San Francisco, CA- Gibson & Preston 25¢ Tiffany Commission Scrip ND (ca. 1873-74) PMG Choice Uncirculated 63.

Located at 218 Montgomery Street in San Francisco, Gibson & Preston was in the men's furnishings and clothing business, with a specialty of providing custom-made shirts. Tiffany Commission scrip was used by merchants across the United States during the Panic of 1873 as a way of encouraging cash sales by offering, typically, a 5% discount on such transactions. Aside from couple of more often seen issuers, Tiffany Commission Scrip notes from California issuers are rare. This handsome note has a portrait of, perhaps, a symbolic portrait of America wearing a tiara while the back contains details about the firm, its product offerings, and the rules for redemption in both English and German. This note was printed in California by G.T. Brown & Co of San Francisco. This was probably done to expedite deliveries to west coast customers and contain costs. PMG mentions an annotation which appears to be G&P, the initials of the principals. This was probably used to validate the issue of the scrip and certainly appears to be contemporary to the 1870s. This is the first example of this denomination that we have for sale from this rare California merchant, joining two 50¢ examples known to us.