Surprise windfall found in pages of used book

Bob Coggins of Green Forest found an unusual piece of currency in a book he bought at a flea market. This bill dates back to 1918. [Click to enlarge]

Bob Coggins, who does handyman work and other odd jobs for Green Forest Police Chief John Bailey, was browsing through the used books at Macdoo's flea market on Green Forest's Main Street in early May when he saw an old book that caught his interest. He bought it, but put it aside.

Last week, he sat back in his easy chair, opened the book and a piece of paper fell out.

It was an over-sized $2 bill with a battleship on the back. Bob looked it over, noticed that it had two different dates--1914 and 1918--and thought maybe he had something.

So, he dropped by the Country Rooster Antiques and Cafe on Green Forest's Square. He showed it to owner Rob Kerby.

"We see a lot of old currency," Kerby said. "It's extremely rare that an old bill is valuable. Many people have tattered silver certificates that they think are worth a lot of money. Most are worth face value, a dollar or five dollars. I hate it when people bring in old currency, because it's usually a big disappointment."

So, Kerby told Coggins that he doubted that the $2 bill was worth much. Coggins went home, but couldn't put the thought out of his mind that this bill was different -- like nothing he'd ever seen before.

The next day, he approached Kerby again, who decided to prove to Coggins that the bill wasn't all that valuable. He fired up his laptop computer and typed in a description of the bill.

"To my utter amazement," Kerby said, "the first thing that came up was that eBay was selling copies of the bill for $12. Copies, not the real thing!"

That in itself meant the bill was valuable, the fact that anybody would want a copy.

So, Kerby kept researching on the Internet and found that in the last month, bills similar to the one held by Coggins had sold for $1,500 and more at a couple of Internet coin shops. Furthermore, a pristine, uncirculated bill identical to Coggins' was currently being offered for $4,750 by a dealer in California.

"So, we sent e-mails to five of the coin dealers," Coggins said, "describing my bill and asking them what they thought it was worth."

A Florida dealer responded first, noting that Coggins' bill had three creases on it from being folded, but otherwise was uncirculated. It was crisp and not torn. As a result, he said, it probably would be graded by a professional appraiser as "very fine" to "extra fine." In the collectible currency world, the top grading is "gem-quality uncirculated," followed by "uncirculated" and "about uncirculated," followed by "extra fine" and "very fine."

He added that the bill was highly sought-after by currency collectors.

All that meant, the dealer said, that the bill would retail for $1,250 to $1,650.

Another dealer in Ohio also responded and advised that Coggins would be unlikely to be able to sell the bill for retail. Instead, he would have to settle for wholesale -- the price a coin and currency dealer would pay. That would be between $650 and $850.

So, Coggins and Kerby agreed to put it up for auction on eBay, just to see how it would do.

At press time on Monday, the bidding had reached $745.

In collectors' language, the bill is known as a "1918 $2 Battleship FRBN Minneapolis."

It is the only large-sized, $2 bill issued as a Federal Reserve Bank Note. Each note has the issuing Federal Reserve Bank's name, such as Denver or San Francisco or New York, and could only be redeemed at that bank. The front of the note features a portrait of Thomas Jefferson to the left and wording in the entire center. The reverse features a World War I battleship, the only U.S. currency ever to do so.

It would look nice in a frame on the wall of Coggins' apartment, he admits, but he'd rather have the cash.

"We're glad we could help him out," Kerby said. "We've stopped putting items on eBay for folks who come in off the street. Much of the time the only folks making money on eBay is eBay because of their high fees."

Coggins says he doesn't mind paying eBay about $40 in fees.

"Hey, I'm happy with whatever I get," he said. "Tuesday morning, I had $3.65 to my name."