official journal of Blanton Duncan’s $1s & $2s Part 2 of 3 LEGENDARY COLLECTIONS | LEGENDARY RESULTS | A LEGENDARY AUCTION FIRM Contact Our Experts Today! For More Information: 800.458.4646 CA • 800.566.2580 NY • Consign@StacksBowers.com www.StacksBowers.com America’s Oldest and Most Accomplished Rare Coin AuctioneerNew York • California • Boston • Miami • Philadelphia • New Hampshire • Oklahoma Sacramento • Virginia • Hong Kong • Copenhagen • Paris • Vancouver SBG PM SummerGlobal25 HLs 250501 Summer 2025 Global Showcase Auction Highlights from STACK’S BOWERS GALLERIES An Event Auctioneer Partner of the ANA World’s Fair of Money® Auction: August 25-30 & September 2-5, 2025 • Costa Mesa, CA Consign U.S. Currency by June 30, 2025 Peter A. Treglia Director of Currency PTreglia@StacksBowers.com Tel: (949) 748-4828 Michael Moczalla Currency Specialist MMoczalla@StacksBowers.com Tel: (949) 503-6244 1550 Scenic Avenue, Suite. 150, Costa Mesa, CA 92626 949.253.0916 • Info@StacksBowers.com 470 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10022 212.582.2580 • NYC@stacksbowers.com Visit Us Online at StacksBowers.com Fr. 1166b. 1863 $20 Gold Certificate. PCGS Banknote About Uncirculated 50 Details. Restoration. Fr. 353. 1890 $2 Treasury Note. PMG Gem Uncirculated 65 EPQ. Fr. 1176. 1882 $20 Gold Certificate. PMG Choice Uncirculated 64 EPQ. Fr. 1205. 1882 $100 Gold Certificate. PMG Very Fine 25. Fr. 1220. 1922 $1000 Gold Certificate. PMG Choice About Uncirculated 58 EPQ. Fr. 1200mH. 1922 $50 Gold Certificate Star Note. PMG Gem Uncirculated 66 EPQ. 198 Blanton Duncan's $1's & $2's--Marck Coughlan 209 Aldrich Vreeland Spike in Circulation--Peter Huntoon 217 Civil War Money of Foster & Norris; Rome Georgis--Charles Derby 229 The Marriage of Philography & Notaphily--Bill Gunther 236 The 210 From Yuma--Bob Laub 248 Greece 5,000Drachma--Roland Rollins 253 A Mile in Travel for a Dollar in Trade--Loren Gatch SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 193 Columns Advertisers SPMC Hall of Fame The SPMC Hall of Fame recognizes and honors those individuals who have made a lasting contribution to the society over the span of many years.  Charles Affleck Walter Allan Mark Anderson Doug Ball Hank Bieciuk Joseph Boling F.C.C. Boyd Michael Crabb Forrest Daniel Martin Delger William Donlon Roger Durand C. John Ferreri Milt Friedberg Robert Friedberg Len Glazer Nathan Gold Nathan Goldstein Albert Grinnell James Haxby John Herzog Gene Hessler John Hickman William Higgins Ruth Hill Peter Huntoon Brent Hughes Glenn Jackson Don Kelly Lyn Knight Chet Krause Robert Medlar Allen Mincho Clifford Mishler Barbara Mueller Judith Murphy Dean Oakes Chuck O'Donnell Roy Pennell Albert Pick Fred Reed Matt Rothert John Rowe III From Your President Editor Sez New Members Uncoupled Obsolete Corner Small Notes Cherry Picker Corner Quartermaster Chump Change 195 196 197 222 226 238 246 250 Robert Vandevender Benny Bolin Frank Clark Joe Boling & Fred Schwan Robert Gill Jamie Yakes Robert Calderman Michael McNeil Loren Gatch 253 Stacks Bowers Galleries IFC Pierre Fricke 193 PCGS-C 208 Lyn Knight 216 Greysheet 220 Executive Currency 225 Bill Litt 235 Bob Laub 236 FCCB 249 Higgins 256 PCDA IBC Heritage Auctions OBC Fred Schwan Neil Shafer Herb& Martha Schingoethe Austin Sheheen, Jr. Hugh Shull Glenn Smedley Raphael Thian Daniel Valentine Louis Van Belkum George Wait John & Nancy Wilson D.C. Wismer SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 Officers & Appointees ELECTED OFFICERS PRESIDENT Robert Vandevender II rvpaperman@aol.com VICE-PRES/SEC'Y Robert Calderman gacoins@earthlink.net TREASURER Robert Moon robertmoon@aol.com BOARD OF GOVERNORS APPOINTEES PUBLISHER-EDITOR ADVERTISING MANAGER Benny Bolin smcbb@sbcglobal.net Megan Reginnitter mreginnitter@iowafirm.com LIBRARIAN Jeff Bruggeman jeff@actioncurrency.com MEMBERSHIP DIRECTOR Frank Clark IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT Shawn Hewitt WISMER BOOK PROJECT COORDINATOR Pierre Fricke From Your President Robert Vandevender II From Your President Shawn Hewitt Paper Money * July/August 2020 6 LEGAL COUNSEL Robert Calderman gacoins@earthlink.com Matt Drais stockpicker12@aol.com Mark Drengson markd@step1software.com Loren Gatch lgatch@uco.edu Shawn Hewitt Shawn@north-trek.com Derek Higgins derekhiggins219@gmail.com Raiden Honaker raidenhonaker8@gmail.com William Litt billitt@aol.com Cody Regennitter rman andrew.timmerman@aol.com cody.regenitter@gmail.com Andrew Timme Wendell Wolka purduenut@aol.com frank_clark@yahoo.com Our new and improved website is up and running now. I would like to thank Past President Shawn Hewitt and Governor Mark Drengson for their efforts in coordinating the upgrade. The transition went much more smoothly than anticipated. The only remaining task is to upgrade the Obsolete Database Project. Again, I would like to thank all of our members who contributed financially to make this project a success. It is hurricane season once again and for those of us who live on the East Coast of the country, that is always a concern. Although we, here on the East Coast of Florida, have been spared from a serious hit by a hurricane for many years, it remains a big concern. Our house is fairly well prepared, with Category 5 hurricane glass installed in all windows and sliders, and we have a good 5K generator available for power. We have not yet chosen to spend the money to install an automatic start generator although that may happen someday. However, like many of our members, I suspect, I keep all of my numismatic collection in safe deposit boxes at a bank. What troubles me most during this season, is the risk that a hurricane might cause flooding downtown, which it did many years ago, affecting the bank where my collection is stored. When I rented the safe deposit boxes, I tried to select boxes that were at a higher elevation in the vault just in case of a water issue. Hopefully, this season will pass again without incident. I was looking through Facebook the other day and came across a post by my friend and SPMC Life Member, Jim Hodgson, acknowledging that the group, Small Size Variety Collectors – U.S. Paper Money has been up for 5 years now. Many interesting items are posted there. There are many groups to which I belong, including Star Notes and Fancy Serials, Obsolete Currency Note Collectors, National Bank Note Collectors, and Fancy Serial Number Collectors. If you haven’t checked out some of these groups, you might find some interesting items to review. Our Governor, Derek Higgins usually posts our SPMC “Note of the Day” on some of them. I hope to see many of you at the upcoming ANA World’s Fair of Money in Oklahoma City! SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 195 Terms and Conditions  The Society  of  Paper Money  Collectors  (SPMC)  P.O.   Box 7055,  Gainesville, GA    30504, publishes    PAPER    MONEY (USPS   00‐ 3162)  every  other  month  beginning  in  January.  Periodical  postage  is  paid  at  Hanover,  PA.  Postmaster  send  address  changes  to  Secretary  Robert  Calderman,  Box  7055, Gainesville,  GA  30504. ©Society  of  Paper Money  Collectors, Inc.  2020.  All  rights  reserved.  Reproduction  of  any  article  in whole  or  part  without written approval  is prohibited.  Individual copies of  this  issue of PAPER MONEY are available  from the secretary  for $8  postpaid. Send changes of address, inquiries concerning    non    ‐    delivery    and    requests    for    additional copies of this issue to  the secretary.  MANUSCRIPTS  Manuscripts     not     under      consideration      elsewhere and  publications  for  review should be sent  to  the editor. Accepted  manuscripts  will  be  published  as  soon  as  possible,  however  publication  in  a  specific  issue  cannot  be guaranteed. Opinions  expressed  by  authors  do  not necessarily  reflect those  of  the  SPMC.   Manuscripts should be  submitted  in WORD  format  via  email (smcbb@sbcglobal.net)  or  by  sending memory stick/disk  to  the  editor.  Scans  should  be  grayscale  or  color  JPEGs  at  300 dpi. Color  illustrations may be changed to grayscale at  the  discretion  of  the  editor.  Do  not  send  items  of  value.  Manuscripts are  submitted with copyright release of the author  to  the  editor  for  duplication  and  printing as needed.  ADVERTISING  All advertising on space available basis. Copy/correspondence  should be sent to editor.  All advertising is pay in advance.  Ads are on a “good faith”  basis.  Terms are “Until Forbid.”  Ads  are  Run  of  Press  (ROP)  unless  accepted  on  a  premium  contract basis. Limited premium space/rates available.  To keep rates to a minimum, all advertising must be prepaid  according to the schedule below.  In exceptional cases where  special  artwork  or  additional  production  is  required,  the  advertiser  will be notified  and  billed accordingly.  Rates  are  not commissionable; proofs are not  supplied.  SPMC  does not  endorse any company, dealer,  or  auction  house.  Advertising  Deadline: Subject to space availability, copy must be received  by  the  editor  no  later  than  the  first  day  of  the  month  preceding  the  cover date  of  the  issue  (i.e.  Feb.  1  for  the  March/April  issue). Camera‐ready art or electronic ads  in pdf  format are required.  ADVERTISING RATES  Editor Sez Benny Bolin Required file    submission format    is    composite    PDF v1.3  (Acrobat 4.0   compatible).   If   possible, submitted files should  conform to ISO 15930‐1: 2001 PDF/X‐1a file format standard.  Non‐  standard,  application,  or  native  file  formats  are  not  acceptable. Page  size: must  conform to specified publication  trim  size.  Page  bleed:  must  extend minimum  1/8”  beyond  trim for page head, foot, and front.  Safety margin:  type  and  other  non‐bleed  content must  clear  trim by minimum 1/2”.   Advertising c o p y   shall be restricted to paper currency, allied  numismatic material, publications,   and   related   accessories.    The SPMC  does  not  guarantee advertisements,  but  accepts  copy  in good faith,  reserving  the right  to  reject objectionable  or  inappropriate  material  or  edit      copy.  The          SPMC   assumes      no      financial       responsibility for  typographical  errors  in  ads  but  agrees  to  reprint  that portion of an ad  in  which a typographical error occurs.  Benny (aka goompa) Space  Full color covers  1 Time  $1500  3 Times  $2600  6 Times $4900 B&W covers  500  1400  2500 Full page color  500  1500  3000 Full page B&W  360  1000  1800 Half‐page B&W  180  500  900 Quarter‐page B&W  90  250  450 Eighth‐page B&W  45  125  225 10 months old—growing like a weed and making many milestones. She has been such a great relief to me during this rough time in my life. She is crawling now and eating some real foods (and giving the dog treats!) Sorry to unload on you in the last issue but I figured I had a need to explain my errors--and then I made a huge one! We know it is Blanton Duncan, not Douglas--apologies to Mr. Coughlan. The summer show circuit is in full swing. I hope you are able to attend some or at least one. I attended the Texas Numismatic Show in Conroe and placed two exhibits (one second and one third). I also manned the SPMC table and met many new members and gave away a lot of old Paper Money magazines. I also did something I wanted to try once--I bought a table and was a dealer for 4 days. That was fun, but I have a new found appreciation for dealers, especially those who go it solo. Watching over the inventory, finding ways to go to the RR, going out and looking at other dealer inventory--WOW. It was a good time but very tiring--something I doubt I will do again! Not many of you have heard that as of May 23, I retired from the school. I just got fed up with what is going on in the Texas legislature, parents and teenagers. Plus being in a 1 million square foot building with concrete floors was killing my knees. So, in the matter of a couple weeks, I joined the cadre of retirees. How is it going so far? I don't know since it is now like all other summers. Ask me in August when every other year I got up and went to work and this year I get to sleep in. One really cool thing that is going to happen in retirement is that I get to go get my granddaughter whenever needed and wanted. Another big thing is I finally get to do something I have wanted to do for a long time--I am placing an exhibit at summer ANA (2 actually). Also I will be helping man the SPMC table, so come by and say high. We will be having our general meeting on Thursday of the show and Wendell Wolka and I are teaming up to give the educational program on "Paper Money of the Five Civilized Tribes." Wednell is doing all the research and putting the program together and I am his mouthpiece. Come listen! Till next time! Stay safe and enjoy the upcomming summer! SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 196 The Society of Paper Money Collectors was organized in 1961 and incorporated in 1964 as a non-profit organization under the laws of the District of Columbia. It is affiliated with the ANA. The Annual Meeting of the SPMC is held in June at the International Paper Money Show. Information about the SPMC, including the by-laws and activities can be found at our website-- www.spmc.org. The SPMC does not does not endorse any dealer, company or auction house. MEMBERSHIP—REGULAR and LIFE. Applicants must be at least 18 years of age and of good moral character. Members of the ANA or other recognized numismatic societies are eligible for membership. Other applicants should be sponsored by an SPMC member or provide suitable references. MEMBERSHIP—JUNIOR. Applicants for Junior membership must be from 12 to 17 years of age and of good moral character. A parent or guardian must sign their application. Junior membership numbers will be preceded by the letter “j” which will be removed upon notification to the secretary that the member has reached 18 years of age. Junior members are not eligible to hold office or vote. DUES—Annual dues are $39. Dues for members in Canada and Mexico are $45. Dues for members in all other countries are $60. Life membership—payable in installments within one year is $800 for U.S.; $900 for Canada and Mexico and $1000 for all other countries. The Society no longer issues annual membership cards but paid up members may request one from the membership director with an SASE. Memberships for all members who joined the Society prior to January 2010 are on a calendar year basis with renewals due each December. Memberships for those who joined since January 2010 are on an annual basis beginning and ending the month joined. All renewals are due before the expiration date, which can be found on the label of Paper Money. Renewals may be done via the Society website www.spmc.org or by check/money order sent to the secretary. WELCOME TO OUR NEW MEMBERS! BY FRANK CLARK SPMC MEMBERSHIP DIRECTOR NEW MEMBERS 05/05/2025 Dues Remittal Process Send dues directly to Robert Moon SPMC Treasurer 403 Gatewood Dr. Greenwood, SC 29646 Refer to your mailing label for when your dues are due. You may also pay your dues online at www.spmc.org. 15850 Rodolfo Caldera, Website 15851 Donat Charron, Website 15852 Antonio Lim, Website 15853 James Strife, Website 15854 Ewan Roswell, 15855 Gary Allen, Bank Note Reporter 15856 James Stamm, Website REINSTATEMENTS None LIFE MEMBERSHIPS None NEW MEMBERS 06/05/2025 15857 Galen Lambert, Website 15859 Dave Edwards, Matt Hansen 15860 Matt Mirski, Website 15861 Gregoire Peverelli, 15862 Thomas Hobbs, Website 15863 William Kattrup, Website 15864 Marilyn Pace, Frank Clark 15865 James Baldauf, Website 15866 Kenneth Swab, Website 15867 William Lanski, Robert Calderman REINSTATEMENTS None LIFE MEMBERSHIPS None SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 197 DUNCAN’S ONES AND TWOS The Story of the Confederate Treasury’s First Change Notes Part Two of a Three-part arƟcle by Mark A. Coughlan [CONTINUED] 2.3 Counterfeit $2 notes Despite the low value and low quantity of this $2 note, it was counterfeited; examples of both the First Series T38 and the T42 types have been discovered. About fifteen years ago a single example of a T38 counterfeit note became known (shown figure 13a below) This discovery post-dated George Tremmel’s 2007 authoritative book on counterfeit Confederate currency, but was examined by him and other experts, and declared as being a counterfeit. Various subtle differences in the features of J.P. Benjamin’s face and the central vignette can be observed; in addition, the signatures of both Meade and Overton are dubious, and these signers do not correspond to those listed in Thian’s Register for this particular serial number. Figure 13a. 1862 Fourth Issue $2 Counterfeit Note (T38) - Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 198 Examples of T42 counterfeits were much more common and have been recorded since the nineteenth century. The note shown below (Figure 13b) was almost certainly produced by Samuel Upham, the businessman from Philadelphia, who was prolific in producing ‘facsimiles’ of numerous types of Confederate Treasury notes. Figure 13b. 1862 Fourth Issue $2 Counterfeit Note (T42) - Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions. Many of these Upham facsimile notes found their way into the Confederate money supply, and it has long been believed that this was the result of Union soldiers carrying them South during the War. However, it is also possible that this was the result of organised smuggling efforts which may have involved the Federal government. With President Lincoln’s tacit approval, the U.S. Treasury department hired and deployed secret agents to tackle the high levels of counterfeiting that existed before a national currency had been introduced. It is easy to imagine that these agents could have also redirected their knowledge and efforts in this field to inflict harm on the Southern economy. The U.S. Secret Service, established in March 1865, grew out of these covert counterfeiting operations, and began life under the control of the then Secretary of the Treasury, Hugh McCulloch. 