United States · Silver Certificate · Educational Series
$1 note, 1896
$1 · Silver Certificate · Series 1896
Face with History Instructing Youth, a red Treasury seal, and blue serials B3207078; green back with Martha and George Washington. Series of 1896, Fr. 224, Tillman–Morgan signatures.
Catalog facts
- Pick reference
- P#335(1) · Fr. 224
- Serial number
- B3207078
- Signatures
- James Fount Tillman (Register of the Treasury) and Daniel N. Morgan (Treasurer of the United States)
- Condition
- Unslabbed, in a sleeve; no numerical grade from the photographs (private collection)
- Printage
- Series of 1896, printed as SERIES OF 1896. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Washington, D.C. Large-size note: Numista gives the type as 187 × 79 mm and the Smithsonian as about 18.8 × 8.1 cm. That is not a measurement of this sleeved piece. The two $1 signature combinations were numbered in one sequence. Accessible examples place Fr. 224 (Tillman–Morgan) from serial 1 well into the 31 millions — one is documented at 31,573,321 — and Fr. 225 (Bruce–Roberts) from about 36.9 million (36,930,132) through at least 55,343,927. The signature change falls between the low or mid-30 millions and 36.9 million. No BEP ledger here fixes the last Fr. 224 serial, and this record does not publish one. If numbering ran continuously from 1, the two combinations come to on the order of 55 to 56 million notes: an estimate from observed serials, not an audited total. The counter of B3207078 is 3,207,078. This record does not invent a BEP printage for that serial.
Face
Back
The note
The Series of 1896 $1 Silver Certificate (Pick 335(1), Friedberg 224; Numista N#207329) is the low denomination of the Educational Series, large-size Treasury paper, not a Treasury Note and not a Federal Reserve Note. The black face carries the allegory History Instructing Youth: History, seated, points a youth toward the panorama of Washington, D.C., with the Washington Monument and the Capitol in the distance; at right, the Constitution on a tablet; in the border wreaths, surnames of Americans. Will Hicok Low designed that face and Charles Schlecht engraved it. Below is the obligation “ONE SILVER DOLLAR / PAYABLE TO THE BEARER ON DEMAND” and WASHINGTON, D.C. The printed series is SERIES OF 1896. The small red Treasury seal with rays sits at right. Blue serials B3207078 repeat at upper right and lower left. The signatures are James Fount Tillman, Register of the Treasury, and Daniel N. Morgan, Treasurer of the United States: that pairing is Fr. 224 (P#335(1)). The later pairing, Blanche K. Bruce and Ellis H. Roberts, is Fr. 225 (P#335(2)). Thomas F. Morris designed the green back: Martha Washington at left, engraved by Charles Burt, and George Washington at right, engraved by Alfred Sealey, around a large 1 and the legend SILVER CERTIFICATE. This collection piece is shown in a sleeve, unslabbed; no numerical grade is assigned from the photographs. It is not the Series 1928A Funnyback $1, serial D00508932B, nor the Series 1957-B Silver Certificate, serial S35513454A, nor the Series 1935A HAWAII $1, serial S40499058C. Redemption of these certificates in silver ended in 1968; they remain legal tender at face value.
The Educational Series
In 1896 the Treasury placed three large-size silver certificates — one, two, and five dollars — into circulation. Collectors call them the Educational Series. The one-dollar note shows History Instructing Youth; the two-dollar note, Science presenting Steam and Electricity to Commerce and Manufacture. They are not the Treasury Notes or Coin Notes of 1890–1891. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing printed them in Washington. In 1929 the format was cut by about 30 percent: this piece sits on the large-size side of that line.
Scarcity and printage
Fr. 224 (P#335(1)) is the Tillman–Morgan combination, the first; Fr. 225 (P#335(2)) is the later and final pairing, Bruce–Roberts. With continuous numbering from 1 and an Fr. 224 run that reaches the mid-30 millions, counter 3,207,078 sits near the first tenth of that variety and near 6 percent of an issue documented into the 55 millions. It is a relatively early serial. That does not make the piece rare: circulated Fr. 224 is not an extreme rarity. CoinWeek describes the Monarch Bruce–Roberts sheet as the only one known with those signatures, against other $1 sheets that carry Tillman–Morgan. That scarcity belongs to sheets, not to this cut note.
Population
A PMG or PCGS census for serial B3207078 has not been independently verified. The note is shown in a sleeve, unslabbed, with no certificate number.
Sources
- Numista — N#207329, $1 Silver Certificate, Educational Series (opens in a new tab)
P#335; Fr. 224, Tillman and Morgan signatures; Fr. 225, Bruce and Roberts. Published size 187 × 79 mm. Face by Will Hicok Low, engraved by Charles Schlecht; back by Thomas F. Morris.
- CoinWeek — PMG and the Monarch $1 sheet (opens in a new tab)
Describes that Bruce–Roberts sheet as the only one known with those signatures, against Tillman–Morgan sheets. Not this cut note, serial B3207078.
- Bank Note Museum — P-335, $1 Silver Certificate, 1896 (opens in a new tab)
335(1): Tillman and Morgan signatures. 335(2): Bruce and Roberts.
- Wikipedia — Educational Series (opens in a new tab)
Three 1896 denominations. $1 face: Will Hicok Low and Charles Schlecht. Back: Thomas F. Morris; George Washington, Alfred Sealey (1867); Martha Washington, Charles Burt (1878).
- National Museum of American History — $1 Silver Certificate, 1896 (opens in a new tab)
History Instructing Youth; the Constitution, the Monument, and the Capitol. Type format about 18.8 × 8.1 cm. Bureau of Engraving and Printing.
- U.S. Currency Education Program — History of U.S. Currency (opens in a new tab)
Silver certificates from 1878; redemption in silver until 1968.
- Bureau of Engraving and Printing — History (opens in a new tab)
Silver Certificates from 1878; reduction to small size in 1929.
Related pieces
Other records from the same issuer or era in this case.
