Baltimore, MD - The Stack’s Bowers Galleries February 28 offering of Part IV of the Joel R. Anderson Collection of United States Paper Money in Baltimore, achieved nearly $8 million. Online bidders competed with those in the room for 54 lots in this final offering, bringing the total prices realized for the Joel R. Anderson Collection to $34,126,980, and making it the most valuable United States paper money cabinet ever sold at auction. Three notes crossed the million-dollar mark and nearly a quarter of the lots exceeded $100,000.
Presented in the sale was a set of 1869 Rainbow Notes spanning all denominations from the $1 to the $1000. Sold as individual lots, these nine pieces realized a total of over $3.6 million, with the $500 and $1000 — the only examples in private hands — each bringing $1.44 million.
Among Interest Bearing Notes, an extraordinary 1863 Fr. 199 $100 in lot 4019 exceeded high estimate, selling for $204,000. A pair of 1864-dated Interest Bearing notes offered in lots 4022 and 4023 also passed the $100,000 threshold. The Fr. 212 $50 note, with a pedigree to Barney Bluestone’s 1944 sale of the Albert A. Grinnell Collection, realized $132,000. The Fr. 212a $100 note, the finest graded of only four known, brought $156,000.
The Silver Certificates offered in Part IV of the Anderson Collection culminated in the highest priced note of the evening, the only privately held example of the 1891 $1000 “Marcy Note” (lot 4037). In this note’s first-ever offering at public auction, it brought $1,920,000. Other Silver Certificate highlights included the finest graded Fr. 291 $10 “Tombstone” note that sold for $45,600 (lot 4029), an About New Fr. 328 $50 that realized $132,000 (lot 4033), and a Fr. 341 “Black Back” $100 that brought $168,000 (lot 4035).
Gold Certificates in Part IV of the Joel R. Anderson Collection were highlighted by the finest known Fr. 1166b 1863 $20 that sold for $396,000 (lot 4042). Closing out the sale were National Bank Notes, including a Serial Number 1, $10 1902 Red Seal from the First National Bank of Gary, Indiana that realized well over high estimate at $10,800 (lot 4048).
For more information on the Joel R. Anderson Collection or about Stack’s Bowers Galleries please contact Stack’s Bowers Galleries Executive Vice President Christine Karstedt at 800-458-4646 or at ckarstedt@stacksbowers.com.
