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ORIGINAL BECHTEL ALBUM FOR CONFEDERATE NOTESMichael Sullivan alerted me to an extraordinary item coming up in a Heritage sale. Thanks! -Editor
 Original Bechtel Album for Confederate Notes with Many Rarities The Album - C.H. Bechtel was a New York City coin dealer with two claims to fame from a paper money perspective. In 1879 he held a sale of the Confederate Paper Money collection of J.E. Barratt which included, among other things, all four Montgomery notes. Bechtel also created an album to house Confederate notes. As J. Wayne Hilton, widely respected Confederate collector and researcher, relates in his book, Collecting Confederate Currency: Hobby and Investment: "C.H. Bechtel is most important, though, for publishing the first commercially successful Confederate currency album....Bechtel produced an elaborate, 90 page album designed to protect and display Confederate currency, with printed descriptions of the different types on each page. Nicely bound and professional-looking, Bechtel's album would not appear out of place in the finest libraries....Bechtel originally sold his album for $3.50 to $5.00, an exorbitant price in line with the price of a mid-grade $100 or $50 Montgomery note at the time. Bechtel promoted his album by giving samples to prominent New York collectors and by issuing "advertising notes" - genuine 1864 $5 Confederate Treasury Notes with a detailed advertising message printed on their backs....By 1877, collectors of Confederate currency had found a professional album to protect and house their Confederate collections." The album is in excellent condition, with just the slightest rubbing at the corners of the covers and binding. It is solidly bound and tight without any loose pages or other problems. The album begins with an introduction page and a four page index of Confederate type notes, as Bechtel identified them, that could be accommodated in the album. This is followed by ninety pages of Confederate type notes that have been affixed to the pages, mostly with stamp hinges. The album concludes with five pages that the owner used for Republic of Texas notes (one note has been removed) and two pages that were used for Colonial Bank of Canada obsolete notes.  While Thian Confederate Currency albums get the headlines, the Bechtel albums are also great rarities. I don't believe I've ever seen one. In this case the "book" is also a collection, holding over $80,000 worth of rare Confederate notes. The complete album is estimated at $100,000 - $120,000. The lot description does not indicate the provenance of the album. Who did it belong to in the past? One quick search shows that a Dr. Luttenberger exhibited one of these at the Chicago Coin Club's fifth monthly meeting (The Numismatist, July 1919, p285). The Newman Numismatic Portal has at least eight references to these, in the correspondence of Philip Chase and Grover Criswell, and numismatic auction catalogs. -Editor  $500 Montgomery note To read the complete lot description, see: To read the some related earlier E-Sylum articles, see:  Wayne Homren, Editor The Numismatic Bibliomania Society is a non-profit organization promoting numismatic literature. See our web site at coinbooks.org. To submit items for publication in The E-Sylum, write to the Editor at this address: whomren@gmail.com To subscribe go to: https://my.binhost.com/lists/listinfo/esylum All Rights Reserved. NBS Home Page Contact the NBS webmaster 
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