Friedberg 153. 1875 $50 Legal Tender Note. PMG Very Fine 20. Only four examples of this prohibitively rare Friedberg number are known to exist, with only two available to collectors. The Aubrey Bebee example resides permanently in the ANA Museum Collection while another is forever ensconced in the collection of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. The only other publicly held example is graded Fine 12 by PCGS Currency and was most recently sold for $99,000 as part of our August 2018 offering of the Joel R. Anderson Collection, Part II. The presently offered example has been graded Very Fine 20 by PMG and we feel that is accurate. The circulation is largely even while the engraved design elements remain boldly inked and completely undisturbed. The overprints are still boldly colored and well detailed. The design is fully framed with three large margins; the top margin is on the thin side, though all there. The color and paper body are superior to the Anderson example as the grades would suggest. PMG has added a comment for "Closed Pinholes." Series of 1875 $50 Legal Tenders are represented only by this lone catalog number. Any collector striving for completion of a Friedberg collection will need this note. The design of the Series of 1875 $50 is essentially the same as the 1874 dated notes. The portrait of Benjamin Franklin, engraved by Charles Burt from the Duplessis portrait, is seen at left. Liberty, dressed as Columbia is found at right. There are two large pink L protectors left and right at center along with a pink spiked Treasury Seal at bottom center. Engraved signatures of John Allison and A.U. Wyman are at the bottom left and right of center. The back design is the same as on the 1874 notes with the imprint of the Columbian Bank Note Company centered at the bottom. Only 40,000 examples were issued. <em>From Herbert I. Melnicks sale of June 1983, lot 125; Currency Auctions of Americas sale of October 1998, lot 2278. </em>
