World Banknotes

Lot 2857    Session 9 (4.30pm Wednesday)    World Banknotes

Estimate $20,000
Bid at live.noble.com.au

USA, ONE MILLION DOLLARS ($1,000,000), Treasury Bond of 1961, issued on November 9, 1953 to The National City Bank of New York, bond No.63, with a notation on back BNC 2/17/54. Extremely fine, numerous pin holes and very rare.

This bond has a most interesting past as shortly after Fidel Castro's rise to power in Cuba, he started seizing US held assets on the island. Hundreds of thousands of acres worth of US held land mainly used to produce sugar cane were nationalized as were many US owned business holdings. Among the last US owned interests to be nationalized were the banks, including branches owned and operated by the National City Bank of New York, First National Bank of Boston and Chase Manhattan. The nationalization of US banks on September 17 1960 left very little, if any, of the US owned interests out of the control of Castro and his forces. Unfortunately for US based companies with assets in Cuba, there was little to be done as the lands and physical properties were permanent. The banks however had large deposits on hand, many of them in the form of Treasury Bonds. Not much could be done and it was very important to keep US assets out of Castro's hands. Some were destroyed, but the bonds on deposit in the banks proved to be a challenge. The Bureau of Public Debt was ordered to cancel the bonds stored in the Cuban bank vaults and to prevent any unnecessary loss to the US banks, they were reissued to each institution in absentia. The bond in this sale represents one of a few that were locked away in the Cuban vaults of the National City Bank of New York. Though unredeemable, they were repatriated providing an opportunity for a collector to own a Bureau of Engraving and Printing produced bond for a fraction of its face value. This piece is the sixty third $1,000,000 Treasury Bond of 1961. Issued on November 9, 1953, it earned interest at a rate of 2 3/4% until the due date of September 15, 1961. This bond features a vignette of Theodore Roosevelt in the upper left and many of the same design features used on other Bonds. The large red seal is the same used for large size Legal Tender and Red Seal Federal Reserve notes. The serial numbers, indicate that not many bonds were issued for the 1961 Bond emission.