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…)

Certain to be a highlight not only of Stacks Baltimore Auction, but also of American numismatic sales of the entire year, is this fabulous 1797 half dollar in MS-66 (NGC). Not only does that make it a landmark, but the eye appeal is beyond comparison. Few early American silver coins of any denomination can come close to it in beauty.

A truly breathtaking example of the Draped Bust, Small Eagle half dollar designed by the Philadelphia Mint’s early engraver Robert Scot. It was a highlight of the famed Farish Baldenhofer, Norweb and Haig Koshkarian Collections, where it attracted intense and richly deserved bidder interest.

The 1796 and 1797 half dollars are the scarcest regularly issued silver type coins of the United States, their specific mintage is something of a mystery with 3,918 reported struck of both dates combined. Researchers debate the number of survivors, with the Overton-Parsley reference suggesting 100 to 300 of the combined dates still in existence; half dollar specialist Lano Balulescu, 75 to 200; David Lange, about 100 survivors of both dates combined. (See Jon P. Amato, “Surviving 1796-97 Draped Bust Half Dollars and Their Grade Distribution,” John Reich Journal, February 2005.

High-grade examples of either date are notoriously elusive. An occasional prooflike Mint State 1796 half dollar can be located, but the same cannot be said for 1797. Only a few pieces of Mint State quality are known, with only the former Lelan Rogers coin—a piece that brought over $500,000 at public sale in 1995—in close competition with the coin featured here for “finest known” honors.

The present Norweb specimen was purchased in Stack’s November 1955 sale of the Farish Baldenhofer Collection, where it was described as: “1797. A superb example of this very rare date. The finest striking we have ever seen. We cannot conceive that this specimen could be excelled. The coin was purchased as a Proof, however to conservatively grade it we will call it prooflike surface, definitely one of the first coins to leave the dies. Perfectly centered at deep milling, perfect color. All the requisites that the advanced and critical collector desires. . . a real prize!”

The Koshkarian cataloguer noted the Baldenhofer-Norweb descriptions, adding “in Uncirculated preservation, never mind being prooflike, the 1797 half dollar is virtually unknown. Here is a marvelous exception, a classic coin which will be forever remembered as one of the great legendary rarities of the Norweb Collection.” (more…)

The simultaneous auction offerings of both Original and Restrike 1827/3 quarters in one sale, alone marks Heritage’s Platinum Night as a sale to be remembered. Below is some background on these important yet in our opinion undervalued classic US rarities.

While many advanced collectors of U.S. coins are familiar with the story of how 19th-century numismatist Matthew A. Stickney traded an Immune Columbia cent in gold and some other coins to the U.S. Mint in May 1843 for an 1804 silver dollar,  specialists in early U.S. quarters recall a still earlier exchange.

Joseph J. Mickley (1799-1878) was another noted 19th-century collector, who is often called the “Father of American Numismatics” and was the first numismatist to own the Mickley-Hawn-Queller 1804 Class I Original silver dollar (recently auctioned by Heritage for a record-breaking $3,737,500).

Mickley, who was seeking a Bust quarter dated 1827 for his collection, went to the U.S. Mint late in 1827 and purchased four proof (as all are) 1827/3 Original quarters for a “Spanish or Mexican silver dollar” (Breen, Proof Encyclopedia).

The 1988 Breen Complete Encyclopedia provides provenances  for all four of those pieces, as well as six other Originals. This piece offered by Heritage was “Mickley’s favorite,” likely due to its full strike on all star centrils. It was also the last of the four that Mickley sold in the same famous W. Elliot Woodward October 1867 sale that included his 1804 Class I Original silver dollar. (more…)

Templeton Reid is one of the more enigmatic figures associated with the so-called Territorial gold coinage (see notes below) of the United States.  Relatively little is known about him.  It is reported that as early as 1811, he was earning a living manufacturing cotton gins. Later he changed his career into clock and watch repair and then rifle-making in Milledgeville, Georgia, at the time Georgia’s state capital. Reid  moved to Gainesville, Georgia (close to Dahlonega) in 1830 to set up his Assay and Mint business.

The first Georgia gold was discovered by Benjamin Reed in 1828 near Dahlonega. (The name “Dahlonega” comes from the Cherokee words for “yellow money.”) The discovery caused an influx of thousands of miners that came to be known as “The Intrusion” by native tribes.

Reid saw an opportunity to produce local gold coins as a more convenient medium of commerce than the unassayed gold dust presently in use, and established his private mint a full eight years before the U.S. Mint opened branches in Dahlonega, Georgia; Charlotte, North Carolina; and New Orleans in 1838.

Reid struck two and a half, five, and ten dollar gold pieces in the three-month period from mid-July through mid-October 1830. On July 24, 1830, the Southern Recorder, a local newspaper, commented that Reid  struck approximately $1,500 in gold coinage. (some researchers believe that Reid may have possibly minted some coins in Milledgeville before his move to Gainesville, but to date there is no proof of that assertion). Reid told the newspaper that the gold coins would be accepted at face value (or “par”) at local banks and merchants.

Reid apparently made his coins from local gold “as mined” and  did not refine the gold to a higher purity. Whether this was due to a lack of knowledge as to how to refine the gold or a purposeful attempt on his part to make a few extra dollars is unknown. The native metal contained considerable amounts of silver, tin, and copper. As a result Reid’s coins were not “at par” with the face values marked on the coins,  In the 1830 era, emphasis was on the full intrinsic value of coins. Any gold or silver coin issued by the United State Mint, by a private source, or by any other entity was apt to be viewed with suspicion if it did not contain full weight and value. (more…)

By David Slone

Great figures from coinage systems of the world in ancient times.

Abd al-Malik ibn Marwan (646AD - 705AD) was the fifth caliph of the Umayyads, which was the ruling dynasty that built a huge medieval Islamic empire stretching west across North Africa into Spain and as far east as Pakistan. Whilst the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England lacked a written language, Abd al-Malik created the world’s first widespread uniform currency - the dinar.

Previous to his reign (685-705AD), the Arabs used silver Sassanian coins from the Persian empire and gold and copper Byzantine coins from the Byzantine or Roman empire, centered around it’s capital city, Constantinople.

Abd al-Malik had agreed to a decade long truce with the then Byzantine emperor, Justinian ll, a truce which was then broken when the emperor refused to accept al-Malik’s new Islamic coins in place of money bearing a picture of Christ or the cross.

Although the new gold dinars and silver dirhems were very similar in size and weight to the coins they replaced, their design for the day was completely revolutionary. Come 697AD the caliph had abandoned portraits of rulers or emblems of cities to adorn his coins in favor of simplistic inscriptions of verses from the Koran. (more…)