What do you got here? I've got some of these
bills from the 19th century. RICK HARRISON: Do you
know anything about them? VINCE: I really don't. RICK HARRISON: What you have
here is education money. VINCE: To, like,
fund education, or? No, it was just
to educate people about beautiful works of art. For the time, that
was really risqu to put bare breasts on bills. Yeah, I can see. Hm, check that out there. RICK HARRISON: [chuckles] [whistling] VINCE: I decided to
come to the pawn shop today to sell some old currency. I'm kind of scared
because I'm supposed to be getting
married in a month, and I spent $7,500 on this. If I don't get my
money back, I'm going to have one pissed-off fiancee. RICK HARRISON: We have a Bolton,
inventor of the steamboat. And that's Morse right there. Morse code. And it's one of
the few bills where Martha Washington's on it. In 1896, the US government
issued silver certificates that were educational notes. The reason they did
this is because, if you lived in a rural community,
you would never get to see art. There were no nearby museums. So they figured, hey,
let's put them on money. So where in the world
did you get these? VINCE: I was in an estate sale. I got caught up in this auction,
and man, I just really hope I can make something out of it. Do you mind telling me
what you paid for them? $7,500. I'm always getting into
some type of trouble. Yeah. Happens all the time. RICK HARRISON: This money
is just-- it's beautiful. I mean, it's the
prettiest paper money the United States ever made. And arguably, some of
the prettiest paper money ever made in any country. Is the artwork, you
know, have anything to do with the value of it? RICK HARRISON: Well,
that's one of the reasons why these are so collectible. But paper money is weird
the way it's graded. There's 70 different grades
of a piece of paper money. And the grade on these
things is so important. The difference
between a 50 and a 55 is thousands of dollars
on a bill like this. Wow. This was worth anywhere
from $200 to $25,000. Really? Depending on the grade. RICK HARRISON: Depending
on the condition of it. Wow. RICK HARRISON: And when we
start talking money like that, I have to have
someone look at it. Let me call up a buddy of mine. He knows everything
about this stuff, so we can get a
better understanding of the grade of them. No problem. It sounds good. RICK HARRISON: This
guy is out of pocket $7,500, which makes him
either a genius or an idiot. So I'm going to get my
buddy Leonard in here to have a closer
look, and hopefully, he'll have some good news. These are some
important banknotes. These are silver
certificates from 1896. This is what we call
the educational series. So they all mean something. They all mean something. This one is the $1 note. This is History educating youth. You know, young country. History's going to educate us. On the back, George and Martha. The $2 note, we've got Science,
Electricity, and Steam. On the back, we've got
Robert Fulton, Samuel Morse. And Science is presenting
Electricity and Steam to Commerce and Industry. In this one, we've got Civil
War heroes Grant, Sheridan. And this note shows electricity
is the dominant force in the universe. This is 1896, they
figured that out. VINCE: And I thought
this was just a bunch of naked women on a bill. [chuckles] The grading of these
notes is what's important as far as their value. Were the notes used? How much were they used? Are they folded? Are they stained? Are they crisp? Are they nice and bright? Here's what we got here. The $1 note, we got a
center fold right here. Slight-- it's hard to
see, but it's there. This note's worth $700. $2 note's got a horizontal
fold, three vertical folds. This note's $2,500. Make you feel a little better? Oh, that's a little better. LEONARD: This note's got
a very light center fold. It's the most desirable
note of the three. This note is worth, um, $7,500. A little over
$10,000 for the lot. Thanks, Leonard. Any time. Take care, buddy. RICK HARRISON: $7,500 turned
out to be a decent gamble for this guy, because
most notes I've seen like this are beat to hell. They've been circulated. But these are in amazing shape. There's no question I want them. So now I let you know
what they're worth, how much you want for them? I'm thinking $10,000. I'm thinking $8,000. I just spent $7,500 on
these, and the risk I took is just worth more
to me than $500. I'll let you make $1,000
off me and not a dime more. So $8,500? $8,500 is it period. You got to think, man,
$1,000 is a good profit on a complete gamble. You know what, for
$1,000, all right. $8,500. Corey, you want to write him up? Yeah, let's go
do some paperwork. RICK HARRISON: I'm so
glad I kept my poker face. When he started to grab them,
I thought he was out the door.
