It was a very tough week here in the Mid-Atlantic Region. We had more rain in four days than we had all year. Then it rained on Wednesday and Thursday to add insult to injury. Days of flooding and horrendous traffic left a lot of us thinking we were having a eight day work week. I had to find something numismatic to soothe my nerves. I found it on Wednesday.

Although I am not a currency collector, I have been watching the currency market out of curiosity. Over the last few years, that market has been seeing a phenomenal growth in interest, which has lead to record auction prices. While visiting the website for Heritage Auction Galleries, I saw that they sold two notes for $2.1 million! One was a Series 1891 $1000 Treasury Note and the other was a Series 1863 $100 Gold Certificate (images are from the Heritage website). These are very rare notes that were sold to a single collector.

While reading about this auction, I remembered that the Bureau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) was selling the Texas Coin and Currency Set that started at noon. This set contains uncirculated Series 2003 $1, $2, $5, and $10 notes with matching low serial numbers that represent the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas. The set also includes uncirculated Texas State Quarters. BEP announced that only 2,000 sets will be sold at $129.95 each.

Sure the set includes Texas State Quarters, but it extends BEP’s Federal Reserve Evolution Collection (FREC). When the FREC sets were sold last July, it included $20 and $50 notes with matching low serial numbers along with a special book for the Federal Reserve Banks (FRB) of New York, Philadelphia, St. Louis, and San Francisco. Other Evolution sets features FRB of Richmond, Atlanta, and Chicago. All are sold out and command premium prices at the bourse. With the Baltimore Coin and Currency Convention set to begin on July 14, I am interested to see what the dealers will be selling these set for.

As a numismatist whose collection consists mainly of coins, finding a new collectible that includes coins and adds a little diversity to the collection is a lot of fun. But to find a hot collectible with a limited distribution that has quickly appreciated within days of a sell-out, buying a few extra is a nice investment. So I bought five sets with remorse that I could not afford to purchase more!

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