On September 8 in Long Beach, Heritage sells a $ 5 National Gold Bank Note, lot 18333 estimated $ 350K. This unit is particularly appealing to specialists because it is the number 1 of a local bank for this value.
This lot has already been discussed in this column. It was listed by Heritage in Cincinnati in 2009, lot 12476, and by Stack's Bowers in Chicago on August 13, 2011, lot 5774. It is graded EF 40 by PCGS, which may seem severe but the catalog of Stack's Bowers indicated six tiny pinholes revealed under a strong backlighting.
500 pre-printed and serialized sheets are shipped by the Treasury in August 1872 to the National Gold Bank of D.O. Mills and Co. operating in Sacramento which completes the front size including its own serialization starting with this number 1. The note is signed by the president of the bank.
The survival of such a No. 1 is very rare. Coincidentally, the No. 1 of the $ 10 Sacramento note is also known. The $ 10 National Gold Bank Note No. 1 issued in 1873 by the First National Gold Bank of Stockton has surfaced recently. It was the outstanding piece in a group of five Stockton CA notes originally kept by the family of the banker which was sold in a single lot for $ 340K including premium by Bonhams on 31 August 2014.
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