A single choice uncirculated $10,000 1934 Green Seal note, PMG 64, that once greeted gamblers in the entryway to Binion’s Horseshoe Casino in Las Vegas is expected to sell for over 12 times its face value in Heritage Auctions’ Florida United Numismatists Currency Signature Auction’s Platinum Night Jan. 6-12 in Tampa, Florida. The note (est. $125,000) is the fifth and highest-graded bill from the casino’s famed million-dollar display to cross the block at Heritage this year. It will be offered along with over 5,590 lots in a six-day auction spanning Obsoletes, Silver Certificates, Fractional Currency, and National Bank Notes.
“It’s fitting that one of the largest FUN Currency Auctions Heritage has ever held features one of the highest-graded $10,000 notes we’ve ever offered,” said Dustin Johnston, Director of Currency Auctions at Heritage. “This auction is ideal for both the specialist and those seeking unique finds from nearly every state in the nation.”
The rarities on offer include one of the most desirable 20th century types: a Series 1928 $100 Gold Certificate. Presented in marvelous, Gem Uncirculated 66 EPQ condition (est. $100,000), no finer examples of the $100 denomination have been graded by either PMG or PCGS to date, with just two notes each awarded the 66 level by the two grading services combined.
A stellar collection of Serial Number oddities feature: a 1918 Serial Number 1 Battleship Deuce Bank Note (PMG Choice Uncirculated 64) – once part of the fabled Albert Grinnell collection auctioned in June of 1946 – one of only four serial number 1 Battleship Deuces known to date (est. $50,000+). A newly discovered Serial Number 1 San Diego Brown Back (est. $40,000+). One of only three serial number 1 Brown Backs extant from the city and the second reported from The First National Bank of San Diego, the FUN specimen marks the first time in 16 years that a serial number 1 Brown Back has been offered at auction.
Additional serial number rarities include a $2 1976 Federal Reserve Note, Serial Number L00000001A – the very first $2 note for the San Francisco district as well as the serial number 1 note’s corresponding serial number “0001” “brick” label (est. $15,000). To top it off, the Serial Number 1 Star Note from San Francisco is also being offered in this auction, presenting the ideal opportunity for a collectors to unite the notes in what would be one of the best pairs of modern United States Notes assembled.
And regional rarities, such as one of only about three dozen serial number 1 “Lazy Twos,” a $2 Original note from Kankakee, Illinois (est. $20,000), and an impressive T2 $500 Montgomery type note, considered one of the rarest American currency notes available (est. $30,000). Only 607 notes were ever printed, and approximately 120 exist today. Presenting beautifully-designed vignettes by the National Bank Note Company, the note features the classic vignette The Crossing, attributed to James D. Smillie.
The much sought-after $10 1902 Plain Back Tombstone, Arizona, National note, only the third ever offered from this legendary Old West community known as “The Town Too Tough to Die” and famous as the scene of the fabled gunfight at the OK Corral, is on offer (est. $20,000), as is a $5 1875 Note from Hamburg, Iowa, a newly discovered Iowa First Charter and a unique find for the bank. This bank issued First Charter Fives only between its organization in 1877 and its liquidation in 1886, leaving only a miniscule $345 outstanding by 1910 (est. $20,000).