The Fifth and final issue of Fractional Currency was issued for just under 2 full years being issued from February 26, 1874 to February 15, 1876. They only issued the ten cent, twenty-five cent and the fifty cent notes for this issue, which makes this set an easy set to complete. There are only a total of six varieties in this issue, three for the ten cent note, two for the twenty-five cent note, and only one for the fifty cent note. The ten cent note has been nick-named as the “Grumpy” note due to the fact that it looks like Meredith is frowning. The main differences in the ten and twenty-five cent notes is that one has a long thin key in the seal and the other has a short thick key, also on one of the ten cent notes it has a green seal instead of red. They printed a total value of nearly $63 million for this issue bringing the total for all fractional currency issues up to approximately $369 million, of which an estimated $1.8 million remains outstanding. You can purchase a complete set of all 6 notes in this issue in crisp uncirculated for around $575.

Brian Dresback,

Manager, Christopher’s Rare Coins