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THE JOE USIBELLI COLLECTION OF ALASKAN RUSSIAN-AMERICAN COMPANY WALRUS SKIN MONEY

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THE JOE USIBELLI COLLECTION OF ALASKAN RUSSIAN-AMERICAN COMPANY WALRUS SKIN MONEY
THE JOE USIBELLI COLLECTION OF ALASKAN RUSSIAN-AMERICAN COMPANY WALRUS SKIN MONEY
With less than 50 or so extant pieces, public offerings are few and far between and when a note appears in auction, they attract significant bidding. In fact, at the January 2021 Heritage Auction FUN sale the unique 25 Rouble specimen brought a world’s record $192,000.
Over the last half century there has not even been a half dozen sales containing more than one note publicly offered. We can recall only four such occasions and this is one of them.
The Joe Usibelli Collection is remarkable for its quality as well as its depth—6 notes including five varieties--with many of the notes from the famous Henry H. Clifford, John J. Ford, A.M. Kagin and Donald H. Kagin collections. This collection along with an additional consigned specimen represents the third largest public offering of Russian-American Company Alaskan “walrus skin” notes.
While the June, 1993 R. M. Smythe & Company Auction of the Russell Kaye consignment contained 15 notes, most were very worn. The 3/18/1982 Henry Clifford collection sold by Bowers and Ruddy Auctions included eight choice notes including the unique 25 Rubel piece which was sold January 20th by Heritage Auctions as mentioned earlier. Six high-end notes were offered in Stack’s 1/18/2005 sale of the John J. Ford, Jr. Collection, two of which were purchased by Donald H. Kagin and are now in this offering of the Joe Usibelli Collection.