IRVINE, Calif. – Bowers and Merena Auctions, America’s leading rare coin auction house, will auction the first known uncut sheet of Nationals from a rare McDowell County, W.Va., issuer. The sheet of four $5 1902 Plain Backs is from the First National Bank of Kimball, an institution previously represented in the census by only a single large size and a lone 1929 series survivor. Bowers and Merena is the Official Auctioneer of the Baltimore Coin and Currency Convention scheduled for November 14 to 17, 2007, at the Baltimore, Md., Convention Center. The Kimball sheet is one of more than 1,000 currency lots and 3,000 coin lots that will cross the block.

Kevin Foley, Senior Numismatist – Rare Currency for Bowers and Merena, noted that the sheet has been in the consignor’s family since the time it originally was received by his grandfather when he went to the First National Bank to cash his paycheck. Foley said, “Our consignor’s grandfather operated a jewelry store and four-table billiard parlor in Kimball, and when he wrote his weekly paycheck to himself he would go to the bank to cash it. One day the teller handed him the sheet we’ll be selling in Baltimore as part of the transaction. Observing what had happened, a bank officer approached him and tried to get the sheet back, telling him that they weren’t supposed to hand it out to the public. He declined to return it, figuring that if the bank wanted it back, it must be special. As it turns out, it was more special than he ever could have realized.”

“This will be a real trophy item for any collector of National Bank Notes,” said Steve Deeds, Bowers and Merena President. “We are thrilled to say that the November Baltimore auction will be our largest auction ever, and that includes almost 1,100 currency lots. To have this uncut sheet of West Virginia Nationals that is so rare as the centerpiece of our currency section is really quite prestigious.”

Kimball is a hamlet in the southernmost portion of West Virginia and is named after Frederick J. Kimball, who served as President of the Norfolk and Western Railway from 1881 until 1902. Under his leadership the Norfolk and Western acquired the Flat-Top Coal Land Association, transforming that enterprise into the Pocahontas Coal and Coke Company. In association with the Norfolk and Western, the new company developed the Pocahontas coal fields into a major center of coal production and distribution in the United States that remained central to the economy of West Virginia for several generations of coal mining families.

“The discovery of a single additional note from this previously almost unobtainable bank would have been an especially exciting event for the collecting fraternity,” said Foley. He added that the existence of an entire sheet from there was not even rumored. The First National Bank of Kimball was in business for only 11 years, gaining its charter in 1919 and closing its doors in 1930. It issued only $5 1902 Plain Backs and $5 Type 1 notes in the 1929 series. In 1935 only $220 of its original $5 Plain Back emissions of $128,600 remained unredeemed and still in the hands of the public.

Bowers and Merena Auctions was founded in 1983 and has grown to become the world’s preeminent numismatic auctioneer with more than half a billion dollars in rare coin and currency sales. Bowers and Merena has handled four of the five most valuable United States coin collections ever sold, including the Louis E. Eliasberg Sr. Collection, the Harry W. Bass Jr. Collection, the Garrett Collection for The Johns Hopkins University, and the Norweb Collection.

For more information about Bowers and Merena and the Official Auction of the Baltimore Coin and Currency Convention in November, call 800.458.4646. For media inquiries, ask for President Steve Deeds. Complete prices realized for all past auctions are available at www.bowersandmerena.com.

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