A four-pence currency note from 1790 signed by Elias Boudinot before his appointment as the third director of the United States Mint is among the highlights of Early American History Auctions’ 269-lot sale June 16 and 17.

Among the other highlights are one of as many as five extant examples of a John Gault, Ribbed Frame 24-cent encased postage stamp and a circa 1783 doubled-headed George Washington cent token.

SS Central America reveals thousands of new findings, celebrating the ‘house organ’: Another column in the June 19 Coin World details what a ‘house organ’ is, and expounds on some intriguing half dollar varieties.

A buyer’s fee of 20 percent will be added to the final closing price of each lot won; 25 percent if the winning bid is placed through any other selected outside auction service including both the Invaluable and Live Auctioneers websites. 

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Boudinot note

The note was signed by Boudinot on the face Dec. 16, 1790, in his capacity as president of the First Presbyterian Church at Newark, N.J.

Boudinot was appointed as the third U.S. Mint director in 1795 by President George Washington.

Boudinot served as a member of the Continental Congress, New Jersey Provincial Congress and the First Congress of 1789 and also signed the Treaty of Paris with Great Britain that ended the Revolutionary War.

The Boudinot-signed note is graded PCGS Currency Very Fine 25. Pedigreed to having once been part of the Eric P. Newman Collection, the note carries an estimate of $1,500 to $2,000.

Encased postage

Listed as Reed-JG24RB in Fred L. Reed III's reference Civil War Encased Stamps, the example offered is described as “Choice Extremely Fine.’ 

During the Civil War, because of the shortage of small-denomination coins, U.S. postage stamps were secured behind mica covers enclosed in brass frames to protect them from wear and fill the coinage void. John Gault was the inventor and premier manufacturer of the brass frames, which he patented on Aug. 12, 1862. The back of the frames were often inscribed with information from the merchant issuer, so the pieces served as both advertising and small change media.

Formerly part of the Mayer Collection, the Reed-JG24RB type offered contains a 24-cent postage stamp depicting George Washington. The encased postage is offered with an estimate of $8,000 to $10,000.

Double-headed-George

Attributed as Baker 6 in Medallic Portraits of Washington by W.S. Baker, the Washington cent bears on both its obverse and reverse portraits facing left of the first president, in military uniform, and wearing a wreath on his head.

GEORGE WASHINGTON is inscribed around the top border of the obverse with ONE CENT along the reverse top border.

Graded Professional Coin Grading Service About Uncirculated 58, the cent has an estimate of $1,200 to $1,600.