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W.C. Coup's First National Amusement Bank faux bank note (116197)

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Carnival & Circus Memorabilia Start Price:250.00 USD Estimated At:500.00 - 1,000.00 USD
W.C. Coup's First National Amusement Bank faux bank note  (116197)
SOLD
250.00USD+ (62.50) buyer's premium + applicable fees & taxes.
This item SOLD at 2020 Apr 16 @ 14:04UTC-7 : PDT/MST
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This entertainingly official-looking faux note is from W. C. Coup's First National Amusement Bank and issued as "Legal Tender for 50 Cts Worth of Amusement." It is decorated with witty circus-related pronouncements, and the reverse is decorated with a large detailed drawing of a four-ring circus under at tent that is larger "...than ever constructed on the face of the earth." W. C. Coup was a businessman in Wisconsin who in 1870 became a partner with P.T. Barnum at the encouragement of Dan Castello to create "P. T. Barnum's Grand Traveling Museum, Menagerie, Circus and Hippodrome." He organized "The Equescurriculum" traveling show with later became consolidated as "The New United Monster Shows." Coup later became involved in Wild West Shows and other trained exhibitions of animals. This piece is the first of its kind to have come to us.

Provenance: John Reynolds Collection
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Date: 1881