2019-11-06 Wed

From the collection of Joel R. Anderson, an F-212f 1865 $500 interest-bearing note with one coupon still attached, returned in the Stack's Bowers Galleries' United States money sell-off in Baltimore on Nov. 14.

It is one of a kind, and incredibly fascinating. The gap punch-dropped Very Fine 25 note is the main model staying from the 175,682 initially printed. It was sold for $336,000.

Its printed serial number reads 7811. However, below the upper right number is a handwritten “78116.” The cataloger theorizes that the note was originally issued and redeemed as serial number 78116, but that the note got out of the Treasury after it was redeemed and the last digit of the serial number was removed in an effort to redeem it a second time. A handwritten name of a payee was removed from the face, as well.

It is possible that when the Treasury Department figured out what may have been going on, it added the original, correct serial number in ink. It was also punch-canceled more than a dozen times, to permanently cancel it.

On the back of the note, it is the handwritten notation “Writing has evidently been removed from the payee mark on this note SMC June 26/68.” The initials probably stand for National Currency Bureau head Spencer Clark. The serial number is also altered on the remaining coupon.

Image Courtesy: Coin World