2.4 Date formats To add to the confusion of this First Series of $2 notes, there were two distinct varieties which were most easily distinguished by the different date formats. The first version was probably an emergency fix applied by Duncan’s engravers, whereby the incorrect date of September 2nd, 1861, was removed by smoothing over that area of the stone with an abrasive cloth, and then the correct date of June 2nd, 1862, was drawn on. This date format looked untidy, with a large gap between the “2” and “1862”, interspersed with two commas. This quick fix variety generally appeared on First Series T42 notes with lower serial numbers (2000-20000), but a few examples have been found with higher serial numbers. Duncan’s engravers later improved on this quick fix, producing a more elaborate version with an ornate double flourish on the leafing “J” of “June”, and the components of the date properly spaced. This format appeared on First Series $2 notes with later serial numbers, and on all later $2 Series (as well as all $1 notes). Figure 14. First Series $2 date format varieties. Sharp-eyed readers may have observed that there was a third format of the date, as shown to the left. However, this variety only appeared on counterfeits and provides a good way to spot such notes. This format was based on the ‘Quick Fix’ variety but had a period instead of the two commas. SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 199 2.5 The green-tinted $2 note (T43) With all the confusion and drama which had marred production of the First Series $2 notes, one would think that Blanton Duncan would try to avoid any further upsets as he set about producing the Second Series of $2 (T42) notes. And indeed, things began smoothly as his presses duly turned out over 400,000 of the correctly dated notes, the only change being the “SECOND SERIES” notation which appeared in the left centre. Figure 15. 1862 Fourth Issue $2 Second Series Note (T42) - Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions. However, Duncan was acutely aware that his company was lagging behind his competitors - this was partly the result of the lower quality lithographed notes which his company produced, but also due to the constant friction and animosity that his combative nature engendered with Treasury officials. Duncan hated losing, and this gloomy outlook would have infuriated him; unfortunately, his attempt to improve things only made the situation worse. In early August 1862, in an effort to impress Treasury officials, Duncan decided to demonstrate that his company could produce more elaborate notes; he decided to begin applying a bold green underprint to the Second Series $2 and $1 notes that he was in the midst of producing. Treasury correspondence (dated August 13th, 1862), revealed that Duncan had discussed this proposal with Joseph D. Pope at the Treasury Note Bureau, suggesting that this additional embellishment would make the notes harder to counterfeit. His letter stated: “To expedite business, and make the Confederate notes safer, I have been printing a second time in green the notes which I had printed in black. This has been done at your suggestion, but without any written contract.” Figure 16. 1862 Fourth Issue $2 Second Series Green Note (T43) - Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions. SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 200 Given that the addition of this green underprint was a very distinct change, numismatists were quick to classify this variety as a separate note; Criswell classified the $2 green tinted note as T43. The addition of this green tint certainly made the note more attractive, and no counterfeits of this type have been discovered, with the counterfeiters focusing on the black and white type T42. As Duncan’s letter mentioned, there had been no formal contract agreement for this new green tinting, and it appears that Pope at the Treasury Note Bureau may have been somewhat confused about Duncan’s intentions to proceed, and, moreover, the potential extra costs that would be incurred in producing this green-tinted variety. Pope was a law professor, not an engraving or printing expert, and it is possible that he misunderstood a comment made in one of Duncan’s letters at the time, which stated: “.. the labor and expense involved is identically the same as the first printing..” Pope may have taken this to mean that there would be no additional costs, with Duncan simply requesting to have the change formalised in a new contract. What Duncan was actually trying to say was that the addition of the green tint doubled the work involved - a separate lithographic stone with the “2 TWO” underprint had to be prepared, and the sheets of notes printed twice. Firstly, with green ink on the plate to provide the underprint, and then a second time with black ink using the main plate which housed the primary design. Displaying his usual impetuousness, Duncan directed his presses to producing only these new green-tinted type $2 notes; presumably, he was fully confident that the Treasury would prefer this new style and would happily agree to a new contract wherein he could increase his rates accordingly. As supplies of these new green notes began arriving at the Treasury Note Bureau, questions were quickly raised regarding the approval for this change, and the costs involved, leaving poor Pope somewhat confused and embarrassed. In a letter to Secretary Memminger on September 1st, 1862, Pope confessed: “I was under the impression that Colonel Duncan had said to me that he would make no charge for the work, but upon his statement that such was not the case, I am free to say that I was probably mistaken.” An angry Secretary Memminger believed that embellishing these low value change notes was a waste of money and insisted that the Treasury would not pay for them. He replied to Pope on September 6th, 1862: “There is no contract for additional pay for tinting the notes; it was not even desirable to have them of different patterns”. Things came to a head when the Treasury refused to pay that part of Duncan’s next invoice which related to the green-tinted notes. A furious Duncan wrote to Secretary Memminger on September 13th, 1862: “I have been informed by the accounting officers that you have ordered to be stricken out of my account $11,563.56 - amount due me for printing 588,630 Treasury notes in green - upon the ground that there was no contract with me for printing in green.” Duncan was understandably angry and argued that he should at least be paid for the green notes at the rate specified in the contract for the basic black notes. Duncan further stated, in a letter dated July 4th, 1862, that Pope had given his approval for the tinting work, and this does seem to be the case. To his credit, and despite his great dislike of Duncan, Pope did admit that he was probably at fault and recommended that the Treasury should make some fair payment. The dispute dragged into December 1862, but eventually Secretary Memminger relented, and Duncan was paid, but only for the cost of the basic work, not the additional tinting. Duncan had once again been forced to suspend production when the dispute arose, but by this time he had already produced an estimated total of 193,200 $2 (T43) notes, and these were issued by the Treasury department; these notes were in one contiguous serial number block, running from 43601-62920 (plate numbers 1-10). While the dispute dragged on, Duncan had wisely reverted to printing the basic black $2 (T42) notes again, this time under the “THIRD SERIES”. For some reason - presumably to reduce production costs - these Third Series notes were printed in sheets containing twelve notes (plate numbers 1-12) rather than the ten-note subject sheets which had been used for the First and Second Series. Without further incident Duncan produced a total of 650,400 of these Third Series $2 (T42) notes during the latter part of 1862. However, in anticipation of the upcoming Fifth Issue (dated December 2nd, 1862), Secretary Memminger wrote to his deputy in Columbia, Joseph D. Pope, on September 26th, 1862, requesting that production SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 201 of the $2 notes should be reduced to a weekly maximum of 1,200 sheets (14,400 notes), and of the accompanying $1 notes to 1,300 (15,600 notes). Records show that the Treasury Note Bureau was still processing Duncan’s ones and twos until early January 1863, until delivery began of the new Fifth Issue notes which had been exclusively engraved by Keatinge & Ball, on steel plates. Figure 17. 1862 Fourth Issue $2 Third Series Note (T42) - Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions. The Third Series $2 note shown above - serial number 15867 with plate number 12 (which only was used on this series) - demonstrates the poor cutting (see right edge) which was typical of these smaller change notes. This was the result of sloppy work by the clerks engaged to undertake this task. Thian’s Register recorded a grand total of $3,499,200 issued in Fourth Issue $2 notes. The total quantity and value of these notes, broken down by the types and series, are shown in the table below. Figure 18. Summary of 1862 Fourth Issue $2 Notes by Type and Series. SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 202 3. THE FOURTH ISSUE $1 NOTE 3.1 Design features of the 1862 Fourth Issue $1 note The central vignette prepared by Duncan’s engravers for the $1 note shows an image of a sidewheeler at sea; this was an iconic type of ship from the mid-nineteenth century which would employ its sails when windy, but when calm its steam-powered engine would be employed to propel the large paddle-wheels which were fitted on both the port and starboard side of the vessel. As shown in the vignette, both forms of power could be harnessed simultaneously when extra speed was required. It has been suggested that that this maritime vignette depicted the daring blockade-running activities by which the South attempted to export cotton to Europe in return for weapons and other essential goods. In the centre, a fast-moving sidewheeler (possibly the Confederate CSS Nashville) is depicted successfully evading a slower U.S. Navy patrol ship which can be seen in the distance. In the foreground, the small, abandoned rowing boat, tossing in the waves, was perhaps intended to illustrate the danger involved. On the bottom right was an oval portrait of Mrs. Lucy Holcombe Pickens, (1832-1899), a native of Fayette County, in Tennessee. Later referred to as the "Queen of the Confederacy”, Lucy became the embodiment of the strong and patriotic Southern woman. After several proposals, Lucy Holcombe had agreed, in 1858, to marry Colonel Francis Pickens, a very wealthy lawyer and politician from South Carolina, who, at 52, was more than twice her age. After a brief spell in Russia, where Francis served as the U.S. ambassador, the couple returned to the United States in the Fall of 1860 as avowed supporters of the secession movement. In December 1860, Francis Pickens was elected Governor of South Carolina, and his wife Lucy soon established herself as a beacon of patriotism to the Southern cause; she volunteered at local hospitals, organized grand fund-raising balls and sold jewelry given to her by the Russian Tsar to buy uniforms and weapons for a regiment of soldiers which adopted the name “The Holcombe Legion” in her honour. Mrs. Pickens was the only woman whose image was used on a Confederate Treasury note. Apart from the Fourth Issue $1 notes produced by Blanton Duncan, Mrs. Pickens featured on the $100 notes - engraved by Keatinge & Ball - which formed part of the Fifth, Sixth, and Seventh Issues (T49, T56, and T65 respectively). Figure 19. Central vignette of sidewheeler used for the 1862 Fourth Issue $1 note.  Figure 20. Mrs. Lucy Holcombe Pickens. On the left an 1857 photo and on the right, the vignette produced by Duncan’s engravers. SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 203 Forming the entire left flank of the note was a vignette of a female figure with her left hand resting on her shield, standing on a plinth inscribed with "ONE". The Series to which the note belonged was inscribed alongside the right edge of the plinth. The popular belief is that this figure represented Liberty, and most Confederate paper money reference books adhere to this view. However, the Author is not totally convinced, as the laurel wreath and sunburst shield decoration appearing in the vignette are often associated with other allegories including Columbia and Victory. Some numismatists, including George S. Cuhaj and W.L. Pressly suggest that this female figure may have been a product of the artist’s imagination, drawing on features from a number of popular female figures including Liberty, Columbia, Victory, and Virtue, to create something that represented an image of the South being triumphant in its noble cause for independence. Figure 21. Female figure with shield and banner 3.2 The original $1 (T44) note Duncan may have engraved the $1 and $2 designs at the same time, but the first to be printed were the $2 notes. Thus, if the ‘September 2nd, 1861’ date error had also been engraved on the $1 note, Duncan had time to correct it before anyone found out. Figure 22. 1862 Fourth Issue $1 First Series Note (T44) - Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions. SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 204 Duncan’s records show that he printed the initial batch of First Series $1 notes on Wednesday June 23rd, 1862 - just seventy-seven sheets containing 770 notes with a face value of $770. Figure 23. Extract of Duncan’s Production Report for June 23rd, 1862. However, by the end of that working week, June 28th, 1862, Duncan had stepped up the pace, reporting that he had now produced some 86,300 of the new $1 notes. These sheets were duly delivered to Treasury Note Bureau, and records show that the clerks there began numbering, signing, and cutting them on Saturday July 5th, 1862 - finishing a total of 300 sheets (representing 3,000 notes and the equivalent dollar value) which were then handed over to the Treasurer’s department from where they would distribute to the various depositories for public circulation. Figure 24. Treasury Note Bureau report showing activity for July 5th, 1862. SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 205 3.3 Counterfeit $1 (T44) notes Counterfeit notes have been discovered for the type $1 (T44) note, all from the First Series. These fake (facsimile) notes were produced by Samuel Upham in Philadelphia and can most easily be spotted by a period before the series text to the right of Victory’s plinth - “.FIRST SERIES.”. These counterfeits had printed signatures and either blank or hand- written serial numbers. Figure 25a. 1862 Fourth Issue $1 Counterfeit Note of T44 - Images courtesy of Heritage Auctions. 3.4 The green-tinted $1 (T45) note As previously mentioned, at some point during late July 1862, Duncan’s desire to impress the Treasury Note Bureau led him to switch production of the Fourth Issue $2 note over to the more elaborate, green-tinted version. Duncan also followed this same approach with the Fourth Issue $1 note; this green-tinted version was classified by Criswell as the T45. By the time of the switch, around 440,000 First Series $1 notes of the T44 type notes (serial numbers 1-44000, plate numbers 1-10) had already been printed, and delivered to the Treasury Note Bureau. Work had also begun on printing a Second Series, and an estimated 200,000 of these T44 type notes (serial numbers 1-20000, plate letters 1- 10) had also been delivered. Figure 25b. 1862 Fourth Issue First Series Green $1 note (T45) - Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions. The Author has calculated that some 73,400 First Series green-tinted $1 notes were produced by Duncan (serial numbers 44001-51340, plate numbers 1-10). This figure is based on observation of a considerable number of T44 and T45 notes in order to pin down the exact cut-over point; although some blocks (between 43201 and 44000) remain elusive, the Author believes that these notes are likely to have been type T44 notes, based on Duncan’s own statement of the total number of green-tinted notes that he produced. The total number of First Series $1 notes was recorded in Thian’s Register as 513,400. SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 206 The Second Series contained a much larger quantity of type T45 notes, which the Author has calculated to total some 332,800. Figure 27. 1862 Fourth Issue Second Series Green $1 note (T45) - Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions. The Second Series ran to a final serial number of 54480, and earlier numismatists had assumed that all notes from around 20001 up to this number would be of the green type T45. The Author has conducted a considerable amount of research into this assumption, observing images of over one thousand surviving type T44 and T45 notes. This research indicates that whilst green T45 notes did form the vast majority of the notes from serial number 20001 to 54480, there was a small block of some 12,000 type T44 notes (running from serial number 45201-45600, plate letters 1-10) wedged in the middle of this large block. The total number of Second Series $1 notes was recorded in Thian’s Register as 544,800. Counterfeit notes have been discovered for the green-tinted type $1 (T45) note from the First Series. These fake (facsimile) notes were produced by Samuel Upham in Philadelphia and can most easily be spotted by a period before the series text to the right of Victory’s plinth - “.FIRST SERIES.”