Introduction to Polar Currency

welcome to Polar currency in video number one as the channel name States the focus will be on paper currency primarily U.S currency but not always however there will always be a story some history if you will it's the stories behind the banknotes that have always intrigued me it's the history the people the Artistry the craftsmanship and beauty that to me make banknotes so much more than just money I'm no expert in any way but I've gathered information to the best of my ability hopefully present it in an entertaining way a brief note about the images I use for currency banknotes with zeros for serial numbers or photoshop replicas used as reference and bills with a normal serial number are from my own collection one last note before I get the comments and I know this is taboo but yes yes I do display my currency I rotate different banknotes about once a month at various frames yes they have UV protection I do this so I can enjoy them I like to talk about them when people visit my office and tell the stories I do store them in a converted non-operational cigar humidor to keep them safe and in the dark most of the time with that said a little background I've always had a fascination with currency especially paper money it began when my dad received a red seal five dollar bill and change in the mid-1970s and he showed it to me the red seal and serial numbers just popped off the note and looked so different but yet the same as a normal Federal Reserve Note back in the 70s it was rare but not unheard of to occasionally get red sealed legal tenders from that point on I always stopped and looked at banknotes sometimes I was lucky enough to even hold a banknote larger than a 20. again pretty uncommon as a kid but every once in a while Dad would have a 50 or 100 and he would show it to me I'd study everything about it Dad would explain who what or why the people and things were on the notes and I think this got me interested in history in my late Elementary School years fast forward through school marriage my own children just life and my fascination with currency was triggered Again by wait for for it the U.S mint Quarters Program which began in 1999. yeah I know but I found it amazing because with the exception of the bicentennial coins in 76 and the new two dollar Federal Reserve Note nothing really had changed on any U.S money since I was born as a history nerd I would research every new state quarter and find out who what and or why was on each new state quarter and that led me back to currency so off I went to the only local coin shop near me I'll be blunt the place checked all the boxes of every negative stereotype for a local coin shop that you've heard of not a great experience and I'll just leave it at that but I did come across an old ragged large size 1923 one dollar silver certificate for sale I purchased that note probably overpaid for it but that's okay that was it I was hooked I continued to collect the state quarters and put together a circle calculating type of U.S 20th century bu coins but I kept coming back to currency being the late 1990s there weren't a lot of options to purchase banknotes in my area local coin shops were few and far between and the banknote offerings were at best sparse now don't forget these were the days of dial-up internet [Music] [Music] researching information wasn't easy for a beginner but in 2006 eBay began listing paper currency providing a way to purchase banknotes conveniently and securely well as secure as you could get them at the time especially they had affordable banknotes if the local coin shops did offer currency it was most likely High grades or uniquely collectible banknotes with great names such as National banknotes or a few small size silver certificates or legal tenders and if you were really lucky maybe a World War II Hawaii note I fully understand the retail brick and mortar model you sell what people buy and coins rule no one said life is fair I'm just noting at the time if you were a novice starting out collecting paper currency you really had to dig to find information but I'm thankful for that first local coin shop because I found that beat up old silver certificate I just really didn't know where to start so I began picking up and subscribing to coin Publications which Litecoin dealers would have some small information on currency these were a great initial resource for me but not enough for every five coin Publications there was maybe one for banknotes the good news was around that time more paper currency information did become available online and there were several independent websites that provided great information that's how I found out about some Museum in Colorado well as it happens we had family living in Colorado so in the early 2000s the family took a trip to Colorado Springs and we visited the Ana Money Museum and that's when I really understood how much coins dominate the numismatic collecting hobby don't get me wrong I thoroughly enjoyed the museum but I did leave disappointed regarding the coined paper currency ratio on display I should have known better and okay sarcastic sidebar rant here Ana American numismatic Association numismatic numismatist really that's what we collectors have been going with for over 200 years a French term based from Latin a dead language how about we pick a name with more consonants three more consonants one more vowel this is the friendly welcoming unpronounceable term that's going to attract people to collecting just might be some food for thought all right end of the rant as I'm sure it is with everyone affordability is always a factor when I started out I had three young daughters and not a lot of spare cash or time my reasons to start a collection were that it had to be achievable affordable meaningful and could tell a story to this day I purchased the best grade that I can afford almost all of my large sites notes are about vg10 or worse I'm not complaining that's just what I'm willing to pay for my collection anyways after more research I decided to put together a two dollar type collection printed in the 20th century it fit my criteria it was achievable affordable meaningful and actually told several stories with modern notes I try to get the best grade I can visually grade isn't a factor for me and I rarely purchase grated nodes does the node have decent eye appeal yes or no the second collection I