 South Carolina. February 8, 1779 Ordinance. Ninety Dollars (£146:5:0). Warrior Vignette. ARMISA CONCURRITE CAMPO. Engraved face and back by Thomas Coram, Hercules Strangling a Lion. No.2718. Signed by Atkins, Weston and Cooke. Printed on thinner bluish-white paper stock. Standard size, approximately 122mm by 75mm. The top face with ornate cursive 'NINETY DOLLARS', denominations in small cartouches at left and bottom. Floral wreath border on other three sides with vignette and motto lower left. Back vignette (parallel to face) within four banners.
Signed by Coram in the drapery. Also, there are engraved marks concealed in the upper right back banner with 'DOLLARS'. On this note, there is an engraved 'No 1' on the left inside turn of the banner. This mark is mentioned in Newman.
A third sharp grade Hercules and very crisp. About Uncirculated. Handling only and many will call it strictly Uncirculated. Trimmed very close as usual with a downwards back losing parts of the banner and base. The head is on the paper. The plate is fairly strong and the note well printed. There is concealed foxing on the bottom left banner and it shows slightly to the face. Penciled notations at back upper left corner with a code and ''blue''.
Ex F.C.C. Boyd Estate.
The back notation ''blue'' proves that these notes were studied in detail like Colonial American coins in the 19th and early 20th Century. If not for the ''dark ages'' for American paper currency collecting, notes such as this would sell for multiples of what they do today. Haseltine, Chapman, Clarke, Boyd, and Ford were ahead of their times in regards to the importance of this material.
All epic numismatic auctions are fondly looked at in the future as the ''good old days.'' For us, the good old days are now and these notes have awaited the next generation of collectors for close to fifty years. In comparative moments of ''Numismatic Relativistic Time,'' this perhaps once in a lifetime opportunity will be over.
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