Goldberg Coins and Collectibles

Sale 54

Pre-Long Beach Coin and Currency Auction

The 9/09 Hawaii Collection - Hawaiian Currency

Lot	Photo	Description	Realized
Lot 1575		Undated (ca. 1839) Ladd & Company $5 (Kala Elima) Scrip Note Koloa Plantation, Hawaii. PCGS graded Apparent VF, minor edge damage; hinge remnants on back. An extremely rare scrip issue from this early plantation company, one of only a handful known and just the third auction appearance that our research has located. Ladd & Company started the Koloa Plantation, the first commercial sugar plantation in Hawaii, on the island of Kauai. Because of the local scarcity of currency and in order to meet its daily payroll, the company printed its own currency, redeemable in merchandise at the company store. It is undated but issued circa 1839 at Koloa, Kauai. Printed by the Boston Bank Note Co. 30 State St. as indicated at the bottom of the face. ELIMA KALA at left inside ornate rectangular vertical cartouche. The legend, below, in the Hawaiian language translates as "The person who wrote the note herein below states they will give to the person who reads this note the sum of FIVE DOLLARS out of their store at Koloa." This significant rarity is one of the real highlights of this Hawaii collection, and ranks as one of the most important pieces of Hawaiian history in this sale, as well. This is a key obsolete note from Hawaii with a macho maritime vignette of whale hunting. Only 3 known; this being the only one signed. Estimated Value $20,000 - 30,000. Ex A.J. Ostheimer; Edwards H. Metcalf privately in the late 1960's; Superior Auction Feb. 1976, lot #1199; Ronald Russell; Present Owner. View details and enlarged photos	Realized $24,150
Lot 1576		Lahainaluna Seminary, Lahainaluna, HI. Complete Scrip Uncut Sheet ca. 1843. A unique uncut sheet of Laihanaluna Seminary scrip, the only uncut sheet known to our consignor, our cataloger, or to anyone else we know of. From the unaltered plate. This amazing rarity includes each of the six denominations, and is well preserved despite some storage folds. Graded Extremly Fine 40 by PCGS Currency, with the technical grade all but irrelevant as the rarity of this piece speaks for itself. Any estimation of value here is but a wild guess, as with any unique item, but we expect our presale estimate to be fully reached if not far exceeded. Note: This uncut sheet is from the printing plate before secret marks were added. It was discovered at the school that one or more of the students had printed some of the scrip without authorization. When the head of the school learned this, he ordered that the first issue of scrip be withdrawn. Minute alterations were then made to the engravings on each denomination in the copper plate from which they were printed. Scrip was then reissued. All known Lahainaluna scrip is from the altered plate, except for this unique uncut sheet. Any collection of Lahainaluna scrip must have this unique piece to be complete! [A detailed account of the incident is in The Hawaiian Journal of History, volume 2, 1968, starting on page 95 "The Lahainaluna Money Forgeries."]. Estimated Value $30,000 - 40,000. Ex A.J. Ostheimer; Edwards H. Metcalf privately in the late 1960's; Superior Auction Feb. 1976, lot 1203; Ronald Russell; Present Owner. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $41,400
Lot 1577		Lahainaluna Seminary, Lahainaluna, HI. Complete Scrip Set ca. 1843. A complete set of Lahainaluna Seminary scrip, including: 3 Keneta; Hapaumi ($1/16); Hapawalu ($1/8); Hapaha ($1/4); Hapalua ($1/2); Hookahi Dala ($1) (1843-1844) Pick 2PE-10; 2PE-11; 2PE-12; 2PE-13; 2PE-14; 2PE-15. These are very rare notes that are also very historical. Protestant missionaries came to Hawaii in 1823. The missionaries discovered that there was no written form of the Hawaiian language. Therefore, they formed a committee that created the written form that is still in use today. They also convinced the Hawaiian Royalty of the need for an educational system. The