Watch List notes:

CHINA--EMPIRE. Ming Dynasty. 1 Kuan, 1368-99. P-AA10. PMG Very Good 8 Net. Repaired, Pieces Missing.
(S/M#T36-20) An extensively circulated example of this classic early paper money with minor paper repairs and visible paper loss, but an accompanying story that propels the desirability well beyond the typical example. To understand why however, one requires greater insight of the modern history of this note. As it goes, these notes were once great rarities, but two modern finds, the first of a bundle in 1900 by forces intervening in the Boxer Rebellion and the second in 1936 as one of the walls that surrounded Beijing was being torn down, have supplied interested collectors with an opportunity to own what would otherwise seem destined for a museum. This note however is one of the few notes known that predate those finds, and is likely the only example outside of a museum with the accompanying documentation to prove it!

Dated November 19, 1888, the first letter accompanying this note reads:

Mr. C. F. Gunther,

Dear Sir:

I had the pleasure of visiting your museum in July last and examining your very extensive and interesting collection. You were away from home when I passed through Chicago.

I have recently received in a consignment of antiques from Shanghai, a most rare and curious specimen of early paper money belonging to the Ming dynasty (14th Century), which is probably the oldest issue of paper money extant. Only a few specimens are known; one of these is the specimen in the Imperial Museum at St. Petersburg Russia. This has been figured by several authors on Chinese money. My specimen is undoubtedly authentic and is in a good state of preservation being about 500 years old. Some fragments across the central fold are missing but the note is nevertheless a good specimen, and probably (almost certainly) there is no other in America. The note is 13 inches long by 8-1/2 in. wide. It is interesting as being probably the oldest paper money known and as showing the printing of the Chinese probably 500 years ago. This specimen considering its great rarity should be worth $50. As I am not speculating, however, I will let you have it for $20. I sent to China four years ago to a collector for one of these notes. He has only just found one. Since writing him I have sold my collection of paper money and therefore give you the first chance to secure the specimen at a low figure. I shall be glad to send it to you for inspection.

Yours very truly,

Edwin A. Barber

A few days later, on November 23, 1888, a second correspondence from Mr. Barber reads:

Mr. C. F. Gunther,

Chicago, ILL.,

Dear Sir:

Yours requesting me to forward the Chinese note for inspection has been received. I send it by express tonight. It is in a wonderfully good state of preservation considering its age, although the fibrous paper on which it was printed is very durable. Its authenticity is unquestioned and I consider it a most valuable specimen of early printing. I have spread it out as best I could on the only piece of card board I happened to have. It should be placed in a frame to insure its preservation.

If you have access to Chaudoir's Recueil de Monnaies de la Chine de St. Petersbourg 1842, and also to Vifsennig's (sp?) work on Chinese Currency you will see this issue figured from a specimen in the Russian Imperial Museum. I do not think it would be possible to purchase another specimen either in this country or China. It is a note of the Ming Dynasty (about the 14th Century) and is excessively rare. Hoping you will be pleased with it. I am very truly yours

Edwin A. Barber.

Mr. Gunther, made wealthy by his many successes in the candy business, obviously couldn't turn down the opportunity to add this intriguing historical artifact to his museum which, among other things, came to hold such American relics as Abraham Lincoln's deathbed and the table that Robert E. Lee used to sign the Confederate surrender documents at the Appomattox Court House. After Gunther's passing in 1920, the Chicago Historical Society would buy his collection in whole for $150,000, it later becoming the foundation for what is today known as the Chicago History Museum.

Ex. Charles Frederick Günther Museum Collection.

Estimate: $3000.00- $6000.00