I’ll confess right at the start that I am not a paper money collector, even though I have spent a fair chunk of it in my adult life. About the strangest paper money I have used was the $ 2 bill. In fact, for years I asked bank clerks for $ 2 bills and gave them out whenever I had the opportunity.
Occasionally one that I wrote out received an unusual response from the recipient. For example, when I was buying frozen yogurt years ago, I gave one to a young woman who was looking at me strangely. “I’m not sure I can take this,” she said, holding the bill as if it were a live eel. My answer should have been: “If you think it’s a fake call the police!” Instead, I gave her a few.
I sold paper money on eBay, mostly bills I received from a large retailer who sent me the remains of coin and banknote binders for a good price. When I finished selling the coins, I decided to list the paper money to see what it would bring.
In general, paper money sales exceeded my admittedly very low expectations. When I leaf through Whitman’s 6th edition A Guide Book of United States Paper Money, I can see what the fuss over paper money is all about. After all, practically every 19th century banknote is more attractive than your average coin with the same central motif. If you think the Indian on the Buffalo Nickel is strikingly attractive, take a look at the $ 5 Indian Chief Note, known colloquially as the Running Antelope. Of course, the chief has a much bigger canvas than the guy on the nickel, it’s this bigger canvas that makes the images on banknotes so eye-catching.
The authors of this manual are two brothers, Arthur and Ira Friedberg, who have been in the numismatic business for more than 30 years. Both joined the family business (Coin & Currency) after completing their studies. Arthur and Ira were busy co-authoring popular works such as Gold Coins of the World, United States Paper Money, and valuing and selling your coins, among other things.
Many awards are associated with her professional activity. For example, in 1993 the Friedbergs received the Prix d’Honneur of the IAPN (International Association of Professional Numismatists, in whose establishment their company was involved) for gold coins of the world. They received the medal of merit from the ANA for “outstanding service to the hobby”.
The manual contains a fairly long introduction written by David Ganz, a lawyer and former ANA President (1993-1995). Ganz is the author of more than 14 books and thousands of numismatic articles over the past half century.
He begins the introduction by talking about the $ 2 bill, a banknote that is very dear to my heart, as you may have learned from my introduction. He notes that the denomination was no longer used in the mid-1960s due to low demand, only to be revived as a money-saving tool a few years later. Quite according to the director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) he said he believed “… millions would be saved each year by reducing the number of $ 1 bills and replacing the two with them”.
And so it came about that in 1976 a new $ 2 bill was issued with a bicentenary theme on the back. Did the new bill save tons of money by reducing the demand for the $ 1 bill? It doesn’t quite end the story in its introduction, but in my experience the answer is a resounding “no”. Most people don’t think they’re still being made, don’t know that you can usually get them at your bank, and are terrified to see one. They often say that they will keep what I gave them.
As you would expect, Ganz includes a brief section on the US currency rating. However, there are only text descriptions. A brief guide to grading images may be included in a future issue.
The introduction ends with a listing of the types of US currencies. It starts with the rarest issues of interest-bearing notes issued due to financial emergencies resulting from the Civil War and ends with today’s Federal Reserve Notes.
As you can find in the US Coin Guides, the banknotes are listed by denomination, from the $ 1 note to the unimaginable $ 10,000 bills (inconceivable to me anyway). In addition to the $ 10,000 bills, there are brief “chapters” examining fractional currency, Treasury bills from the War of 1812, wrapped postage stamps, and error notes. I put “chapters” in quotes because there are no actual chapters in the book.
After the error notes, the paper money guide has four appendices, the last of which deals with “The Future of Women in US Currency”. Given the changing political and cultural climate, it is difficult to know when or if women will have a future in our currency.
As I flipped through the pages of this book, I was impressed by the number and variety of rare and extremely rare banknotes available (or unavailable) to collectors. These rarities are not limited to the large banknotes, as many small banknotes fall into this category from 1929 onwards.
For example in the “Chapter” of the $ 2 bill, Friedberg 1503[star] Note that the 1928-B series with Woods and Mills’ signatures in VF-20 with V is valued at $ 20,000[very] rarely under the Unc-63 class. The bill illustrating the type, series from 1928 to 1928-G, Red Seal, looks very ordinary to my untrained eye, and I know I have seen $ 2 bills of this general type. Did you meet the other requirement? Almost certainly not.
When I was talking about the rarity, I came across a listing of National Gold Bank Notes from the early 1870s in the $ 50 chapter. These are all labeled either F-1160 or F-1161, and nine are listed. None are rated, one is listed as a known 5, two are unique, and the remaining six are unknown! Incidentally, the type stands out, because on the back there is “A montage of contemporary gold coins”.
And then there are the $ 1,000 treasure or coin bills from the 1890 series. These are popularly known as “Grand Watermelon” notes because of the shape of the zeros on the back of the bills. The only value listed is for one that sold for $ 2,040,000 in a 2018 Stack’s Bowers auction!
Of course, there are many banknotes that are both attractive and inexpensive, and these are undoubtedly the ones responsible for all US paper money collectors. If you’re one of them and don’t already have this book, a paperback version is available from online booksellers like Amazon.com at a list price of $ 24.95. I checked the publisher (whitman.com) and found the book is out of stock, which may inform us of demand for this item.