missionaries established the Lahainaluna Seminary in 1831, which is still in existence today as the Lahainaluna High School. It is the oldest public school west of the Rocky Mountains. In 1834 the Hale Pa'i or house of printing was founded on the campus. This served as the home of Hawaii's first printing press. The first newspaper printed west of the Rocky Mountains was printed here plus English and Hawaiian language books. This is now a museum. This must be where these quaint pieces originated, possibly on Hawaii's first printing press. They portray school subjects and virtues such as industry, law, science, geography, education, and a map of the Hawaiian Islands. Each one was backed at issue, and they have since been removed from mounting. All six of the notes are graded by PCGS Currency, and are graded 64, 64, 63, 63, 63, and Apparent 60 respectively. The $1 (Hookahi Dala) piece has some damage on the face. A very rare set, with the last similar set sold at auction fetching more than $25,000. Expect a very similar realization today for this set. Lot of 6 notes. Estimated Value $20,000 - 25,000. Ex Ronald Russell Collection, Present Owner. View details and enlarged photos	Realized $12,600
Lot 1578		Wailuku Female Seminary Scrip, Wailuku, HI. Hapaumi ($1/16) 1844. PCGS Choice About New 55PPQ. An extremely rare pair piece of 1844 Wailuku Female Seminary Scrip, graded Choice About New 55PPQ by PCGS Currency, with a single light storage fold down the center vertically. This note was issued by the Seminary, located in what is now the County Seat of Maui County, as temporary reimbursement for work provided until accumulated and later redeemed for "silver or goods," according to an 1897 letter written by Edward Bailey, who was principal of the Seminary from 1840 until 1849 when funding ran out. Bailey had come to the Islands in 1837 as a young missionary and later exhibited remarkable ability as a businessman in the sugar industry, as a government surveyor, as a botanist, and even as an artist. This landscape of the Bailey house was painted in 1885. This piece of scrip is printed in vermilion ink on thin cardboard. Only seven of these were reportedly given to the Hawaii State Archives. A rare piece of Hawaii history, and a the first piece offered for public sale at auction from this issue in nearly a decade. Estimated Value $3,000 - 5,000. From the 9/09 Hawaii Collection. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $8,625
Lot 1579		Kingdom of Hawaii Pick #1. $10 Uncut Pair. Two uniface examples of the excessively rare 1880 Silver Certificate of Deposit, vertically uncut on cardstock. This two uncut pairing is probably unique in the format. Crisp Unc with some faint stains on the reverse. These attractive notes depict an American Bank Note Co. design with a "cowboy" scene at center, with flanking vignettes of a sailing ship at left and a train locomotive at right. Partial check stubs and printing alignment guides are visable. Estimated Value $2,000 - 5,000. From the 9/09 Hawaii Collection. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $5,060
Lot 1580		Kingdon of Hawaii Pick #1p 1879 (1880) $10 Silver Certificate of Deposit. Face Proof. PCGS New 62PPQ. This rare single-sided proof has a broad fold in the top right margin and a little handling, but no folds are present in the design to bring it down to a lower grade. Estimated Value $4,000 - 5,000. From the 9/09 Hawaii Collection. View details and enlarged photo	Unsold
Lot 1581		Kingdom of Hawaii Pick #2p 1879 (1880) $20 Silver Certificate of Deposit. Face and Back Proofs. Face and back proofs, mounted on cardstock, with the receipt stub at left. Both are graded by PCGS, the face Gem New 65PPQ (hole punch cancelled) and the back Very Choice New 64PPQ. A well-matched and beautifully preserved pair. This is probably the second most rare type of the Kingdom of Hawaii currency with the $500 denomination being the most rare. Lot of 2 notes. Estimated Value $15,000 - 20,000. From the 9/09 Hawaii Collection. View details and enlarged photos	Realized $8,913
