A remarkable highlight and rarity even among the offerings from Part I of the Shores Collection. This note represents one of just three known and can trace a pedigree back over decades to the 1990s. The very being of this note bears a strong resemblance to the Series of 1880 owing to the portrait of Stephen Decatur and overall layout. Yet this piece represents one of the earliest Silver Certificates issued under the Series of 1878 and features the short-lived penned countersignature (a feature that would soon be discontinued) of J.C. Hopper who served as Assistant Treasurer for the New York depository. Long a rarity and one recognized as such. Even the likes of Robert Friedberg was unable to locate an example to plate in his watershed work<em> Paper Money of the United States</em> when it was first published in 1953. A collector will no doubt have much difficulty in locating an example of this series for themselves at auction let alone one that features the penned countersignature of any one of the Treasury apparatchiks that worked tirelessly to sign the sheets that landed on their desks. The majority of known survivors for the Series of 1878 boast engraved countersignatures and can be had with frequency compared to their penned counterparts. Even so those that feature engraved signatures are still a rarity at auction and typically offered years apart at best. From 1992 to the present day the note offered here has been sold a handful of times at auction realizing ever-increasing prices with each appearance. When offered in 1992 back when Stacks Bowers Galleries was simply known as Stacks this note realized $14,500 in what was a remarkable realization even for the period. Less than two years later it realized $23,100 in a different auction. In 2005 it was offered again at auction where then realized $51,750 a nearly fourfold increase over the price realized 13 years before in 1992. In 2007 this note once again surfaced at auction and brought a staggering $149,500 that was likely the result of a battle for ownership between the underbidder and eventual winner. Even though our estimate is no doubt conservative when held against its appearance at auction from 2007 one need only consider the infrequency of this opportunity illustrated by this notes surviving peers. One example (A976) has been offered only twice going back to 1971 while (A19354) has been offered only once in the Twenty-First Century despite tracing a fairly extensive auction history going back to the 1940s when the celebrated Albert A. Grinnell collection was dispersed at auction and attested to by dusty catalogs and auction blurbs. No doubt most of us have marveled at the offerings of Grinnell or the fixed price lists of old like Napoléon before the Sphinx and wish that we were position to take advantage of those opportunities. And so, to the collector of the present much in the way of consideration is warranted as such an opportunity awaits them to represent one of the rarest individual Friedberg Numbers in whichever collection it may come to be a part of soon.<p><strong>Stephen Decatur (1779 - 1820)</strong><p>Born in 1779 in Worcester County, Maryland to parents who had just fled Philadelphia due to the British Occupation of the city during the American Revolution, Stephen bore the name of his father and showed an affinity for the sea from a young age much to the consternation of his parent who desired that he become a member of the Episcopal clergy. Come 1798 Decatur joined the nascent United States Navy and was first posted to the frigate <em>United States</em> as a midshipman. In 1799 he was elevated to the rank of Lieutenant by President John Adams and by the time the Barbary War broke out, Decatur was assigned to the USS <em>Essex</em> with the rank of First Lieutenant. Decaturs finest hour would come with the grounding of the USS <em>Philadelphia</em> at Tripoli. Wanting to deprive the Tripolitans of a valuable military resource, Decatur led a daring moonlight raid and succeeded in scuttling the <em>Philadelphia</em> and earned numerous accolades which cemented himself as a national hero in the United States. His actions further earned the praise of great naval personalities of the era such as Vice Admiral Lord Nelson who held that the burning of the <em>Philadelphia</em> was "the most bold and daring act of the Age." Decatur would in turn come to see further service in the First Barbary War which would claim the life of his brother James and would later come to briefly command the USS <em>Constitution</em>. In 1806 Decatur married Susan Wheeler before assuming command of the USS <em>Chesapeake</em> in 1807 and the later USS <em>United States</em> in 1810. During the War of 1812, he further distinguished his profile seeing much action against the British. Under Decaturs command the <em>United States</em> captured the HMS <em>Macedonian</em> in October 1812 and was later given command of the USS <em>President</em> in 1814. Decaturs command of the<em> President</em> would prove short-lived as he would be captured in January 1815 after the <em>President </em>was corned by a squadron of four British frigates. With the end of the conflict mere weeks after his capture, Decatur would once again see service in the Mediterranean and assumed command of the USS <em>Guerriere </em>during the Second Barbary War. Following his service in the Mediterranean, Decatur settled into life in Washington where he worked for the Navy Department and where he and his wife would become fixtures of the social scene. It was here, however, that the seeds of Decaturs end were planted. Objecting to the reinstatement of a naval officer by the name of James Barron who held considerable animosity towards Decatur. Decatur soon found himself in an unenviable position when Barron challenged him to a duel which resulted in his untimely end at the age of 41. On March 22, 1820, following his duel with Barron, Decatur succumbed to a shot from Barron that found its mark and severed several arteries in the proximity of Decaturs pelvis. He would die late that night following hours of utmost agony and would be laid to rest amidst much fanfare with his funeral attended by President James Monroe and much of Congress along with the justices of the Supreme Court. Numerous honors would be paid to Decatur in the years and centuries following his death. Towns in Alabama, Georgia, and Illinois bear his name while five ships of the United States Navy have borne the name <em>Decatur</em> including an Arleigh Burke-class destroyer that was commissioned in 1998 and remains in active service as part of the Pacific Fleet and homeported out of Pearl Harbor. PMG comments "Minor Restoration."From the Shores Collection Part I.
