The Grand Watermelon

Here is a banknote which has caught the attention of the world as not only is it one of the few pieces in existence it is also considered the most expensive banknote in the world.How much do you think one has paid for this banknote, well to the collector it might seem like a small amount since he is willing to pay for it at a price of $2,255,000 which is a world record for a price paid for a single banknote.A very advanced and sophisticated East Coast collector of art and rate currency had paid $2.3 million for an 1890 $1000 bill, according to Greg Rohan, president of Dallas-based Heritage Auction Galleries.This note was sold in December 2006 by Heritage Auction Galleries of Dallas, Texas a world's record price paid for a United States bank note.
(George Gordon Meade)
The $2,255,000 price is more than double the previous record for a Grand Watermelon note, paid in a March 2005 auction for a brown seal, graded PCGS Currency-50. The previous world's record for any bank note was $2,100,000, set in March 2006 each for a Series 1863 $100 denomination Gold Certificate (Fr. 1166c) and a unique Series 1891 $1,000 Treasury Note (Fr. 379c), both privately sold by Heritage.
(A monument to Meade by sculptor Henry Kirke Bush-Brown, on the Gettysburg Battlefield, located close to the point where Pickett's Charge was repulsed.)

Heritage brokered the private transaction between two collectors in the sale of the only available red seal $1,000 "Grand Watermelon" note."The only other known red seal Grand Watermelon is in the museum at the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco," said Greg Rohan, President of Heritage."This note is graded PMG VF-35. It is pedigreed to the famous Albert A. Grinnell collection and was sold at auction by Barney Bluestone for $1,230 in November 1944.
(Meade Monument, by Charles Grafly, U.S. Courthouse, Washington, D.C.)

The anonymous seller of the record-breaking bill is described as "a private collector who owned the note for a number of years," and the anonymous buyer was described by Rohan as "a very advanced and sophisticated East Coast collector of art and rare currency."
(George Gordon Meade)
How did it get its name?,well as you can see behind of the note there are three ornate zeros in the back look like watermelons which gave it the name "Grand Watermelon".The portrait on Grand Watermelon notes is Civil War-era General George Gordon Meade who commanded Union Army troops at the Battle of Gettysburg. The Grand Watermelon notes are at the top of the list in the recently-published reference book, The 100 Greatest American Currency Notes, by Q. David Bowers and David Sundman.
(General Meade and other generals of Army of the Potomac in Washington, D.C., June 1865.)