Souvenir cards

As I was perusing a new addition to my library by Gene Hessler ("An Illustrated History of U.S. Loans") I discovered I'd misattributed the engraver on the Lincoln card posted earlier. It was actually engraved by Henry Gugler, circa 1863, when the Bureau of Engraving and Printing was known as the National Currency Bureau. And it does, in fact, appear on federal currency: the 1864 $20 Interest Bearing Treasury Note (shown) and Compound Interest Treasury Note.

 

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That's great.
You don't own that note too do you?

 

Ha! No -- I wish. I make do with souvenir cards and companion engravings. Just posted the note for comparison. It brought about $25K last time it was up for auction.

 

Yea I knew it was a crazy one. That's why I had to know.
Those demand notes are unobtainable for me. But they are soooo cool.

 

Here's another couple scans from an early convention book (skip back a few posts if you want some background on these). This one is from the 1930 convention in Boston. The cover features a classic print of an Elizabethan printer at work -- I think this was probably pulled from an original plate. The frontispiece inside has some great vignettes from Boston, printed by American Bank Note Co. This is the only plate in the book engraved by a bank note firm, though there are several photogravure prints.

Incidentally, I posted scans from another convention book here: http://www.cointalk.com/t94549-8/#post1301983

 

My first card that I picked up for almost nothing. Good thing, cause I have been bitten by the souvenir card bug! Already have a 1899 Chief note (B41), and 1886 Morgan back (B54) coming my way!
What a wonderful compromise for those of us who can not afford the real deal. They are going to make beautiful artwork around the home in nice wooden frames. I'm actually considering applying UV guard to the glass of the frame to prevent any discoloration! These are to beautiful to put away in a box - PERIOD!
Anyways, here you go... B249 Peace and Flag...




I'm adding what appears to be a coin/stamp combo that I have no clue to it's background. Hoping one of you guys can fill me in to it's origin. I have about five, and I only paid 3 bucks for each one.


The other four are;
1900 Liberty Head w/1959 4¢ Arctic explorations stamp.
1904 Liberty Head w/1990 25¢ Ray Ewry stamp.
1907 Liberty Head w/1989 25¢ U.S. Senate stamp.
1911 Liberty head w/1987 17.5¢ Racing Car stamp.

 

Awesome! Glad to see them and to have another member adding to the thread here! It's the first time I am seeing the coin/stamp card myself. I'm almost positive Greg will have some details about them.

Souvenir cards are fantastic, abundant and often overlooked for a way of obtaining high quality printed examples, to scale of reproduction note designs. That is part of what drew me to them in my study and appreciation of US paper money and related works.

 

:thumb: 32 pages too

 

That is a great vignette Greg. Congrats! Wow, I cannot believe I did not see this sooner!

 

Thanks for posting these, Ron -- and I also am glad to see someone new gain an interest in them! I'll add the companion card to Peace and Flag -- B238: "Progress". These were both engraved by GFC Smillie for the BEP. Progress appears on the reverse of the 1901 U.S. Note, which is depicted on B88, the 1986 ANA Midwinter show souvenir card.

Both "Peace and Flag" and "Progress" were from the Bureau's 2000 souvenir card series, which were all 9 x 6". Interestingly, that year the Bureau chose to call them simply intaglio vignettes. For some reason they decided to break from the tradition of commemorating a specific event, such as a stamp or coin show. So I suppose a discriminating collector could argue that they don't qualify as souvenir cards, since they aren't souvenirs of anything in particular. (I don't know anyone who takes that hard line.)

But alas, the "coin card" is not recognized as a true souvenir card. Partly for the same reason -- it wasn't issued for a specific event. These cards and many others like them were created by various companies in the 1970s and '80s, but not by the BEP or any of the banknote firms (another of the usual criteria for a souvenir card). I think Littleton Stamp Co. may have been among those that marketed these coin/stamp cards. They usually were touted as limited edition historical investments, but essentially both the stamp and coin were bought cheaply and mass marketed at a considerable profit.

I'm not knocking the collectability of these -- they are nicely presented and contain some good background info. I also think you paid a reasonable retail price, probably less than what they originally sold for. But, speaking honestly, they were certainly not good investments when you consider the stamp is only worth face value and a common date VG Liberty nickel can be bought for about $1. Sadly, this kind of scheme soured a lot of potential collectors who felt cheated when they tried to resell these items. It really worked against generating goodwill among new collectors.

