Broken Bank Notes Message Board

I picked this up last night in the Heritage auction from a bid I'd placed over two weeks ago. No competition... just my first bid and one weak second bid.

Only ten of these were available at the Christies auction, and they have only shown up a handful of times in other auctions. Amazing to me that I got it so cheap. It was the only note in the Heritage sale I cared about.

You got real good deal there for an UNC with slight aging. It seems that proofs with small faults are still a good deal. To me this indicates that investors are in the market for scarce proofs in perfect condition. Notice that unfortunately many proofs are being slabbed.

Or maybe all of the obsolete collectors are looking forward to Stacks's auction.

Or maybe people got confused and thought that this is an Ohio note. How did Cleveland move from Lake Erie to Lake Chickamauga anyway?

By the way this note is listed as a proof in Haxby. So there are more than 10.

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Bernie

Yes, I have one listing that predates Haxby/Christies, but it's for a $5.

Just read through the entire thread. That is an amazing collection, Greg! I just bought my second obsolete earlier this month, I have nothing compared to you

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Billy Kingsley
http://public.fotki.com/ElCaminoBilly/
Just a rookie, don't know much but trying to learn!

Just received today my latest proof... this one from Pennsylvania. I acquired it from Denly's on the first monday bidding opportunity for December. The excised piece in the middle once said "BANK OF PENNSYLVANIA". My guess is that it was removed because the folks at Dundaff thought it was too bold, making it appear that the bank's real name was Bank of Pennsylvania.

A $10 Dundaff proof was sold in the 1981 NASCA auction. The description said there was a photo for this lot. So is your proof the same one?

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Bernie

Here's the text and image from the 19810910 NASCA sale:

Interesting set of proofs. They certainly are different proofs. The NASCA one is PA-110-G8 listed as a proof in Haxby whereas yours seems to be G8a listed as issued in Haxby, with neither one in Christie’s. An “issued” G8a was sold by Heritage in May 2007 for $103 (see below). I always found the vignette of the queen in the chariot pulled by lions interesting - probably some political statement.


PA-110-G4a (see image below), the $5 companion to yours just sold at EAH on Dec 06, 09 for $375 (w/o juice) with an estimate of 600-900. It was described as:

Obsolete CurrencyEarly Pennsylvania Proof Gem. Dundaff, PA, The Northern Bank of Pennsylvania, $5, India Paper Proof on Card, Gem. Haxby PA-110 G4a. PRF-R6/7. A bold and early A.B. & C. Durand Wright & Co. N.Y. proof. This bank was a fraud and sometimes concealed their title in full using some hard to read Gothic portions. The notes were meant to be mistaken for a note from the solvent and solid Bank of Pennsylvania. This proof has the top of title in bolder title font than the small Gothic used on the other type, but it is still not fully apparent. Aurora on her chariot at the upper right, engraved by Asher Durand, but without an engraved signature. A bright and vivid proof being the first note of this style we have offered.
Notice the chariot of the queen pulled by horses!?

Since these proofs predated Christie's, I wonder if they might be unique? They sure don't come onto the market often, last appearing in the 1981 NASCA auction. Strange that 2 of them appeared this month.

I just noticed that Early American has none of their catalogs archived at their site any more. I found the above description at http://www.icollector.com. Have you ever explored their “archives?” They have about 16 auctions from EAH back to August of 2007 archived with pictures, descriptions, and prices realized. You could grab these for your data base of All_lots. By the way, did you ever contact EAH about their archives?

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Bernie

I haven't had a chance to contact EAH yet. Thanks for the link to icollector. I'll try harvesting the catalogues from that site in January. I have holiday stuff tyo attend to now.

While not a recent acquisition, this note is one of the keys to the entire state of Ohio. Three known and one seen since the 1970s. This came out of the Schingoethe sale and is one of those notes that you tell your representative at the sale to "keep bidding on until everyone else wilts!" For obvious reasons, not many high denomination notes were kept as souvenirs so this note's survival is quite unusual. One of my favorite notes.

WW

Here's my latest -- a strong XF/AU.

Just received from the December 9 Stacks auction:

Yesterday I acquired 5 more proofs from the Heritage FUN auction. There were 81 proofs (not counting the "special" proofs in the auction. Alabama and Arkansas notes drew respectable prices, but the longer the auction wore on the lower the prices got. By the time they reached the Maryland notes it seemed like anyone who placed a bid won the lot. Many of the notes went for half the low estimate, which was the reserve. Three of the notes I bought went significantly cheaper than that, apparently having no reserve.

To be sure the notes I bought were "impaired". But if you review the Christies catalogue carefully, some of them were only available as impaired notes. Case in point, I bought the Howard Street Savings Bank $1 note for $55 because it was in very rough condition. Read what Christies had to say about these:



Another of the bargain finds was a $5 Farmers & Millers Bank note from Hagerstown for which only three examples were sold at Christies likely all of which had stains and tears. Another $55 purchase.

As a general rule, buying impaired notes is not really a good investment, obviously... but at these prices and with the rarity being as high as these are, I couldn't pass them up. I still wonder whether people factor rarity into their value calculations, or is it all about how pretty something is?

Here are the pictures:

I tried to do some bottom feeding too but only got one lot that way. Unfortunately, most of the stuff I was really interested in went between low and high estimates. I was the under bidder on your Greensborough proof.

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Bernie

If you want the GA note I'll sell it to you at cost.

My one regret was that a potentially unique note went for $200... to someone else. Hopefully it was you.