. These counterfeits had printed signatures and either blank or hand- written serial numbers. Full details can be found in George Tremmel’s 2007 book. Figure 26b. 1862 Fourth Issue $1 Counterfeit Note of T45 - Images courtesy of Heritage Auctions. [TO BE CONTINUED]     SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 207 You Collect. We Protect. Learn more at: www.PCGS.com/Banknote PCGS.COM | THE STANDARD FOR THE RARE COIN INDUSTRY | FOLLOW @PCGSCOIN | ©2021 PROFESSIONAL COIN GRADING SERVICE | A DIVISION OF COLLECTORS UNIVERSE, INC. PCGS Banknote is the premier third-party certification service for paper currency. All banknotes graded and encapsulated by PCGS feature revolutionary Near-Field Communication (NFC) Anti-Counterfeiting Technology that enables collectors and dealers to instantly verify every holder and banknote within. VERIFY YOUR BANKNOTE WITH THE PCGS CERT VERIFICATION APP Aldrich-Vreeland Spike in Circulation at The First National Bank of Chicago The First National Bank of Chicago provides a spectacular example of how its officers took advantage of the Aldrich-Vreeland Act to make a short-term increase in their circulation from $3,234,000 at the beginning of August 1914 to $11,234,000 by September 19th. This was a whopping 3.5-fold increase. This article will examine this occurrence from the perspective of the handling of this increase as revealed in the National Currency and Bond Ledgers maintained by the Comptroller of the Currency. The Chicago bankers then completely got out of the currency-issuing business by the end of 1916. Aldrich-Vreeland Act National bank note circulation was fixed by the amounts of U.S. bonds deposited by bankers with the U.S. Treasurer to secure their circulations. The amount of the bonds was in turn by law predicated on the capitalization of their banks, a number that was rather static and certainly unresponsive to variable economic conditions such as seasonal business cycles or economic shocks. Thus, national bank note circulation was inelastic leading to periodic shortages and surpluses of money that caused correlative spikes and dips in interest rates as the demand for money fluctuated. In the extreme, external economic shocks caused destabilizing money panics to develop that fed ruinous depressions as money was withdrawn from banks by the public. Passage of the Aldrich-Vreeland Emergency Currency Act on May 30, 1908, was a response to the devastating Panic of 1907. Congress through the act attempted to introduce a degree of elasticity into the national bank note supply. This took the form of allowing bankers to obligate various non-Federal government bonds and high-grade short-term commercial loans they held in order to secure additional infusions of national bank notes. This allowed the money supply available to economy and their own short terms needs to increase, thus reducing upward pressure on interest rates. The act was an economic experiment that would expire on June 30, 1914. The Paper Column Peter Huntoon Lee Lofthus Figure 1. Charter number 8 was reinstituted for use by the bank in 1911; however, large stock of 1902 date back sheets with obsolete charter number 2670 remained in the Comptroller’s inventory in 1914 so were used to fill orders for the Aldrich- Vreeland emergency currency then. This particular note was sent to the bank before its first requisition for the emergency currency. Heritage Auctions Archives photo. SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 209 The concept was simple. There was an existing tax on national bank circulations. The additional circulation provided for by the act was taxed at a higher rate in contrast to their bond-secured circulation. Consequently, there was a strong incentive for the bankers to redeem the addition currency as soon as the need for it had passed. The tax on currency put in circulation by a bank that was secured by 2% U.S. Treasury bonds was ¼ percent per half year and on bonds with yields greater than 2% was ½ percent per half year. In contrast, the emergency currency put in circulation was taxed at a rate of 5% per annum for the first month with an additional tax of 1 percent per annum for each additional month until a tax of 10% per annum was reached. Bankers found it uneconomic to take advantage of the act primarily because the tax on the emergency currency was excessive. As World War I broke out with the assassination of Austrian Archduke Ferdinand on June 28, 1914 and declaration of war by Britain against German on August 4th, Congress hastily passed an amendment to the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 on August 4th that extended the Aldrich-Vreeland Emergency Currency Act another year to June 30, 1915. The tax on emergency currency placed in circulation was reduced for the first three months to a rate of 3% per annum and afterward an additional tax of ½ percent per annum for each additional month until 6% was reached. Bankers quickly took advantage of the Aldrich-Vreeland Act to respond as interest rates spiked as Europeans scrambled to finance their war and demand for credit rolled over the American economy. The first emergency currency was issued on August 4, 1914; the last February 12, 1915. The need for it quickly subsided so by the time the Aldrich-Vreeland Act expired on June 30, 1915, all of it was in a state of retirement because the bankers had withdrawn their deposits of “other securities” and had deposited money with the U.S. Treasurer to redeem it. The Creation of Money and Elasticity We are bankers in August 1914 operating under the current legal requirements in the Aldrich- Vreeland and applicable amendments These allow us to accumulate (1) commercial loans that have terms of 4 months or less or (2) state and local government bonds that we fund with our depositor’s money and the operating capital of our bank. Let’s assume below that we have accumulated commercial loans. We obligate those loans as security to obtain emergency money. Figure 2. This note was sent to the bank on September 1, 1914 as the Comptroller of the Currency’s staff was scrambling to ship batches of sheets to fulfill the lingering backorder for the bank’s $3 million August 28th requisition for emergency currency. The freshly printed sheets it was among had been received from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing on August 30th. Heritage Auctions Archives photo. SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 210 Let’s say these loans total $100,000. The Aldrich-Vreeland Act permits us to obtain 75 percent of the value of the loans in the form of emergency currency from the Comptroller of the Currency; specifically, $75,000. The $75,000 was created out of thin air. We lend it as well, also in the form of short-term loans. Our portfolio of loans now stands at $100,000 using the bank’s money and $75,000 using the emergency currency. Once the $100,000 in loans that we used as security for the emergency currency mature, we deposit $75,000 with the U.S. Treasurer so he can release the lien of the United States on them. The Treasurer in turn deposits the $75,000 into a redemption fund to retire the emergency currency money from circulation. As it is presented, the Treasurer purchases it with the money in the redemption fun and it simply vanishes. When the $75,000 loan we made with the emergency money matures, that principal coupled with the $25,000 we still hold from our original $100,000 in loans leaves our bank with its $100,000 investment in the enterprise, the interest it earned on both the $100,00 in loans it put up as security and the loans we made with the $75,000 worth of emergency currency. Yes, there were costs. The bank was paying interest on the part of the $100,000 that it used from its depositors and the interest it paid to the U.S. Treasury for use of the emergency currency. The economic benefit derived was that some economic force was in play that was creating a shortage of money that caused interest rates to spike. Once those rates surpassed the threshold that triggered obtaining emergency money via the Aldrich-Vreeland Act our bank stepped in and through that mechanism created an additional $75,000. This increase allowed us to not only serve our borrowers but infused the economy with additional liquidity to deal with the monetary stringency that was fueling the interest spike. The newly created money was available to mitigate whatever was perturbing the economy and its availability tamped down interest rates by reducing the competition for funds at the time. What you have just witnessed is an example of monetary elasticity. New Provisions The Aldrich-Vreeland Act contained interesting provisions new to the handling of national bank notes. Initially, only national banks that had existing bond-secured circulations could avail themselves of emergency currency. Another provision required the Treasury to produce a stockpile of sheets for every issuing bank equal to 50 percent of the capital stock of the bank. The notes in the stockpile were required to bear an “or other securities” qualifier in their security clause regardless of whether the bank would ever issue emergency currency or not. These stockpiles were to be printed as soon as practicable upon passage of the act. Once printed, the currency was to be held by the Treasury Department or subtreasury located closest to the subscribing banks. Figure 3. James B. Forgan in 1913, president of The First National Bank of Chicago when the circulation spiked to over $10 million in 1914 as a result of Aldrich-Vreeland infusions of emergency currency. FNB Chicago photo. SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 211 Obviously, the purpose of producing the sizable inventories and housing them as close to the banks as possible was to make them readily available on short notice should the bankers actually subscribe for an emergency infusion. The idea was that as soon as the Treasury approved their application, the Comptroller would notify the appropriate repository to ship the notes to the bank so they would arrive in a timely manner. This moved the distribution of national bank notes for most banks out of the Comptroller’s facilities in Washington, DC. Another subtle technical detail was that when the bankers began to retire their emergency currency, they could use national bank notes to do so in addition to the so-called lawful money previously authorized for such use by the National Bank Act as then amended. Until this allowance, only Treasury currency had been designated as lawful money for redemption purposes. The Treasury currencies that were current while the Aldrich-Vreeland Act was in effect were legal tender notes, silver certificates and gold certificates. Although all national banks would eventually issue the “or other securities” notes whether they used emergency currency or not, the Aldrich-Vreeland Act specifically prohibited the issuance of notes without the modified security clause when used as emergency infusions. Thus, Series of 1882 brown backs and 1902 red seals continued to be issued to banks after passage of the act until those stocks ran out, provided the bankers had not subscribed for emergency currency. This provision was designed to prevent the unnecessary waste of existing stocks of Series of 1882 brown backs and 1902 red seals in the Comptroller’s inventory. Table 1. Record of bond (%) and "or other securities" (MS #1) security deposits and withdrawals made by The First National Bank of Chicago where MS #1 represents Miscellaneous Securities as per Section 1 of the Aldrich-Vreeland Act. Date Deposits Type Withdrawals Type Brought forward $350,000 2% Brought forward $434,000 3% Brought forward $2,450,000 4% Aug 8, 1914 $3,000,000 MS #1 Aug 15, 1914 $1,888,000 MS #1 Aug 28, 1914 $3,000,000 MS #1 Sep 19, 1914 $112,000 MS #1 Nov 2, 1914 $1,000,000 MS #1 Nov 4, 1914 $1,000,000 MS #1 Nov 7, 1914 $125,000 4% Nov 10, 1914 $40,000 4% $500,000 MS #1 Nov 16, 1914 $1,000,000 MS #1 Nov 17. 1914 $75,000 4% Nov 24, 1914 $1,000,000 MS #1 Nov 30, 1914 $2,500,000 MS #1 Dec 1, 1914 $1,000,000 MS #1 Dec 23, 1914 $200,000 4% Feb 3, 1915 $50,000 4% Mar 6, 1915 $100,000 4% Jan 21, 1916 $1,000,000 4% Jan 22, 1916 $890,000 4% Jan 31, 1916 $1,150,000 4% Mar 3, 1916 $350,000 2% Mar 3, 1916 $384,000 3% 1916 $50,000 3% SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 212 The hastily passed August 4, 1914 amendment to the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 on the eve of the outbreak of WW I carried one particularly interesting provision. It further authorized the issuance of emergency currency to banks that had no bond- secured circulation. This meant that it was theoretically possible if the stars aligned just right that a few banks across the country would issue only emergency currency and nothing else. This happened in a handful of cases. The First National Bank of Chicago The First National Bank of Chicago was among the first national banks chartered in the country. The bank was assigned charter 8 on June 22, 1863 under the terms of the Act of February 25, 1863. The organizers had chosen a corporate life of less than 20 years so the Act of July 12, 1882 allowing for a first 20-year extension of corporate life had not been passed in time to save it from a forced liquidation. The bankers reorganized with the same bank title under new charter number 2670 on May 1, 1882. At their request, charter 8 was cosmetically reinstated to this successor bank on May 24, 1911 by the Comptroller of the Currency. Emergency Currency The first application from The First National Bank of Chicago for an infusion of emergency currency was accepted on August 8, 1914, which amounted to $3,000,000. Three additional applications arrived in quick succession as listed on Table 1. The total subscribed for by the bank was a very substantial $8,000,000 by September 19th. At the time, there remained in the Treasury’s inventory large stocks of unissued sheets carrying the then obsolete charter number 2670. Those sheets consisted of Series of 1902 date back 5-5-5-5, 10-10-10- 20 and 50-100 combinations. As a result, the bank was still receiving notes with the obsolete charter number. New 5-5-5-5 and 10-10-10-20 Series of 1902 date back face plates had been made in 1912 that carried reinstated charter number 8. Substantial printings from them also were in the unissued inventory. These stocks as well as those bearing charter 2670 resided at the Chicago subtreasury and together totaled $5,411,940. The Aldrich-Vreeland Act required that a stock of notes equal to 50% of the capitalization of the bank be available for issue in case emergency circulation was drawn. The Chicago bank was capitalized at $10,000,000 so that provision was satisfied. The scramble to supply the emergency currency to the bank began immediately. The first requisition for $3 million was shipped in full from the Chicago subtreasury stock the day it was received. See Table 2. However, that first requisition consumed over half the available inventory so rush orders for additional printings to replenish the inventory were lodged with the Bureau of Engraving and Printing by the Comptroller of the Currency’s staff. These were printed from charter 8 Series of 1902 date back plates. Included in the order were requests for a 50-50-50-100 plate and a duplicate 10-10-10-20 plate, respectively certified for use August 10th and 20th. Once available, the duplicate charter 8 10-10-10-20 plate was sent to press alongside its existing counterpart to help satisfy demand. The first delivery from these new plates consisted of 11,000 sheets from the 50-50-50-100 plate having a face value of $2,750,000. They arrived at the Comptroller’s office in daily batches over the five-day period August 17-21. Table 2. Shipments to cover the first two "or other securties" deposits for emergency currency by The First National Bank of Chicago with the entries listed in the order as found in the National Currency and Bond Ledgers. Sheet Charter Sheet Serials Value August 8, 1914 shipment: 5-5-5-5 8 1-20000 $400,000 5-5-5-5 2670 60001-66000 $120,000 5-5-5-5 2670 66671-90670a $480,000 10-10-10-20 8 1-40000 $2,000,000 $3,000,000 a. Sheets 66001-66670 delivered August 31 unrelated to this shipment. August 17, 1914 shipment: 5-5-5-5 2670 90671-97670 $140,000 5-5-5-5 2670 98671-111670 $260,000 10-10-10-20 8 40001-46000 $300,000 10-10-10-20 2670 63001-76000 $650,000 50-100 2670 1001-4000 $450,000 5-5-5-5 2670 97827-98670 $16,880 5-5-5-5 2670 97671-97826 $3,120 50-100 2670 4001-4444 $66,600 $1,886,600b b. $1,400 due - shipped with August 29, 1914 delivery.. SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 213 Ultimately the four requisitions for emergency currency by the bank totaled $8 million inclusive of August 8- September 19, 1914 followed by $590,000 worth of traditional bond- secured infusions beginning November 7. Feeding this enormous demand required non- stop production at the BEP for this one bank alone from mid-August to October 19, 1914, with daily deliveries as fast as the work became available. A total of $10,600,000 was printed for the bank during this period. It is clear from the Comptroller’s ledgers that there was a chaotic attempt to get the emergency currency to the bank as quickly as possible. The sheets were sent in batches from either the Chicago subtreasury or probably directly from the Comptroller’s office in Washington as the new production became available. The entries in the ledgers were mostly logged out in date order. Each entry represented a batch of sheets of a single sheet combination, all carrying the same charter number, either 2670 or 8. Like batches were not recorded or shipped to the bank in serial number order as revealed on Table 2. The clerks entering the deliveries simply posted the shipments in the order in which they received memos confirming that they had been sent. Emergency Issues Cease The economic viability of emergency currency collapsed within a few months. As designed, the high circulation tax on it caused the bankers to retire it as soon as they recovered the principal from the loans that they used to back it. The Chicago bankers made seven such deposits inclusive of November 2- December 1, 1914 to clear their decks as per Table 1. Table 3. Lowest Series of 1902 date back sheet serial numbers that appeared in an emergency currency shipment to The First National Bank of Chicago. Charter Number Sheet Combination Sheet Serial Number Date Sent to Bank 2760 5-5-5-5 60001 Aug 8, 1914 10-10-10-20 60001 Aug 29, 1914 50-100 4001 Aug 17, 1914 8 5-5-5-5 1 Aug 8, 1914 10-10-10-20 1 Aug 8, 1914 50-50-50-100 1 Aug 31, 1914 Figure 4. November 18, 1914 Telegram from the Chicago Subtreasury advising the Treasurer that The First National Bank of Chicago deposited $1,000,000 worth of gold certificates to retire emergency currency. See the November. 