1954 $2 Devil's Face - Low Serial A/B 0000154

News: Registration is free here at the CPMF!

Rejuvenate
transitive verb

1a: to make young or youthful again : give new vigor to
 b: to restore to an original or new state

In my opinion - washed, pressed and trimmed.  (otherwise known as a complete makeover)

Question:  Since PMG originally graded the note AU 58 and tracks all serialized notes in their database would you expect the re-graded note to have a comment on the slab stating "restored" and/or "trimmed" ?

Back in April 2024 a matched set of Devil's Face low serial number notes sold on eBay.  The set comprised the $1, $2, $5 and $10 with matching low serial number 0000154.  I posted above about the $2 note reappearing on eBay again back in January 2025 suddenly rejuvenated to a higher grade.

Now the $5 notes has reappeared on eBay but the seller didn't do as well in their attempt to rejuvenate this note.  When it originally sold on eBay it was graded a PMG CUnc 64 with EPQ designation.  After being washed and trimmed in an attempt to have it regraded higher it came back at the same PMG CUnc 64 grade but lost its desirable EPQ designation.

Win some and lose some.

Just checked the seller's eBay listings and discovered they are also reselling the Devil's Face $1 A/A0000154.

Same makeover, same result.

 

It looks like that seller has been around for a long time and sells a lot of current banknotes. This makes me wonder if whomever is doing the repairs and resubmitting them for grading is selling the regraded notes to the seller, or if the repairer is someone in-house. My instinct tells me it's the latter, since there probably isn't a huge profit margin. Regardless, I'll make sure never to buy from them. Thanks for the detailed investigative reporting Arthur!

Just checked the seller's eBay listings and discovered they are also reselling the Devil's Face $1 A/A0000154.

Same makeover, same result.

It's interesting that the seller is based in China.

Great very informative investigation!  Thank you for doing this!

This is very interesting and seems very risky. Losing the EPQ designation has cut the sellers customer base down significantly as I have seen a large number of buyers won't buy altered notes unless super rare. Even getting a higher grade with no EPQ would still impact number of buyers.