Watch List notes:

BRITISH HONDURAS. Government of British Honduras. 1 Dollar, 1894 Issue. P-1. PMG Very Fine 20 Net. Ink Stamp. Splits, Minor Rust.
Only a note this important can get us this excited! SBG presents this first issue British Honduras One Dollar note in its first ever public offering. It has been in private hands since the mid-1890s, and passed down through the subsequent generations.

The 1894 British Honduras One Dollar issued notes are prohibitively rare; only three pieces are known, including this one. The other two are the Pick plate note, which is in abysmal condition, and one in private hands which is reputed to be part of an unprecedented, private British Honduras collection. No issued example of any of the five higher values has ever come to light.

First issue British Honduras notes in any form are conspicuously absent from virtually all of the world's greatest collections. An issued 1894 example such as this one clearly rivals in rarity, exclusivity, and desirability even such major pieces as the vaunted Zanzibar notes.

The 1894 British Honduras issue was withdrawn and destroyed after only two months, while the Zanzibar series ran for twenty years. Also, the note issuance for British Honduras was scaled for an insignificant colonial backwater with a miniscule population and economy, while Zanzibar for centuries was one of the world's major spice sources and slave exporters, and also an international seaport at the nexus of the trade routes of Africa, Arabia, India, and the Orient. And finally, this One Dollar 1894 British Honduras note is the one single issued example in the PMG population report, in contrast to the much more numerous Zanzibar pieces.

In establishing an estimate for this extraordinary note, we have opted not to key it to the price we achieved last year for a Zanzibar 5 Rupee note ($129,250) but rather, as always, to watch as you, our esteemed bidders, take charge.

PMG Very Fine 20 Net. Ink Stamp. Splits, Minor Rust. $30,000 to $50,000

Balanced centering and elaborate manuscript signatures present. The note is signed by E.(nerst) B.(ickham) Sweet-Escott, as Colonial Secretary (later Governor) of British Honduras. Additional signatures are C.(arlos) Melhado, and H.(enry) C.(harles) Usher.

Stylized floral borders, intricate lathe work, including floral pattern, and stars within circles. The Crown above CC (Crown Colony) watermarks. PMG mentions splits and rust in the comments section; they are more noticeable on the reverse. They also mention an "ink stamp." PMG did not realize that this stamp is officially printed, indicating city of issue, Belize, and the date, OC(tober) 17, (18)94. The left margin is serrated where the counterfoil was once attached.

PROVENANCE
Seldom does Stack's Bowers Galleries have the privilege and satisfaction of presenting a note of such impeccable, unbroken, important provenance. Albert E. Morlan was the American Consul in the city of Belize, British Honduras through two appointments in the late 19th Century.

Albert Edmund Morlan was born in 1850, into a well-to-do Quaker family. Their fortune was destroyed in the Panic of 1857, and his father died when Albert was sixteen. At age 21, he apprenticed with a German jeweler, learning that language along with the trade. At 22, he began work in New Orleans, where he became proficient in French. At 29, he set up a jewelry and general merchandise business in Belize City, and in 1882, based on his sterling ("NPI") reputation, he was appointed U. S. Consul there by President Chester A. Arthur.

He resigned his post in order to re-establish his business in New Orleans, with branches in Central America, including in Belize. In 1895, President Grover Cleveland re-appointed him as consul, where he distinguished himself and his office by submitting to the U. S. Government his insightful reports on trade, by facilitating varied commercial initiatives in Belize by American businesses, and by promoting bi-lateral export and import between British Honduras and the United States. He became widely well-known in the highest political, business, and social circles for his engaging personality and language skills, and thereby created much good will toward the United States, a commodity often in short supply in Central America.

The paper money collecting community is fortunate that Consul Morlan was present during the ephemeral life of the 1894 note emission, and safeguarded this extraordinary example for posterity. At his death in 1926, this note was bequeathed by him to his son, Edward Morlan, and from Edward to his son, Charles Morlan, and from Charles to his daughter, our consignor and great granddaughter of Albert.
PMG Very Fine 20 Net. Ink Stamp. Splits, Minor Rust.

Estimate: $30000.00- $50000.00