United States · Miscellaneous · Art print

Tim Prusmack print of the 1896 $1

Print · Tim Prusmack · Educational $1 · 1896

A signed Tim Prusmack print, number 12 of 250, reproducing the History Instructing Youth face of the 1896 $1 Silver Certificate. It is not a Treasury note.

Catalog facts

Catalog reference: Tim Prusmack · 12/250
Serial number: #12/250
Serials on the drawing: ▷P29A1197◁ at upper right; ▷P29A012◁ at lower left. They do not match.
Cartouche: The photograph reads SERIES OF 1897 and P 29. The BEP type prints SERIES OF 1896.
Signatures: Tim Prusmack, handwritten on the mat (© Tim Prusmack) and again on the drawing, over the office of Treasurer. The signature at left, over the office of Register, is not identified in the photograph.
Condition: Unslabbed, on a blue mat (private collection)
Printage: A stated edition of 250. This sheet is numbered 12, on the print margin and again under the signature on the mat. It is not a Bureau of Engraving and Printing printage, and this record does not state the year the sheet was printed. Numista gives the 1896 type as 187 × 79 mm. That is not a measurement of this print or of the mat.

Face, Print 1896, serial #12/250 — Tim Prusmack print 12/250: drawn face of the 1896 Educational $1, with a blue mat and signature.

Tim Prusmack print 12/250: drawn face of the 1896 Educational $1, with a blue mat and signature.

The note

The sheet is print number 12 of 250 of the History Instructing Youth face of the 1896 $1 Silver Certificate, the low denomination of the Educational Series. A figure points toward the Washington Monument and the Capitol. The border wreaths include, among others, the surnames Washington, Franklin, Jefferson, and Lincoln. Will Hicok Low designed that type face and Charles Schlecht engraved it; this print is not that Bureau of Engraving and Printing plate. At lower right, over the office of Treasurer, the drawn signature reads Tim Prusmack. The signature at left, over the office of Register, is not identified from this photograph. The red Treasury seal is drawn as well. On the cream margin of the print, and again below the blue mat, the sheet reads #12/250. On the mat, the handwritten signature reads © Tim Prusmack. The blue serials on the drawing do not match each other: ▷P29A1197◁ at upper right and ▷P29A012◁ at lower left. The cartouche reads SERIES OF 1897 and P 29; the BEP type prints SERIES OF 1896. It is not legal tender. It is not this collection’s Fr. 224, serial B3207078.

The artist

Tim Prusmack (1962–2004, according to DesignObserver) died on 26 January 2004. The note John and Nancy Wilson sent to The E-Sylum, and the Fort Pierce obituary that bulletin reprints, say he excelled at hand-reproducing complicated antique paper, notes of banks from another era, and artistic money of his own design. He was president of the Treasure Coast Coin Club for six years. In November 2002, Numismatic News — quoted by The E-Sylum — introduces him as an “artmatist,” the name he used for himself, and mentions a Hi-Five Prestige Edition set of five of his Money Masterpieces. DesignObserver describes ink drawings later printed in editions of 250 and shown at coin shows, and adds that he found readers at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, among them Mary Ellen Withrow, then Treasurer of the United States. This record does not document a BEP commission.

The obituary says that, the day before he died, he was talking about a table at the ANA convention in Pittsburgh and about a series of 25-cent notes using the state-quarter motifs. The February 2004 tribute, also in The E-Sylum, calls the Lazy Deuce his last finished series — based on a Wisconsin national-bank note — and says his Florida quarter design had been a finalist; the fractional series was never made. The text does not confirm a United States Mint commission: it only says his doctor had cleared him to travel to the Mint if he were selected. John and Nancy Wilson called him “the Mozart of Money Artists”; this record does not turn that nickname into an official title. He is not J. S. G. Boggs: a 2025 issue of The E-Sylum separates the two money artists after an auction house confused them. Another of his prints, the 2001 Deuce with a portrait of Robert E. Lee, is numbered 178 of 250. The 12/250 on this sheet is the same kind of edition number, not a census of the 1896 silver certificate.

Scarcity and printage

Number 12 sits in the low band of an edition of 250. That fraction is the artist’s statement about the sheet, not a type rarity of the 1896 certificate. Another Prusmack print, the 2001 Deuce, is numbered 178 of 250 (The E-Sylum, 2025). This record does not publish how many of the 250 survive.

Population

There is no PMG or PCGS certificate on this sheet. A census of the edition has not been verified.

What this entry does not claim

It is not this collection’s Fr. 224 silver certificate, serial B3207078.
The 12/250 is the print’s edition number, not a PMG or PCGS census and not a BEP printage.
The blue serials P29A1197 and P29A012 belong to the drawing; they are not a Treasury serial, and this record does not claim that every sheet in the edition carries them.
The paper and the mat were not measured, and the printing process is not stated.
The back of the sheet was not photographed.

Editorial policy

Sources

The E-Sylum — vol. 7, no. 5, 1 February 2004 (opens in a new tab)
Note from John and Nancy Wilson and the Fort Pierce obituary: death on 26 January 2004; hand reproductions; six years as president of the Treasure Coast Coin Club; a planned ANA Pittsburgh table; state-quarter fractionals not made; his doctor cleared a Mint trip only if he were selected.
The E-Sylum — vol. 7, no. 6, 8 February 2004 (opens in a new tab)
Tribute from the Wilsons: the Lazy Deuce, his last finished series, based on a Wisconsin national-bank note; his Florida quarter design had been a finalist.
The E-Sylum — vol. 5, no. 46, 17 November 2002 (opens in a new tab)
Numismatic News of 19 November 2002: he called himself an “artmatist” and gathered five Money Masterpieces into the Hi-Five Prestige Edition. This record does not describe those five pieces.
DesignObserver — Drawn to Currency (opens in a new tab)
Years 1962–2004; ink drawing; printed editions of 250; coin shows; readers at the BEP, among them Mary Ellen Withrow.
The E-Sylum — vol. 28, no. 15, 13 April 2025 (opens in a new tab)
The 2001 Deuce, number 178 of 250, with a portrait of Robert E. Lee, after the 1886 $2. It separates Prusmack from J. S. G. Boggs. It does not date this Educational sheet.
Numista — N#207329, $1 Silver Certificate, Educational Series (opens in a new tab)
The type being reproduced: P#335, Fr. 224, face by Will Hicok Low engraved by Charles Schlecht, SERIES OF 1896. The published size does not measure this print.