September 2025 Greensheet Market Analysis: Error Discovery Note

PMG describes the 2004 $20 from the Cleveland district (Fr.-2090D) as an "Insufficient Inking Error," but that is incorrect. The Barts more accurately describe the back of the note as "Missing Security Overprint." More specifically, it is missing the Omron Rings, also known as the "Eurion Constellation" because Euro banknotes were among the first of at least five dozen countries to use them as an impediment to photocopying and scanning.

Most people give little thought to the small yellow numbers corresponding to the value on the back of all denominations from $5 to $100. Digits other than "0" are a distraction. The zeroes which appear multiple times on each note is a specific pattern that resembles the constellation Orion. Specifics as to how the rings are printed and the algorithms used to detect them are a proprietary right of the Omron Corporation, the Japanese company that applied for its patent on the rings in 1995.

The rings are said to be applied by offset printing, usually in yellow, but sometimes in vivid shades of orange or green, so while the eye may strain to see them, they are easily noticed by software. When the pattern is detected by the software a message pops up such as, "This application does not support the unauthorized processing of banknote images," with a link for more information from The Central Bank Counterfeit Deterrence Group.

The Barts say that this is one of only three such errors currently known to exist. It sold almost immediately at $695.00. The fifth edition of United States Paper Money Errors is now available.

The Stack’s Bowers Galleries U.S. currency sessions of their Summer 2025 Global Showcase Auction will be on August 26 and August 28 at the company’s Costa Mesa, California headquarters, and online at StacksBowers.com. Its first U.S. Currency Rarities Night session will be on August 28.

One of six known $20 1863 Gold Certificates, a PCGS AU50 pedigreed to Wayte Raymond, Joel Anderson, and Nicholas Bruyer and listed with an estimate of $400,000 to $600,000, is one of ten lots that could reach a six-figure price realized. This example, Fr.-1166b, is one of two known with the countersignature of Assistant Treasurer H.H. Van Dyck signed in ink rather than engraved. It has a roller coaster of a price history, going for $357,500 in 1999, then $154,000 and $195,000 in 2001 and 2005 respectively. Its most recent appearance was in the Anderson sale of 2019 when it exchanged hands for $396,000.

Other top-tier Gold Certificates being offered are one of only two collectible Fr.-1218g 1882 $1,000 Gold Certificates, called Extremely Fine 40 by PCGS Banknote and estimated at $300,000–$500,000; one of the finest known 1907 $1,000 notes (Fr.-1219e) in PCGS Banknote Choice Uncirculated 63 ($150,000–$250,000); an Fr.-1176 1882 $20 Gold Certificate in PMG Choice Uncirculated 64 ($100,000–$150,000); and at the same estimate, from the series of 1922 a PMG About Uncirculated 58 EPQ $1,000 (Fr.-1220), described as the finest graded by the service.

Highlights from the August 26 sessions include, from the Confederate portion, a PMG Very Fine 25 $500 1861 Montgomery issue. There is also Colonial and Continental currency, obsolete notes, Fractionals, and a large offering of National Bank Notes, including several new discoveries.

One of these is the only example of its type and denomination in the National Bank Note Census, a $20 1902 Date Back, Fr.-647, from the Prescott, Arizona National Bank (Charter #4851). It is estimated at $10,000–$15,000 in PMG Very Fine 20. Another is a Wessington Springs, South Dakota $10 1902 Red Seal, Fr.-613, from that city’s First National Bank (Charter #6446). It is expected to bring $3,000–$5,000, also in PMG Very Fine 20.

Finally, at a lofty $60,000–$90,000 is one of only five Red Seal $100s from the entire state of Texas, and the cataloger says, the first public offering of this type and denomination from Texas in over twenty years. The 1902 $100, Fr.-686, is from the First National Bank of Bonham, Texas (Charter #3094) and graded About Uncirculated 50 by PCGS Banknote. Stack’s Bowers notes that there are not much more than 130 pieces from the entire United States, with most of them coming from banks in Iowa, Chicago, and St. Louis. This note is the first Texas Red Seal offered since 2003. The also an extensive collection of 82 large and small size California National Bank Notes. It includes National Gold Bank Notes from banks in San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Oakland, Petaluma, and San Jose. Historians and memorabilia collectors will appreciate lot 21059, an original cash book from the First National Gold Bank of Petaluma that covers the period between the opening of the bank in 1874 up to just a few years before the institution converted to a private bank in 1894. Bidding opens at $3,000.