16, 1914 entry on Table 1. SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 214 There is a subtle technicality associated with the circulation of both bond-secured national bank note circulations and the emergency circulations treated here. The bankers were obligated to pay the circulation tax only if they actually placed the notes in circulation. In many cases, it appears that they subscribed for it, which was done at no cost to them until they put it in circulation. However, large volumes of emergency currency never left the banks, revealing in many of those cases that the bankers didn’t loan it in order for it to go into circulation. We know this because when it came time for them to liquidate their obligations for it, many simply returned their unissued sheets as part of their lawful retirement deposits. In due course, the Treasury adopted a policy to allow the Treasurer to return the sheets to the Comptroller of the Currency for eventual re-issue. Adoption of this practice was a waste prevention measure. None of the $8 million of the Chicago emergency currency was returned and re-inventoried for re- issue. Implied is that the bankers circulated what they received of it. Postscript The Chicago bankers began to increase their traditional bond-secured circulation following their redemption of their emergency currency. They bought $590,000 worth of 4% U.S. Treasury bonds as security for this increase between November 7, 1914 and March 6, 1915. The $590,000 worth of national bank notes that they received were shipped to them despite the fact that the huge amount of their emergency currency was actively being withdrawn from circulation. The last shipment of their national bank notes that they ever received were sent to cover their last bond deposit on March 6, 1915. \ That they received this currency turned on another highly technically provision in the Aldrich- Vreeland Act. Specifically, the law required that a dedicated redemption fund be maintained by the U.S. Treasurer solely for the purpose of redeeming the emergency currency. Thus, the money bankers sent to retire it went into that fund where thereafter the redemption of the emergency currency was the liability of the Treasurer, not the bank. The Chicago bankers decided to get out of the currency-issuing business entirely in 1916 so by year-end they had sold all their securing bonds. They never took out circulation again. When they ceased issuing, there remained $6,807,940 in unissued Series of 1902 date backs bearing charter number 8 in the Comptroller’s inventory. The composition of this hoard, which eventually was destroyed, was as follows. Quantity Combination Bank Sheet Serial Numbers 61,862 5-5-5-5 68139-130000 61,406 10-10-10-20 92595-154000 10,000 50-50-50-100 2001-12000 Our discovery of the extraordinary quantity of emergency currency used by The First National Bank of Chicago resulted from seeing the extraordinary Aldrich-Vreeland spike in circulation in the Pollock data set posted on the Society of Paper Money Collectors website. It contains his compilation of the yearly circulations for all the national banks as published in the Annual Reports of the Comptroller of the Currency. The circulation for the Chicago bank for September 12, 1914 was $10,040,537, which stood out like a sore thumb in contrast to 1913 at $2,434,000 and 1915 at $1,077,000. We thought it was a typo. Sources of Data Bureau of the Public Debt, 1914-1915, Records of Destruction of Retired Currency: Record Group 53, folder “Reports of Deposits Made on Account Retirement Additional Circulation 1914,” (53/450/53/21/3, Entry 545, Box 1), U.S. National Archives, College Park, MD. Comptroller of the Currency, 1863-1935, National Currency and Bonds Ledgers: Record Group 101, (101/550/901/12/2 through 5/containers 223, 228, 232, 239), U.S. National Archives, College Park, MD. Pollock, Andrew, 1863-1936, Bank presidents, cashiers, total resources, circulations by year: https://view.officeapps.live.com/op/view.aspx?src=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.spmc.org%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2Fnbn _spreadsheets%2F2%2520-%2520Pollock%2520data%2520set_0.xlsx&wdOrigin=BROWSELINK United states Statutes: March 30, 1908, An Act to amend banking laws (Aldrich-Vreeland Emergency Currency Act). August 4, 1914, An Act to amend section seven of an Act approved December twenty-third, nineteen hundred and thirteen, and known as the Federal Reserve Act. SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 215 Lyn Knight Currency Auct ions If you are buying notes... You’ll find a spectacular selection of rare and unusual currency offered for sale in each and every auction presented by Lyn Knight Currency Auctions. Our auctions are conducted throughout the year on a quarterly basis and each auction is supported by a beautiful “grand format” catalog, featuring lavish descriptions and high quality photography of the lots. Annual Catalog Subscription (4 catalogs) $50 Call today to order your subscription! 800-243-5211 If you are selling notes... Lyn Knight Currency Auctions has handled virtually every great United States currency rarity. We can sell all of your notes! Colonial Currency... Obsolete Currency... Fractional Currency... Encased Postage... Confederate Currency... United States Large and Small Size Currency... National Bank Notes... Error Notes... Military Payment Certificates (MPC)... as well as Canadian Bank Notes and scarce Foreign Bank Notes. We offer: Great Commission Rates Cash Advances Expert Cataloging Beautiful Catalogs Call or send your notes today! If your collection warrants, we will be happy to travel to your location and review your notes. 800-243-5211 Mail notes to: Lyn Knight Currency Auctions P.O. Box 7364, Overland Park, KS 66207-0364 We strongly recommend that you send your material via USPS Registered Mail insured for its full value. Prior to mailing material, please make a complete listing, including photocopies of the note(s), for your records. We will acknowledge receipt of your material upon its arrival. If you have a question about currency, call Lyn Knight. He looks forward to assisting you. 800-243-5211 - 913-338-3779 - Fax 913-338-4754 Email: lyn@lynknight.com - support@lynknight.c om Whether you’re buying or selling, visit our website: www.lynknight.com Fr. 379a $1,000 1890 T.N. Grand Watermelon Sold for $1,092,500 Fr. 183c $500 1863 L.T. Sold for $621,000 Fr. 328 $50 1880 S.C. Sold for $287,500 Lyn Knight Currency Auctions Deal with the Leading Auction Company in United States Currency The Civil War Era Money of Foster & Norris of Rome, Georgia: Military Scrip of The Freemen of Floyd County Charles Derby David Mason, owner of Mason’s Job Office in Rome, Georgia, was a prolific printer of paper money between September 1861 and January 1863. He printed over 120 different notes in Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee (Derby 2020). Many are rare. Among the most common are notes from Rome without an identified, printed issuer. The only reported signed notes of this type were issued by “Foster & Norris.” This article explores the origin and use of these notes. These notes have the printed issue date “Nov. 6, 1862.” They are “Redeemable at the Empire Bank, Rome, Ga., in Confederate Notes, when the sum of five dollars is presented.” Two sets of these notes exist. One set has the vignette of Ceres, the goddess of agriculture, grain crops, fertility and motherly relationships. These come in three denominations: 5, 25, and 50 cents. The second set has the vignette of "Security Dog": a dog guarding a safe and key and thus keeping money safe and secure. This second set also has three denominations, but different than the other set: 10, 25, and 50 cents. The Ceres 25 cent note has a printing error, “VWENTY-FIVE.” Both sets are most common as remainders. However, some notes with the Security Dog vignette were issued with the hand-written signature "Foster & Norris" and serial number, which is typically greater than 100. Of the issued Security Dog notes, the 10-cent denomination is the rarest. One 25-cent and one 50-cent Security Dog note, shown above, have an additional handwritten item on them: the date “Jan. 26th ’63” to the right of the printed date. Interestingly, this note has a low serial number, 47. Foster & Norris also issued similar notes with Ceres and Security Dog vignettes and of several denominations, one of which is shown here. These notes have several differences from the Rome notes. First, the city of issue is Cedar Town (now Cedartown), Georgia, in Polk County just south of Rome’s Floyd County. Second, the printed issue date is “Nov. 11, 1862,” five days later than the Rome notes. Third, they are not redeemable at the Empire Bank; in fact, there is no information on where to redeem them. The example here is a 50 cent Ceres note signed by Foster & Norris, though other denominations (including $1) and other issuers are known. SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 217 Foster & Norris Scrip for The Freemen of Floyd County Contemporary newspaper articles, documents in the National Archives, and signatures reveal that Foster & Norris were William Green Foster and Joseph M. Norris, and that their notes were issued as scrip to support their military unit, The Freemen of Floyd County, Company D in Smith’s Legion, Georgia Partisan Rangers. The Freemen of Floyd County were organized as a pre-war militia of District No. 924, Vans Valley, Floyd County. After the onset of the Civil War, the unit, commanded by Capt. R. H. Moore, joined the 8th Georgia State Troops. W. G. Foster was a 3rd Lieutenant and J. M. Norris was a Private in the unit. In the summer of 1862, The Freeman of Floyd County became Co. F of Smith’s Legion of the Georgia Partisan Rangers, with Foster as 1st Lieutenant and Norris as 2nd Lieutenant. At that time, this unit marched west and fought in eastern Tennessee. By early October 1862 in Tennessee, Moore was promoted and Foster became Captain of the Freeman of Floyd County. The unit was furloughed until the beginning of January 1863, when Capt. Foster, via a notice in the January 1, 1863, issue of Rome Tri-Weekly Courier newspaper, ordered the unit’s men to report to him in Rome on January 6, 1863 (see the figure below). There, Foster gave them orders that they were to march to Savannah and join the 65th Georgia Infantry Regiment. From there, they were to march west and join the Army of Tennessee. During this period from November 1862 to January 1863, Foster & Norris notes were printed (Nov. 6, 1862, for the Rome notes, Nov. 11, 1862, for the Cedar Town notes) and first issued (Jan. 26, 1863). A reasonable conclusion is that newly appointed Capt. Foster had Mason print these notes in Rome to support his plan to prepare and supply his troops for their next deployment. This idea might explain why there are so few of these notes. First, the Freemen of Floyd County were in Rome and the environs briefly, probably just two or three months, so their use there was limited. Second, for those notes that were issued, they would have been redeemed at the Empire Bank in Rome and as such would have been taken out of circulation and not available for collectors today. In fact, that would explain why most of the notes are remainders or partial issues (with signature and serial number but not with handwritten issue date like the 25 cent Security Dog note shown above). The close similarity in the “Foster” signature on the Foster & Norris notes and on war- time documents from Capt. W. B. Foster (see the figure above) and the poor match of the “Norris” signature with these notes suggests that Foster endorsed the notes. The role of 1st Lt. Joseph Norris in this Foster & Norris partnership was likely that of a commissary or quartermaster for the procurement of supplies, food, Left: W. G. Foster, later in life. Courtesy of Michelle Doss. Top: W. G. Foster’s signatures on a Foster & Norris note (left) and on a Civil War document (right). Bottom: Notice by Capt. William Green Foster in the Jan. 1, 1863, issue of Rome Tri-Weekly Courier. SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 218 and other items, especially as he had extensive experience as a merchant in Rome before the war. Foster & Norris may well have also used Confederate Treasury notes and private currency from banks in Rome, but their Mason-produced currency would have come in handy as the only available fractional notes. Were these notes printed specifically for Foster & Norris in early November? Likely so. Mason used this almost exact note design on other notes, but those were printed later, for merchants in Centre, Alabama, with a printed date of November 25th, 1862. Thus, it is likely that when W. G. Foster became Captain of The Freeman of Floyd County in October 1862 and he knew his company was to furlough and then regroup in Rome at the beginning of 1863, he and Norris traveled to Rome and prepared for the company’s redeployment by buying supplies. It was then that they would have contracted with David Mason to print fractional notes to use, together with other available currency, in outfitting The Freemen of Floyd County for the next phase of their war. Who were Foster & Norris? William Green Foster, who was called Green, was the oldest son of Robert Sinclair Foster Sr. and Margaret Elizabeth “Peggy” Allison. Robert was born in 1807 in Abbeville, S.C. He moved to Gwinnett County, Georgia, with his parents, John Cunningham Foster and Elizabeth Savage, and family in 1820. In 1830, Robert married Peggy and moved to North Georgia to become early settlers in Floyd County. There they established a large and prosperous plantation, and Robert became sheriff, judge, and Baptist preacher of the county. He raised a large family, starting with Green in 1831. Green grew up on the plantation, learned farming, worked hard, and received a good education. In 1850, he married Sarah Adeline Mayo, and they began raising their own family, eventually with at least six children. When war came, Green joined as Lieutenant of The Freemen of Floyd County. In the spring of 1863 in Savannah, The Freemen of Floyd County joined the 65th Georgia Infantry Regiment. They served in East Tennessee, then attached to Gist’s Brigade, Army of Tennessee, and soon fought at Chickamauga. Green was wounded in the arm at the Battle of Franklin in November 1864. He eventually assumed a greater leadership role, serving unofficially as a Colonel. It was not until February 1865 that the paperwork was completed and Foster was appointed to the rank of Colonel retroactive to February 6, 1864. He surrendered with the Army of Tennessee at Greensboro, N.C. on May 1, 1865. His younger brothers Thomas Allison Foster, Kinchen Rambo Foster, and Robert Sinclair Foster Jr. also enlisted. Thomas and K.R. became officers and survived the war; Robert Jr. died in a Richmond Hospital in January 1862 at only 20 years old. After the war, Green Foster returned home and farmed in Floyd County. He did well. In 1870, he owned $1,500 in personal estate and $10,000 in real estate. In 1882 to 1883, he represented Floyd County as State Representative in Georgia Congress. He died October 22, 1892, in Floyd County and is buried in Rome’s Bush Arbor Baptist Church Cemetery. Joseph M. Norris, called Joe by his friends, was 15 years older than Green. He was born in 1816 in South Carolina, his father from Ireland and his mother from Virginia. He moved to Floyd County by the 1840s. He is included in a story told by Charles H. Smith, describing a time around the 1840s when Rome was virtually undeveloped: “The Rome railroad was finished to Eve’s Station, and the hacks met us there. There were no bridges across the rivers and the ferrying was done at the junctions. All down town was in the woods. What magnificent timber covered the bottom where down town now is! I went squirrel hunting there with Joe Norris. Joe was clearing the low ground for Colonel Shorter and had deadened the timber. The road from the ferry was awful. I have seen six-mule teams stall in the gulch that was where the Lumpkin block was afterwards built” (Battey 1922). By 1860 in Rome, Norris was a merchant and slave trader, owning $2,500 real estate and $8,000 personal estate. The 45-year-old Norris joined the war effort in November 1861 as Private in The Freemen of Floyd County. After serving as described above, the 47-year- old 1st Lieutenant mustered out on May 10, 1863, resigning above the conscription age and with a disability. He returned to Rome and served in its defense, as illustrated in the following story. In May 1864, as Sherman was marching to Atlanta in the vicinity of Rome, the city was evacuated. People burned bridges to slow Sherman’s march, but nonetheless, Sherman took over Rome on October 29, 1864. Later, when Sherman’s forces were evacuating Rome, they burned military sites of value. Within a few days, the town SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 219 was barren. Businesses closed. Only 40 men were left in town. Joe Norris was one of them. They organized a patrol force to protect homes (Battey 1922). After the war, Norris resumed his mercantile businesses. By 1880, he was a dry goods merchant in Rome and living with his sister Isabella. He never married. He lived at least until 1888, including being used in medicinal advertisement in statewide newspapers, shown here. His year of death and burial site is uncertain. Military Scrip? These Foster & Norris notes have been considered by numismatics to be merchant scrip, and they have all the earmarks of being exactly that. Yet, this research shows that these notes have the hallmarks of military scrip, in that they were printed and issued by military officers for their official use. The confusion is abetted by a lack of mention anywhere on the notes of any connection to the military. In fact, this scrip could also be confused with sutler scrip, except that it was issued and used by military officers, not citizens associated with a military unit. Additional research shows that there are other examples of currency like these Foster & Norris notes, which appear to be military issue but without any indication on them of a military connection. Furthermore, other examples reveal that the boundary between military issue and sutler issue scrip can be blurred, as some officers appear to have been officially designated as sutlers and issued scrip in that capacity. This assortment of overlapping military, sutler, and merchant scrip attests to the confused and confusing nature of the on-the-ground financing of military operations in the Confederate armies, and is deserving of more research. Sources Battey, George Magruder. 