I have lately become interested in seeing what the data can show about what is happening to the sheets of proof notes previously sold at the Christies auction in 1990. I'm particularly interested in trying to ascertain how many proof sheets still exist, and how many have been cut into individual notes.
I've considered quite a few ways to slice and dice the data, but I'm not entirely sure how I want to proceed yet. To give one approach a try, I focused on the Ocoee bank. Here's what I've com up with so far:
Quote:
Ocoee Bank of Cleveland, TN
Prior to the 1990 sale, only one proof note shows up in the auction database, a single $5 (TN-25-G8) sold in the NASCA auction of April 27, 1981 (lot 838). This is possibly the only known proof from this bank that was not stamped by the American Bank Note Company, and as a result should be easy to discern from others of the same type.
In the 1990 sale, Christies sold 25 four subject sheets and 2 individual notes, bringing the total known available supply up to 103 notes. All of these notes were stamped on the reverse. These included:
• Lot 1880 with
o 1 sheet of $1-$1-$1-$2 (G2-G2-G2-G6)
o 1 sheet of $1-$1-$1-$2 (G2a-G2a-G2a-G6a)
o 1 sheet of $5-$5-$10-$20 (G8-G8-G12-G16)
o 1 sheet of $5-$5-$10-$20 (G8a-G8a-G12a-G16a)
• Lot 1881 with
o 1 sheet of $1-$1-$1-$2 (G2-G2-G2-G6)
o 1 sheet of $1-$1-$1-$2 (G2a-G2a-G2a-G6a)
o 1 sheet of $5-$5-$10-$20 (G8-G8-G12-G16)
• Lot 1882 with
o 1 sheet of $1-$1-$1-$2 (G2-G2-G2-G6)
o 2 sheets of $1-$1-$1-$2 (G4-G4-G4-G6b)
o 3 sheets of $5-$5-$10-$20 (G8-G8-G12-G16)
• Lot 1883 with
o 1 sheet of $1-$1-$1-$2 (G2-G2-G2-G6)
o 2 sheets of $1-$1-$1-$2 (G4-G4-G4-G6b)
o 3 sheets of $5-$5-$10-$20 (G8-G8-G12-G16)
• Lot 1928 with
o 1 sheet of $1-$1-$1-$2 (G2-G2-G2-G6)
o 1 sheet of $5-$5-$10-$20 (G8-G8-G12-G16)
• Lot 1929 with
o 1 sheet of $1-$1-$1-$2 (G2-G2-G2-G6)
o 1 sheet of $5-$5-$10-$20 (G8-G8-G12-G16)
• Lot 1930 with
o 1 sheet of $1-$1-$1-$2 (G2-G2-G2-G6)
o 1 sheet of $5-$5-$10-$20 (G8-G8-G12-G16)
Since there were no other known sources of complete sheets, this provides a sheet census as follows:
• 7 sheets of $1-$1-$1-$2 (G2-G2-G2-G6)
• 2 sheets of $1-$1-$1-$2 (G2a-G2a-G2a-G6a)
• 4 sheets of $1-$1-$1-$2 (G4-G4-G4-G6b)
• 11 sheets of $5-$5-$10-$20 (G8-G8-G12-G16)
• 1 sheet of $5-$5-$10-$20 (G8a-G8a-G12a-G16a)
Since the 1990 sale only two full sheet sales have been recorded in the database. Both of these were originally acquired at the Christies sale. These were:
• Smythe sale of September 15, 2000 lot 1364 was a $1-$1-$1-$2 (G2-G2-G2-G6)
• Spink-Smythe sale of August 23, 2012 lot 438 being a $5-$5-$10-$20 (G8-G8-G12-G16)
Apart from those two sales, there have been 25 recorded sales of individual Ocoee proof notes, representing 32 notes. This included:
• 8 sales of the G2 variety of $1 (no protector)
• 3 sales of the G2a variety of $1 (red protector)
• 1 sale of the G4 variety of $1
• 3 sales of the G6 variety of $2
• 1 sale of the G6b variety of $2
• 6 sales of the G8 variety of $5
• 4 sales of the G12 variety of $10
• 6 sales of the G16 variety of $20