Lot 1582		Kingdom of Hawaii Pick #3p ND (1880) $50 Silver Certificate of Deposit. Face Proof. PCGS Choice About New 58PPQ. Ths face proof retains the receipt stub at the left end, and is fully New as issued except for a light bend at the lower right. Two notches at the left and right ends are as made. Estimated Value $5,000 - 7,000. From the 9/09 Hawaii Collection. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $2,990
Lot 1583		Kingdom of Hawaii Pick #4p ND (1879) $100 Silver Certificate of Deposit. PCGS Extremely Fine 40. An extremely rare Hawawiian Kingdom $100 unsigned remainder of an unissued note (#8535), with a few light storage folds. Hole Punch Cancelled with large PAID. We are unable to ascertain any prior auction appearance of this note. (The Hawaii State Archives, Honolulu, has three cancelled Kingdom $100s, one of which is signed, the others unsigned like this example. Eric P. Newman had cancelled note #8799 while Al Ostheimer-RARCOA had #8800, verified by this cataloger in the 1970s) There are no uncancelled $100s reported. Estimated Value $8,000 - 10,000. Ex Dave Martin, Alii Stamp and Coin; from the 9/09 Hawaii Collection. View details and enlarged photos	Realized $6,900
Lot 1584		Kingdom of Hawaii Pick #5 $500 ABNCO Reprint. PMG Gem Uncirculated 66PPQ. A fully Gem example of the 1995 reprint of this excessively rare note, which features a portait of King Kalakaua at left. Estimated Value $400 - 600. From the 9/09 Hawaii Collection. View details and enlarged photos	Realized $575
Lot 1585		Kingdom of Hawaii Pick #5 $500. ABNCO Reprint. PMG Gem Uncirculated 66PPQ. A second example of the 1995 reprint. Estimated Value $400 - 600. From the 9/09 Hawaii Collection. View details and enlarged photos	Realized $489
Lot 1586		Kingdom of Hawaii Pick #5p 1879 (1880) $500 Silver Certificate of Deposit. Face and Back Proofs. Face and back proofs mounted on cardstock, both graded Superb Gem New 67PPQ by PCGS Currency. The face is hole punch cancelled. This is the only known example intact with a receipt stub attached at left. The back is utterly flawless. A magnificent pair that is nearly pristine in all respects, and a pair that is the greatest rarity in this high state of preservation. The present set made its numismatic debut at the ABNCO archives auction in 1990. Lot of 2 notes. Estimated Value $40,000 - 50,000. From the 9/09 Hawaii Collection. View details and enlarged photos	Unsold
Lot 1587		Republic of Hawaii Pick #6p 1895 (1899) $5 Gold Certificate of Deposit. Face and Back Proofs. Face and back proofs, both mounted on cardstock. Each is graded by PCGS Currency, the face Apparent Choice About New 58, with minor damage mostly at the edges, and the back New 62. The face proof is hole punch cancelled. Gold certificates were issued in October 1899 under the currency Act of 1895, just months prior to Hawaii's adoption as a U.S. territory. They were probably brought out clandestinely by the ruling authorities of the soon-to-be-defunct Republic, and are among the loveliest notes ever issued by this, or any other, body. All were printed in bright yellow on black, on the front, while the backs are a rich yellow hue. Lot of 2 notes. Estimated Value $4,000 - 5,000. From the 9/09 Hawaii Collection. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $2,415
Lot 1588		Republic of Hawaii Pick #12a ND (1880) $10 Silver Certificate of Deposit. PCGS Fine 12. Ashley-Damon signatures. #1938. Only two uncancelled $10 Series C notes known (other is #1481). A rare issued example of this early Kingdom of Hawaii note, issued under the government of King Kalakaua. Problem-free for the grade with no significant flaws. Any issued early Hawaii note is a rare item, and its appearance at auction would be a highlight of any sale. The Kingdom of Hawaii issued paper money printed by the American Bank Note Company beginning in 1879. Earlier tries at circulating a paper currency were made (see below). The