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Volume  XII - No. 2 - Whole No. 54
CONTENTS:
Beyond The Scott Catalogue
As I See It
 

The First Word

The Schernikow Reprints of 1903

Early in the 20th Century there occurred a bankruptcy sale of the effects of the Philadelphia Bank Note Company which had inherited from the Toppan, Carpenter Company the duplicate dies of the 1851 issue, to which numerals had been added to all the values except the 10c and 30c, for submission as essays with their proposal for the 1861 contract.

The buyer of the dies was Ernest Schernikow, an officer of the Hamilton Bank Note Company. In 1903 they made reprints from the dies in as many as fifteen colors. It is believed that this was done to help recoup the $10,000.00 Schernikow paid for the effects of the Philadelphia Bank Note Company. For years they were peddled along Nassau Street in New York.

What are “Goodall” Trial Color Die Proofs? (Reprinted from newsletter no. 49)

The sole article about the “Goodall Trial Color Die Proofs” was written by Dr. Clarence Brazer and appeared in issue no. 37 of “the Essay Proof Journal” in 1953. The “Goodall Proofs” are believed to have been printed around 1880, during Albert G. Goodall’s tenure as president of the American Bank Note Co. They were prepared as samples and mounted on pages for the firm’s sales agents to use as examples of their work. Each stamp or design was printed in five colors (dim red, dull brown, dim green, dull blue, and slate-black). Examples of stamps from the U.S. Canada, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Brazil and other countries were printed.

The colors are easily distinguished for other proofs of the same design by their dull flat color. They were usually printed in irregular pieces of proof paper. Goodall proof s are often, but not always, found affixed to stiff paper. What books existed were probably cut up. It is said that five or six sets were printed. Two years ago I had the pleasure of viewing a “Goodall” book sans the U.S. material. It was heavily foxed throughout. It was being offered on the continent by antiquarian book dealer. It would have cost of $2,000.00 just to restore and conserve the book.

For years “Goodall Proofs” rarely appeared on the market. They started to reappear with the dispersal of the Finkelburg estate starting in 1998. I believe Falk had cornered the market over the course of his life.

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