The E-Sylum:  Volume 9, Number 10, March 5, 2006, Article 2

PRICING AMERICA's GREATEST CURRENCY NOTES

Last week I published an announcement of Whitman's new book,
"America's Greatest Currency Notes."  Bob Fritsch writes: "I
was fortunate enough to get this book at the pre-issue price
and save a couple of bucks.  Regardless of the price paid,
the book is well worth the tariff.  Bowers' usual high
standards shine through the book and the pictures are
knockouts.

One lack I did notice, however, is that the price list did
not contain totals.  Each individual description contained
pricing information, plus there was a tabular table as an
appendix.  I dropped these values into a spreadsheet and
found that an investment of $121,396 in 1960 would have
netted $8,808,250 in 2006.  Not a bad return.  Of course
there were some notes listed that have never been sold and
those were eliminated from my totals.  I sent the sheet to
Dave along with my fan letter congratulating him on the book."

[In a conversation with Ed Krivoniak I mentioned a theory
of mine that the rule changes a while back allowing the
publication of full-color images of U.S. currency were a
catalyst for the advance in popularity of these notes.
They are indeed beautiful works of art, and that beauty
just doesn't come across in black and white.  I'm sure many
collectors (myself included) just didn't fully appreciate
this fact until so many notes came to be pictured in color
in auction catalogs and books.

I would also like to note that artist J.S.G. Boggs made a
related prediction a number of years ago.  I've forgotten
the details - it could have been at any one of the
presentations I saw him give in the early 90s.

Boggs said that the art community was beginning to recognize
banknotes as legitimate artworks, and realizing that by
comparison with other art prints, were a very good comparative
value.  Boggs predicted that in time this demand from the art
community would drive up the cost of better notes significantly.

One of Boggs' themes has been the general recognition of
money as art - a note is, after all, a limited edition print.
A very large print run of course, but a "limited" edition
nonetheless.  When offering his Boggs Bills to bystanders he
pointed out that his were works of art as well, and far more
rare, with editions in the tens or at most hundreds.  -Editor]

  Wayne Homren, Editor

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