News-Antique.com - Nov 30,-0001 - New York April 6, 2006 – On March 28 and 29, Smythe’s Spring Currency & Stock and Bond Auction, consisting of over 1,400 lots, realized over $1,000,000. The impressive results of this major sale, containing a significant number of high quality rarities from the Herb and Martha Schingoethe Collection and a significant collection of Confederate rarities from other consignors, clearly reflect the continuing demand for high quality obsolete bank notes and Confederate paper money. The auction also included stocks and bonds which seem to be making a strong comeback. The Tuesday evening, March 28 session began with over 100 better stocks and bonds and got off to a strong start when the 1934 Auburn Automobile brought $690 (including the 15% buyers’ commission) on an estimate of $200-$300. Goldman Sachs Trading, estimated at $200-$300, realized $1,035. A pair of North Star Mining certificates from 1864, estimated at $250-350, brought a surprising $1,552, while an early Texas piece, the Leftwich’s Grant of 1825, sold for $2,415 on a $2,000 estimate. Approximately 75% of the lots in this section sold, a good indication of market recovery and strength in this area. The June 20, 1775 New Hampshire 20 Shilling was the featured Colonial note in the sale and brought $16,675 against an estimate of $9,000-$12,000. All of this was a prelude to the real excitement, which began Tuesday evening when the first lot of obsolete currency from the Herb and Martha Schingoethe Collection, Part 6, crossed the auction block. Estimated at $1,250-$2,500, the $5 Plymouth Bank proof with a vignette of The Landing of the Pilgrims, sold for $3,565. A $500 Union Bank of Louisiana proof exceeded the estimate of $800-$1,200 when it achieved $3,335. The Aurora, Wisconsin $5-$10 proof sheet, estimated at $5,000-$10,000, sold for $7,475. The extreme high quality and the scarcity of National Bank Note Company proofs was reflected in the bidding on the $2 Hartford Bank proof which sold for $5,462 (on a $1,750-$2,750 estimate), and the $3 Market Bank of Boston, MA, that realized $7,475 off a $2,500-$5,000 estimate. This trend continued when the $50 Salem (MA) Bank proof sold for $4,600. Proofs were not the only items to achieve record prices. A 5 Cent scrip note issued in Cedartown, Georgia in 1873, and described as About Fine, crossed the auction block and was hammered down at an astonishing $26,450, a world’s record for a Santa Claus note. Just three lots later, this record was almost broken when an 1852 $2 Knickerbocker Bank in Fine, with another rare Santa Claus vignette, achieved $24,150 in very spirited bidding in the room and on the phone. The Mobile, Alabama 62 ½ Cent “Five Bit” New Fish House note, with no vignette, once part of the Grover Criswell Collection, and described as Fine to Very Fine, found a new home when a bid of $16,675 proved to be successful. Other strong prices were achieved in yet another class of non-proof notes in the Western section of the Schingoethe offering. A $100
