Professional Coin Grading Service (PCGS) recently graded a magnificent and obsolete 1862 Bank of Germantown $1 note from Philadelphia. Boasting phenomenal surface quality, this is the first such note to be submitted to PCGS Banknote.
“It’s always exciting when something like this rare Bank of Germantown note enters the PCGS grading room,” said PCGS President Stephanie Sabin. “Beyond the rarity and grade of this piece, one turns their attention to its dramatic artwork. Four men in a small boat are seen encountering a polar bear as it rises out of the water.”
Logan Mifflin, the numismatic historian and collector who submitted the 1862 Bank of Germantown $1 to PCGS, offered further observations about the note and its distinctive design.
“The context of obsolete banknote engravings is often difficult to ascertain, but here, the artistic inspiration for the Bank of Germantown’s $1 issue was the heroism of Arctic explorers – past, present, and future,” he said.
Added Mifflin:
“This note’s main drawing card is its dynamic central vignette, Polar Bear Attack/The White Bear, engraved by DeWitt Clinton Hay and adapted from the art of internationally known artist Felix O.C. Darley. Four fur-clad men in a small boat attempt to fend off an aggressive polar bear rising out of the water, his large paw already on the gunwale, their ship looms on the horizon. The Polar Bear Attack vignette, though not specifically historic, is relevant to the period of issue. It was engraved at the time of Henry Grinnell’s expeditions in search of ill-fated explorer John Franklin and his ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, which were lost in the mid-1840s in the Canadian Arctic wilderness. It was not until the past decade that the wrecks were discovered and subsequently combined as a national historic site.”
Mifflin further described the complex design, including the Native American princess on the left of the obverse and the adjacent vignette of a young girl’s head:
“The complex vermillion color tint plate uses ‘PHILADELPHIA’ for the end title portion; widely spaced and tall ‘1’ protectors are at either side; and an intricate, micro-lettered guilloché is across the bottom.”
Mifflin concluded this note is a “ masterpiece of American Banknote Co.’s finest engravings.”
For more information about submitting banknotes to PCGS, please visit https://www.pcgs.com/banknote.
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