Fourth Issue Fractional Currency

Fourth Issue Fractional Currency further diminished the pretense of stamp money with which the five issues of fractional notes were launched. With this issue they removed the bronze overprints from the third issue and improved the type of paper adding in silk fibers to the paper. They dropped the five cent note in this issue and added a fifteen cent note, there were specimen fifteen cent notes in the third issue but no individuals were ever 15 Centproduced. ten Cent

The fourth issue is the only issue with the fifteen cent notes. While the ten and fifteen cent notes bear pictures of ladies on them, Liberty and Columbia respectively, the twenty-five and all three of the fifty cent notes bear definitive male portraits. This issue was produced outside the Treasury Department while the BEP experimented with new dry-printing operations that only succeeded in destroying nearly every hydraulic press the Government owned. Combined with increased demand for Legal Tender notes, the Treasury was forced to job out the production of the Fourth Issue Fractionals to the National and American Bank Note Companies. This issue also produced the most value of all five issues with $166 million total value produced. With the six different notes produced in this issue it has four varieties for the ten, fifteen, and twenty-five cent notes and only one variety for each of the fifty cent notes. Most notes in this issue are easily found with the exception of a few that are rare or very scarce, you can put together a complete fourth issue set in almost uncirculated for around $3600.

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Brian Dresback,

Manager, Christopher’s Rare Coins