Confederate, Obsolete Notes Lead Smythe's Paper Money Auction

NEW YORK CITY

:Smythe's spring Currency & Stock and Bond Auction, consisting of 1,400-plus lots, realized more than $1 million.

The sale's top lot was a five-cent scrip note issued in Cedartown, Ga., in 1873, and described as About Fine that hammered down at $26,450 a world's record for a Santa Claus note.

The Tuesday evening session began with more than 100 better stocks and bonds with a 1934 Auburn Automobile bringing $690 ($200/300). Goldman Sachs Trading ($200/300) realized $1,035. A pair of North Star Mining certificates from 1864 ($250/350) brought a surprising $1,552, while an early Texas piece, the Leftwich's Grant of 1825, sold for $2,415 against a $2,000 estimate. Approximately 75 percent of the lots in this section sold.

The June 20, 1775, New Hampshire 20 Shilling ($9/12,000) was the featured Colonial note in the sale and brought $16,675.

The real excitement began when the first lot of obsolete currency from the Herb and Martha Schingoethe Collection, Part 6, crossed the auction block. The $5 Plymouth Bank proof with a vignette of "The Landing of the Pilgrims" ($1,250/2,500), sold for $3,565. A $500 Union Bank of Louisiana proof sold above estimate ($800/1,200) when it achieved $3,335.

An Aurora, Wis., $5-$10 proof sheet ($5/10,000), sold for $7,475. The quality and the scarcity of National Bank Note Company proofs was reflected in the bidding on the $2 Hartford Bank proof ($1,750/2,750), which sold for $5,462, and the $3 Market Bank of Boston ($2,5/5,000) that realized $7,475. This trend continued when the $50 Salem (Mass.) Bank proof sold for $4,600.

Just three lots after the top lot, this record was almost broken when an 1852 $2 Knickerbocker Bank in Fine, with another rare Santa Claus vignette, achieved $24,150 in very spirited bidding in the room and on the phone. The Mobile, Ala., 621/2-cent "Five Bit" New Fish House note, with no vignette, once part of the Grover Criswell Collection, and described as Fine to Very Fine, found a new home for $16,675.

Nonproof notes in the Western section of the Schingoethe collection were also offered. A $100 1837 Kirtland, Ohio, note, signed by Joseph Smith Jr, of interest to collectors of Mormon material, described as About Extremely Fine, was hammered down at $11,500. Notes relating to Native American history were also well received, as indicated by the $6,900 price realized for the 75-cent 1862 Boggy Depot, Choctaw Nation scrip note. The rarity of a Dakota Territory Sutler note issued by J.M. Stone & Co. from Fort Abercrombie was recognized when it sold for $9,775, despite its Good-Very Good rating.

Of the 502 Schingoethe lots in the sale, 99 percent sold for a total of $671,663, and they realized an average price of $1,338 per lot.

The Wednesday session featured Confederate currency and was the first Smythe sale to use the new Fricke numbering system for Confederate notes. The session saw one of the highest quality collections to reach the auction block since the Gene Mintz sale in 2003. Included were a Choice Uncirculated T-5 ($4,600), T-6 ($4,600), EF-AU T-7 ($4,025), VF-EF T-12 ($7,475), F-VF T-15 ($9,775), Uncirculated T-16 ($1,495), T-17 ($4,312), T-21 ($2,875), and a fine T-22 with red serial numbers ($4,600).

Two rarities were the T-29 in EF-AU ($4/6,000) that sold for $8,050 and a Choice Uncirculated T-33 ($4/6,000) that achieved $9,775. Provenance and high-grade rarity took the Fine+ T-38 ex John Ford to $9,200. A Choice Uncirculated T-45 brought $5,175. The two inverted back T-52 and T-58 realized $2,300 and $4,370, respectively. Three CSA bond rarities also appeared in this sale: the Cr.1A B-11 $50 February 28, 1861 Richmond handwritten over Montgomery printed sold for a record price of $18,400, followed immediately by a similar $100 Cr2.A B-13 ($15,525), and a similar $500 Cr.3A B-15 ($12,650), all Very Fine or so.

All prices include the 15 percent buyer's premium. R. M. Smythe and Co., is at 2 Rector Street. For information, www.smytheonline.com, 212-943-1880 or 800-622-1880.