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The “Del Monte note,” a rare $ 20 bank note with a banana sticker on it, is currently on sale through Heritage Auctions, a Dallas-based auction house. Currency collectors pay close attention and break auction records with their bids, according to Heritage Auctions.
“The memo has been viewed on our website over 4,300 times,” Dustin Johnston told CNN. He is vice president and general manager of the currency department at Heritage Auctions.
The banknote, from the 1996 series, is unique due to the sticker, which found its way on between the stages of the printing process, and has part of the Treasury seal and the serial number of the banknote printed above.
The current bid for the ticket is $ 57,500, for a total cost of $ 69,000 after the buyer’s premium is applied.
The auction will end on January 22. On that day, the note will be offered among other items during a live event that will begin at 6 p.m. Central time and will be shown on the Heritage Auctions website.
An unusual obstruction
This type of currency printing error is called “obstruction”.
“Most ‘error clogged’ notes are the result of a piece of paper, tape, bandage, or other rubbish getting attached to the currency stock during the printing process and then falling off. So most banknotes in this class have a blank area somewhere on the note, ”said Leonard Augsburger, the Newman Numismatic Portal project coordinator at Washington University in St. Louis.
He said most tickets with obstructions would sell for between $ 100 and $ 1,000.
“Del Monte’s rating is more spectacular,” Augsburger added.
According to Heritage Auctions, the note, printed at the Fort Worth Western Currency Facility, first surfaced in 2003 when an Ohio student put it up for sale on eBay. He had gotten it from an ATM.
“A lot of errors coming in and going out of the ATM are very hard to notice,” Johnston told CNN.
“It’s one of those really amazing mistakes that’s immediately obvious. It’s tactile, so if you shoot [money] and you are just counting it, you are probably going to just feel the increase in the height of the sticker. And then, of course, the color jumps out at you, ”added Johnston.
In 2003, the ticket sold on eBay for around $ 10,000. It was resold in 2006, at an auction by Heritage Auctions, and at that time it cost over $ 25,000.
Johnston told CNN that the note was so important that for both auctions, he flew to pick it up in person and bring it back to the auction house.
A practical joke?
It’s a mystery how the sticker made its way onto the note, but it’s possible the action was deliberate.
The printing of federal currency takes place in three stages: the back first, then the front, then a third stage when the serial number and federal seal are added.
“By examining the sticker and the overprint, it is clear that the sticker was applied after the front was printed and before the serial number and seal were affixed,” Augsburger said.
“The placement of the sticker is intriguing – if it were placed in most areas of the note, it would not be possible to prove that it was applied between step two and step three. This suggests deliberate placement. “, he added.
Johnston told CNN that the sticker could have been affixed to the note for testing purposes.
“Over the past 20 to 30 years, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing has started using optical recognition to review notes as they come out of the print shop. People used to do that, ”said Johnston.
“It’s very possible that sometimes they’ll do things like this on purpose, to test their procedures, and maybe that’s gone again.”
With the increased use of digital tools to eliminate errors, obstructions left on banknotes are rarely found. Johnston’s says it’s a one in a million chance.
“This may be one of the last really significant retained obstructions that we’ll see,” he said.
Johnston also believes it is possible that the sticker was placed on the note as a joke.
“For a sticker to hit the print floor, stick to something else, and make it so neatly on the note … you should almost suspect it was done on purpose, you know, a prank or a joke. practical, whatever it is. “
The object has attracted the attention of so many collectors, monitoring the ongoing auction on the site. What makes it so special?
“We’re always drawn to things that go wrong. It’s one of those things that – not only did it go wrong, it’s visually fantastic. And it’s fun on top of that,” Johnston said.
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