1922. A History of Rome and Floyd County, State of Georgia, United States of America: Including Numerous Incidents of More Than Local Interest, 1540-1922, Volume 1. Webb and Vary Company, Floyd County, Georgia. Derby, Charles. 2020. Mason’s Job Office of Rome, Georgia: David Hastings Mason Jr. and his Tri-State Obsolete Currency. Paper Money (Nov-Dec 2020), pp. 426-436. Martin, B.Y. 1859. Reports of Cases in Law and Equity Argued and Determined in the Supreme Court of the State of Georgia, Vol. 28. Barrett, Wimbish & Co., Steam Printers, Montgomery, AL. Acknowledgments: Thanks to Greg Ton for many interesting and helpful discussions about military scrip, sutlers, and obsolete currency, and for commenting on this article. SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 220 SPMC Activities at the ANA WFoM Join the SPMC at the ANA’s World’s Fair of Money Aug. 19-23. Come join us and talk SPMC and get updates on YOUR club Participant in the youth trivia contest General meeting--Thursday, August 21 - 8:00 - 10:00 AM, Room 205AB in the Oklahoma City Convention Center. Educational program—(at the meeting) Civil War Paper Money of the Five Civilized Tribes Developed and researched by Wendell Wolka Presented in person by Benny Bolin The term Five Civilized Tribes was applied by the United States government in the early federal period of the history of the United States to the five major Native American nations in the Southeast: the Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Muscogee (Creek), and Seminoles. White Americans classified them as "civilized" because they had adopted attributes of the Anglo-American culture. SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 221 U N C O U P L E D : PAPER MONEY’S ODD COUPLE Joseph E. Boling Fred Schwan Your best friend—20x magnification Another new fake is on the market that should never have eluded a third party grader. Figure 1 is a photo of a recent Heritage offering (their photograph, cropped).   Figure 2 is a photo of the next lot in the same sale, with serial number immediately preceding the serial of figure 1 (my photograph—ignore the reflection of my copy stand in the slab). I looked at both lots, using Heritage’s magnification capability, and emailed the grading company, recommending that they have the two lots taken down and re-examined. I did not like the font of the mihon overprint, the shade of the ink, the sloppy printing of both pieces, and the fact that the base notes had run-of- the-mill serial numbers (see figure 3).  I told the TPG that I suspected silkscreen printing for the overprints rather than the correct letterpress printing. See Boling page 224 Joint Export-Import Agency travellers’ coupons A few years ago I reported on issues of the Joint Export Import Agency (JEIA). At the MPC Fest in April, I was fortunate to find a new JEIA item for my collection. Finding that item motivated me to dig more into the subject and I found more new items. I am excited to show you the items and to tell you what I have learned but first let us review a bit about the JEIA. As of 1 January 1947 the British and United States occupation zones of Germany were joined for economic purposes. After this date, indigenous resources of the areas, including imports and food, were pooled in order to produce a common standard of living. The responsibility for regulating foreign trade was assigned to the JEIA, and a joint committee was established in Washington, D.C. The agency issued a type of money called travellers’ coupons. Travellers’ coupons were first reported in the 1978 Schwan-Boling catalog. Neil Shafer introduced them to me during preparation of the book. I thought that the JEIA notes were one of the exciting new entries in that book, but no one else seemed to think so. Those first-known notes were denominated in deutschmarks, which placed their issue after June 1948 and suggested that earlier reichsmark notes may have been issued. The reichsmark issues were discovered in 2005. Guy Araby, Harold Kroll, David Seelye, and Larry Smulczenski were all involved in the discovery. Overall, I think that these issues are still under- appreciated by collectors. Fig 3 Fig 2 Fig 1 SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 222 Gasoline coupons The discovery at this year’s Fest is of an entirely new type of issue. It is a coupon (Gutschein) good for 10 litres of gasoline (note the British spellings throughout). The relevant text: “Issued under authority of JEIA (US/UK). Coupon is good at any ZB filling station in the American and British Zone.” Its dates of validity were 1 January through 31 March 1949. I have no idea when the JEIA gasoline system started or stopped, but it seems that there must have been at least several issues. Airmail Stickers While searching eBay for JEIA gasoline coupons, I came across another, rather astonishing, JEIA item. It seems that private citizens were prohibited from using airmail at least through 1949. The apparent reason for this was to conserve air mail capacity for critical business use. It seems logical that the JEIA would have been very interested in airmail use. That agency was more than merely interested. Somehow it was responsible for enforcing the restrictions. The JEIA distributed stickers that were to be affixed to business airmail. I have not been able to determine whether the agency also created and distributed (or sold?) the stickers. I found (but did not purchase) a cover of a booklet of JEIA airmail stickers. The text is in German. With the help of an online service here is the translation: “The stickers contained in this booklet authorize the use of airmail for business purposes only and are to be affixed to the address side of the envelope, preferably on the left side, in such a way that they do not obscure the address. “Misuse [of stickers] by sending private airmail letters or passing the stickers on to other unauthorized companies will result in the revocation of the authorization to use airmail.” In addition, I found a 1949 airmail cover that was sent from the American zone of Germany to Finland (I did buy the cover). The envelope is complete with postage and the JEIA sticker affixed as directed. JEIA Gasoline Sticker JEIA airmail sticker JEIA airmail cover face JEIA block A JEIA block B SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 223 When we find new notes or information that belongs in World War II Remembered, I enter the image or text in the electronic draft that I keep. While inserting the above information on the JEIA, I found (the image of) a new variety. A small variety, but a variety nonetheless. Travellers’ coupons were issued in denominations 50pfg through 20 marks. The 50pfg notes were issued in booklets in strips of four. Based on the images that are in the draft but about which I have no recollection, we now know that two serial number blocks (A and B) were issued for the 50pfg denomination! Many questions surrounding the JEIA gasoline coupons and airmail stickers are quite similar. How was the agency funded? What were the inclusive dates of operation? What other similar (or dissimilar) issues were created? Inquiring minds want to know. If you have additional information about JEIA, please contact me at fredschwan@yahoo.com. Boling continued: See figures 4-8 for Japanese specimen markings on, in order: notes 1-3, a specimen from the series that preceded this series, and a note from later in the war. Comparing 6-8 with 4-5, it is obvious that the original characters are more elegant and better-printed than those of figures 4-5—the two Heritage lots. The reply I got from the third-party grading company was: “At this point we do not have anything concrete enough to contact Heritage and ask them to pull these two notes. We've graded several of these specimens from this same serial number range over the course of seven years since 2018 and nobody has complained about them until your email. Moving forward, we will have our guard up on these specimen types and be extra-cautious in our grading of them.” Good for them, but it would have been better to re- look at the notes before Heritage sold them. I decided that I would try to buy the more sloppy printing (the first lot up, though both have extraneous or smeared ink), since the bid was still just over $100. When the first lot went past $700, I gave up and tried for the second lot. With at least two other bidders against me, I had to go to $900 to buy it. Oof! So now I have it in hand. My opinion based on the good magnification capability that Heritage provides is correct. The specimen markings are spurious. If you recall my many earlier columns on this subject, letterpress printing will show crisp edges with tiny ridges along the borders of the overprinted characters, where ink was pushed out to the edges of the type that created the overprints. The specimen markings should be letterpress, not lithographed, even though they may appear on lithographed notes (figures 7-8). See Figure 9 for a 20x look at the overprint of Figure 7. I hope the ridges are visible. Depending on how large the editor displays figures 7-8, you may be able to see them there also. Now look at figures 10-11. In figure 10 you can see the jagged edges of the vertical red stroke (both sides), where the fluid silk- screen ink has flowed out between the horizontal intaglio lines of the host note. Remember that those intaglio lines are raised off the surface of the paper, and they create channels into which the overprinting ink has flowed. In figure 11, even though the intaglio lines are vertical, a horizontal pattern is visible throughout the red, where the ink has flowed through the screen bearing the overprint image and deposited on the paper showing the pattern of the screen. That ragged gap in the ink on the right side of the vertical stroke is Figure 4 Figure 5 Figure 6 Figure 7 Figure 8 Figure 9 Figure 10 SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 224 supposed to be a clean triangle (see figures 6-8). Instead, excess silkscreen ink has filled almost all of that space. Nowhere on the overprinted image do we find letterpress evidence. So now I file a claim with the TPG against their guarantee of authenticity, to recover my $900 (plus $20.77 shipping and handling). If the buyer of the $700 lot is reading this, there is reason for a second claim. See the title on the first page. Get it and use it. Figure 11 SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 225 The Obsolete Corner The Lawrence Bank by Robert Gill As I write this the weather here in Southern Oklahoma is giving us plenty of rain, and really too much. It seems that is true for a lot of the country. But here there is a saying that we shouldn’t complain because in a couple of months “we’ll be begging for rain”. This year has started to be great as far as my paper money collecting goes. I have already acquired two incredibly rare sheets, one of which is the focus of this article. Even if I don’t land another one, I feel very fortunate for what has come my way. And now, let’s look at the Obsolete sheet that I’ve chosen to share with you. In this issue of Paper Money let’s go to the State of Kansas of obsolete days and look at The Lawrence Bank. This fabulous piece of history, more than likely unique, came out of Kansas obsolete specialist Steve Whitfield’s collection that was dispersed earlier this year. Kansas is a tough state for Obsolete Currency enthusiasts, and even more so when searching for notes still in sheet format. It was the only sheet in Steve’s very large collection, another testament to how tough Kansas is. And now, let’s look at the history of this old bank. In his excellent publication, Kansas Paper Money, Whitfield tells us by 1857, the Free State Party was in control of the Kansas Territorial Legislature. On February 8th, 1858, they repealed the charter of The Kansas Valley Bank of Leavenworth, the planned State Banking System previously charted by the pro-slavery party. Then, just three days later, the Legislature chartered its own bank of issue, The Lawrence Bank, to do business in Lawrence. The enabling act actually granted one-year charters to three banks of issue to be located in Lawrence, Leavenworth and Wyandott. The proposed Leavenworth Bank was to be organized by men associated with the recently failed City Bank. But it never came to fruition. The Wyandott Bank also failed to materialize. Later that same year another act was introduced to extend the banking privilege to three additional banks, in Highland, Topeka and Osawattomie. That act also did not pass. The Lawrence Bank was the only one that was finally organized, and it opened for business in May of 1860. This was more than a year after the charter had technically expired, but no one seemed to notice, nor care at the time. The Bank was located on the East side of Massachusetts Street, across from the Eldridge House. Shalor Eldridge was one of the original incorporators of the Bank, along with James Blood, and several other prominent pioneers. When the Bank opened, Robert Morrow, Charles Robinson, and Robert Stevenson were principal stockholders. Robert Morrow had arrived at Lawrence in August of 1855, where he became prominent in the free-state cause. In 1856, he built and operated the Morrow Boarding House. When the Bank opened for business, he was placed in the position of President. Charles Robinson was an agent for the New England Emigrant Aid Society. He later claimed that he had selected the original townsite of Lawrence. He had guided one of the first parties of settlers to Lawrence in 1854. In 1861, he was elected Governor of the new State. Robert Stevens was a speculator and politician who had relocated to Lawrence from Lecompton. He later served in the Kansas Legislature and would become a principal figure in the Kansas State Bond Scandal during Governor Robinson’s administration. In later years he was a major influence for the development of The Missouri, Kansas and Texas Railroad, the “KATY”. Ethan Allan Smith served as first Cashier of the Bank. He had come to Kansas from Wisconsin. During the Civil War he had held a position in the Indian Bureau of the Department of the Interior in Washington, D.C. After the War he returned to Lawrence, dabbled in the hotel business for a while, and then settled down as proprietor of a prominent stock farm near Lawrence. The Lawrence Bank was authorized to issue circulating currency. The first issues were made during the Territorial Period dated October 14th, 1859, and April 14th, 1860. A total of $14,812 in notes were prepared for issue. The notes were apparently difficult to place into circulation for various reasons. There was a good deal of public resistance to the issues of local banks. On June 14th, 1860, the following editorial appeared in the Leavenworth Daily Times titled “Wild Cat – Look Out.” The article read: “If there be any evil which a young territory should guard against, it is a spurious currency… For some days past, bills of The Lawrence Bank have been in circulation among us. They are not taken in this city SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 226 by our solid men, nor are they issued, as we believe, upon any sound basis. Good men have charge of the bank: but money greed will blind the best, and hence we caution the people against receiving or circulating these bills. Let us have no wildcat banks in Kansas.” This editorial shows that the Bank issued notes as early as June of 1860, during the Territorial Period. But there have not been any notes from this period reported to have surfaced. Kansas became the 34th state on January 29th, 1861. The new State Constitution had differing requirements from those in the original Bank Charter regarding the issue of notes. The