Incredible Find!

Funny thing is, Clay, is that I was looking for the inverted W as an M, like you have. I read the numismaster article a few weeks prior about the inverted M as W, and had it in the back of my mind while I was looking.

 

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Plate letters on large-size Nationals are a bit weird. The plates were all four-subject, so a typical plate might have positions A-B-C-D. But there were no plate numbers. If a bank wore out its first plate and needed a second plate, the BEP would identify the second plate by using position letters E-F-G-H. The third plate would be I-J-K-L, and so forth.

Actually it's even more complicated than that, because sometimes there were multiple denominations on a single plate, and each denomination got its own sequence of position letters. So in the case of 10-10-10-20 plates (the most common combination that included $10's), the first plate would be A-B-C-A, the second D-E-F-B, and so forth.

That St. Louis bank was a large issuer, as indicated by your $10 note's bank serial exceeding 300,000, so it went through a lot of plates. You'd need a reference book (probably Kelly) to determine whether it used sheets of 10-10-10-20 or the less common 10-10-10-10. Assuming the former, then your note was printed using the bank's eighth plate, with positions V-W-X-H.

By the way, what happened when they ran out of alphabet? They started using double letters, then letters with numeral subscripts. After V-W-X-H, the ninth plate would have been AA-BB-CC-I, and so on. The sixteenth plate was VV-WW-XX-P, the seventeenth was A3-B3-C3-Q, and you get the idea.

(So the truly scarce plate letters are Y and Z, since they'll never be used whether you count by threes or by fours. The only way to get a Y or Z plate letter is if a single bank switched between 10-10-10-20 and 10-10-10-10 plates at the right time....)

And none of that was really on topic, was it? Sorry....

 

You need to write a book with all this knowledge you have numbers. Just this how much collectors would gain and with future generations of paper money collectors your info is priceless.

 

Numbers, thanks for the information and history lesson, quite an interesting thing to know

 

The note has been graded and is on its way back via painfully slow registered mail.



I contacted Heritage to inquire about their $10,000 - $15,000 estimate on the first find. They said the market believed differently, when it didn't sell with an opening bid of $7,050 (with BP).

The analyst advised that my note, had it come back 15PPQ would likely fetch $1,000 - $1,500. This is a 20 no PPQ with minor stains, so despite the higher grade, I don't think the estimate needs to be revised.

Recently I've lost money selling on eBay in no reserve auctions. I am contemplating using Heritage, but the time it takes to consign it before it goes for auction risks another of these notes being found.

What do you guys think. Heritage? Stacks? Lyn Knight? Or FleaBay?

 

You probably want to look at the auction schedule. What is the next one coming up that you can still consign to? Whitman/Baltimore? ANA in August? PCDA in October

 

Looks like Stacks - ANA Chicago in August.

That's too long to wait I think. With more people looking for these notes, I feel that there's a good chance another one will be found before I can sell this one, and it will hurt my bottom line. That's why I'm a bit inclined to go with FleaBay, because it's so quick.

 

I personally would throw this up on the bay with something like a $2000 or best offer. See what you can get rather than losing your shorts for only selling it for a few hundred. It won't cost you anymore than posting a regular auction format and its worth a shot.

 

funkee, please take note of this. I was at heritage's office on park avenue in new york city last week showing them my collection, they wanted the whole thing, and offered me 0% sellers fees, but refused to allow me to set minimums prices on auctions for starting prices. And they advised me if i choose to place a reserve on an auction, if that auction does not sell, I owe heritage money...... please keep that in mind

 

have u looked into teletrade? from what i see they have lowest consignment fee (assuming the auction house is not giving you a special deal)

 

Heritage said starting price on my note will be $600. And frankly it could sell for that little if no interested buyers see the listing.

Teletrade isn't bad on seller's fees, but there's a hefty buyer's premium. Buyers take that into account when determining what to bid. So the seller takes a hit whether they are seller's fees or buyer's fees.

Despite the 10% for eBay and 2.9% PayPal, it's less than any of the other auction houses. I might do it as a Buy-It-Now w/ Best Offer like kookox suggested.

 

it cant hurt! since no charges on a no sell on ebay

 

I really hope that's not out of one of the junk lots of SCs I sold on eBay :foot-mouth:

 

Nah. I don't believe it was you. Your profile says NY. If I recall correctly it came from CA.

 

Phew. I didn't even know about the error. Learn something new everyday! Best of luck getting a good amount selling it. You deserve it, having that kind of eye!

 

Here it is!

 

I talked to a couple of folks in the business, and they felt the HA estimate on the first note was pretty close at $10,000 - $15,000, even though it didn't sell. It may not have had enough publicity to drive the price there. They thought $2,000 was too low for my note. So BIN is now $6,000 with Best Offer.

So here we go. Wish me luck!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=121115897954

 

Good luck!
It's cool

 

I'm not getting too much interest with BIN.

Revised listing to an auction with a very modest reserve price.

http://www.ebay.com/itm/121119212555

 

I'll get the bidding started. I won't win, but I'll see if I can't prime the pump for you a little bit...