Galveston, Texas. $20 1902 Red Seal. Fr. 641. The City NB. Charter #8899. PMG Very Fine 25.At a glance, this just looks like a nicer grade red seal from a moderately rare Texas bank. But a few Texas national banknote scholars will probably know that this Galveston bank was organized by and run by the famous banker, insurer, and philanthropist, William Lewis Moody Jr. In fact, the now famous Philpott-Moody Collection is only in existence today thanks to the Moody family, specifically Mary Moody Northern, who was the daughter of WL Moody Jr. As the story goes, in late 1960s two Texas paper money dealers were at a show and happened to have an uncut sheet of red seals on this Galveston bank. In a roundabout way they came to learn that Mrs. Northern was an interested buyer of paper money signed by her father. The sheet was then immediately sold to her for approximately $3,000, which was of course a significant sum of money for any currency item in that time period. A few years passed and the same dealers were in a position to buy the famous William A. Philpott Collection. Mr. Philpott was for 50 years the secretary of The Texas Bankers Association. He was just about the only collector with means and connections who was collecting large size nationals during their original time of issue. He assembled the very best collection of second and third charter TX notes; many of which were high grade and are today very rare. The Philpott collection was expansive and it included some more Moody signed Galveston banknotes; so the dealers went back to Mary Moody Northern to see if she would be interested in them. Not only did she buy the Galveston notes, she bought virtually the entire collection of thousands of banknotes. Having been born in 1892, many of the signors of the nationals were either old personal friends or former banking colleagues of her father. So it is because of the Moody familys banking history that the now fabled Philpott collection is still intact with so many wonderful items. The $20 red seal we are offering tonight, based on reported serial number data in the census, would be the earliest known banknote bearing the signature of WL Moody Jr. Texas specialists and national banknote historians will surely take note of this important offering.
