Fr. 158. 1880 $50 Legal Tender Note. PMG Choice Uncirculated 64 EPQ.Reflective of a small trove of notes discovered decades ago, this note is just one of seven available to collectors outside of institutional collections and can trace an illustrious path through the collections of Harley Freeman, Amon Carter Jr., and Frank Levitan. Preserved in a remarkable state of preservation that is tantalizingly close to the top of the PMG Population Report, this note shows its quality with the utmost ease and serves to demonstrate a level of skill that has long been lost at the Bureau of Engraving & Printing and private engraving firms across the globe. At left, a portrait of American statesman and polymath Benjamin Franklin adapted from the Duplessis Portrait can be seen opposite an almost Amazonian depiction of Columbia who is depicted wearing a crown emblazoned E PLURIBUS UNUM and holding a sword in her right hand while leaning against a richly adorned shield. Columbia in her symbolic position appears in a manner that conveys that she stands ready to once again reassert the sovereignty and strength of the United States in the face of external threats amidst internal recovery and expansion in the decades that followed the end of the American Civil War in 1865. The balance of the composition is accounted for by various floral and geometric embellishments and security features. Security threads favored by the Crane Company during the twilight of the Nineteenth Century are easily noticed and run the horizontal length of the note in a distinction that further underscores the originality of this most exquisite example. A geometric adornment that features FIFTY and L is prominently displayed at center and overlaps in part with the smooth rounded Treasury Seal that dispenses with the spiked adornments typical of most Treasury Seals favored throughout the period. The engraved signatures of Treasurer James W. Hyatt and Register of the Treasury William Starke Rosecrans who served concurrently from 1887 to 1889 appear along the bottom margin above the phrase THIS NOTE IS LEGAL TENDER FOR FIFTY DOLLARS. The back which does little to depart from the prevailing aesthetic of contemporary Legal Tender Notes features anti-counterfeiting language at left and the Legal Tender clause at center. The remainder of the design is accounted for by a collection of various geometric patterns intended to thwart and deter counterfeiting and a variety of denomination counters. The imprint of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing can be found at bottom center. Truly a sublime representative of a scarce Friedberg Number and denomination worthy of nothing but a premium bid. PMG Pop 1/1 Finer. <p><p><p><p><p>