NOT TODAY, EBAY (29)
By:
November 6, 2025
One in a series of posts via which Josh Glenn will share recent examples of stuff that he was tempted to purchase via eBay… but, heroically, didn’t.
1864-69 5c 3rd Issue CRISP AU+ SPENCER CLARK Fractional Currency!
US $134.99
In 1864, Congress authorized the issuance of a series of fractional currency notes in denominations of 3, 5, 10, 15, 25 and 50 cents. (This authorization came in response to persistent issues with Civil War-era gold and silver coin hoarding and counterfeiting that plagued earlier issues of fractional currency.) Superintendent of the National Currency Bureau Spencer M. Clark’s office was given responsibility for production of the notes.
A controversy ensued when it was discovered that Clark’s own image had been put on the 5-cent note, which were printed in enormous quantities. Congress’s response was to pass an 1865 law retiring the 5¢ denomination, then an 1866 law forbidding portrayal of any living person on federal coins or currency.
This controversy came to my attention on October 3rd, when the Treasury Department announced that it was developing a one-dollar commemorative coin in celebration of the nation’s 250th birthday bearing the image of President Trump.
According to draft images of the coin posted on social media by the U.S. treasurer, Brandon Beach, the “heads” side would have Mr. Trump’s profile and the “tails” side an image of him standing before the American flag and pumping his fist under the words “Fight, Fight, Fight.”
“It is not clear that Mr. Trump’s image can be featured on a coin,” the New York Times cautiously noted. “An 1866 law enshrined a tradition that only deceased people could appear on U.S. currency to avoid the appearance that America was a monarchy.”
Which led me down the rabbit hole to the note shown above.
MORE FURSHLUGGINER THEORIES BY JOSH GLENN: SCHEMATIZING | IN CAHOOTS | JOSH’S MIDJOURNEY | POPSZTÁR SAMIZDAT | VIRUS VIGILANTE | TAKING THE MICKEY | WE ARE IRON MAN | AND WE LIVED BENEATH THE WAVES | IS IT A CHAMBER POT? | I’D LIKE TO FORCE THE WORLD TO SING | THE ARGONAUT FOLLY | THE PERFECT FLANEUR | THE TWENTIETH DAY OF JANUARY | THE REAL THING | THE YHWH VIRUS | THE SWEETEST HANGOVER | THE ORIGINAL STOOGE | BACK TO UTOPIA | FAKE AUTHENTICITY | CAMP, KITSCH & CHEESE | THE UNCLE HYPOTHESIS | MEET THE SEMIONAUTS | THE ABDUCTIVE METHOD | ORIGIN OF THE POGO | THE BLACK IRON PRISON | BLUE KRISHMA | BIG MAL LIVES | SCHMOOZITSU | YOU DOWN WITH VCP? | CALVIN PEEING MEME | DANIEL CLOWES: AGAINST GROOVY | DEBATING IN A VACUUM | PLUPERFECT PDA | SHOCKING BLOCKING.