issues of 1879 consisted of $20, $50, $100, and $500 denominations. However, only 200 $500 bills were made and all were evidently destroyed, either through call-in, or from attrition. (No examples, save for specimens or proofs, are known.) In 1880, the $10 denomination was added. After Queen Liliuokalani's bloodless 1893 overthrow, the Republic of Hawaii continued to issue Kingdom notes until new designs could be secured from the American Bank Note Company. From Ralph S. Kuykendall's The Hawaiian Kingdom, volume 3, p.p.86-94) on Hawaii's circulating medium: The currency question, including the problems of money supply, money standard, legal tender, exchange, and the proper method of regulating these matters, had plagued the country for many years. Down to 1884 the money supply of the islands consisted of gold and silver coins -- a heterogeneous collection from nearly all the countries of the world, with widely varying nominal and intrinsic values -- and paper certificates of deposit representing coins on special deposit in the treasury of the kingdom. The paper tokens were sometimes called "silver certificates" as the coins they represented were mainly silver, the rationale for certificates of deposit being simply their greater convenience in making large payments. Certificates of deposit were first authorized in 1859; it appears that they were first issued in 1866 or 1867. A letter printed in the Pacific Commercial Advertiser of October 28, 1871, mentioned the "great number of certificates of deposit in circulation" and raised the question whether they were all backed by actual coins in the treasury. In its issue of July 6, 1878, the Advertiser remarked that "paper (silver certificates) has become the principal circulating medium." By the end of March, 1882, the certificates outstanding amounted to $419,000." Two years later the amount had increased to $799,000. Estimated Value $8,000 - 10,000. Ex Alfred Ostheimer, sold through Superior, January 1975. Lot 1493 $4100. Several intermediaries to Ronald Russell; Present Owner. View details and enlarged photos	Realized $14,375
Lot 1589		Republic of Hawaii Pick #7p 1895 (1899) $10 Gold Certificate of Deposit. Face and Back Proofs. Face and Back proofs mounted on cardstock, each graded by PCGS Currency New 62. The face proof is hole punch cancelled as well. Lot of 2 notes. Estimated Value $4,000 - 5,000. From the 9/09 Hawaii Collection. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $2,415
Lot 1590		Republic of Hawaii Pick #8p 1895 (1899) $20 Gold Certificate of Deposit. Face and Back Proofs. Face and back proofs, each mounted on cardstock. Each is graded by PCGS Currency, with the face grading Choice New 63 (hole punch cancelled) and the back grading Apparent About New 55, with some demage at the bottom right. Lot of 2 notes. Estimated Value $4,000 - 5,000. From the 9/09 Hawaii Collection. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $3,335
Lot 1591		Republic of Hawaii Pick #9p 1895 (1899) $50 Gold Certificate of Deposit. Face and Back Proofs. A rare pair of proofs mounted on cardstock, both graded by PCGS Currency. The face is graded Choice New 60, Hole Punch Cancelled, while the back grades New 62. Estimated Value $7,000 - 8,000. From the 9/09 Hawaii Collection. View details and enlarged photos	Realized $5,175
Lot 1592		Republic of Hawaii Pick #11a 1895 (1897) $5 Silver Certificate of Deposit. PCGS Fine 15. Ashley-Damon signatures. #2042. Series of 1895 but first released in 1897. A fully original and problem-free example of this issued note which is very rare in all grades. It has a little trivial soiling on the back, but is otherwise free of any defects whatsoever. Believed to be second finest uncancelled $5 Series C note (behind #2953, VF). Pictured on the right, an elderly Hawaiian man kneeling by the seashore. In the original photo (at the Sidney Public Library, Australia), he is actually in the backyard of a house in the village of Kaaawa on the island of Oahu. He kneels beside a steaming