Market prices for Chicago Battleship notes are much higher than book for 64 and above notes. The book prices are about right for Cleveland and New York issues. To put this into perspective for the 64 graded Battleship there are only 10 known with higher grades from the census from PMG and PCGC combined.
I saw a good opportunity to buy several and took advantage. I ended up getting the ChCU64, the AU55 and a VF25.
For over 35 years I have been actively collecting and a dealer of currency. The supply of notes in the last 3 years are getting tougher to find. But if they are available, the prices are continuing to go higher. There have been some collectors that have been limited because of recent economic conditions, but the influx of money spent on coins in the past have migrated to the currency side of numismatics creating an even higher demand for quality notes.
Red Seal Federal Reserve Notes (FRN) have always been difficult to find. However in the last year there has been a significant number appear in the market, but still very limited. I believe most of these have surfaced in the market after being in collections for many years and the owners, reaching their senior years, are wanting to capitalize on the robust currency market. The Red Seal FRN's are changing hands and will either be tucked away for years or be flipped at even higher prices. In either case, this is a good time to add them to a collection.
Production of Blue Seal $20 Federal Reserve notes far outnumbered the Red Seal production by a factor of 40 to 1. According to Track and Price, the total number of $20 Red Seals survivors is now about 450 pieces. Even with a few known runs of uncirculated pieces, that provides very few fully uncirculated pieces. PCGS and PMG have graded fewer than 20 uncirculated examples, At Long Beach an Uncirculated 67 went for $38,000.00. The $20 note I bought was from New York and is one of 42 known. I am very pleased to have it in my inventory.
Jeff
Canadian Paper Money
