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NOTOFILIA Numismatics and Notaphily
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United States · Pop art · Rency

Warhol & Basquiat / Life Is Beautiful

One object: a pop-art face on a genuine $2, serial F 71235101 A, and Trumbull’s reverse with a manuscript Rency signature and plate 23.

Catalog facts

Pick reference
Rency
Serial number
F71235101A
Signatures
Manuscript Rency (back); the $2 Treasury signatures sit under the overlay
Condition
Unslabbed (private collection)
Printage
Federal Reserve $2 paper (BEP) with a Rency intervention on both faces. There is no manuscript edition fraction. This record does not invent a BEP printage for the type.

Face

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Pop-art face on a genuine $2, serial F 71235101 A: Warhol and Basquiat, Campbell’s can, skull, crown, and legends including “LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL” and “SAMO LIVES.”

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Pop-art face on a genuine $2, serial F 71235101 A: Warhol and Basquiat, Campbell’s can, skull, crown, and legends including “LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL” and “SAMO LIVES.”
Pop-art face on a genuine $2, serial F 71235101 A: Warhol and Basquiat, Campbell’s can, skull, crown, and legends including “LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL” and “SAMO LIVES.”

Back

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Back of an FRN $2 (Declaration of Independence), plate 23, with a manuscript Rency in black marker. No edition fraction.

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Back of an FRN $2 (Declaration of Independence), plate 23, with a manuscript Rency in black marker. No edition fraction.
Back of an FRN $2 (Declaration of Independence), plate 23, with a manuscript Rency in black marker. No edition fraction.

The note

The face starts from a $2 Federal Reserve Note: corner 2s and green serials F 71235101 A. Over that engraving Rency overlays Andy Warhol (left: white hair, black turtleneck) and Jean-Michel Basquiat (right: patterned jacket) back to back, a Campbell’s Tomato Soup can at left, a Basquiat-style skull at right, and the three-pointed crown at top center. The legends include “SAMO LIVES,” “WORLD FAMOUS,” “TOMATO SOUP,” “CURRENCY,” “NEW YORK CITY,” “LIFE IS BEAUTIFUL,” “THIS ART WILL LAST FOREVER,” “STUDIO 54,” and “FOLLOW YOUR DREAMS,” with paint splatters. The back is the FRN $2 reverse: Trumbull’s Declaration of Independence, plate 23 beside the engraving, and, in black marker, “Rency.” There is no edition fraction. It is one collectible — face and back of the same object — not two separately catalogued notes, and not a Treasury or BEP issue. Printed serial F71235101A also appears on Pelé / The Beautiful Game and on Life Is Beautiful / LIFE SPRAY in this case; they are distinct physical objects (this $2 on both faces versus the $1/$2 hybrids).

The artist

Rency is the public name of this artist; on the paper the signature is often RENCY in capitals. The artist is an anonymous United States pop and street artist who works on genuine notes. Dealer copy that likens the work to Banksy is a sales line, not an attribution or a verified biography. This is not Rency Punnoose. Andy Warhol (1928–1987) and Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960–1988) are the subject: the Campbell’s can and Warhol’s portrait cite the Factory; the crown, skull, and “SAMO LIVES” cite Basquiat; “STUDIO 54” and “NEW YORK CITY” place the scene. This record describes the physical object; it does not value the intervention or republish auction prices.

Scarcity and printage

The back carries a manuscript Rency and plate 23; there is no edition fraction. That absence is not read here as an open edition or as a census. The $2 intervened on both faces sets the object apart from the $1/$2 hybrids Pelé / The Beautiful Game and Life Is Beautiful / LIFE SPRAY, both edition 5/200, which show the same printed serial.

Population

A PMG or PCGS census for this object has not been independently verified. Printed serial F71235101A matches Pelé / The Beautiful Game and Life Is Beautiful / LIFE SPRAY; the match is recorded and does not merge the records. The note is shown unslabbed.

Sources

← Rency