Fr. 590. New York, New York. 1902 $5 Date Back. The National Bank of Commerce in New York. Charter #

Fr. 590. New York, New York. 1902 $5 Date Back. The National Bank of Commerce in New York. Charter #733. PMG Gem Uncirculated 66 EPQ.，This is a bright and very fresh note, with bold embossing and large rubber-stamped signatures of the bank officers that give it a somewhat dramatic appearance. Excellent freshness and color. Nicely centered with broad margins and sharp corner tips. <p><p>Though the 1902 Blue Seal Nationals are generally seen as common types, a note of this superior grade must be given the consideration it is due. Of all 1902 Date Back $5 notes graded by PMG, counting all Friedberg varieties, only two notes have been graded finer than this one. One of them is the same numerical grade with the Star designation, and the other is graded just one point higher. <p><p>This note traces its provenance to the famous James A. Stack, Sr. Collection, which we sold in March 1990. Mr. Stack, unrelated to the Stacks of our present firm, was a collector of a prior generation, but not just in terms of years past. As it was stated in our 1990 sale, his was "one of those all too rare collections that a true numismatist loves to see." It was collected at a time when beauty and attractiveness were the most important factors, long before the concept of numerical grading was applied to notes. Of course, with a discerning eye, notes bought with those factors in mind long ago often turn out to be superb by todays more technical standards and this is what we see in both the Stack and Vanderbilt collections. Many of the Stack notes came from the famed Albert Grinnell Collection, which Barney Bluestone sold in Syracuse, New York in the 1940s across seven sales (as the collection was vast). However, interest in paper money was not extensive, and at a given session fewer than 10 bidders were in the audience. It is one of the great provenances for United States paper money, and while it is not always possible to directly tie a note to a sale like Grinnell, when plates were scarce and serial numbers were not recorded, it is useful to know that James Stack is known to have participated in that famous sale, buying many high quality notes. Perhaps this beautiful Gem is one of them, but the facts are likely lost to history.<p><p>Grinnell had a chain of music stores in the Midwest that sold phonographs, music boxes, instruments, sheet music, and other goods.<p>，From the A.J. Vanderbilt Collection. Earlier from the James A. Stack, Sr. Collection, Stacks, March 1990, lot 1903.，