Old Gold Certificate

[BamaJoe]

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Was doing abit of reorganizing tonight and ran across this.

When my Dad was going thru law school back in the early 1950's he made extra cash by selling hearing aids. Once he was out in the country selling one to a woman in her 90's.
When it was time to pay Dad she went and pulled her wedding dress out of a wooden trunk, proceded to undo the hem and pulled this $50 out. She told him it was a brand new crisp bill when it was given to her as a wedding present and it had been in her wedding dress since then. All thru the depression and other tough times she never spent it. It's now been in our family now almost as long as the woman held it.

Doubt it's worth much, except to me. Dad's been gone now for 4 years and I was just going thru some of the old pm's he passed on to me. He got me interested as a kid and I started buying coins from Franklin Mint in the 1970's.

[BamaJoe]

Here's another oldie, but goodie. The first gold I ever bought myself.

Still have the original envelope and letter from the Franklin Mint that it came in.

Since I was only 14 or so at the time my Dad had to send the check and order it for me. It looks like the postmark is Mar. 26, 1976.

[Rodebaugh]

Cool Story Mr Joe.......and nice balboa

[Rob72830]

Nice story. I looked on ebay and found a Series 1882 $50 Gold Certificate graded in F 12 with the bids up to $237. From what I could see on your note its in rough shape but you should be able to get more than $50 for it. If it were me I would just keep it and pass it down to the kids for sentimental reasons. BTW, the lady who originally possessed the note wouldn't have been able to spend it during the depression. In 1933 when FDR took us off the gold standard, he made it illegal to own modern gold coin and gold certificates. The lady who owned the note originally couldn't have spent it if she wanted too. (She probably knew that to) It was worthless as money. The main reason you see so many gold certificates for sale today is most people refused to turn in their gold and hid it. The government later legalized gold ownership in 1974 which allowed people to openly sell their coins and certificates. Thanks for sharing with us.

[Lemon Thrower]

she must have had some wedding because that bill is very creased. :>)

[HonestAbe]

"In 1933 when FDR took us off the gold standard, he made it illegal to own modern gold coin and gold certificates. The lady who owned the note originally couldn't have spent it if she wanted too. (She probably knew that to) It was worthless as money."

I think this is wrong! US paper money is always worth face value(legal tender),not that you would want to cash in old paper money for face value, and it was legal for coin collecters to keep gold coins! When FDR took us off the gold standard, he raised the value of gold to appox. $33.00 from $20.00 an ounce. So US gold coins were worth more then face value!