US 1894 $5 John Marshall
- Maker
- United States (USPOD), Bureau of Engraving and Printing
- Year
- 1894
- Rank
- 36 of 100
- Identifier
- Scott 263, $5 dark green, John Marshall, unwatermarked, perf 12; only 6,251 issued; unused o.g.
US 1894 $5 John Marshall
Price-guide value, not a sale: $4,500, dated 2015-01-01. This is not a sale. It is what the market was asking, and no transaction is recorded behind it.
What is it, and why is it in the FLOAT 100?
The top value and key stamp of the first BEP-printed (1894) series — the stamp that completes the set.
Scott 263, $5 dark green, John Marshall, unwatermarked, perf 12; only 6,251 issued; unused o.g.
What is the best-sourced number for it?
- Figure
- $4,500
- Kind
- Price-guide value, not a sale
- Date
- 2015-01-01
A price-guide value is an editorial estimate, not a transaction. Guides lag the market and smooth over grade and condition. It is useful as a floor for how the trade thought about the object, and it should be checked against a realized sale before anything rests on it.
By reference price, US 1894 $5 John Marshall is number 78 of 99 in the stamps entries of the FLOAT 100. 75 of those 99 rest on a realized sale; the rest carry an asking price or a guide value, and each page says which. Rank within the FLOAT 100 itself (36 here) is editorial: how much an object defines its field, not price alone.
How this is made
- The figure
- One reference price, shown with its own kind. FLOAT does not average it with anything or adjust it for time.
- Realized or not
- A realized price is a completed sale. A market asking price and a price-guide value are not sales, and are labeled as such wherever they appear.
- Why no grade ladder
- Most FLOAT 100 entries are individual objects. There is one of this, so there is no population and no spread across grades to show.
- Archive
- 2026-08-08
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