Condition Report
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Lot 1103
Sale 961 - American Historical Ephemera & Photography
Nov 30, 2021
10:00AM ET
Online / Cincinnati
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Estimate
$200 -
400
Lot Description
[NATIVE AMERICANS]. Numismatics and philately, including stamps and engraving of $5 bill.
Seven “unexploded booklets” of twenty 25¢ stamps featuring Indian headdresses.
Three canceled checks from J.H. Sherburne. The first (1888) shows him as an “Indian Trader, Ponca and Otoe Agencies, Indian Territory. The second (1899) and third (1901) he is a “U.S. Licensed Trader” in Browning, Montana. The first has a graphic of wild horses, the other two, a profile of a Native American wearing three feathers.
There is a bill issued by the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Washington, DC for the American Numismatic Association, 1977. The image shows a $5 bill with an Indian in full headdress. “This engraving, printed from a plate prepared from the original master die, is a replica of the obverse of the $5 Silver Certificate, Series 1899.
“The Indian in the design is a likeness of Ta-to’-ka-in’-yna-ka, who was also known as Running Antelope. Several publications have identified the portrait as “Onepapa.” The Bureau of American ethnology, Smithsonian Institution, attributes this to a typographical error for “Oncpapa,” the tribe of Sioux to which Running Antelope belonged. This is the only issue of United States paper money for which an Indian was selected as the central feature.
“A photograph, taken in 1872 by Alexander Gardner, which is on file at the Smithsonian Institution was used as a model for the portrait. The only difference between the photograph and the engraved portrait is the war bonnet which was added by the Bureau’s modeler. G.F.C. Smillie engraved the portrait in 1899.”