Reader’s Showcase – November 2023

Shawn Hewitt believes more collectors should become aware of the wide and narrow overprint varieties on the popular Series of 1899 black eagle silver certificates. Notice the different placements of the large blue numeral 1 over the left serial numbers in this pair. The change was made at the end of 1906 to improve the aesthetics of the note during the Vernon-Treat era. It occurred about two-thirds of the way through the M-serial number block. 

The changeover was not sharp because there was a mixing of the varieties between serials M57 and M65, probably because of the changes being implemented at different times on the various overprinting presses. The block letters used on Vernon-Treat note were M, N, R, and T, so the changeover occurred early during their tenure, so the earlier wide variety is the scarcer. The wide Vernon-Treat variety has not been accorded a separate Friedberg catalog number, so it tends to be a sleeper variety.

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