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.
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| Realized $14,375 |