Lawrence Bank quickly reorganized under terms of the new constitution. This required it to deposit interest- bearing bonds with the State to secure its circulating notes. In addition, it would be required to maintain at least ten percent of its circulation in cash for redemption of notes. When these requirements were met, the State Auditor would countersign notes and turn them over to the Bank for use. The surviving Bank register indicates that the Bank’s first issue under the new provisions totaled $8,800 on July 1st, 1861. The Territorial Period dated notes, which were based on the original charter provisions, had been turned in at Topeka for destruction prior to the new issue. Notes, before and after statehood, were issued in denominations of $1, $2, $3 and $5. A number of unissued remainders have survived along with a few very rare, genuinely signed and issued examples. Notes have been seen from the July 1st issue and a later issue, made on November 1st, 1862, which probably only include on $1s and $2s, during the War related to the small denomination shortage. The later issue replaced $3,273 of the 1861 issue, mostly unissued $5s that were turned in at Topeka for destruction. The State Constitution actually made $5 the smallest denomination that was supposed to be issued by chartered banks, but on November 4th, 1861, the Legislature passed an act reducing that to $1. Several half sheets and a single full sheet of unissued remainders have been seen. Between July of 1861 and November of 1862 Ethan Smith relocated to Washington, D.C. He was replaced at the Bank by Samuel Smith (no relation) as acting Cashier. Samuel Smith came to Kansas as a correspondent for an Eastern newspaper. He served as Secretary of the Leavenworth Constitutional Convention. At about the same time, Robert Stevens bought out the interest of Robert Morrow and Charles Robinson, although Morrow remained nominally as President. The Lawrence Bank was also used as a repository for State funds, which angered the banking interests in Leavenworth. Therefore, a plot was allegedly hatched whereby the notes of the Lawrence Bank were to be refused at Topeka in exchange for support by Leavenworth to establish the State Capitol in Topeka. The alleged plot was apparently unsuccessful at ruining the Bank, but Topeka did become the State Capitol. The event that may have doomed The Lawrence Bank could have been the infamous bond scandal of Governor Robinson’s administration. In March of 1861 the State Legislature authorized the issue of interest-paying State and War Bonds to raise funds. Austin Clark and James Stone, Leavenworth bankers, were appointed to market the bonds for a minimum of seventy cents on the dollar. They were unsuccessful because the State had no credit at the time. Somehow, after the first attempt had failed, U.S. Senator Samuel Pomeroy convinced the Legislature to authorize Robert Stevens to sell the bonds. Stevens then bought from the State a large quantity of the bonds for forty to sixty cents on the dollar. Unknown to the Legislature was the fact that Stevens had previously arranged to sell the bonds for eighty-five to ninety-five cents on the dollar to the U.S. Department of the Interior, thereby assuring the fine profit for himself and anyone else who had assisted him in the matter. Although there were denials, evidence indicates that both U.S. Senators, Pomeroy and James Lane, had induced President Abraham Lincoln to authorize the purchase using Indian Trust Fund money. On December 19th, 1861, more than $100,000 in Kansas bonds were purchased from Stevens. Governor Robinson, the Kansas Secretary of State, and the State Auditor had allegedly approved the transaction. It would later be determined that Governor Robinson’s name had been forged by one of the other parties. Robert Stevens then attempted to purchase more of the State Bonds, some of which had been used to buy up State scrip at sixty cents on the dollar. He may have been successful as some of these bonds were later used as security for The Lawrence Bank circulation. When the facts of the bond sale were revealed, Governor Robinson’s political enemies, including U.S. Senator James Lane, had the ammunition they needed to impeach the Governor. The impeachment trial began on June 2nd, 1862, before the State Senate. The defendants were Governor Charles Robinson, Secretary of State John Robinson, and State Auditor George Hillyer. Incredibly, Robert Stevenson, a State Senator at the time, sat in on the trial although he was excused from voting. Both Hillyer and John Robinson were rapidly convicted of fraud and removed from office. This set the stage for the Governor’s trial. Against all odds, and in the face of a jury packed with political enemies, the Governor was acquitted on June 29th, 1862. Although exonerated from guilt in the matter, Robinson was ruined politically by the trial. SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 227 Part of the price of the acquittal may have been liquidation of The Lawrence Bank. Shortly after the trial Stevens deposited sufficient United States money with the State to redeem the outstanding Bank circulations and withdrew the bonds. The Bank continued to do exchange business only, redeeming notes for coin and other lawful money, and periodically taking redeemed notes to Topeka to be cancelled and destroyed. This was the situation in August of 1863 when Quantrill’s guerillas raided the town, robbed and burned the Bank. The Lawrence Bank was robbed of a quantity of specie belonging to Robert Morrow, along with whatever notes were on hand. Legend has it that the few genuinely signed notes that survive today were stolen from the Bank on that terrible day. After the raid the Bank never reopened, but did continue to redeem any notes presented for payment until January of 1864, when it closed for good. All the outstanding currency had been redeemed or was provided for by the deposit of funds with the State. So, there’s the history behind this old bank, and the beautiful sheet of notes that it left behind for collectors to enjoy. If only today we would use our technology and print paper money as with the eye- appeal of years gone by. I encourage any comments to my phone (580) 221-0898 or my personal email address robertdalegill@gmail.com So, until next time, Happy Collecting. SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 228 The Marriage of Philography with Notaphily: Notable Autographs on Checks from the Banks of the United States (1803-1833) By Bill Gunther When I began collecting obsolete notes, I focused primarily on geography (i.e., where the note was issued). I also began to explore the names (printed or signatures) appearing on these notes. I researched the charters of the company and the founders. Recently, I became primarily interested in the autographs themselves. Collecting autographs is called “Philography” and has been referred to as the “world’s oldest hobby”, therefore my migration in interest could be considered a regression. I can now add the title of “philographist” (autograph collector) to that of “notaphilist” (paper money collector) to my credentials so perhaps I have created a new specialty in the hobby field. The theme of my new interest in collecting autographs is notable politicians from the 1800s whose signatures appear on checks from the first and second Bank of the United States. Whenever I discover a candidate document on an auction site, I do a quick review of the person’s biography to determine the degree of prominence the person once held. This often leads to surprises at the historical significance of some of individuals. About the Bank of the United States All nine of the checks shown below were issued by one of the two Congressionally chartered Banks of the United States and are listed by date of issue. The first check shown (issued by George Clymer in 1803) was drawn on the first Bank of the U.S. and chartered by the United States Congress on February 25, 1791 as a tool to deal with financing the cost of the Revolutionary War. Alexander Hamilton, the architect of the bank, modeled it after the Bank of England, and its charter was granted to run for a period of twenty years. It was capitalized at $10 million, with the U.S. Government holding twenty percent ($2 million) of that total. Many opponents of the bank believed the Federal government’s involvement in the creation of the Bank was unconstitutional and a further controversial issue was the large share of the remaining $8 million in capital that was held by British investors. The home office of the first Bank of the United States was in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the home state of George Clymer. Branch banks were opened in Boston, New York, Charleston (South Carolina), Baltimore, Norfolk, Savannah, D.C. and New Orleans. The checks shown here were drafted in Washington but may have been paid at one of the bank’s branches. As the time for recharting this bank grew near, the controversy over its role and ownership became so intense that it became politically impossible to obtain a new charter and Bank ceased to exist in 1811. A period of rapid growth in state regulated “free banking” began fueled by land speculators in the West. Excessive credit expansion created inflation and bank failures were common. It became increasingly clear that some centralized control over currency issues was needed and the second Bank of the United States in 1817 for a period of twenty years. Regulation of bank credit by a central authority was largely opposed by many land speculators and private bankers who both profited under the free banking environment. President Andrew Jackson, a populist, became a strong opponent of this bank and argued that it served only the wealthy citizens of the country. He allowed its charter to expire in 1836 and it became a private commercial bank chartered by the State of Pennsylvania (sometimes incorrectly referred to as the 3rd Bank of the United States). This bank was finally liquidated in 1841. Eight of the financial checks shown below were issued by the second Bank of the U.S. Following the death of this bank, the country returned again to a period of state regulated banking until 1914 when the National Banking Act again installed a “central bank” for the United States. SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 229 Short biographies follow of the ten prominent political figures and their autographs as shown on the associated documents. Notable Politicians from the 1800s George Clymer February 16, 1803. (Philadelphia). Check issued by George Clymer to son Henry Clymer for $120, February 26, 1803, drawn on his account at the (first) Bank of the United States (Philadelphia). No endorsements appear on the reverse side of this check. Clymer was born on June 10, 1739 in Philadelphia. When his father died when he was seven, he was raised by a wealthy merchant uncle. Clymer became a successful merchant and supported independence from Britian. In 1765 he married Elizabeth Meredith and they had eight children, one of whom was son Henry, to whom this check is issued. George Clymer was a member of the Continental Congress and a member of the Pennsylvania Legislature. In that capacity he attended the Constitutional Convention in 1787 and was also elected to the first United States Congress in 1789. He is one of only six individuals who signed both the Declaration of Independence AND the United States Constitution! Four of the six men were from Pennsylvania and th e o t h e r t w o f r o m Connecticut and Delaware. Clymer died on January 23, 1813 at the age of 74 in Morrisville, Pennsylvania. Benjamin William Crowninshield March 5, 1825. Boston. Payable to Hon. P. M. Crowninshield. Sixty dollars. Endorsed on reverse to a Philip Marett, Esq., who was a merchant in Boston. Benjamin W. Crowninshield was born on December 27, 1772 in the Province of Massachusetts to George and Mary Crowninshield. His father was a sea captain and merchant, occupations that Crowninshield also held during his life. In 1804, at the age of 32, he married Mary Boardman and together they were the parents of nine children. Benjamin Williams Crowninshield began his political career when he was elected to the Massachusetts House of Representatives in 1811 and the Massachusetts State Senate in 1812. He was Secretary of the Navy (1815-1818) under Presidents Madison and Monroe and a member of the United States House of Representatives from Massachusetts, (1823-1831). His older brother (two years) was also a member of the House of Representatives from 1803 to 1805 and was offered the position of Secretary of the Navy in 1805 by President Thomas Jefferson, but Poor health prevented his acceptance and he died in 1808 at the age of 38. Crowninshield died on February 3, 1851 in Boston at the age of 78. George Clymer Benjamin Williams Crowninshield SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 230 Robert Perkins Letcher March 29, 1826. Payable to Hon. R. P. Letcher, $458.54. Endorsed on reverse by Letcher. Letcher was born on February 10, 1788 in Goochland, Virginia. He first married Mary Epps Oden in 1815, but she died a year later in 1816. He then married Charlotte Robertson in 1818. Neither marriage produced any children. Robert Perkins Letcher was a member of the Kentucky House of Representatives (1813-1815, 1817-1821), a member of the United States House of Representatives from Kentucky (1823-1833 and 1834-1835), Governor of Kentucky (1840-1844) and United States Ambassador to Mexico under President Zachary Taylor (1849-1852). Letcher was a lawyer by training and he practiced most of his career in Frankfort, Kentucky. He died on January 24, 1861 in Frankfort. Edward Bates January 29,1828. Payable to Honorable Edward Bates, $241. Endorsed to David Kyle on reverse. Kyle was born in Ireland around 1801 and came to the United States in 1812. He was a merchant in Richmond, Virginia at the time this check was received. Edward Bates was born on September 4, 1793 in Goochland County (Richmond area), Virginia to Thomas Fleming Bates and Caroline Woodson. Growing up on the family’s plantation, Bates was tutored at home but later attended Charlotte Hall Military Academy in Maryland. He later served in the War of 1812 before moving to the Missouri Territory with an older brother. In 1823 at the age of 30, Bates married Julia Barton, 14 years his junior and they had 17 children and nine living to adulthood. He practiced law for most of his career in Missouri. His oldest brother had established himself in the area as Secretary of the Louisiana Territory. His political career began as a member of the Missouri House of Representatives, followed by election to the United States House of Representatives in 1827 for one term. He was also elected to the Missouri Senate (1831 to 1935) and again to the Missouri House of Representatives in 1835. Bates was Attorney General of Missouri (1820-1821), and United States Attorney General under President Lincoln (1861-1864). He had previously declined an offer to be Secretary of War under President Millard Fillmore (1850-1853). Bates died in St. Louis, March 25, 1869 at the age of 76. Robert P. Letcher EDWARD BATES SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 231 Richard Rush February 20, 1828. Washington. Payable to Honorable Richard Rush, $132.50. Endorsed on the reverse to his mother, Julia Rush of Philadelphia. Julia died twenty years later in 1848 at the age of 101! Rush was born on August 29, 1780 in Philadelphia to Dr. Richad Rush, a signer of the Declaration of Independence. He attended the College of New Jersey (now Princeton University) and graduated in 1797. After studying law, he was admitted to the Bar in 1800. He married Catherine Murray in 1809 and they had eight children. Rush began his political career in 1811 with an appointment as Attorney General of Pennsylvania in 1811. He was also appointed Attorney General of the U.S. (1814-1817) under Presidents Madison and Monroe, Acting United States Secretary of State (1817), U.S. Minister to United Kingdom (1818-1825) under Presidents Monroe and Adams, Secretary of the Treasury under President Adams (1825-1829), and Minister to France (1847-49) under Presidents Polk and Taylor. He also served on the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution. He died on July 30, 1859 in Philadelphia at the age of 78. Henry Hubbard June 24, 1831. Payable to Honorable Henry Hubbard, $50. Issued in Washington, but to be cashed at the Boston branch. Endorsed on reverse to Waldo Flint, who endorsed it to H. G. Henshaw. Henshaw cashed it. Henry Hubbard was born on May 3, 1784 in Charlestown, New Hampshire. After home schooling and private tutors, he enrolled at Dartmouth College and graduated in 1803. He was admitted to the bar around 1806. In 1813, Hubbard married Sally Walker and they had five children. Sally was 18 and Henry was 29 years old. He began his political career as “Town Moderator”, an office he would hold a total of sixteen times over his career. In 1812 he was elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives, and was re-elected in 1819, 1823 and 1825. In 1829 he was elected to the United States House of Representatives and re-elected in 1831 and in 1833. In 1835, he was elected to the United States Senate from New Hampshire and re-elected in 1837 and 1839. In 1842, he was elected Governor of New Hampshire and was re-elected in 1843. Following a period in Boston from 1846 to 1849 as “sub treasurer”, he returned to Charlestown to practice law and died there on June 5, 1857 at the age of 73. The check was endorsed to Waldo Flint (1794-1879, son of Austin and Elizabeth Henshaw Flint. Flint graduated from Harvard College in 1814 and studied law with Lewis Strong in Northampton, Massachusetts. He began his practice of law