Ephemera Newp: Amon Carter, Jr. Helps Walter Breen With National Gold Bank Notes

cmerlo1

One area of ephemera I collect is famous numismatists. I've been looking for something signed by Amon Carter, Jr. to frame with a couple of pieces of Prisoner of War Mail of his from when he was a POW in Germany during WW2. This came up on eBay cheap and I jumped on it. Breen apparently reached out to Carter for information on the National Gold Bank Notes he had in his collection, sending him a list of ones he needed serial numbers and other info for. Mr. Carter made his notations on Breen's letter and returned it to him. I received the letter today- not sure if there is any useful info in here but it is interesting!

Steve_in_Tampa

Really cool and an interesting read. I read it the first time really fast and then I read again, slowly. I’ve figured out most of the abbreviations used throughout the letter. This is my best guess ~ please correct me if I’m wrong.
ptd = printed
CN = Charter Number
NGB = National Gold Banknote
BSN = Beginning Serial Number
TSN = Top Serial Number

They reference “yellow” and “white” often and mention “SG sigs” , and I’m not sure what these are abbreviations for.

NoGold

White and Yellow refer to the paper the National Gold Bank notes were printed on. White paper notes are the rarest and bring big premiums when sold. The Coltrane collection had a white paper variety on NGB Petaluma $20. Very rare.

Staircoins

What an amazing piece of notaphilic history. Can you make out the year from the postmark?

Amon Carter, Tom Bain, Johnny Rowe... So many notables (!) in Texas.

Thank you for sharing.

cmerlo1

@Staircoins said:
What an amazing piece of notaphilic history. Can you make out the year from the postmark?

Amon Carter, Tom Bain, Johnny Rowe... So many notables (!) in Texas.

Thank you for sharing.

It's hard to read, but I believe it is 1976.

gsalex

Fascinating! Back in the era before easy access to census data, this is how it was done. In 1976 paper money was just becoming widely collected and there was still lots of information that had not been published. What I like most about this is how accessible Amon Carter was.

MrEureka

I didn't know that WB had any interest in currency. Did he ever publish anything?

JimFitzFtw

Very Cool! I would hope each grading service would note these serials to have "ex Amon Carter" listed...I know I'm printing a copy to save.

I have a series of letters from Herbert Hoover to Gerald Ford (minus Kennedy), along with Lady Bird and even one J.Edgar Hoover, written to both Amon Sr and Jr, thanking each for various things, or about the Texas Grapefruit sent to DC in December or January. These came out of the Carter estate and resided up north for the past two decades - I asked John Rowe about them and he said he simply didn't think anything of them at the time, as he was buried in all the paper and coins...

cmerlo1

@MrEureka said:
I didn't know that WB had any interest in currency. Did he ever publish anything?

I looked and didn't find any books. If I remember correctly, there were some articles for Numismatic News.

cmerlo1

@JimFitzFtw said:
Very Cool! I would hope each grading service would note these serials to have "ex Amon Carter" listed...I know I'm printing a copy to save.

I have a series of letters from Herbert Hoover to Gerald Ford (minus Kennedy), along with Lady Bird and even one J.Edgar Hoover, written to both Amon Sr and Jr, thanking each for various things, or about the Texas Grapefruit sent to DC in December or January. These came out of the Carter estate and resided up north for the past two decades - I asked John Rowe about them and he said he simply didn't think anything of them at the time, as he was buried in all the paper and coins...

That's awesome- I love ephemera, and famous numismatists are one area I collect. I have a couple pieces of POW mail from when Amon Jr. was held captive in Germany. Here's one of them, along with the story of how he got them home: