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***Auction Highlight*** 1862 J. Gault’s Encased Postage EP-4A - SILVERED Ayer’s Case ULTRA RARE Grad

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:25.00 USD Estimated At:2,000.00 - 4,000.00 USD
***Auction Highlight*** 1862 J. Gault’s Encased Postage EP-4A - SILVERED Ayer’s Case ULTRA RARE Grad
DEMO LOT
***Auction Highlight*** 1862 J. Gault’s Encased Postage EP-4A - SILVERED Ayer’s Case ULTRA RARE Graded xf45 By SEGS. Up for Auction is an Incredibly Rare and High Grade 1862 Gault Encased Postage. It is the EP-4a, with the 1c Blue Stamp Depicting Benjamin Franklin. What makes this offering so RARE is that the Case is “Silvered”, Very Rare to find the case in such a beautiful original condition. Additionally the Mica is complete and has no Damage, and the Stamp is Clear, Bright and also Damage Free. A real GEM example. To Quote from the Auction Catalog from 1987 where this Rarity last Sold, “Full Original Silvering Mic and Stamp 100% perfect. Never Seen Quality for this issue, Impossible to Replace, A go to Piece for the quality oriented collector” One of The Civil War’s Foremost Rarities, The “Encased Postage” coin. While not Technically a Coin, a Note or a Stamp, John Gault’s Encased Postage was king of currency For a Brief Year in 1862. When The Civil war Broke out in 1861, all of the “Hard Currency” quickly Disappeared. But people still needed to purchase a 3¢ loaf of bread, a 1¢ newspaper, a 5¢ quart of milk and countless other goods that required coins. And vendors had to make change when an item’s price was less than a nickel, a dime or a quarter. In some cities, businesses gave customers I.O.Us, private companies created “Civil War tokens” and paper money was cut into several pieces to represent a fraction of a dollar. Clever remedies for sure, but none that were widely used or accepted. All of this radically changed on July 17, 1862, when Congress decided to address the coinage shortage and passed a law that allowed postage stamps to satisfy debts of less than $5. People began to carry stamps in their purses and pockets and used them repeatedly for daily purchases. Vendors gladly accepted the stamps as payment. But all of this hand-to-hand usage quickly resulted in damaged stamps with denominations sometimes unrecognizable. The local post offices would not exchange damaged stamps for new ones, so a remedy was needed. John Gault, a New York entrepreneur, decided he had the best solution. On August 12, 1862, Gault obtained a patent for a “postage stamp case”, or as he named the item in a newspaper advertisement, the “New Metallic Currency. Gault didn’t sell the encased stamps to the public. Instead, he sold them to stores and businesses that needed “coinage” to make change for customers’ purchases. Gault’s profit came from the 20% markup over the face value of the stamp. To increase his potential profit, Gault’s second idea was to inscribe advertising on the back of the encased stamp. He would charge companies who purchased the metallic currency an additional 2¢ for each item. Encased stamps were widely accepted in the general commerce realm until later in 1862 when the government issued “fractional currency”. This legitimate, government-sanctioned currency quickly eliminated the coin shortage. Having no other value than the stamp, people tore apart the encasements of their metallic currency to remove the stamp to use as postage. Thus the scarcity of the 1862 encased stamps today. A Corey's Pick, Bid to Win, Don't let it get Away, you might not find its equal Coin. I give this coin my highest recommendation