Anderson Collection Most Valuable US Paper Money Collection Ever Sold at Auction
The Stack’s Bowers Galleries February 28, 2019 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).
You can find all lots and results in the Stack’s Bowers’ auction archive.
