1882 NBN $20 Variety 1 Over 3 Discovery

Over the decades, first Doug Walcutt and then Huntoon caused a lot of ink to be spilled over our finding that there were three distinct varieties of the Battle of Lexington vignette on the left side of the Original Series, Series of 1875 and Series of 1882 $20s. The easiest place to spot the different varieties is to look for the presence or absence of the 75 just above the shoe of the wounded man. The 75 is a partial date—the 75 in 1775—that is on the painting from which the vignette was copied.

The 75 was all but removed from variety 1. A light image of the 75 is visible on Variety 2, Variety 3 sports a bold image of the 75. All three varieties were used on Series of 1882 plates. See