Sold For $19,498
*Includes Buyers Premium
Rare war-dated bank check, 7.5 x 2.75, filled out and signed by Lincoln, as president, “A. Lincoln,” drawn on his Riggs & Co. account, Wahington, payable to Self for $800, November 12, 1864. In fine condition, with expected unobtrusive cancellation cut to center, a few light ink brushes, a touch of trivial toning, and two barely noticeable staple holes.
Riggs & Co., the Washington bank on which this check was drawn, was clearly THE financial institution of its day. Lincoln had opened an account at Riggs shortly before Civil War hostilities began and only weeks after future Confederate President Jefferson Davis closed his account at the Bank and headed South. Four days before endorsing this offered document, Lincoln was re-elected to the White House by a huge electoral majority, taking 221 votes to George B. McClellan’s 21 votes. In the midst of the Civil War, his victory came as a bit of a shock to some observers who had predicted defeat for the incumbent. However, key Union victories, in Atlanta and the Shenandoah Valley, gave Lincoln a solid victory. One can only conjecture what this large withdrawal was to be used for, as $800 back then equals about $21,370 today! Pre-certified John Reznikoff/PSA/DNA and RRAuction COA.
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