1900 $10,000 GOLD CERTIFICATE OFFERED

Thrown recklessly into the street to deprive a fire of fuel, notes like this one, found in lot 21346 of our August auction, are a common sight at auction and in numismatic circles. Frequently found displaying the engraved signatures of Teehee and Burke, most examples display evidence of the event which led to their unlikely survival.

Evidence of water damage or even burn marks are unsightly reminders of this event on most such notes. However, a handful of examples like this one are known and give collectors the chance to acquire such a revered denomination for less than face value.

Featuring the engraved signatures of Register John C. Napier and Treasurer Lee McClung, this piece displays the cancellations typical of its peers, but is in scarce company as the finest example recorded in the PMG Population Report with an assigned grade of Choice About Uncirculated 58. It is also among the fewer than two dozen individual pieces recorded by Track & Price.

The cancellations which spell out "PAID *9:25:12* Phila" are seen in conjunction with a pair of imprints from the Philadelphia Clearing House Association and the Tradesmens National Bank of Philadelphia (Charter# 570) along with signatures from representatives of those institutions. The signature associated with the Tradesmens National Bank is that of Edmund Williams who later served as cashier from 1919 to 1927. The portrait of Andrew Jackson, seen at left opposite the obligation and rightmost denomination counter, has borne the brunt of these cancellations.

A testament to numismatic history, this item is more than just another note that can trace its provenance to this storied event, but one that is also exceptional. If you wish to build a first-rate type set of Friedberg numbers, this is an opportunity decades in the making and one without precedent at auction.

To read the complete article, see:
FINEST KNOWN FR. 1225E 1900 $10,000 GOLD CERTIFICATE TO BE OFFERED IN AUGUST GLOBAL SHOWCASE AUCTION (https://stacksbowers.com/finest-known-fr-1225e-1900-10000-gold-certificate-to-be-offered-in-august-global-showcase-auction/)

Numismatic lore and many auction descriptions tell the story of a fire at the then "new" Washington, DC Post Office at 12th and Pennsylvania on Friday December 13, 1935. During this event, many government records were tossed out of the sixth floor windows and into the street below, and among these records were several hundred cancelled $10,000 gold certificates. Many onlookers picked the notes up and took them home. This is the accepted explanation behind why many are found with moisture stains and a few with charring.

Newspaper accounts of the day tell us that this was one of the most unusual fires in the history of Washington, DC. The first alarm occurred shortly after midnight. The fire started in a large filing room on the sixth floor that was crammed full of flammable material, then spreading to other similar filing rooms. Hoses had to be hauled into fifth floor windows with the help of ropes and then dragged through the corridors and up the stairs to the sixth floor. These filing rooms were locked, so axes and crowbars were employed to break the doors down. Eventually, the fire would go to five alarms and fire departments as far away as Virginia and Maryland responded.

The filing rooms lacked sprinkler systems and ventilation, requiring walls and floors to be breached to let the smoke out. A lack of gas masks caused 41 firemen to be overcome with smoke and taken to the hospital. Luckily, all of them would recover. In the meantime, a crowd of several thousand assembled in the street below. Files of the General Accounting Office, plus files from other government agencies were thrown out of windows (the sixth floor only had windows along one side), in order to deny the fire future nourishment. This is when the Series 1900 cancelled $10,000 Gold Certificates rained down on the lucky onlookers and eventually into the numismatic community.

To read the complete article, see:
Friedberg 1225 - the Series 1900 $10,000 (https://www.pmgnotes.com/news/article/2816/Friedberg-1225-andmdash-the-Series-1900-10000/)

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