In an economic downturn,it might be tough to get your headaround this: rare sheets of $100,000bills, fabulous gold treasuresdating back to the California GoldRush era, rare coins includingthose tied to the first stirrings forAmerica’s independence andfederal government securitiesworth more than a billion dollars.
Tha t ’s the backdrop ofthe country’s premier money show, the World’s Fair of Money, which hasbrought about 1,000 coin dealers and hundreds of collectors to Boston,seeking to tap into the surprising resilience of the coin industry.
Held in a sprawling hall monitored by armed uniformed andundercover police officers, federal agents, private security contractors,electronic surveillance equipment and vigilant participants, the fair featuresseldom-seen gold treasurers brought from the Smithsonian Institution’svaults including America’s first $20 gold coin — valued by independentexperts at $15 million today — and its last $20 coin. It also includes sheets of America’slargest denomination currency, the$100,000 bill, which is said to be worthabout $1.6 million today. The goldcertificate note, which bears PresidentWoodrow Wilson’s portrait, wasused only for official transactionsbetween Federal Reserve Banks.
It was not circulated among thegeneral public and cannot be legallyheld by currency note collectors.
“The reaction from kids tograndparents is universally the same:
‘Wow, that’s a lot of money.’ So, theywouldn’t mind having it,” Kevin Brown, manager in the marketing division ofthe U.S. Treasury Department’s Bureau of Engraving and Printing, said whileholding the $100,000 bills. “People like to see money.”
There even was some free money at the show after the Bureau ofEngraving and Printing handed out $150 bills to some children as souvenirs— thoroughly shredded and packed into tiny plastic bags.
The show, which ends Saturday, includes a comprehensive collectionof U.S. paper money that has never before been exhibited. It has coins fromthe Mexican War of Independence and Mexican Revolution that are beingseen outside of Mexico for the first time since 1970. There also are rarecoins worth several million dollars.
