Heritage Auction Galleries will offer the very first $2 note ever printed by the U. S. Government in their upcoming Long Beach Currency Signature Auction, to be held September 17-19, 2008.

This first of a kind, Serial Number One note is a true miracle of survival, and has obviously spent countless hours, days and years traveling throughout our systems of commerce. Referencing the 2005 Memphis catalog by Smythe, this note has now had four owners in the past one hundred years, two of whom have owned it for approximately seventy of those years.

It can originally be pedigreed to ANA Member #187 Abe Hepner, who owned the note for the first half of the 20th Century. He sold the note in the 1950’s. The note was exhibited by the second owner at the 1971 and 1972 ANA Conventions, as well as the 1973 Greater Eastern Numismatic Association show, then quietly resided within the collection of an unnamed third owner, who eventually offered the note in Smythe’s 2005 sale.

The note was catalogued and graded raw as a Very Good. PCGS has now encapsulated the note, and has agreed with the original assessment.

The face of the note bears a portrait of Alexander Hamilton, with a double Serial #1 and plate position A, designating that this is the top note from the first sheet printed, as there were four notes to a sheet, with letters as plate positions running from top to bottom.

“Due to an inability to pay its debts in gold or silver during the Civil War, the U. S. Congress authorized the printing of a new series of paper notes, called Legal Tenders, in denominations of $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100, $500, and $1000″ said Jim Fitzgerald, Consignment Director for Heritage. “Initially resisted by the people, who were accustomed to the established gold and silver coinage, the Legal Tender Act of 1862 firmly established the paper money as a legitimate form of currency in the United States.” (more…)

Dallas, TX: Heritage Auction Galleries’ upcoming Long Beach Currency Signature Auction, to be held September 17-19, 2008, will be anchored by the impressive Jupiter Collection.

“The collection contains a total of fifty-nine Large Size Type Notes and 11 Small Size High Denomination Notes, as well as a partial pack of twenty-five Large Size Federal Reserve Notes,” said Dustin Johnston, Consignment Director for Dallas-based Heritage. “It was assembled by a collector with astute attention to quality and rarity. No note was added to the collection unless it was fully Gem in quality, one of the finest available for the type, or exceedingly rare.”

“In a market red hot for ultra rarities, The Jupiter Collection is chock full of them,” Johnston said. “The Fr. 1219b Series 1907 $1,000 Gold Certificate with the Napier-McClung Signature combination is unique and is graded PMG Very Fine 25. Another unique gold certificate, the 1192a 1882 $50 Gold Certificate PMG Very Fine 25 will also be offered.  Though one of two known Fr. 1175 s, the PMG graded Choice Fine 15 1882 Gold Certificate outshines the other known note, not for grade, but for boasting the Serial Number A1. Another Serial Number 1 example, in the Jupiter Collection, the Fr. 871a 1914 $5 Federal Reserve Note, will stir collector interest as it is the only Serial Number One Large Size Federal Reserve Note known.”

Johnston continued, “Many of the notes in the collection that are usually considered ‘common’ are actually condition rarities. The focus on condition rarity for more commonly available notes is well illustrated by the Fr. 334 $50 1891 Silver Certificate. The note resides in a PMG Superb Gem Unc. 67 EPQ holder and remains the only Superb graded $50 Silver Certificate by either PMG or PCGS. In total thirty pieces sit atop the combined population reports at PMG and PCGS, and nearly a third of them have no equal yet graded by either service.” (more…)

This spectacular serial number 1 Black Charter Note represents a true miracle of survival.

Discovered earlier this year, it is the only serial number 1 Black Charter Note from any bank to survive, and is one of only three Original Series Black Charter Notes known to exist (Fr. 399).

It is the “A” position note from the first sheet of fives sent to the Red Oak, Iowa bank in 1873, and, as Peter Huntoon noted in his Bank Note Reporter story earlier this year, had obviously been saved by one of the signers.

Nothing is known of the note’s pedigree since the day it left the bank in late 1873 until it walked into a small Iowa coin shop earlier this year. The note quickly changed hands and the second dealer sent it to PMG for grading because of its attractive appearance.

Only when the note came back from PMG with the attendant fanfare did the second dealer realize that this was not only a serial number 1 example but was the only serial number 1 Black Charter example ever to be recorded.

Fortunately for collectors, it is a lovely as well as unique note, with great color, signatures, and eye appeal, fully, in our opinion, meriting its PMG assigned grade of Very Fine 25.

The Note will be auctioned by Heritage in the upcoming Long Beach Currency Sale in September as Lot 3502.