Wisconsin's 1874 State Capitol $2 National Note

At the 2008 Professional Currency Dealers Association national convention in St. Louis, through the Lyn Knight Currency auction, I acquired from the Chet Krause sale, the $2 Madison Lazy Deuce. This note was originally obtained by my old time friend, Del Bertschy, from a First Wisconsin-Milwaukee bank teller for face value in 1940.

Del was a prominent Wisconsin numismatist and longtime member of the Milwaukee Numismatic Society, Numismatists of Wisconsin, and Central States Numismatic Society. He passed away on February 22, 1988 at the age of 91.

Del was a lifelong traveling salesman for Roundy's food distributors. He lived in Shorewood, Wisconsin, a northeast suburb of Milwaukee. He was an avid collector of old coins and paper money, and was the ultimate networker for the purpose of corralling these collectables from the public often at face value. He became a minor stock holder in every downtown Milwaukee bank, when they were locally owned, where he met people in the banking business and let them know of his interests. During World War II, there was rationing of cigarettes among many other commodities, and Del with his inside access to Roundy's warehouse which brokered cigarettes at that time, was able to acquire some and pass them around to bank tellers, who obliged by saving old or unusual coins and paper money for him. Now, at that time, an east coast dealer by the name of Barney Bluestone was offering a 10% premium for any U.S. large size currency, so Del had an outlet for any items he did not want to keep for his collection. He also had similar outlets for the coins he acquired. While calling on remote country store locations, long after President Roosevelt called in the gold in 1933, many rural dwellers thought that gold was totally illegal, so Del told his merchants that if anyone came in with a gold coin, old large size paper money or gold certificates, they should gladly accept it at face value and he would redeem it from the merchant, as he had "bank connections."

Westward Travel Yields Little-Publicized Numismatic Attraction

Del Bertschy

I think it was 1986 when Central States was in Bloomington, MN and I drove Del to the convention. Being a natural born salesman, he talked all during the 6 1/2 hour drive there and again coming back. Del talked of proverbial sailing ships, and sealing wax, and cabbages and kings. Also the growth of rural electric, and taking trains north to central Wisconsin, then hiring a horse and wagon at the livery to call on grocers and dry goods stores in smaller outlying towns. Life was a lot slower back then before Del bought his first car around 1922, but you could not get from Milwaukee to Waukesha and back without having to change a tire along the way. Cars came with a full length "dust coat" for tire changing purposes. It was during that drive he related the Lazy 2 story you are about to read. It was a very informative history lesson.

The 1962 Central States convention was held at the Pfister Hotel in Milwaukee where Del met another Wisconsin paper money collector by the name of Monte Sherwin, of Black River Falls. They discussed their mutual collecting interests and sat at the same table for the Central States convention breakfast during which Del showed off the Madison Lazy Deuce. Well, Monte fell in love and pestered Del to sell him that note for about four years following. One morning in 1966, while conversing on the telephone Monte offered Del $1,000 for the Madison Lazy Deuce. That was an astounding offer in 1966, about 4 to 5 times general market value. Del in a weak moment, said “ok Monte, I will sell you that note next time I see you.” Four hours later, the precise time it takes to drive from Black River Falls to Shorewood, Monte was knocking on Del's door, cash in hand, to take away the Madison Lazy Deuce before Del could change his mind. Monte's arrival was unexpected and Del really thought they would meet at another convention.

Westward Travel Yields Little-Publicized Numismatic Attraction

So, now Monte owned the note for another 22 years until his advanced age, then gave Chet Krause of Iola, Wisconsin the pick of his collection in 1988, so the Madison Lazy Deuce next went to Chet, renowned numismatic publisher and founder of Numismatists Of Wisconsin. We collectors are grateful that in 2008 Chet gave all of us the opportunity to acquire a few pieces of his massive Wisconsin Nationals collection.

The note itself is in very fine condition, Bank serial number 67, sole survivor $2 of only 140 ever issued from Madison as bank notes are redeemed and shredded by the government when they become excessively worn. The pen signed signatures are of N. B. (Napoleon Bonaparte) Van Slyke, president and also the first University of Wisconsin chancellor, who was known to live up to his name and Wayne Ramsay, cashier. Mr. Ramsay was a long time cashier and his signature appears on Madison notes issued some 35 years later. This lazy two was issued about 1874, due to the red (144) bank charter number overprint being required in that year to aid in sorting retired bank notes. Starting in mid-1875, the red seal design was changed to one of scallops instead of spikes. One and two dollar national currency denominations were part of the civil war reconstruction era and were discontinued in 1879 along with the discontinuance of civil war era fractional (small change) currency and the full resumption of silver coin production. The note is dubbed Lazy Deuce after the large numeral two lying on its face. Non collectors seem to miss this feature until you turn the note so the two is in an upright position. Then a smile appears on their face. Such are the joys of collecting. Oh, its cost this time was $10,000.

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