Fr. 4 $5 1861 Demand Note PMG Fine 12. Serial number 28516-D is an attractive example for the grade even with fou...
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Consign your material to be auctioned alongside these items on Wednesday, October 7, 2026 in Dallas, TX. Consignment Deadline for this auction is Monday, August 17, 2026.
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Description
Previously Unreported Variety for Cincinnati Five Dollar Demand Notes
Fr. 4 $5 1861 Demand Note PMG Fine 12.Serial number 28516-D is an attractive example for the grade even with four thin stamp hinge tape repairs on the back. The long ago repairs at both top and bottom center are very small. The left and right center repairs are longer, but they have kept these two paper separations in check.
Cincinnati is the rarest of the five issuing cities according to Track & Price for $5 Demand Notes with a population of 10. However, this figure is misleading as two examples are Face Proofs and a third has a serial number that is way too far above the reported 44,000 that was printed. (This error will be corrected in the next version of Track & Price.) We believe that the correct population figure for issued notes is only seven. However, the note in this lot is an unreported variety in Friedberg as the obligation clause states, "Payable by the Depositary of the United States at ...", as compared to "Payable by the Assistant Treasurer of the United States at ...." These two clauses are found only on $5 Demand Notes as the clauses were not engraved on the $10 and $20 Demand Notes. We also looked at many scans of $5 Demand Notes from the other four cities that issued them, New York, Philadelphia, Boston, and St. Louis, and all that we observed have only the "Assistant Treasurer" clause. We also scoured the other major paper money references, Krause, Bowers, and Chambliss-Hessler, and did not find a single mention of different obligation clauses.
Our next question was how many of the seven Cincinnati $5s are spread across the two clauses? All five examples with lower serial numbers, 4961, 7333, 9689, 11311, and 21863 have the "Assistant Treasurer" clause and we have auctioned them all. The sixth example is the discovery note in this lot. The remaining valid serial number is the highest of the enumerated seven, 41331, in Track & Price. However, it does not have a single auction appearance listed. The next stop is the Gengerke Census, where we find only a November 1983 Fixed Price Listing. That rings a bell and it is on to this cataloguer's library. That was the fixed price list for the Amon Carter Collection of U.S. Paper Money Part II. Plated on page 11 is serial 41331 and it definitely has the "Depositary" clause. At some point between serial 21862 and 28516 in this lot, the Cincinnati Sub-Treasury was downgraded to a Depository and the clause was updated.
We are pleased to inform the collecting community of this new $5 Demand Note variety.
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Auction Info
2026 October 7 - 9 U.S. Currency Signature® Auction #3602 (go to Auction Home page)
Bidding Begins Approx.
September
18th
Friday
Auction Dates
October
7th-9th
Wednesday-Friday
Proxy Bidding Begins Approx.
100 Days
Bids + Registered Phone Bidders: N/A
Lot Tracking Activity: N/A
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