USA, ESSAY 70-E3a
(SCHERNIKOW REPRINT, 1903)
24-CENTS, BROWN DIE ESSAY PULLED ON PROOF PAPER AND DIE SUNK ON CARD.
THIS DESIGN WAS TAKEN FROM THE 24-CENTS 1860 ISSUE (SCOTT #37), WITH SPACES CREATED FOR NUMERALS, BUT BEFORE NUMERALS WERE ADDED.
In the early 1900s, the archives of the Philadelphia Bank Note Company were sold in a bankruptcy sale. Among the items sold were the duplicate dies of the 1851-1860 issues, which the Philadelphia Bank Note Company inherited from Toppan, Carpenter and Company. The Philadelphia Bank Note Company modified these dies by adding numerals to all the values, except the 10-cent and 30-cent denominations. The modified dies were submitted 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.
