Porthole Note

Collectors know the Fr. 282 $5 Porthole Note by its nickname the “Porthole Note.”

Specifications

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Background
It’s easy to see how this $5 Silver Certificate came by this descriptive moniker. At its very center on face, our nation’s 16th President Abraham Lincoln gazes from a circular ring emblazoned “The United States of America” which mimics the shape of a maritime window.

Silver Certificates trace their heritage to the Old West, silver mines, stage coaches, bank robbers and cattle drives. The legend on the note’s face states “This Certifies That There Have Been Deposited In The Treasury. . . Five Silver Dollars Payable To The Bearer On Demand.” This class of currency was authorized by the Bland-Allison Act passed Feb. 28, 1878. The notes were issued to pay for silver purchases, and backed by silver dollars coined from the refined silver.

Since silver dollars, themselves, rarely circulated outside of the western states, most of the silver dollars were stored in Treasury vaults, and the notes passed hand to hand instead. Accordingly, imprinted across the U.S. Treasury Seal is a clause making the notes payable for public dues and permitting them to be reissued when received by the government.

Treasury records show 6.32 million Porthole Notes were issued, all regular notes from the AB block. Only one variety exists, signed by Register of the Treasury Harley V. Speelman and U.S. Treasurer Frank White. They served in office jointly from Jan. 25, 1922 to Oct. 30, 1927. Experts estimate about 2,500 examples of the Porthole Note still exist. Only 38 of them are the coveted Star (replacement) Notes, that have thus far been recorded.

History
When this Porthole Note debuted in 1923 change was in the air. The Post-World War I recession was over, and folks were ready to “let loose.” The Roaring Twenties were just heating up. Businesses flourished and the Stock Market expanded its trading floor to accommodate brokers. Prohibition of alcoholic beverages led to bathtub gin and speakeasies. Flappers adorned the silver screen, the follies, and the dance hall floor. Crime syndicates were carving up cities much to the chagrin of crusading newspaper editors and the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Babe Ruth was invigorating our National Pastime. The Jazz Age was beaming from Dixie, victrolas and the country’s first commercial radio stations. And this was the last series of large size or “saddle blanket” notes before the feds shrunk our currency 60%.

By contrast this somewhat somber and formal note records how our besieged Civil War President looked on his 55th birthday in the throes of our great national calamity. The starched presidential photo on which the currency engraving is based was taken Feb. 9, 1864, just three days before the event.

This same engraving, by Bureau of Engraving and Printing contract engraver Charles Burt, was first used on $100 Legal Tender Notes in 1869. Burt (c. 1823-1892) was a Scots immigrant who engraved numerous currency vignettes, including several of Abraham Lincoln. This same Lincoln image later achieved icon status on billions of small size five dollar bills issued for nearly 70 years until replaced by the current large head design.

Lincoln took his youngest son Tad to the photographer’s studio on the day the original photograph was taken by Washington, D.C. lensman Anthony Berger, an associate of celebrated Civil War photographer Mathew Brady. In addition to a portrait of father and son examining a photo album, Berger also captured the image on which the Lincoln cent depiction is based that day.

Besides its spectacular portrait, the well-balanced design has blue Treasury Seal, denomination counter, and serial numbers. Its green back sports the Great Seal of the United States engraved by Robert Ponickau. The Great Seal should be very familiar to collectors from the back of small size $1 notes.

Collecting
This five dollar back is a generic back. It simply states FIVE DOLLARS. One would have to turn it over to recognize that it was a Silver Certificate. It was part of the Series 1923 standard back designs, which undoubtedly would have been employed on other classes of currency had a switch to small size notes not been undertaken late in the decade.

Fr. 282 is one of the most prized type notes that is still within the reach of most collectors, even the budget-minded. Today well-circulated (VG-F) examples are available for under a thousand dollars, well worth the price because their jumbo presidential image can still give less than perfect notes “wow appeal.”

On the other end of the spectrum, choice Unc. examples can bring bids in the $5,000-$7,000 range currently, and like most things in today’s booming paper money market place prices are on the rise. Premium gem notes are worth nearly twice as much. Star notes can be even pricier, with several gem Unc. notes commanding about $25,000 in public auctions last year.

This is a far cry from paper money collecting’s early days. Thirty years ago, it was not hard to acquire a circulated Porthole Note for a hundred bucks, and a nice Unc. copy for a thousand. The present author once observed a run of dozens of cracklin’ new examples at one of the early Memphis International Paper Money Shows.