cooking pit (imu) that is being poked at with a long pole by another man. Also in the frame, a freshly slaughtered, hog-tied pig lying on its back with half a dozen large tapa-leaf "laulaus" ready for internment in the stone-and-earth oven for that night's luau cookout. Only the $5 denomination uses genuine Hawaiian themes; due to the cost of engraving plates, the government of the Republic of Hawaii agreed with The American Bank Note Company to go with stock vignettes for the $10 and higher silver certificates. Estimated Value $5,000 - 7,000. Surfaced in Kauai in 1992 along with $5 Series C note #1812; Don Medcalf; several intermediaries; from the 9/09 Hawaii Collection. View details and enlarged photos	Realized $8,625
Lot 1593		Republic of Hawaii Pick #11a 1895 (1897) $5 Silver Certificate of Deposit. PCGS Apparent Very Good 10. Ashley-Damon signatures. #666. There are four dark stains and/or burn holes on this note, all of which could possibly be cancellations. Very rare nonetheless. A list of serial numbers for known uncancelled Republic $5 silver certificates (series C) is as follows: 064, 338, 397, 666, 1004, 1366, 1608, 1674, 1812, 1894, 1935, 2042, 2903, 2953, and 8027. Cancelled $5 notes (in the Hawaii State Archives, Honolulu): 600, 8498. The Republic of Hawaii was founded on July 4, 1894 with Sanford B. Dole as president. This was its formal name from 1894 to 1898 when it was run as a republic. The republic period occurred between the administration of the Provisional Government of Hawaii which ended on July 4, 1894 and the adoption of the Newlands Resolution in Congress in which the Republic was annexed to the United States and became the Territory of Hawaii on July 7, 1898. Estimated Value $2,000 - 3,000. First reported as having traded in the marketplace in the 1991-92 along with note $5 Series C #338; various intermediaries; from the 9/09 Hawaii Collection. View details and enlarged photos	Realized $2,415
Lot 1594		Republic of Hawaii Pick #11b 1895 (1897) $5 Silver Certificate of Deposit. PCGS Very Good 8. Ashley-Damon signatures. #1394. A very rare hole punch cancelled example of this rare issue, one of fewer than two dozen pieces documented to have survived. Estimated Value $9,000 - 12,000. From the 9/09 Hawaii Collection; ex Craig Watanabe. View details and enlarged photos	Realized $5,463
Lot 1595		Republic of Hawaii Pick #13p 1895 (1897) $20 Silver Certificate of Deposit. Face and Back Proofs. Face and back proofs, the face only on cardstock and hole punch cancelled. The face is graded Apparent New 62 by PCGS Currency, with some minor edge damage at the bottom right of center noted by PCGS, with the back also grading Apparent New 62 by PCGS with a corner missing and s small hole at the upper left. Lot of 2 notes. Estimated Value $4,000 - 5,000. From the 9/09 Hawaii Collection. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $2,415
Lot 1596		Republic of Hawaii Pick #14p 1895 (1897) $50 Silver Certificate of Deposit. Face and Back Proofs. A lovely pair of proofs mounted on cardstock, both graded by PCGS. The face is graded Choice New 63, Hole Punch Cancelled, while the back also grades Choice New 63. Lot of 2 notes. Estimated Value $6,000 - 8,000. From the 9/09 Hawaii Collection. View details and enlarged photos	Realized $4,600
Lot 1597		Republic of Hawaii Pick #15p 1895 (1897) $100 Silver Certificate of Deposit. Face and Back Proofs. Face and back proofs mounted on cardstock, but graded by PCGS Currency. The face grades Very Choice New 64PPQ, while the back grades Choice New 63. Lot of 2 notes. Estimated Value $8,000 - 10,000. From the 9/09 Hawaii Collection. View details and enlarged photo	Realized $6,900
Lot 1598		Kingdom of Hawaii ABNCO Reprints. Pick numbers 1, 2, 3, and 4, reprints from the American Bank Note Company printed in 1995 of the rare 1879 series Silver Certificates from the Kingdom of Hawaii. Uncirculated. Lot of 4 notes. Estimated Value $150 - 200. From the 9/09 Hawaii Collection. View details	Realized $265