Lancaster, Ohio. $100 1902 Red Seal. Fr. 686. The Fairfield NB. Charter #7517. PCGS Currency Extremely Fine 45 PPQ.Owning a serial number one $100 1902 Red Seal instantly puts your collection in the stratosphere with names like Kelman, Krause, Shiva, and Walter. There are only five to go around. And if you are waiting for the sixth #1 to be found, dont hold your breath. Your cataloger can only think of maybe 4-5 1902 $100 red seals that have been added to the census in the last decade. And those new discoveries were all low grade generic serial number notes saved by accident as part of cash hoards. Saving a $100 bill in 1904 was a financial commitment. Bankers like to focus on return on assets. Tying up $100 for the sake of posterity clearly didnt happen much. We know that 403 #1 $100 red seals were printed, and now, 110 years later, just five have surfaced. The five notes are from Leadville CO, Sargent NE, Bridgeton NJ, Milwaukee WI, and Lancaster OH. The only note with a moderately relevant auction result is the Milwaukee. It is from the most uninteresting location of the group and it sold in October 2008 while the financial world was collapsing. Even then it still brought $69,000. The Lancaster note here has boardwalk margins, perfect pen signatures, and just a couple of bends to account for its 45 PPQ grade. The national banknote market is finally starting to put significant premiums on these rarities to the point that they are trading close to their similarly rare but much more vaunted $100 first charter counterparts. With an opening bid of just $45,000, expect every member of this hobby to be closely watching this lot.From the John Whitney Walter Collection.