put together featured denominations with George Washington this helps save some money because they already had the 1899 two dollar silver certificate the keynote and we all know that means higher cost was the 1922 20 gold certificate this is where I learned the lessons to collect what you can when you can what you can afford and you can make your own rules as to what you want to collect what I liked most about the 20th century two dollar bill on George Washington collections is that they combine both large size and small size bills and both collections had multiple stories to tell to answer the question that yes the two dollar bill has been printed since the beginning and is still printed today showing off the battleship note and George Washington yes he was on a two dollar bill which was the perfect segue to Washington being on the 20 gold certificate with that stunning goldfish orange ink on the reverse always a showstopper for people who don't collect my collection is grown as I approached 25 years of collecting banknotes I collect all currency types but only Federal Reserve notes from the Minneapolis Federal Reserve and Minnesota National banknotes you can probably hear it in my accent because I am a born and raised Minnesota Homer so how did I get here today making YouTube videos well primarily because I've been inspired by a number of YouTube channels including Silver Surfer Dustin witty Dr G Ontario 100 treasure Town coin help you the coin geek and particularly stooplue back they all provide more than just the FR number serial number greater values all of them have stories and all of their stories vary from channel to channel I also appreciate that all of these YouTubers actually care about video lighting and sound quality I highly recommend checking them out full disclosure here I'm directly copying Concepts from these channels making videos is a way to document and display and share my collection with other collectors let's face it there's not a lot of us numismatists out there I'd like to kind of do the same thing they do but I want to go deeper into the stories in history I also have a novice background in graphic design along with some graphic photo and video editing skills over the years this has also become a hobby of mine and YouTube provides an outlet to combine both I'm probably going to sound a little negative here but sincerely I firmly believe in collecting what you want but personally I don't have a lot of interest in watching someone go through a bank strap looking for errors and unique serial numbers closed circuit to Stu plw back that's why I appreciate your videos you don't make me watch or fast forward through every note you get to the end and share what you think is worthwhile hey everyone welcome to another thousand dollar strap search I've got my thousand dollars in singles here and I'm about to show you what I found all right let's get these out of the way and see what I found this week I also recognize that the ratio for coin or silver stacking related YouTube channels is at least 50 to 1 over currency related content channels so maybe this is my small attempt to tip the scale a bit hope you understand this isn't about coins versus currency at all I subscribe to many coin channels but I sincerely appreciate the ones that throw in some paper currency every once in a while repeating what I said at the beginning the story behind the notes is what intrigues me it's the history the people the Artistry and beauty that make banknotes so much more than just money with that for my first video I'd like to share my small size 10 through 100 series 1928 gold certificates which I completed last year but before that of course there is a story behind the last gold certificates issued by the United States Treasury gold certificates were issued by the United States Treasury as a form of Representative paper currency from 1865 to 1934. while the United States was on the gold standard the certificates offered a more convenient way to pay in Gold than the use of coins gold certificates were first authorized under the legal tender Act of 1863 but not printed and issued until 1865. there were three main reasons gold certificates were needed as paper currency one to promote and keep the flow of gold coming into the U.S treasury this was needed to help maintain the credit of the government to pay for the Civil War Two legal limitations of United States notes also known as legal tenant oats which at the time were the only form of circulating paper currency the United States notes could not be used to pay custom duties or interest on the federal debt thereby limiting the amount of hard currency coming into the U.S treasury United States notes were a fiat currency not backed by any hard currency silver or gold this is a story by itself that has way too many rabbit holes and finally number three gold and silver are kind of heavy sixteen twenty dollar coins weigh one pound making it difficult to transport in large quantities from 1879 until their elimination in 1933 gold certificates were identical in value to the same denomination of any U.S currency type on April 5th 1933 President Franklin D Roosevelt issued executive order 6102 that removed the dollar from the gold standard and outlawed any ownership of gold in any form the executive order read in part forbidding the hoarding of gold coin gold bullion and gold certificates within the continental United States the executive order was part of the amended Emergency Banking Act of 1933. the main rationale behind executive order 6102 was to remove the constraint on the Federal Reserve which was prevented from increasing the money spied during the Great Depression the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 required that 40 percent of all issued Federal Reserve notes were backed by gold by the onset of the Great Depression the Federal Reserve had almost reached the limit of allowable credit it took over four decades in four presidential administrations to repeal most of Roosevelt's executive order 6102 it began with private ownership of gold certificates which was legalized by a U.S treasury Department memo dated April 1964 during lbj's Administration this removed all restrictions on the holding and acquisition of gold certificates that were issued by the United States government prior to January 30th 1934. in August of 1971 president Richard Nixon abandoned the gold standard