DALLAS, TX.- Turns out your teachers were right: grades do matter.

A prime example is a Fr. 2407 $500 1928 Gold Certificate. PMG Gem Uncirculated 66 EPQ that will be among the top attractions in the Highland Park Collection of Small Size US Currency that will be featured prominently Jan. 10-12 in Heritage’s FUN Currency Signature Auction.

The 1928 $500 Gold Certificate is a stunning highlight, to be sure — a significant 20th-century grade rarity that carries the highest grade of any example graded by PMG. But it is far from the only prize to be found in the Highland Park Collection, a trove so vast and rich in quality notes that the 94 lots in the FUN auction will be followed by more in multiple future Heritage Auctions events.

“This is a spectacular collection, considered among the finest small-size collections of Federal Reserve Bank Notes, Gold Certificates, Silver Certificates, Legal Tenders and World War II Emergency Notes ever assembled,” says Dustin Johnston, Vice President of Numismatics at Heritage Auctions. “The consignor spent years — decades — acquiring the best of the best, compiling an assemblage that represents enormous opportunity for the next generation of collectors.”

Series with a population in the hundreds are considered exceptionally rare, but the 1928 series that yielded the $500 Gold Certificate is even more elusive; the example offered at FUN is one of only a couple of dozen examples.

Also part of the Highland Park Collection is a completely original 1928 Atlanta $5,000 — one of just three 1928 $5,000s to earn the Exceptional Paper Quality descriptor; while examples from this district top out in the Extremely Fine grades at the grading services, no others have earned that EPQ designation. The quality is exceptional for any $5,000, but especially for a Series 1928.

The massive surge in popularity among high-denomination only brightens the spotlight already cast upon a Near-Gem 1934 Gem New Dallas $10,000 Federal Reserve Note that is the finest example — see Choice Uncirculated 64 grade from PMG — ever offered at auction. Its quality earned it a spot in the D. Brent Pogue collection, one of the finest cabinets of currency ever assembled for type and condition. No Gems have been graded by PMG, meaning this remains the lone finest Dallas note to ever be offered publicly. Banknotes from certain districts seem the be more passionately collected and held for longer periods than others, and Dallas is one of those highly coveted districts. All told, just 1,200 notes were printed and issued for the Dallas Federal Reserve, which goes a long way toward explaining the rarity of this magnificent example.

Part of the reason for the demand for high-denomination notes is the number that appears on each one, but another important factor is the rarity: after all, only one of the 11 districts to issue $5,000s released more than 10,000 notes. In the case of Dallas, just 2,400 were printed and issued, which immediately makes the Fr. 2221-K $5,000 1934 Federal Reserve Note. PMG About Uncirculated 55 EPQ a must-have prize. Because these large notes were used primarily in bank-to-bank transactions and were counted as vault cash for a number of banks, even as late as during the 1980s, the quantity available to the collecting public is minute, and of those, only about 20 percent — including the offered example — have earned the Exceptional Paper Quality qualifier.

A magnificent Fr. 2408 $1,000 1928 Gold Certificate. PMG Choice Uncirculated 64 is tied for the finest known among those certified by PMG. It is one of 28,800 Series 1928 $1,000 Gold Certificates that were printed and issued with the favored status as gold-backed currency that was upended by Franklin Roosevelt's recall of Gold and related Gold Certificates. Nearly all gold coin, gold bullion and Gold Certificates were forfeited to the U.S. Treasury, although exceptions were made for items of collector interest … but the newly printed 1928 Gold Certificates were too new to be considered collectible. Many held gold in secret, but it still had tangible value on the gray market and overseas, but Gold Certificates were rendered worthless unless redeemed. Today, only around 100 survivors are known in collecting circles, making it one of the rarest of all 20th-century U.S. Numismatic issues.

Another notable $1,000 in the Highland Park Collection is the Finest Dallas 1934 Light Green Seal $1,000, which is one of just two graded Uncirculated by PMG.

One of Only Two Graded Uncirculated by PMG, this example stanes alone atop the population report as the finest ever offered.

Other top selections in the Highland Park Collection include, but are not limited to:

• A Fr. 2200-K $500 1928 Dark Green Seal Federal Reserve Note. PMG Gem Uncirculated 66 EPQ

• A Fr. 2405* $100 1928 Gold Certificate. PMG Choice Extremely Fine 45 — one of the finest graded $100 Gold Certificate replacements

• The second-finest PMG-graded Fr. 2404* $50 1928 Gold Certificate. PMG Choice About Unc 58

• A Fr. 2212-H $1,000 1934A Federal Reserve Note. PMG Superb Gem Unc 67 EPQ — an Extremely Rare Superb Gem Grade for 1934A St. Louis $1,000