HAMILTON BANK NOTE COMPANY STEEL STATIONERY DIES Bernard Beston FAP, FRPSV, FRPSL
Fig. 1: Storage room with medal Dies etc. Source, Coin World In May 2020 Teddy Suarez reported a number of Steel Stamp Dies listed for sale on Ebay. In all there were 139 Dies listed for sale at a fixed price of US$1,590.00. The only exception was the New York State Emergency Transfer Tax $10 Die, listed for Auction with an opening price of 99¢. Tennessee 1; California 1; New York State 1; Brazil 1; Liberia 1; Panama 12; Chile 34; Ecuador 68.They were all entered under the heading of: American Bank Note Company Steel Printing Plates – ABNC Stamp Dies The seller was David Lawrence Rare and Certified Coins of Virginia, USA His website lists over 1,000 of these Dies (and other Countries and US States) for sale but at either US$1,500.00 or US$3,000 each. The quality of the Dies is highly variable, yet the quality of each does not appear to be reflected in the price. However, a reading of the Listing indicated that whilst some had a provenance of the ABNC, many were actually Dies of the Hamilton Bank Note Printing and Engraving Company, New York, some of which were most likely engraved by Rudolph Laubenheimer. This was the Company originally associated with Nicholas Seebeck. Hamilton stamp Dies are offered from Nicaragua, Guatemala and Honduras. However the vast majority are from the stock of the original American Bank Note Company, New York. Ross Towle updates the story for us:
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