Fr. 1217 $500 1922 PMG Abt. UNC 55

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Large Size Type Notes > Gold Certificates

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Fr. 1217 $500 1922
Grade: PMG Abt. UNC 55 EPQ    

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Design 153. Small red seal. This beautiful $500 Gold Certificate features the portrait of Lincoln on the left and the small red scalloped seal. The back design is of a Roman numeral 'D' for $500 with an eagle to its right. This wonderful $500 Gold Certificate is an old friend which CAA had sold before as part of the Cookson Collection of Gold Certificates and which we sold in January of 1999. It was offered there as a Choice About New with the following description: "This absolutely magnificent $500 Gold is the finest example of this type that we have ever seen. It lays considerable claim to the grade of Gem New. There are two parallel folds near the left end of the face clearly caused during production of the note. The outermost of the two folds is a printed gutter fold (no white area in the ink) that caused a tiny butterfly corner in the left margin of the note when it unfolded after the note was cut. The second fold, about 3/4" into the note, is precisely parallel to the first and clearly production-caused. Minus this minor error, the note is flawless. It's incredibly bright in both its inks and paper, and the surfaces are impeccably original with the full embossing effect clearly evident. About 40 pieces are known in total, with no uncirculated notes reported. There are five AUs: this note, the Grinnell note which has not been seen since 1945, the Jim Thompson note, one in government hands and an example which we sold in January of 1997 which realized $18,700. We fully expect this incredible example to do far better." Now, more than a decade later not much has changed. The census of "about 40" has gone up to 52, but there are still no Uncirculated examples known. And the five best then are still the five best now. Two big changes have occurred. First, the value which has way more than doubled. Ten and a half years ago this note realized $26,400 on an estimate of 25,000-up. Tonight, it will likely sell for about triple that. The second change is that the note is now encased in a sealed holder, either to protect it from collectors or to protect collectors from the note, this cataloger forgets which it is, but can't think of any other logical reason. Someone has written "Exceptional Paper Quality" and "Great Margins & Color" on a slip of paper that is also in the sealed holder and they certainly are right. In any event, this is still right at the top of the census with just one serious challenger."

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