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***Auction Highlight*** Febuary 8,1779 South Carolina Colonial Note FR#SC-156 $70 Graded xf40 By PMG

Currency:USD Category:Coins & Paper Money Start Price:25.00 USD Estimated At:750.00 - 1,500.00 USD
***Auction Highlight*** Febuary 8,1779 South Carolina Colonial Note FR#SC-156 $70 Graded xf40 By PMG
***Auction Highlight*** Febuary 8,1779 South Carolina Colonial Note FR#SC-156 $70 Graded xf40 By PMG. To the majority of Colonial note collectors, the 1779 Thomas Coram-engraved notes comprise the most attractive printed and issued series. His engraved plates, particularly the backs, rivaled or exceeded those of Europe; the faces were intricate and charming. This "Prometheus Bound" type has very powerful imagery. The face features Hope leaning on the stock of an upright anchor with the motto SPES MENTIS SOLATIO (Hope is the consolation of the mind). The back is signed "Coram Sc.," but not dated. The plate details are perhaps the finest in the entire Colonial currency series. Prometheus, punished for stealing fire from the gods and giving it to mankind, is bound to rocks and attacked by a vulture who daily eats his ever-regenerating liver. Perhaps the Prometheus imagery symbolizes the British attack on the American fight for independence. There is a back margin annotation in the left field. PMG notes this as "Repaired," but the back is still well detailed.From The Mike Coltrane Collection. Engraver, painter. Born in Bristol, England, Coram was the son of John Coram, a merchant. He immigrated to Charleston, South Carolina, in 1769, where he joined his father and older brother, John, in the mercantile business. During the Revolutionary War, Thomas Coram served briefly in the Continental army as a private, although he apparently accepted British protection after the fall of Charleston in May 1780. Coram was largely a self-taught artist, although he may have received some instruction from the painter Henry Benbridge. Coram advertised his skills as an engraver as early as 1778 and was designing paper money for South Carolina as early as 1779. By 1781 newspaper notices were identifying him as “Thomas Coram, engraver”