It’s a mystery why Elton Erford always carried a $10 bill from 1880. For years he kept the antique banknote in his wallet, folded and tucked away. His reason is lost to time.
A son of Nebraska, Erford was born in 1897 and died in 1949. He made his life in Seward, Nebraska, where Everett’s Jean Pedigo grew up. Erford was her father.
Jean Pedigo, who turned 90 in December, knew about her late father’s old bill, but had lost track of it. She recently found it in an envelope among things that had been packed for Pedigo’s move to an Everett retirement community.
“I’ve known I had this, I just didn’t know where,” said Pedigo, a widow who ran her own accounting business in Everett and worked for Sno-Isle Libraries.
Her father, an Army veteran, set an example of hard work that was part of Pedigo’s girlhood. With his truck, Erford ran what he called a “store on wheels.” He picked up eggs and cream from farms surrounding his hometown, and made deliveries back to the farms from the shops in town. The family also ran a small store out of their home.
Times weren’t always good. Pedigo has a letter her father wrote for potential customers. In the undated letter, he explained the delivery service, and mentioned that he had been “out of a job.”
During the Depression and World War II, that old $10 bill he kept would have been a small fortune. Yet Erford never let it go.
Now 135 years old, it’s a sight to see. At nearly 7 and a half inches long, it is significantly larger than today’s dollars, which are just over 6 inches long. It’s also much wider.
Pictured in the bill’s lower left corner is a bust of Daniel Webster, who served in the U.S. House and Senate and was Secretary of State. In the lower right corner, according to the World Banknotes &Coins website, is a scene of “Indian Princess Pocahontas being presented to England’s royal court.”
Jean Pedigo isn’t interested in selling the bill. She is curious about its value.
“It would be worth anywhere from a starting price of about $250 out to $1,200 in really good condition,” said Dennis Stevens, owner of Everett’s Can-Am Coins.
The $10 bill was nicknamed the “jackass note,” Stevens said. “There’s an eagle between the signatures. Hold it upside down, the eagle looks like a donkey’s head.” He also said that the large bills used more than a century ago came to be called “horse blankets” because of their size.
Bills with the same design were printed between 1869 and 1880, with different signatures and seals.
Manning Garrett is a rare banknote specialist and owner of Manifest Auctions, a South Carolina business that buys and sells antiques. He said the bills were printed in Washington, D.C. They are seen less in the west, where gold and silver were the more common currency.
Judging from a photo of Pedigo’s bill, Garrett estimated its value at $400 to $500. About a decade ago, he said, at least 200 of the bills, never circulated, were found in a Florida bank. “You can buy the exact bill in brand new condition — for $2,000,” Garrett said.
Along with why Pedigo’s father carried it, the real puzzle is how he managed to hang onto it.
Garrett has purchased coins and bills people carried as good luck charms or souvenirs. “A guy carried around a $2 bill, had it for 70 years for good luck and it became valuable. Or people have the first dollar bill they ever made,” he said.
Erford’s $10 bill “was a bunch of money,” Garrett said.
In 1880, according to the website antiquemoney.com, $10 was about what $970 is today. Erford’s lifetime spanned both world wars and the Great Depression. The 1940 Census, the first to ask about income, had a question about 1939 earnings, but only up to $5,000. In her old papers, Pedigo found a receipt showing a shirt that cost about a dollar.
Two of her children, Bill and Shelley Pedigo, joined their mother Wednesday during an interview for this column. “Mom saves everything,” said Bill Pedigo, who shared that his mother still has calendars from the 1950s.
Why did her father carry and save that $10? It’s a family mystery. The Everett coin shop owner made a guess.
“He probably carried it simply for the fact it was unusual, and he just liked it,” Stevens said.
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.
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