Collection PL

United States 1934 - New Jersey 10 Dollars County of Atlantic School Scrip Specimen (November 1 Issue)

School scrip issues such as this provide direct evidence of the severity of the Great Depression’s impact on public education. Counties were legally obligated to maintain schooling but lacked liquid funds, forcing them to monetize future tax receipts through interest-bearing instruments secured by municipal obligations. Once fiscal conditions stabilized, issued scrip was redeemed and cancelled, erasing most physical traces of the system. Read more →

United States 1933 - New Jersey 5 Dollars Borough of Palmyra Municipal Scrip Specimen (General Obligation)

No other specimen example of this Borough of Palmyra Five Dollars municipal scrip issue is documented in institutional collections, auction records, certification census data, or standard reference literature. Based strictly on observed and recorded evidence, this piece stands as a unique surviving specimen and serves as a definitive documentary artifact of small-town municipal finance during the height of the Great Depression. Read more →

United States 1935 - New Jersey 1 Dollar Borough of Palmyra Municipal Scrip Specimen (General Obligation)

The engraved legal text contains no reference to schools, utilities, or special-purpose funding. Instead, it defines a broad municipal obligation, reflecting the need for flexible, small-denomination instruments suitable for everyday payments, payroll settlement, and tax offsets. By 1935, such scrip had become a normalized feature of local governance in smaller American towns, where access to credit markets remained limited and cash circulation was still constrained. Read more →

United States 1934 - New Jersey 1 Dollar City of Asbury Park Tax Anticipation Note Recovery Bond Specimen (March 31 Issue)

Within the 1934 Asbury Park series, the One Dollar denomination represents the lowest value note, intended for everyday municipal transactions and small-scale tax settlements. Its existence alongside the Five and Ten Dollar denominations illustrates a graduated structure designed to facilitate broad public use and practical circulation within the local fiscal system. Read more →

United States 1934 - New Jersey 5 Dollars City of Asbury Park Tax Anticipation Note Recovery Bond Specimen (March 31 Issue)

Specimen examples of tax anticipation notes were produced in extremely limited quantities and typically retained only temporarily within printer or municipal files once an issue was authorized. Unlike issued notes, which were redeemed, cancelled, and destroyed in the normal course of fiscal operations, specimens had no operational role and survived only by circumstance. Read more →

United States 1934 - New Jersey 10 Dollars City of Asbury Park Tax Anticipation Note Recovery Bond Specimen (March 31 Issue)

This specimen represents an official municipal tax anticipation note issued by the City of Asbury Park, New Jersey, dated March 31, 1934, and denominated Ten Dollars. Explicitly titled TAX ANTICIPATION NOTE OF 1934 and further identified on the design as a RECOVERY BOND, the instrument belongs to a class of short-term municipal obligations created during the most acute phase of the Great Depression, when local governments faced severe cash shortages and collapsing revenue streams. Read more →

United States 1933 - State of Delaware 50 Cents Tax Paid on Half Barrel of Beer Uncut Specimen Strip of Five

This specimen strip represents an official State of Delaware excise tax stamp issued in 1933 for beer, explicitly designated TAX PAID ON HALF BARREL OF BEER and denominated Fifty Cents. It originates from the earliest phase of state-level alcohol regulation following the repeal of national Prohibition, when individual states were forced to reconstruct taxation, licensing, and enforcement systems that had been dormant or dismantled for more than a decade. Read more →

United States 1844 - Bank of Florida - Tallahassee 4 Dollars, State Bank Note, Final Revival Issue, FL-65-G26

The note is payable at the office of D. S. Kennedy in New York, reflecting a correspondent banking arrangement commonly employed by Southern and frontier banks to extend credibility beyond their local geography. Such New York payable clauses functioned as a critical confidence mechanism in antebellum American banking, particularly for territorial institutions operating at the margins of the national financial system. Read more →

South Africa 1828 - Cape of Good Hope Bank 5 Shillings Pre-Issue Sample (Pick S171p)

This 1828 five shillings pre-issue sample must therefore be regarded as a museum-grade monetary artifact rather than a conventional banknote. It documents the transition from state-administered colonial finance toward private banking, the absence of central banking authority in nineteenth-century South Africa, and the institutional processes through which early banks sought legitimacy, authorization, and public trust. As such, it stands as a primary historical document of South Africa’s pre-central-bank monetary system and the origins of private paper currency in the region. Read more →

South Africa 1861 - Montagu Bank 5 Pounds Remainder (Pick S231r)

The Montagu Bank was established in 1861 at a time when local banking was widely regarded as essential to trade and economic development within the Cape Colony. Contemporary accounts note that by the late nineteenth century more than thirty such local banks operated across the colony, each issuing its own paper currency. Montagu was among the smaller but more ambitious of these institutions, notable not only for issuing its own banknotes but for embedding itself physically and socially within the town’s commercial core. Read more →

Uruguay 1939 - Banco de la Republica Oriental del Uruguay 1000 Pesos Specimen, Printed Cancel, Serie D, Specimen No. 23 (Pick 41cs)

Preserved in Paper Money Guaranty 65 Gem Uncirculated Exceptional Paper Quality condition, this Serie D, Specimen No. 23 example retains the sharp paper, strong color, clean margins, and engraving clarity required to study the design at its intended production standard. It is an important surviving document of Uruguay's 1939 monetary program, the specimen-control practices of Thomas De La Rue and Company Limited, and the visual language used for one of the country's highest-value banknote instruments. Read more →

Uruguay 1939 - Banco de la Republica Oriental del Uruguay 1000 Pesos Specimen, Printed Cancel, Serie C, Specimen No. 2 (Pick 41bs)

Graded Paper Money Guaranty 63 Choice Uncirculated, this Serie C, Specimen No. 2 note preserves a particularly early numbered specimen from the issue. Its importance rests in the combination of denomination, series identity, low specimen number, complete two-sided cancellation system, Artigas portrait and watermark, and the finished production quality of Thomas De La Rue and Company Limited. It is a significant archival record of how Uruguay's 1939 one thousand pesos design was documented and controlled before or alongside formal monetary distribution. Read more →