Guess it's time to throw something new up on this thread. I picked up an interesting card a couple weeks back from the BEP's 2000 series of intaglio prints. This was the year they decided to issue 12 small cards, not dedicated to any particular shows or events. This is one I didn't have -- it reprints the Banking and Commerce pair of 15-cent commemorative stamps of 1975. This card is one of only four BEP souvenir cards that depict U.S. coins. Can anyone point out the other three?
Nobody bit on my "coins on cards" challenge, so I'll post the the other three myself. Most collectors have probably seen B54, which has been posted previously on this thread, issued at the 1981 ANA show in New Orleans. (A partial view of the same banknote appears on a booklet issued in 1987 by the BEP. It was given a catalog number by the SCCS (#107) though technically not a card.) B75 was put out by the Bureau for the 1985 Long Beach Coin Show. Nice image of the reverse of a double eagle. Last is B263, which the BEP printed for the U.S. Mint to distribute at the 2002 ANA show in New York. It depicts the 1933 St. Gaudens $20 gold piece.
It's been too long since anything's been posted here, so how about ... a Grand Watermelon! I know the $100 was posted many pages back, but here's the big boy. This is B165, issued at the 1993 FUN show. I'll include the information on the back, as well.
Here's a little refresher for this thread, in honor of Memorial Day. This is B223, the 1997 souvenir card issued to participants in the BEP's annual savings bond campaign. There are about a dozen cards in this series, most with patriotic themes.
Ditto, very often the folks who know the most charge the most; however Ken does make a market in these. If you ever get to an ANA or FUN show (there may be more), the SCCS has a table w/all sorts of cards and we are all at the Treasury booth trying to "win" the newest issue. I do not have a scanner so perhaps a member can post some of the much rarer yet just as attractive "forerunner" or Expo issues. YIKES! I did it again, did not look at the date of this OLD thread...many apologies! Now I shall go back to OP and enjoy all the pretty souvenir cards already posted.
Old perhaps, but still active! Thanks for adding a comment. And I can probably supply scans of most cards (including some forerunners) if there's anything in particular you'd like to see. Btw, I have been known to staff that SCCS table with Ken, when there's a West Coast show. We might do it again for the Anaheim show in August.
Received a surprise in the mail a few weeks ago and am just getting the chance to post them. A member saw them, knew I would LOVE them, bought and sent them my way. Can I just say, there are some great members here!!!
That Central States card is just beautiful, Darryl. I need to add one of those to my collection! And the vignette collection is terrific, too. A great number of those were also used for the annual cards given to members of the Souvenir Card Collectors Society. Some were also printed in the form of blank greeting cards (folded over). The photo is a little fuzzy -- can you tell me whether these have an embossed ridge where the plate was impressed into the paper. Or is the paper completely flat?
Here are four of them as they appeared on SCCS souvenir cards. I think the eagle against the shield is one of my favorites.
And the top vignette on the CSNA card was originally engraved for the National Bank Note Co. It appears on several checks from the 1870s.
I just joined up (for the third time) I'm a collector from the Netherlands and my main interest is Greek & Roman coins, greek banknotes and beautifull important world banknotes. Got this hanging in my office, cut out BEP cards 1896 silver certificates, I have a nice collection unmolested BEP cards too
The new Defenders of Democracy intaglio prints were posted for their first day of sale a couple weeks ago on the BEP website. This is the follow-up series to the 2014 Defenders of Freedom series that was a surprise hit and quick sellout. This time they used the backs of various Military Payment Certificates, rather than the front sides. The new series is not a limited run and will remain on sale at the BEP indefinitely. Here are low-res images of the cards. If anyone has received their set yet, it would be nice to see larger scans.
I made a pick-up recently of a nice "forerunner" souvenir card. This term was coined by the Souvenir Card Collector Society for cards that pre-date the first official issue by the BEP in 1969. This is the memorial card for President James Garfield, who was assassinated in 1881. The card was engraved and printed by the BEP and currency buffs will recognize the portrait as the same one that appears on Series 1882 $5 national bank notes. This card was also bound into the official Memorial Book that contained the memorial addresses delivered in the House of Representatives. But the individual cards, framed in black, are scarcer.
A black border for memorial/mourning. "Death letters" used to be sent as a formal notification of a death and featured letterhead bordered in heavy black at the bleed/trim. I believe Cranes still makes it.
I have a couple mourning letters with the same black border. Not something you'd want to arrive in your mailbox, but at least you'd have a little forewarning instead of being totally shocked when you read the letter.