Friedberg Unlisted (W-Unlisted). ND (1895) $50 Silver Certificate. PCGS Currency New 62. Sepia Photograph of Wash Drawing.Similar to Hessler-SCE7. Photograph of wash drawing, reduced to banknote size, mounted on paper and affixed to thick Bristol board wide margined card. Central vignette, Science Presenting Steam and Electricity to Commerce and Manufacture, as altered and engraved by G.F.C. Smillie after the original design by Edwin H. Blashfield. In the lower margin of the proof is the handwritten note, "as altered and engraved by G.F.C. Smillie from E.H. Blashfields design." Proposed design that is different from the previous version. Some light spotting and aging of the paper is noted, though mostly on the mounting card. Card verso notation "Property of G.F.C. Smillie."<p>The design for the $2 denomination was originally intended for the $50 denomination. This specimen shows how the design would have appeared had it been used for the larger denomination. Edwin Blashfield, whose commission was to prepare a design for the $50, was very displeased that his design was altered for use as a $2 note. In a letter to G.F.C. Smillie of April 18, 1895, Blashfield writes, "In regard to changing [the] denomination of my fifty, please tell Mr. Johnson that in addition to my other reasons given before and which are the same today as then, I also object distinctly on artistic grounds to the change from fifty to a two. You can easily see that the 50 is an important compositional factor in the building up of my design. I have arranged a pyramid which a two cannot possibly supplement a fifty. It could be changed to a twenty or a ten, without any injury to the balance of the composition but not to any denomination expressed by a single numeral." In fact, careful comparison of this $50 note to the final design as used for the $2 note shows very little significant change. The changes in the denomination markers are not particularly significant, and do not extensively change the overall composition. Though the present $50 design is illustrated by Hessler as Blashfields original, it is this writers conjecture that this $50 specimen is not the design which Blashfields letter refers to. It is worthy to recall here that the handwritten margin on the present piece indicates that this design is "as altered and engraved by G.F.C. Smillie from E.H. Blashfields design," indicating that Blashfields original submission was of a different style.From our Harry W. Bass, Jr. Collection Sale, Part V, August 17, 2011, lot 5008; purchased from Mrs. Louise Entriken, December 16, 1971; formerly in the collection of Robert F. Schermerhorn.
