CAA-Heritage Schedules Largest Currency Auction Ever Held

Dallas, Texas: Currency Auctions of America-Heritage today announced that it will hold the largest currency auction ever held at one time in its five session Central States 2003 auction. This sale, with a catalogue so large that it had to be broken into two volumes, offers an outstanding array of rarities in virtually every currency collecting specialty including Colonial and Continental Currency, Fractional Currency, Confederate and Obsolete Bank Notes, Error Notes, Small and large Size Type Notes, and National Bank Notes. Also part of this sale is CAA’s first substantial offering of collectible stocks and bonds.

The CAA sale is the official currency auction of the Central States Numismatic Society’s 64th Anniversary Convention and will take place on Thursday and Friday afternoon and evening, and Saturday evening May 1-3, 2003 at America’s Center Convention Center, 701 Convention Plaza, in downtown St. Louis, Missouri. The Convention Center is also the site of the convention itself, as well as the venue for lot viewing for the CAA auction as well as other Heritage sales.

The 5226 lot sale features A Gentleman’s Collection of Stocks and Bonds, A Major Collection of North Carolina Colonial Currency, The Tom Denly Collection of Boston Obsolete Notes and Scrip, the Robert A. Vlack Collection of Georgia Obsolete Currency, The Finest Collection of Vermont Obsolete Currency Ever Assembled, A Major Collection of Error Currency, An Estate Collection of Large and Small California National Bank Notes, The Bill Sabis Collection of New York National Bank Notes, The Coastal Collection of North Carolina National Bank Notes, The Bob Steele Collection of Wisconsin National Bank Notes, and the Ralph Graves Collection of National Bank Notes, as well as other important properties from more than 150 different consignors.

The sale opens on Thursday afternoon with a 282 lot offering of historically important stocks, bonds, and autographs, with signatories as diverse as Samuel Du Pont de Nemours, Abraham Lincoln, John D. Rockefeller and Walt Disney. A group of Miscellaneous items follows, highlighted by a Jesse James connected Civil War Diary, with the session closing with an offering of Canadian and Philippines currency.

Thursday evening’s session begins with a small but select offering of Confederate Notes, including a Crisp Uncirculated T5 1861 $100 Train note, and continues with over 1100 lots of Obsolete Currency, highlighted by the Denly collection of Boston obsoletes and scrip, a more than 20 year in the making collection replete with rarities, unique items, early Proofs and fully colored Proofs. Also of note in this section is the Vlack collection of Georgia obsoletes, and a wonderful collection of Vermont obsoletes encompassing over 250 lots by itself. Also of note is a 100 plus lot offering from New York, including a group of newly discovered New York City scrip items.

Friday afternoon’s session is devoted to Error Notes, Fractional Currency, and Encased Postage, with almost 400 lots of Errors and 200 lots of Fractionals and Encased. Virtually all of the errors are from one major collection, which is being sold anonymously in accordance with the owner’s wishes. Among the highlights are numerous large size errors, including 28 large size inverts, more than 50 small size inverts, numerous mismatched serial number notes including a mismatched prefix star $50, a large size Double Denomination note, and an extremely rare star hundred with a blank reverse. Among the Fractional highlights are a lovely Fr. 1299, a Fr. 1353, and two Shields, one an ultra-rare Pink Shield.

The Friday night Fourth Session opens with 300 lots of Colonial and Continental Currency, highlighted by CAA’s finest offering ever of North Carolina Colonials and an unusually diverse offering of South Carolina material as well. Three hundred lots of Small Size Type Notes follow, including a Gem Crisp Uncirculated “R” & “S” set, an excessively rare Richmond $100 1929 Federal Reserve Bank Note star, a matched Serial Number 1 and Serial Number 2 Series 1950 $5 Federal Reserve Note pair from the Atlanta District, the largest offering of $500’s and $1000’s, including an Atlanta $1000 star we have ever had, and a $5000 1934 Federal Reserve Note grading Very Fine-Extremely Fine. The session concludes with nearly 700 lots of Large Size Type Notes, highlighted by the only Fr. 185k $500 1880 Legal Tender Note in private hands, estimated at $175,000-up, and a Fr. 212-e $100 1865 Interest Bearing Note which is unique as it has retained all five of its coupons, which is estimated at $125,000-up.

Saturday evening’s fifth and final session features more National Bank Notes than have ever been sold in one auction session, with a total of 1744 lots. Major offerings include a marvelous collection of California Nationals, replete with many unique notes from towns such as Gilroy, Emeryville, and Riverbank, as well as several Red Seals and Serial Number 1 examples, along with a group of high grade California National Gold Bank Notes, almost 200 lots of Illinois Nationals, a specialized collection of Boston and Boston area Nationals, a $50 Territorial from Albuquerque, New Mexico Territory which is the only $50 Territorial Date Back in private hands, the magnificent Bill Sabis collection of New York National Bank Notes, containing 100 First Charters alone and replete with rarities, Red Seals, and Number 1 notes, the Coastal Collection of North Carolina Nationals, including a unique for the state Third Charter Date Back $50, over 100 lots of Texas Nationals, and the Bob Steele Collection of Wisconsin National Bank Notes. Interspersed among the states is the Ralph Graves collection of National Bank Notes, a collection featuring high grade examples from many locations, as well as an offering of uncut sheets.

Catalogues for this sale are available for $30 and may be ordered from CAA-Heritage, c/o Norma Pedrero, 100 Highland Park Village, Suite 200, Dallas, TX 75205. All of the lots are illustrated in full color on the Heritage web site, which may be accessed at http://www.HeritageCurrency.com For further information about this sale, or about consigning to future CAA-Heritage sales, please contact Allen Mincho at (800) 872-6467, ext. 327 or Len Glazer at (800) 872-6467, ext. 390.