Department. The note above is a specimen furnished to the Chinese Government. Proof or specimen notes are usually either printed on cardboard or have a blank reverse. This note is printed on both sides and on legitimate currency paper. It is thus highly desired by collectors and it is the only surviving example of this design.”

All of the above is wholly correct, but there is considerably more to tell. This note has only three minor differences from the regular issue: three stars fill each serial number box, each signature has three small cancels, and the Chinese Government presentation is overprinted between the signatures. Save for that, it is a totally legitimate piece of currency.

It is also the only $5,000 Large Size note of any issue or design that is available to the collecting public. To our knowledge, there are no other Large Size notes of any denomination in this category. The note is more akin to a sample than a specimen.

Whatever category you place this note in, it is an irreplaceable part of US currency history and the key to assembling a complete set of U.S. currency by Friedberg number.

From The Dr. Edward & Joanne Dauer Collection
Sold by Heritage Currency Auctions on September 28, 2007 for the price of $805,000