Lot 3237
1914-S $20 St. Gaudens. PCGS graded MS-65. A nice frosty coin. The brilliant luster is satiny and consistent. A well struck and lustrous Gem that has carefully preserved surfaces. What seems obvious is that the clear-cut devices point to it having been giving a full, clear blow by the dies. Weakness occurs at a few central locations on some of this issue, but not on this handsome coin nor the others in this illustrious group in the surrounding Lots. Pop 1,835; 102 finer (PCGS # 9166) .
On August 3, 1914, having closed the stock exchange, Secretary McAdoo then flooded the country with paper money to prevent a repetition of the bank runs on the nation's gold that had embarrassed America only a few years earlier, during the Panic of 1907. Banks had been forced to suspend the convertibility of their deposits into currency and specie when they could not meet depositor demands for cash during October 1907. Banks avoided suspending their obligations in 1914 by offering depositors the emergency currency (National Bank Notes identical to those of the Series of 1902 Second Charter notes already in use) dispensed under McAdoo's orders.
A federal enactment passed in 1908 after the Panic of 1907 to guard against a replay of the panic, anticipated the importance of speed in containing a crisis. It had stipulated that $500 million in emergency currency that had been authorized be printed immediately after the passage of the act. Each national bank's allotment of notes, embossed with the bank's name and decorative logo, had been prepared for distribution by the end of 1908. The entire supply had been stored in an underground vault especially constructed for this purpose in Washington, D.C.
Estimated Value $1,650 - 1,700.
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| Realized $2,128 |
