BALTIMORE, MD.- The first installment of the landmark Joel R. Anderson Collection received considerable bidding interest with 64 lots realizing $7,912,140 during Stack’s Bowers Galleries’ Thursday night session of their Official Currency Auction of the Whitman Coin & Collectibles Spring Expo. This is more than $800,000 ahead of the highest predictions for this sale.

The Joel R. Anderson Collection represents the most complete collection of United States large size paper money ever assembled by type. In all, the collection consists of 241 notes spanning the entire large size note issuing era from 1861 to 1923. The collection is being sold by Stack’s Bowers Galleries in four auction events in 2018 and 2019.

The auction room was a flurry of activity as bidders fiercely competed for notes in this, the most anticipated US currency collection auction in recent years.

Among the top grossing lots of the auction were highlights like the finest graded Fr.186d 1863 $1000 Legal Tender Note. This piece, featuring the portrait of Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris, is graded by PCGS Currency as Choice About New 58 and realized $960,000.

An incredible Fr.183c 1863 $500 Legal Tender Note graded Very Choice New 64 PPQ by PCGS Currency, one of just two Uncirculated examples of the type, sold for $900,000.

The only privately held Fr. 187b 1880 $1000 Legal Tender Note, graded Choice About New 55 by PCGS Currency, crossed the block for $960,000.

Additionally, the finest known Fr.185m 1880 $500 Legal Tender Note, graded About New 50 by PCGS Currency, blew past pre-auction estimates in route to a $504,000 realization.

Exceptional Interest Bearing Notes surpassed all expectations with the unique Fr.207 1861 $50 Interest Bearing Note, PCGS Currency graded Very Fine 25, selling for $576,000. In addition, the only privately held Fr.209a 1861 $500 Interest Bearing Note, also graded Very Fine 25 by PCGS Currency, sold for the impressive sum of $660,000.

Of the 64 lots in the auction an astounding 14 crossed the six-figure price mark while seven notes sold for more than $500,000 each.

Part II of the Joel R. Anderson Collection will be offered this August as part of Stack’s Bowers Galleries’ Official Currency Auction of the ANA World’s Fair of Money in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.