Set Description:
This set of Continental bills contains the first piece of early paper currency that I ever saw. It was a bill that was in my grandfather’s collection, and I can still remember studying it with awe. Please make sure the check out the CC-32 bill for the full story.
When I started collecting colonial and continental bills my primary interest was on the bills from the colonies. It was not until several years later that I started to appreciate the scarcity of continental bills, especially in AU and better grades. Since that time, I have been working to build a set of AU or better bills. The bills in this series range in rarity from R2 (500-1,250) to R5 (31-75). With the current population report, it is only possible to build 6 complete sets in any grade.
This set is made up of 92 bills in AU or better, 38 of which have received uncirculated grades. A total of 46 bills has received "EPQ" designations. Ten of the bills are "Top Pop" bills including two of the Yorktown bills. The average grade for the set is 56.2.
A full set of Continental bills contains 102 bills, and it comparable in size to a full set of Morgan Dollars which contains 97 coins, both sets have similar market values. That is where the comparison ends, a set of continental bills in AU or better is much more challenging that a set of Morgan Dollars.
PMG has only graded about 4,200 Continental bills in total, with about 1,800 in AU or better. Compare that with NGC's Population of 3.5 Million (yes Million) Morgan dollars. There are currently over 40 complete sets of Morgan dollars listed on the Collectors-Society\NGC Page, PCGS lists over 100 current complete sets!
Another way to consider the scarcity of these bills is to compare the total number of Morgan Dollars struck to the total number of Continental Currency Bill printed. The total mintage of Morgan dollars was around 657 million versus 15.9 million Continental bills. It is estimated that around 257 million Morgan dollars survive today compared with between 30,000 and 50,000 Continental Bills. No matter how you slice it Morgan dollars are hundreds or even thousands of times more common!
If you are up to the challenge, start building a complete set of Continental Currency!
Make sure to check out my other sets, including my 13-colony set. You can see all of my sets by clicking Here.
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