Rare 1890 Treasury Note ‘Grand Watermelon’ Sells For $2 Million At Auction
A rare $1,000 bill has been sold at an auction for more than $2 million. According to Fox News, Auction house Stack’s Bowers Galleries sold the 1890 Treasury Note called a “Grand Watermelon” to an anonymous buyer for $2.04 million. The auction was held at the 2018 Winter Whitman Expo in Baltimore on Thursday evening.
The bill is called the Grand Watermelon because of the large green zeros on the back of the note that physically resemble large, juicy watermelons. Also described as the “Holy Grail of paper money,” the bill features Major General George Meade, the commander of Union forces at the Battle of Gettysburg. The note was federally issued from 1862 to 1863. The Treasury Department and the public, however, were reportedly not fans of the design, so steps were quickly taken to change it.