entirely limitation of gold ownership in the U.S was completely repealed when President Gerald Ford signed a bill to permit U.S citizens to purchase hold and sell gold taking effect December 31st 1974 and finally in October of 1977 the 1933 resolution was amended to allow gold Clauses for all contracts and to be completely honest I don't know what that last one really means but it sounded really final it's no surprise that all large-sized currency types have so much more than today's modern banknotes modern currency doesn't compare to the artwork design detail character and changing portraits of the old large size currency but gold certificates they stand alone with the gold Treasury seal gold serial numbers and most of all the distinctive goldfish orange ink color used for the backs but when all currency was reduced in size and issued in July of 1929 Ceres dated 1928-29 all that went away from circulating currency the new small size currency designs all followed the same basic format Federal Reserve notes United States notes silver certificates national banknotes federal reserve banknotes and gold certificates were Now All Uniform in design and sadly the green replaced the Goldfish colored ink for the backs of gold certificates my collection of small size series 1928 gold certificates are good examples of the I appeal I look for in notes that begin to go up in value I just have the 10 through 100 the large denominations are just a bit out of my price range unless I want to sell my car or a child interesting that a series 1928 a was printed between February 1932 and March 1933 for just the tens and twenties but never issued as a result of Roosevelt's 1933 executive order according to the Whitman Encyclopedia of U.S paper money there is speculation that these notes were not destroyed and believed to be stored at the U.S treasury to this day the short run series was issued for circulation from only 1929 to 1933 and matched the existing Federal Reserve denominations including the five hundred thousand five thousand and ten thousand dollar bills curiously only the 500 has the large value print on the right the other notes are just left blank the Federal Reserve nodes have the Treasury seal in this place the series 1928 thousand dollar gold certificate ranks number 76 on the 100 greatest American notes authored by Q David Bowers and David M Sunman the reverse of the 1928 gold certificates were identical to all currency types but the Goldfish orange reverse colors did make a comeback just not for public circulation with four denominations printed in 1934. with the 1933 executive order 6102 in place making it illegal for any private citizen to possess gold certificates there was still a need for transactions between federal banks this resulted in part the need for passing of the gold Reserve Act of 1934 allowing the issue of a special series of gold certificates to account for gold held by the federal reserve banks on behalf of the United States the ACT read that the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to prescribe the form and denominations of the certificates that Secretary of the Treasury was Henry morgenthau Jr who selected the existing denominations of one hundred one thousand and ten thousand creating the series 1934 gold certificates where the front design almost mirrors the circulating series 1928. the Redemption statement is different and there is now the large denomination value printed on the open right side however a new one hundred thousand dollar denomination bearing the portrait of President Woodrow Wilson was added Wilson was most likely placed on the Note because he was the president who signed into law the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 creating the Federal Reserve System the series 1934 100 000 gold certificate is the largest denomination ever issued for U.S currency 40 2000 were printed between December 18 1934 and January 9 1935. all of the surviving one hundred thousand dollar notes have been accounted for and have either been destroyed or buried in some U.S treasury bunker you can still see several examples an uncut partial sheet of 12 specimen notes is on display at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco along with a handful of notes at the Bureau of Engraving and printing the Smithsonian institution and the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond the use and need for the series 1934 gold certificates eventually ended in the 1960s all four denominations of the series 1934 gold certificates were only issued to facilitate internal government transactions with the treasury Department and the Federal Reserve System and none were allowed to be distributed to the public the Redemption statement at the top and bottom of the certificates reflect the 1934 gold certificate purpose this certifies that there is on deposit in the treasury of the United States of America dollar amount in Gold payable to bear on demand as authorized by law to this day the gold Reserve Act of 1934 May makes it illegal for any private individual to possess any of the series 1934 gold certificates the 1928 gold certificates are fine but not the 1934s so you won't be hearing any collector admitting to possessing any of the series 1934 gold certificate denominations well that's it for video number one I hope you enjoyed it and maybe learned a thing or two this video is longer than most because of the introduction and my background but hit the Thumbs Up Button if you like what you see and please leave a comment especially when you find the error or errors I'll do my best to answer any questions but remember I'm not an expert as of right now I don't have a schedule in mind but my hope is to drop a video about every two weeks thank you for watching and thank you for your time

Channel: Polar Currency

Views: 1,751

Keywords: Currency, Money, Collections, Collecting, Numismatic, Numismatist, History, Story, Dollar, Dollars, Banks, Banknote, Banknotes, Notes, Hobby, Coin, Coins, Gold, Silver, Unites States, Bureau of Engraving and Printing, United States Treasury, Paper Currency, Minneapolis, Series 1928, Series 1934, Intaglio Print, Engraving, Engraves, Gold Certificate, Silver Certificate, Legal Tender Note, United States Note, Federal Reserve Note, Federal Reserve Bank Note, National Bank Note, Secretary of the Treasury

Id: JPGBx7vSpOo

Length: 20min 15sec (1215 seconds)

Published: Sat Dec 31 2022