Got Change For A Three Dollar Bill?
A fairly large number of early American banknote printing plates are going up for auction. Once issued by private banks, the banknotes became obsolete overnight when the Federal government began printing it's own in 1866 and imposed a 10% transaction fee on the private notes.
"For historical significance, it's hard to overstate it," said Douglas Mudd, curator of exhibitions at the American Numismatic Association Money Museum in Colorado Springs, Colo. "These are unique items. These are the plates that were used to produce notes and paper documents that built this country."
Before they go up for auction, the plates are being examined and catalogued by a New Hampshire firm that specializes in rare currency and coins, American Numismatic Rarities.
It sometimes needs to do detective work.
"When they come to us, it doesn't say `Hey, this was used in 1841 to print this.' We have to figure it out ourselves … and when we can, sometimes we have a eureka moment," said Q. David Bowers of American Numismatic Rarities.
The 200 tons of plates are from the archives of the American Bank Note Co., formed in New York in 1858 by the consolidation of seven major engraving and printing firms.
The collection comprises about 900 plates used for printing money plus 10,000 to 20,000 of various sizes that were used for other printing jobs.
"These were hand-engraved by highly skilled artists," Bowers said. "It would not be unusual for someone to spend weeks doing a whole scene. They wore eyepieces and had very fine tools and magnifiers and did it one line at a time."
American Bank Note inherited plates its predecessors had been accumulating for decades, including ones used to print advertisements, letterhead stationery and stock certificates that helped fuel the country's economic and westward expansion during the early 1800s.
The company, now based at Trevose, Pa., near Philadelphia, printed money for banks around the country until the federal government imposed a 10 percent tax on transactions involving such currency in 1866, Bowers said.
"People brought their state bank notes back to the bank and said `Give me federal money instead.' So almost overnight, they all left circulation," he said.
The plates were packed up and left in storage until 2004, when the collection was purchased for an undisclosed price by John Albanese of Archival Collectibles of Far Hills, N.J. He has been sending the plates to New Hampshire to be researched before selling them at a series of auctions.
The first, scheduled for Aug. 11 in Denver, will have 158 plates used to print currency and stock certificates for everything from early railroads to mining companies. They include "vignette" plates, which portray scenes of Americana or landmarks that banks and other companies used to embellish their currency, letterhead, checks or advertising.
The first auction will include the aforementioned $3 bill printing plates. They were used by a bank in Texas and were apparently a quite popular denomination at the time.
By Lewis Jaffe, Sunday, 13 August , 2006 @ 3:25 pm
You may also be interested in my lastest posting (8/13/06) about bookplates engraved by The American Banknote Company
Http://Bookplatejunkie.blogspot.com