 

I picked up a nice addition to my collection today: This is SO107, issued to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Columbus reaching the New World. This event generated a huge number of cards in 1992, about two dozen. At that time I was being snobbish about the cards I collected -- since I didn't collect foreign notes I decided not to purchase souvenir cards that depicted them. But I've since changed my tune! This card is one of most striking examples of banknote art you could imagine. The note must have required a massive wallet: it's more than 8 x 4.25"!

Incidentally, this only cost me about $12 -- a great deal!

 

That's quite an intensive piece there. A lot of plate work to fill that big of a note design. I have not come across one of these before. Thanks for sharing this card. Do you know if all the cards in 1992 were sold as a set? Could one find them in a small portfolio presentation format of some kind? I don't know if all the notes were themed on the 500th or not, but it would be nice to have them all together if they were in some kind of folder or envelope, portfolio.

 

Here some more I picked recently, and Thank you for the reply and education on the coin card.
I picked up a couple of Morgan Back, Chief Note, and a DeSoto, same as the above.


That $10 Silver Cert would of been a neat issue for sure! But dang, that would of been about $250 bucks in todays cash!
I'm framing that bad boy tomorrow! Should get the other three, and do a complete framed Educational Note deal?
???Anyone know if there was ever a back to the purposed 1897 $10 SC?????
Also, did anyone catch the term "Obverse" on there? That is coin terminology! Currency is face or front, and back!


I should mention that I digitally added the reverse of the card for archival of the photos to the bottom.

 

Chris, the 1992 Columbus cards weren't issued as a collective set -- they came out over the course of the year (in truth, they began in late 1991) at various shows. Many were issued by ABNCo, a few by other banknote firms, and quite a number from the BEP. I'm not aware of any portfolios to house them all. They had a lot of different images, some numismatic, some philatelic, some generic with the common theme of Columbus.

There was at least one "subset" issued in a single envelope: ABNCo put out a set of six reprints of the 1893 Chicago World's Fair tickets. These are actually harder to find than the original tickets. I think I have some scans of these -- I can post if you like. I did post one related ABN card earlier in this thread: http://www.cointalk.com/attachments/97826d1286519682-abnc-card-holo4.jpg. In the lower right, you'll see the thematic gold foil seal that ABN added to most of their cards that year.

 

Ron, I may be able to answer your question later in the week. I have a book on order with lots of great info -- Gene Hessler's "U.S. Essay Proof and Specimen Notes." I do know there was another proposed $10 silver certif from 1899. The front side of that one was featured on a BEP souvenir card from 1994. It's got a great battleship!

 

Boy they were scared of 1896/1897 boobies back in the day! LOL Maybe in a alternate universe every serious collector has a 1899 $10 in a sleeve! Along with the $10 1896! That would of been real cool! I guess were lucky to have the 1896 $5 note, but at 5K for a nice one - ouch!!!
Over on Ebay they have a 1886 Morgan Back in 55 for only 10K! Yet another great reason to have these souvenir cards!
BTW: That 1899 Battleship almost looks like the 1918 $2? Maybe a little more boxier?

 

The book arrived today. Here's what it says about the 1897 $10 silver certificate:
BACK DESIGN - On Oct. 8, 1896, Thomas F. Morris wrote, "I am still very busy at the Bureau, although I am very happy to say that the $10 was accepted and off my mind."
And that is all the information that exists about it.

The back design of 1899 $10 cert was a lot less mysterious. There is even a picture of it, but rather than scan a fuzzy b/w illustration, I'll let you use your imagination. It looks almost exactly like this:
http://www.cointalk.com/attachments/147823d1322421539-b88-cu.jpg
The only difference is, instead of saying United States Note it says Silver Certificate. Yep, they liked the design so much they salvaged it two years later for the 1901 US Note. For once, give the government credit for being thrifty!

Incidentally, the 1897 educational series also had $20 and $50 notes planned. A face design referred to as the "Mayflower Note" was prepared in 1894, probably only as a painting, but no example has been discovered. The $50 face design was done as a painting in 1895, which the BEP liked -- but not as a $50. That design became the $2 educational note.

 

Only way to collect some of these notes and in the condition we get these.

 

Thanks for the info. I have saved this info for later reference as I search for some of these, especially the 1893 Expo reprints. I love those designs, but only own one uncertified example of the Indian Chief. I would love to collect the others as well as look for the ABNCo reprints now that I heard of those.

I've posted this many months ago in another ABNCo thread, but here it is again, my one 1893 Expo ticket:

 

Always nice to see these cards, guys. Thanks for posting them and all the collateral info.

What's next from you - something not from ABNCO??

Dave