1914 USA $50 Red Seal

Just seen this come up for sale on a charity shop website and sitting here thinking errr how much how few?

Ok so its a charity shop and they don't have experts on hand (some do some don't have people to ask) so its not unlikely that they could be totally wrong in their numbers of how many are out there.

Serial number is kind of cool. D23456A

Asking price is £2,800. Some of the rest of you may be interested if it is really that rare. I'm not that into the notes side of collecting but it did make me sit up and pay attention.

Not sure if adding the link to the charity is allowed but happy to supply if anybody wants to know via pm.

Advertised with the following information:-

EXREMELY RARE (BELIEVED 8 IN EXISTENCE) 1914 FIFTY DOLLAR NOTE WITH RED SEAL

This is about as rare as they come!
There are believed to by 8 of there in existence making it the Holy Grail of U.S bank notes.
It is a 1914 red seal fifty dollar in good condition.

Must be somebody's lifetime collection being sold off as they have just listed a whole load more of the older US notes 

Of the specific note there are 16 PMG graded ones, so “only 8 in existence” is kind of exagerated. catalog #1015b

https://www.pmgnotes.com/population-report/united-states/large-size-federal-reserve-notes/50/

There must be thousands of the full type still floating around, ungraded by PMG.

page on numista : N#339845

And the "only 8" also appears on this offer:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/136051144672

And the only “8” on the banknote page is the 8,000 mintage.

How chuffing much!! 

Did the quick exchange rate from USD to UKP and it's still eye watering  🤪 @BramVB  £25,690.00

1914 $50 Fr.1021b Federal Reserve Red Seal Note. Only 8 Known,Top Pop,Non Finer! | eBay 

You have to really be skeptical in this hobby.  The series starts with FR-1012A/B (1-A: Boston, Mass) & ends with FR-1023B (12L San Francisco, CA) so there's 12 Fed banks that issued these large red seal $50. Not saying they're common by any means, but seeing that each note is “1 of 8” repeated for every red seal listed: is annoying. 

I counted 24 notes certified (A&B) red seals by PMG & issued by 4-D (Cleveland, Ohio) the OP note from “the charity shop.” And the Ohio issue is quite uncommon with only 48,000 issued. Those are the ones that were certified by PMG (& not considering others certified by PCGS & nor including the many ungraded examples). 

Having said that, the price sounds fair considering the note has plenty of eye appeal (for its age/rarity)

 ‘ (BELIEVED 8 IN EXISTENCE) ‘
I guess they can write anything they want once the word ‘believed’ is in front of it - perhaps he refers to the grade.