Questions about ANR’s auctions of the American Banknote Company materials

Longacre

I got the nice mailer that ANR sent out over the weekend, announcing the auction of American Banknote Company items during 2006 and throughout 2007. This looks like some pretty interesting material. Can anyone comment on the following questions:

(1) What was ANR’s thought process in taking all of this material on consignment? Although it is historical and related to currency, it seems that the items being offered are not your typical auction material.

(2) Given the fact that material like this has never been auctioned before, did ANR enter into any special arrangements to hedge its risk related to the sale? In other words, it is great to be forerunner with these types of auctions, but there is some risk to your basic auction business model when you take on such a consignment.

(3) It is hard to tell whether this is a traditional consignment, or whether ANR purchased the material outright (the answer to this question would impact the response to questions #1 and #2 above).

(4) Are the items going to be cataloged by the ANR staff or by outside persons? Again, the material isn’t your typical numismatic fare, so I am not sure whether the expertise required is all in-house. If the research is being done completely (or in part by ANR), how are the research techniques different for this material compared to a typical numismatic auction?

Halfsense

I got a sneak peek last week at a printout of the catalog for the 158 American Bank Note Co. archive items that will be initially offered by ANR in Denver next month at the first of a planned series of ANBCo auctions. The cataloging is superb; plenty of background info about ANBCo and subsidiary companies going back to the early 1800's, and detailed, illustrated descriptions for each lot: bank notes, bank note vignettes, stock certificates, etc. Amazing one-of-a-kind stuff!

-donn-