Friedberg 1132-F. 1918 $500 Federal Reserve Note. Atlanta. PMG Choice Uncirculated 64 EPQ. This is the finest third-party graded example of this rare large size high denomination type. Around 200 of these 1918 $500 Federal Reserve Notes are known today from all districts combined. Just ten examples are from the Atlanta district, with the present example from a run of five consecutive high-grade pieces all recorded as Uncirculated in the census. The imposing face design is ornately detailed with bold 500 counters in each corner. The sharply detailed portrait of Chief Justice John Marshall at center is flanked by the engraved signatures of Treasury officials John Burke and Carter Glass. While the face design is rather open, except for the margins, the back design has an incredibly detailed vignette <em>De Soto Discovering the Mississippi,</em> an engraving by Frederick Girsch. For the present note 30,400 were issued, from which fewer than a dozen can be traced.This note is amply margined and boldly printed and offers wholesome paper as attested to by PMGs assigned EPQ designation. It was previously from the collection of well known collector Andrew Shiva as mentioned on the back of the holder.The face portrait of Marshall was engraved by Charles Schlecht after a portrait by Henry Inman. A Treasury Seal is to the left, with the bank number and letter at the center. To the right is a blue Treasury Seal with scalloped border. The face layout is generic, with a widely spaced (from the border) Federal Reserve Bank seal, and large district numbers and letters in each corner. The back has a trimmed and slightly altered version of the same engraving used for the back of the $10 National Bank Notes, Original Series and Series of 1875, now with no credit to the American Bank Note Company. It has been up to the numismatic community to figure a lot of these things out! <em>From our (Bowers and Ruddys) sale of November 1979, lot 2061; our (Stacks) sale of October 1991, lot 284; Andrew Shiva.</em>
