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Pleasant ebay surprise
uzuiwek
Posts: 50 ✭✭✭
So there was an auction last week for a document, lsted as "Forged Currency Note Document 1852 10 Dollars Miami Valley Bank Dayton Ohio" described as:
An original antique document dated 1852 on the back. This paper is from Trumbull County Ohio and appears to mention a man who attempted to pass a forged counterfeit bank note. In a few areas it looks like the writer of the document writes out how the note looked. It mentions ten dollars and the Miami Valley Bank at Dayton.
And a couple of pics in the listing show that yes, someone had gone to the trouble of drawing a schematic diagram of the note (serial 701 - not in the census, btw).
So I bid, a bit more than I wanted to, but got it for about 35 bucks.
It comes in the mail today, and its in nice shape, and the typical bluish paper folded to make four front-and-back pages as was the style at the time. Only then did I realize that the seller never bothered to post pictures of the outside of the document:
The State of Ohio
vs.
Jehial L Phelps
Indictment for Passing Counterfeit Bank Note
Plea Not Guilty
A True Bill
John Ratliff
Foreman of the Grand Jury
Filed Nov 6 1852
N. O. Humphrey Pros. Atty.
SO long story short, I'm pleased.
An original antique document dated 1852 on the back. This paper is from Trumbull County Ohio and appears to mention a man who attempted to pass a forged counterfeit bank note. In a few areas it looks like the writer of the document writes out how the note looked. It mentions ten dollars and the Miami Valley Bank at Dayton.
And a couple of pics in the listing show that yes, someone had gone to the trouble of drawing a schematic diagram of the note (serial 701 - not in the census, btw).
So I bid, a bit more than I wanted to, but got it for about 35 bucks.
It comes in the mail today, and its in nice shape, and the typical bluish paper folded to make four front-and-back pages as was the style at the time. Only then did I realize that the seller never bothered to post pictures of the outside of the document:
The State of Ohio
vs.
Jehial L Phelps
Indictment for Passing Counterfeit Bank Note
Plea Not Guilty
A True Bill
John Ratliff
Foreman of the Grand Jury
Filed Nov 6 1852
N. O. Humphrey Pros. Atty.
SO long story short, I'm pleased.
SPMC LM #405 - Collector of Ohio obsoletes. And other stuff, that I'm not going to tell you, so you don't buy it before I do.
0
Comments
you can find the listing if you want in completed items,
So, yeah, he did have a picture of the outside, but you had to scroll to find it.
Better story if he didn't have it at all.
Every once in awhile, I run across newspaper articles that describe counterfeit notes, but never with enough specificity. I also used to have a guy in a city archives who would email pics of notes asking for information about them. All the ones he sent were counterfeits, and I wondered if they were seized in the type of situation you describe (but there was never this sort of paperwork accompanying the notes). Anyway, that's a great purchase!
Have you been able to identify the note they're talking about in Haxby, etc.? Are there examples still around today?
According to Wolka, Haxby OH-195-G14 is unknown as a genuine note. Its counterfeit counterpart, OH-195-C14, is relatively common.
Bernie
Always looking for material from the Niagara river region.
I have other similar documents, complete with sketches of the note in question. Apparently the procedures for prosecuting these cases became somewhat standardized over the years.
There are many counterfeits on various branches of the Ohio State Stock Bank. Quality is pretty good, so I'm sure that these caused plenty of trouble. Unfortunately, this case represents only one note and it's passer that was detected. Wonder if they ever got back to the source of these.