I've always had a strong liking for gold certificates, but sadly decent examples often come at a substantial cost. Thankfully, the $20 cert below, though it does have some issues, sat somewhere in my "affordable" price range. So I grabbed it. Perhaps the (completely empty) fantasy of taking one of these to a bank and receiving a $20 St. Gaudens in return fuels my fascination for this particular type? Or just the fact that they really represented "hard money" at the time. In any case, they preserve a lost epoch in history. I wonder if the people who handled this one ever went home with chunks of gold? I hope it gets along okay with my $10 from the same series... I have this feeling that Hamilton and Jackson would not have seen eye to eye on certain issues...
Hamilton is just jealous because he never got to be POTUS, lol. Awesome notes, I've never seen a gold certificate in person.
One day I got a call from my bank from a teller I know. She said I have a strange bill. Could you come and look at it. I did and it was a $100.00 1928 Gold Certificate. Then a few months later another call. She said she had another bill for me. So again I went and she said she had to get it out of the safe. It was a 1934A $500.00 FR note. I did bought her lunch. So get to know your tellers and tell them what you are looking for.
In 1972, one day when I was at my local bank (Marine Midland Bank), a man in front of me had just handed the Teller some bills for deposit and I spotted a $20 with a Gold Seal that she had just counted. After the man had finished and departed the window I stepped up and asked the Teller if I could get that Bill in exchange for another $20 and she said that the Bank is supposed to put those types of Notes aside for return to the Federal Reserve for destruction! Well, I managed to sweet-talk her, saying that I was a Coin Collector and that some Notes had different color seals and that I had some of them but not the Gold Seal, and I would really appreciate it if she could let me have that Note in exchange for a regular $20. I had that Note for several years, along with various other notes (with other than Green Seals), and my coins; several years later I got married and needing cash to buy my first home I brought everything to a dealer and got almost $1K--which helped a lot in that economy--but when I reminisce about what I had (ex: a proof 1913 Lincoln, with a minor scratch) I really wish I had those same coins today.
ewomack, Congrats on scoring the $20 gold note ! You're right about the high-grade notes being rare & expensive . I settled for the coin instead, an NGC MS65 with a "green bean" sticker .
I love Saints, don't get me wrong, and that's a nice coin. But you can buy a very nice high-graded $20 and maybe even $100 GC for less than half the cost of a Saint. If you want nice-looking but with flaws that won't be noticeable via photos or at first glance in-hand....you can go down to EF 40 where bills cost only a few hundred dollars.
I don't save bills, but I do like to see Silver and Gold Certificates. The teller that helped me in the past, retired a few years ago. My wife taught her in a Senior English class and she adored my wife as her close friend, even today. Used to get all sorts of coins from her. One instance, she asked me if I wanted a gold quarter. I was a little surprised, so I said I would like to see it. When I got to the credit union, she showed me her "gold quarter". It was evident that the quarter had some gold color "platting" on it. I told her what the coin was. I asked her what it cost and she told me that it was in a deposit and the depositor was give 25 cents in the deposit. I asked if I could give her a shiny new quarter for the "gold" quarter and she said that it would be all right. So, now I am a "rich gold" quarter owner.
This reminds me of a time talking with my Dad years back. He worked at a coal mine back in 1930's and made the comment he was paid $20.00 a week (twenty dollar gold piece) Needless to say "Dad why didn't you save those???" lol he was trying to make a living. Back then it was normal coins. Hard to see that now. I wasn't even a twinkle in dads eye yet.
Above I did not say that I now have this many Gold notes $100.00, $50.00, $20.00 [several] $10.00 [several]