in Boston in 1818. In 1828 he married Catharine Dean and they were childless. Flint was a state representative for two terms (1830 and 1833) and a state senator (1835 and 1836). After a year as a bank Richard Rush Henry Hubbard SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 232 commissioner, he accepted a position with Eagle Bank in Boston, eventually rising to the position as President. He died in 1879 in Boston at the age of 85. The last endorsement is to a H. G. Henshaw, who is Horatio Gates Henshaw, a half-brother to Flint’s mother, Elizabeth Henshaw Flint. Joseph M. Harper February 20, 1833. Boston. Payable to Honorable J. M. Harper. Endorsed on the reverse to E. S. Foule, who endorsed it to John George who endorsed it to Charles Sprague who endorsed it to Samuel Lordbash? Signed at the very bottom reverse in light pen, Charles Sprague, cashier. Sprague was a bank cashier for the Globe Bank of Boston. He was also known as “Banker Poet”. Joseph M. Harper was born on June 21, 1787 in Limerick, Maine. In 1816 at the age of 28 he married Elisabeth Clough in New Hampshire. They had three children. Harper was a Member of the New Hampshire House of Representatives (1826- 1827), Member of the New Hampshire State Senate (1830-1831), Acting Governor of New Hampshire (1831), Member of the United States House of Representatives from New Hampshire (1831-1835), and President of the Mechanics Bank of Concord (1847- 1856). He began the practice of medicine in 1810 in Sanbornton, New Hampshire and later practiced in Canterbury, New Hampshire. He served as an assistant surgeon during the War of 1812. He died on January 15, 1865 at the age of 78 and was buried in Canterbury, New Hampshire. William Taylor Barry February 27, 1833.Washington. Check payable to the Honorable Wm. T. Barry, $100. Endorsed on reverse to C. A. Wickliffe. William T. Barry was born on February 5, 1784 in Lunenburg, Virginia to John Barry and Susannah Dozier Barry. The family migrated to Kentucky, and Barry attended various schools including Transylvania University in Lexington. He graduated from William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia in 1803 and after studying for the bar, was admitted in 1805. He began his practice of law in Jessamine County, Kentucky and later moved to Lexington. Barry married twice, once in 1805 to Lucy Overton and they had one daughter. After her apparent death, he was married in 1812 to Catherine Mason, and they had two boys. Joseph M. Harper SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 233 Barry was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives (Kentucky), United States Senator from Kentucky, Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky, Secretary of State of Kentucky and United States Postmaster General. He was also appointed Ambasator to Spain, but died in England on August 30, 1835 enroute to that assignment. He was 51 years old. It is interesting to note that on the reverse in very light writing is the line “P.W. Gen. Andrew Jackson”. At the time of this check, Jackson was President (1829-1837) of the United States. It does not appear to be a signature and its purpose is a mystery. The person to whom Barry endorsed this check, Charles A. Wickliffe, was also a prominent politician. Wickliffe was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Kentucky (1823-1833), Lieutenant Governor of Kentucky (1836-1839) Acting Governor of Kentucky (1839-1840), and United States Postmaster General (1841-1845). He was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives (1861-1863). Wickliffe married Margaret Crepps in 1813 and the couple had eight children. One of the sons, Robert, became Governor of the State of Louisianna, serving from 1856 to 1860. Edward Kavanagh February 27, 1833. Payable to Honorable Edward Kavanagh, $722. Endorsed on reverse by Edwad Kavanagh. Edward Kavanagh was born on April 27, 1795 in New Castle, Maine. His father, James Kavanagh, emigrated from Ireland to Boston in 1780 and engaged in the lumber business. Edward was educated in Georgetown, D.C. and graduated from the Montreal Seminary in 1820. He studied law and practiced in Damariscotta, Maine. He was a member of the Maine House of Representatives (1826-1828), Member of the United States House of Representatives from Maine (1831-1835), Charge’ d’ Affaires to Portugal (1835- 1841), Member of the Maine Senate (1842-1843), President of the Maine Senate (1843), and Governor of Maine (1843-1844). He died in Newcastle on January 22, 1844 at the age of 48. He never married. Richard A. Smith, Cashier While Smith was not a “notable politician”, he was the cashier of the Bank of the United States on eight of the above checks and, for the sake of completeness is included here. He was born on May 18, 1786 in Georgetown, District of Columbia to Walter and Esther Smith. He had seven younger brothers and sisters. His father, who died when he was just 10 years old, was reported to have been a “revolutionary officer”. He also had an uncle who was a Lieutenant in the Revolutionary War. Smith married Covington Mackall in 1811 when he was 25 and she was 16 years old. Together they had four daughters. In 1817, Smith was “selected” to be cashier at the second Bank of the United States. He stayed with the William T. Barry Charles A. Wickliffe Edward Kavanaugh SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 234 Bank until he realized that President Andrew Jackson was not likely to renew the Bank’s charter which was set to expire in 1836. At that time, Smith became the cashier at the Bank of the Metropolis in the District of Columbia. He continued in this capacity until his death on March 29, 1864. No image of Richard D. Smith could be located. I wish to gratefully acknowledge the helpful assistance of Judy Haywood in the preparation of this manuscript. Sources Barry, William Taylor. Public Family Tree. Ancestry.com. _________. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_T._Barry. Bates, Edward. Public Family Tree. Ancestry.com __________.https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bates. __________. www.findagrave.com/memorial/19372/edward-bates? Clymer, George. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Clymer. __________. Public Family Tree. Ancestry.com. __________. www.findagrave.com/memorial/2768/george-clymer __________. “Descendants of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence, “ www.dsdi1776.com/signer/george-clymer. Crowninshield, Benjamin Williams. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Williams_Crowninshield. Harper, Joseph Morrill. Public Family Tree. Ancestry.com. __________. www.nga.org/governor/joseph-morrill-harper. Kavanagh, Edward. www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Kavanagh. Letcher, Robert Perkins. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_P._Letcher Rolnick, Arthur J. and Warren E. Weber, “New Evidence on the Free Banking Era,” The American Economic Review, December 1983, pp. 1080-1091. Rush, Richard. www.findagrave.com/memorial/22740/richard_rush. Smith, Richard. Public Family Tree, Ancestry.com. Wickliffe, Charles A. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_A._Wickliffe www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Bank_of_the_United_States. SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 235 The 210 from Yuma (A Unique “Territorial” Postal Note from Yuma Arizona) By Bob Laub, Formatting by Skye. “Territorial” Clarification: When series 1883-1894 Postal Notes officially commenced Monday September 3rd, 1883, our country was represented by only 38 states. When the series came to a close Saturday June 30th, 1894, the number of current states had expanded to 44. Our young nation was definitely experiencing its fair share of growing pains. Prior to statehood, geographic regions were known as Territories, with the only exception being Alaska District. That area was previously Russian America (1784-1867). Then went on to become Department of Alaska (1867-1884), and finally the District of Alaska (1884-1912). With admission into the Union as the 49th state, January 3rd, 1959. (Only four Alaska District Postal Notes are known). Arizona was a Territory throughout the12-year series of postal notes. Achieving statehood as our nation’s 48th state, and the last of the continuous states to do so, February 14th, 1912. That coming 18-years after postal notes had already gone the way of the Dodo. Arizona was not alone in its journey towards statehood, after postal notes ended. It shared a similar distinction with Utah (Jan. 4th, 1896), Oklahoma (Nov. 16th, 1907), and New Mexico (Jan. 6th, 1912). All three regions, like Arizona, only issued Territorial Postal Notes. Given the fragile nature of most paper items (ephemera), these were not printed to last 130-years, (more like 130-days), also taking into account the region of the country The Wild West, it’s nothing shy of a miracle of survival, due in no small part to being put aside by caring collectors from a bygone era. Brief Postal History of Yuma: Yuma Arizona Post Office was established October 1st, 1866. The name then changed to Arizona City, October 28th, 1869. Arizona City was then renamed back to Yuma, April 14, 1873. Arizona city was already a Money Order Office, designated as such August 1st, 1870. Therefore, Yuma was a Money Order Office as of the first day of operation under its second use of that name. (April 14th, 1873). The postmasters name, which appears on this note, is that of O.F. Townsend. According to the Official Registers, which designates original records of postmaster appointments at the National Archives and Records Administration: Postmaster Townsend was appointed to his position December 15th, 1881, with an annual compensation of $1,000. Once a postmasters’ initial salary was stipulated to be $1,000 or more, his/her governmental position had to be approved by the President, and then the Senate. His annual salary as of July 1885 was reduced to $925.25. Mistakenly, I assumed a drop in a postmasters’ annual salary was in direct response to some disciplinary action, possibly due to a postal infraction of sorts. Until recently I had no idea a postmasters’ salary was in direct proportion to total annual sales from his/her individual post office. This Type I Yuma Postal Note, as with all Type I, and Type II notes, had to have a predetermined cash-in city designated at the time of issue. This was an implemented safe guard in case the note went astray in route, by some nefarious individuals. It is interesting to see the cash-in city is Yuma, AZ, rubber stamped accordingly on the central portion of the obverse. (YUMA ARIZ). Another interesting aspect: Of the 24 Type I Tucson notes, and the Type I from Yuma, this is the only one which has a discernable issuing date stamp. (Jan. 14th, 1885) Also not to be overlooked, the issued value was only two-cents. This amount is written on the obverse, lower center, which helps eliminate some of the confusion brought about by the incorrect punch cancelling in the value columns. (upper right side, obverse). SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 236 Arizona Postal Notes: Prior to 1985 there was not even a whisper of a hint of a postal note surviving from Arizona Territory. The intention of the government was never to have had these one-time usage documents retain a survivability of more than a few months. In 1985, during one of the Long Beach, California Coin, and Stamp Conventions, that all changed. An unidentified man offered a group of possibly two-dozen Type I (yellow paper) postal notes to a number of different dealers. The man said he acquired the notes from the liquidation of a post office building. Those notes, all from Tucson Arizona, were punched-canceled September, 1883, but were lacking any issuing date stamp. All the notes were in a serial numbered range between 26, and 63. Even with todays limited collector base for postal notes, I am quite sure the news of such a discovery group from a major show traveled quickly. Oh to have been the proverbial fly on the wall at that show, WOW. Along with this newly discovered Yuma note there are two other Arizona locations which are also both unique. A serial number 2007 Type V from Bisbee, AZ, issued for two-cents, May 7th, 1894. That note was recorded in the late Jim Noll’s seventh, and final edition of his census (June 2004). The other discovery note, also a Type V, was issued from Fort Grant, Arizona on December 7th, 1892, with serial number 672. That note is also unique in another way as it is the only Arizona Territory note above a souvenir amount, (one-cent to five-cents) at 75-cents. A true miracle survivor. I am sure the purchased intention was not to be retained as a pricy keep sake, rather utilized for a commercial venue, or possibly even an early Christmas gift. (only 18-days away). In Conclusion: This Yuma note bears serial # 210, so the title I chose is The 210 from Yuma. Most of the Yuma, Arizona mail likely exited, or entered the town by train. The title is simply a play on words utilizing the Yuma notes available information. (Not intended to have any association with the 2017 blockbuster movie “The 3:10 to Yuma”). (A special thanks goes out to fellow collector Kent Halland who generously provided me with some of the information needed, as well as his creative suggestion for the article title. Well done!!!) Hope you enjoyed this short articles brief presentation which discusses the degree of rarity encompassed with Arizona Territorial Postal Notes. Any questions, or comments can be directed to me at: briveadus2012@yahoo.com. I am also interested in hearing about any postal notes you may have as well. Many thanks. This scan shows the obverse of a unique Territorial Postal note from Yuma, AZ. The current census for Arizona postal notes stands at 27. Of that number, 24 are from Tucson with the other three locations being unique. This is the reverse image of the Arizona note. Unlike Types II-V postal notes, a Type I (yellow paper) has no printed information regarding the note on the reverse side. It is being shown as the design is nothing like anything else in U.S. currency. A fine example of the workmanship implemented during the four-year printing contract from the Homer Lee Bank Note Co. of NY (Aug. 15,1883-Aug. 14, 1887. SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 237 $MALL NOTE$ “SPECIAL PROCEDURE FOR DESTRUCTION:” THE FATE OF UNUSED SERIES OF 1928 FEDERAL RESERVE NOTES By Jamie Yakes ne evening in the early days of February 1946, Treasury Secretary Fred Vinson settled into his office chair and opened a letter from his fiscal assistant secretary, Edward Bartelt: “There are now being held in the Treasury and by the Federal Reserve Agents inactive reserve stocks of unissued new Federal Reserve Notes, Series 1928, with a face value of over four billion dollars,” he’d written, that “bear on their face the clause ‘redeemable in gold on de- mand at the United States Treasury, or in gold or lawful money at any Federal Reserve Bank.’” Bartelt was referring to the millions of unused Series of 1928 Federal Reserve Notes stored in vaults at the Bu- reau of Engraving and Printing (BEP) and Federal Reserve banks. They had been there for over a decade, since Con- gress passed the Gold Reserve Act (GRA) in January 1934, a crucial New Deal law that, among other provisions, ended redemption of U.S. currency for gold.1 The redeemable-for-gold 1928 notes contradicted the new law, so the Treasury Department needed to replace them with a new series of notes. Those became the Series of 1934. Rendered obsolete by the GRA, unused 1928 notes awaited their fate, a decision that didn’t come from Congress, but instead came from treasury officials who, after twelve years, had tired of managing the notes. A few months after Bartelt’s letter, following a procedure developed by him and approved by Vinson, special committees destroyed the notes, an amount that encompassed over one-quarter of the $14.5 billion of them printed (Table 1). This article will reveal how officials and employees of the Treasury, Federal Reserve, and BEP, accomplished this decluttering. Replacements Federal Reserve notes were authorized in the 1913 Federal Reserve Act (FRA). The notes were structured as an elastic currency that would fluctuate in volume with economic needs. This expansion and contraction of the money supply was designed to prevent or ease the types of financial crises not previously remedied by the inelastic currencies that existed.2 Federal Reserve notes were backed by soft assets, such as commercial paper, and by gold reserves. The FRA stipulated they could be redeemed for gold, a distinction that became crucial in the 1930s (Fig. 1). The first notes is- sued were Series of 1914s in October of that year. Within fifteen years they would be replaced by 1928s when the Treasury transitioned from large-size to small-size notes. Over the span of seven years from 1928, the BEP printed over one billion 1928 notes, in face values from five to ten thousand dollars. They began with sheets of New York fives in September 1928, and ended with the final deliver- ies, San Francisco fives and Atlanta twenties, in October 1935. The first notes they numbered were Boston fives in O Denom. Printed Shipped to Banks Destroyed Dest. of Printed $5 $2,336,220,000 $1,810,120,000 $526,100,000 22.5% $10 $3,395,040,000 $3,275,760,000 $119,280,000 3.5% $20 $3,386,400,000 $2,748,880,000 $637,520,000 18.8% $50 $1,371,600,000 $698,830,000 $672,770,000 49.1% $100 $1,752,000,000 $996,170,000 $755,830,000 43.1% $500 $950,160,000 $307,140,000 $643,020,000 67.7% $1,000 $1,158,196,000 $537,296,000 $620,900,000 53.6% $5,000 $81,840,000 $24,115,000 $57,725,000 70.5% $10,000 $110,880,000 $40,170,000 $70,710,000 63.8% Totals $14,542,336,000 $10,438,481,000 $4,103,855,000 28.2% Table 1. Series of 1928 Federal Reserve notes printed, shipped to Federal Reserve banks, and destroyed. Sources: Shafer (1967); Report: 1928 Series Federal Reserve Notes Held by Agents (1946); Report: Federal Reserve Notes‐ Series 1928, Destroyed by Special Destruction Committee (1946). SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 238 January 1929. The Federal Reserve banks began circulating the notes in July that year, and would stop issuing them at the end of 1935. During the 1930s, gold became a main source of the capital required by the Roosevelt administration to fund their New Deal agenda. The GRA ended redemption of all U.S. currency for gold, allowing the Treasury, which owned much of the nation’s gold stocks, to increase its monetary value and literally create money from nothing.3 The GRA also amended the FRA so that Federal Reserve notes could be redeemed only in lawful money, essentially legal tender notes. Under the new law, 1928s were illegal to issue, and Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board faced the arduous task of replacing them with 1934s, the first Federal Reserve notes not redeemable for gold (Fig. 2). The BEP needed to quickly produce intaglio plates for 1934 notes, and then print, number, seal, and ship the notes to the banks. Aware of the upcoming new law, they had begun that process in Jan- uary by altering 1928-series dies into 1934 dies. By July they had produced full face rolls and started creating twelve- subject intaglio faces. Later that month they certified the first faces, New York fives, tens, and twenties; in September they printed the first sheets, New York fives; and in October they delivered the first finished notes, New York tens. Until they could provide enough 1934 notes for the banks to maintain their circulations, the BEP would have to continue supplying them 1928s. Though printing of new 1928 sheets had ceased in February 1934, numbering and sealing of incomplete sheets continued until late 1935. This provided the BEP a steady supply of finished 1928s as they ramped up production and deliveries of 1934s. In addition to the BEP’s stocks, federal reserve agents had their own stocks of unissued 1928 notes. The agents worked at each bank as representatives of the secretary of the treasury and comptroller of the currency, and among other fiscal duties managed ordering and disbursement of new notes for their districts. Even after they had begun re- ceiving 1934s, they continued to order and issue 1928s until otherwise instructed. That official cease-and-desist order would finally come in 1936. Decisions By late 1935, the BEP had produced a sufficient amount of 1934 notes. That December, Treasury Secretary Hen- ry Morgenthau proposed to the Federal Reserve Board that issuance of 1928 notes “should be discontinued,” and if the banks would stop ordering and issuing them he’d further instruct the BEP to stop producing them.4 A week later, Mariner Eccles, Federal Reserve Board chairman, assured Morgenthau the banks and Board agreed with his sugges- tion, implying they had enough 1934s.5 An agreement in place, early the following January Treasury Under-Secretary T. J. Coolidge informed Eccles that production of 1928s had ceased.6 Aware of this, on January 20th, Chester Morrill, the Federal Reserve Board’s secretary, directed each agent to is- sue no more 1928 notes when they had enough 1934s to meet the demands of their districts.7 He wanted the banks issuing 1934s and instructed them to submit requisitions for sufficient amounts of whatever denominations they need- ed. The BEP was ready to meet their demands: In addition to notes already shipped, they had over $1 billion of fin- ished 1934s ready to ship, mostly fives to hundreds, and orders for $566 million more.8,9 When issuance of 1928 notes officially ended, agents collectively held $1.3 billion of unissued notes, while the BEP had $2.8 billion and also $383 million of incomplete sheets. The GRA didn’t provide funding to replace the 1928s, and treasury and federal reserve officials dithered about who would pay the estimated $1.8 million to replace them. By law, Treasury billed the banks for Federal Reserve notes and assumed the same for orders of 1934s. But the banks argued that Congress’s actions, and none of the Federal Reserve Board, had invalidated the 1928s, and they felt the Treasury should foot the bill. Congress considered the matter not their problem and ignored it. Figure 1 (T): Gold clause on 1928 notes.   Figure 2 (B): Legal tender clause on 1934 notes.   SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 239 Bartelt recounted the hassle to Vinson in February 1946. Ten years earlier, in April, shortly after the cease-and- desist order, the Chairman of the House Appropriations Committee considered a joint resolution to replace the notes at Congress’s expense.10 The committee’s resolution stemmed from a request Morgenthau had made the prior De- cember to procure funds from Congress to print and ship new 1934 notes to replace unissued 1928s. But that session of Congress deferred to the next session, mainly to avoid reigniting criticism of the Roosevelt administration’s radical monetary and fiscal policies.11 The following year, in May, a similar bill was referred to the House Committee of Banking and Currency, but Congress again avoided negotiating the issue. The matter remained unresolved until October 1945, when the Federal Reserve Board, assuming funding would never materialize, petitioned the Treasury to destroy the 1928 notes to make room in the banks’ vaults. Bartelt also foresaw the benefits of absolving the BEP’s and agents’ staffs of the responsibility of continually accounting for their stocks. Although the notes had not been used for over a decade, they still were government obligations that required routine auditing and handling. Bartelt proposed to Vinson that “to dispose of these [1928] notes and relieve the present custodians from ac- countability thereof . . . they be destroyed in accordance with the attached Special Procedure for Destruction of Fed- eral Reserve Notes, Series 1928 [emphasis added].”12 Under this procedure, everything was to be destroyed except a single unnumbered sheet of each denomination. Vinson agreed, and on February 11, 1946, signed off on the plan. The “Special Procedure” Bartelt’s plan outlined straightforward procedures designed to ensure that every 1928 note and sheet was ac- counted for and destroyed. Dedicated committees at the BEP and at each bank, composed of delegates from various treasury departments and led by a chairman, managed the separate components of the plan.13 The committees supervised as custodians transferred packages of notes or groups of sheets to designated rooms within each facility; inventoried every package and counted every sheet before custodians tossed them into the fur- naces; verified everything inventoried had been annihilated, and compiled reports listing the series, banks, denomina- tions, package numbers, serial numbers, quantity of notes, and monetary amounts; and, when destruction of their stocks were complete, submitted to the Treasury and Federal Reserve Board final statements summarizing the face amounts by bank and denomination, including the number of packages, notes, and sheets. Incineration was the Treasury’s preferred method to destroy currency. A secret service agent, after inspecting the Bureau’s incinerator room during development of the plan, described how it worked:14 The incinerator is composed of three separate furnaces, all feeding into the same flues and smokestack. Each furnace has a heavy cast metal feed door located on the basement floor of the Annex [of the BEP], and the fur- naces all open into a locked room in the sub-basement. It is at this level that the combustion chambers are lo- cated and that the ashes are extracted following the destruction. When the material to be destroyed has been inserted through the feed door on the basement level, it falls into the combustion chamber, approximately fif- teen feet below, where it burns, due to its noncombustible properties, without any flame or outside fuel being added to support combustion. Combustion takes place primarily on the rear of the firebox near the smoke- stack, and it is necessary during the burning process for laborers to push the material back to the rear of the furnace at least once during each burning period. As the burning proceeds, the combustible gases, and such fragments of notes or paper as may be carried by the draft, are forced through white hot baffle boards and plates where the fragments of paper are broken up and the gases burned. The resulting gas and a small amount of fine residue then pass through a passage and enter the smokestack which terminates above the roof of the Bureau Annex. The top of the stack contains a metal screen of approximately three-quarter inch mesh which acts as a safeguard in case any pieces of paper should reach that point before being completely burned to a fine ash. Designees of the Bureau of the Public Debt, Comptroller of the Currency, BEP, Division of Public Debt Accounts and Audit, and Secret Service comprised the committee that oversaw the BEP’s unissued stocks of finished notes. SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 240 Peter E. Dolan, a Bureau of Public Debt employee, served as chairman. He summarized the committee’s actions to Bartelt on June 20th, the day the committee finished its work.15 They began May 6th and over the next seven weeks destroyed 35,428 packages containing 116,658,600 five to ten-thousand dollar notes valued at $2,812,100,000. The incomplete-sheets committee included delegates from the same departments as the finished-notes committee, except for an assignee from the Division of Loans and Currency in place of someone from the Bureau of Public Debt. Chairman was Robert B. McCandless of the Comptroller of the Currency’s office. He reported that over the four days beginning March 19th the committee burned 682,539 sheets of every denomination with a total face value of $382,506,280, and also destroyed 486,020 star notes received from the BEP’s numbering division.16 They saved nine unnumbered sheets: fives and fifties from Chicago; tens and thousands from Boston; twenties and hundreds from Cleveland; five-hundreds from San Francisco; and five-thousands and ten-thousands from Richmond.17 Each bank and their branches had committees composed of members designated by the comptroller, the bank’s agent and president, and the chief of secret service. Unissued stocks managed by the agents amounted to $1,291,755,000. Not included in that amount were packages of notes previously issued to branch banks and returned to the main banks, and fit notes held by the agents.18 No bank shipped notes to the BEP to be destroyed. Those with incinerators destroyed their notes on site. Those without incinerators arranged to use a furnace at a local industrial facility or crematorium, or, as the Pittsburgh (Cleveland) branch bank did, one at a local post office. As with any process, things can go awry. In July 1946, Bartelt reported to the Secret Service about an unknown quantity of notes from the San Antonio (Dallas) branch bank that had “escaped burning completely by being blown out of the incinerator stack or elsewhere.”19 Branch employees recovered just over two hundred. In August, more burnt notes were found, including a fifty with serial K00262111A and a hundred with serial K00197026A, and both were destroyed at the bank. In September a contractor found a 1928A $100 with serial K00193300A on the roof of a federal building and gave it to a local secret service agent. The agent sent it to the San Antonio bank’s vice president who promptly forwarded it to the Treasury as another that had “evidently escaped through the smokestack.”20,21 Final Tally The destruction committees destroyed 172 million 1928 notes of every district and denomination. Table 2 lists the amounts of those notes held by the BEP and by each agent. During the time the notes circulated, the banks issued a bit more than four-fifths of the total printed: three of four low-value notes, mostly fives, tens, and twenties, including nearly all the tens; and less than half of the high-value notes, the least being five-thousands. Most agents issued anywhere from sixty to eighty percent of their notes. St. Louis’s agent issued the most at eighty-five percent, and Dallas’s the least at fifty-four percent. Of the 102 types of 1928 notes, (e.g., a Boston five) only eight were entirely issued, that is none held by the BEP or agents, and half were tens. (Series of 1928 $5,000 or $10,000 notes weren’t printed for Philadelphia, St. Louis, or Minneapolis.) When the BEP fulfilled orders for the banks, they sent packages of notes by order of the serial numbers. From this we can confidently know the serial number ranges for every type of 1928 note that never left the BEP and was destroyed in 1946, and more importantly, which numbers got to the banks. This information is listed in Table 3, and will help collectors comprehend their observations of the types they have and haven’t seen. In Table 3, agents’ stocks are listed as a quantity of notes instead of a range of serial numbers. Agents, and their branches, didn’t always issue their notes in serial number order, so their unissued stocks may not have been consecutive. Because of this, the serial number ranges of the agents’ stocks can’t be precisely calculat- ed. Consider this when observing various types, especially where an agent had a large quantity of notes. For example, the Chicago agent and the BEP each had one million of unissued hundreds—half of that type printed—but only half of those serial numbers are represented in Table 3. Most of the destroyed notes were Woods-Mellon notes with lettered district seals (either Series of 1928, 1928A, or 1928B, depending on the denomination), Series of 1928Cs and 1928Ds, and the popular yellow-green seals. Most SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 241 types were affected by destruction, and often entire types were destroyed. Although in-depth discussions about specif- ic types will be featured in future articles, here is a broad explanation. In some cases entire types went up the smokestacks. This includes all the 1928C Cleveland and San Francisco $5s, and 1928C Atlanta $10s. Every San Francisco five-thousand dollar note was incinerated: Of the 1,224 printed, the BEP held 744, and the agent had the other 480. Gone, too, were the 3.26 million New York fives with B-B block serials, the only 1928 type to use a B-suffix in the serial number. Some types are scarce because either the BEP delivered very few to the banks, or the banks and their branches is- sued very few into circulation. Consider 1928B Atlanta $20s, of which about 2.1 million were numbered starting at serial F05136001A. The BEP’s undelivered stocks began at serial number F05580001A, so they had sent 440,000 to Atlanta’s agent, who issued all of them. The balance of 1.7 million was destroyed. Because of this, 1928B Atlanta $20s are scarcer than expected, and there are others that will fit this pattern. Survival of the yellow-green seals has piqued the interest of many collectors. The BEP used varied ink colors to print the treas- ury seals and serial numbers on 1928 notes. What had begun as a matte dark green ink in 1928, gradually changed to a luminescent yellow-green ink by late 1932 (Fig. 3). A yellow-green seal type will exist today only if those notes got sent to the banks and the agents issued them. Issued abundantly were most yellow-green seal tens and twenties, and the few availa- ble districts for fives and fifties. Nonexistent types, such as most fives and fifties, and others, such as Dallas tens and Atlanta twen- ties, either weren’t delivered to the banks or never issued by them. The Exit The Gold Reserve Act ended gold’s function as a public money in the United States, and any currency that stated direct redeemabil- ity for gold had to be replaced in circulation. Government agencies dutifully followed the law and eventually stopped issued 1928 Fed- eral Reserve Notes. In the ensuing decade, federal reserve officials often requested approval to use unissued 1928s for emergencies, but no evidence suggests that happened. After all, the gold clause on the note’s faces was a constant deterrence. Tired of babysitting the 1928 notes and dispirited by Congress’s inaction to relieve them of that duty, treasury and federal reserve officials took it upon themselves to finally dispose of those “large stocks of ‘dead currency.’”22 Their actions from eighty years ago have sparked collectors today to pursue those challenging notes and dream of those that are unobtainable. When I collected fives, I yearned for a New York B-B note. Others might hope that a rogue 1928C Cleveland or Chicago note has survived. Any of them would be a miracle, like a phoenix reborn from its ashes. ⁕ Sources Cited: 1. To learn more about how New Deal monetary policies affected U.S. currency, see “Creation of Money during the Great De- pression: The Greatest Tectonic shift in Federal Currency in U.S. History,” by Peter Huntoon. (Paper Money, Whole No. 266 (2010, Mar/Apr): 90.) 2. Huntoon, P., et al. “The Series of 1914 and 1918 Federal Reserve Notes.” Paper Money, Whole No. 279 (2012, May/Jun): 181. 3. See Huntoon, “Creation of Money during the Great Depression: The Greatest Tectonic shift in Federal Currency in U.S. Histo- ry.” 4. Morgenthau, H. to Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, December 13, 1935, correspondence. File frs- bog_mim_v44_0137.pdf, downloaded from https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/on August 8, 2023. 5. Eccles, M. to H. Morgenthau, December 20, 1935, correspondence. File frsbog_mim_v44_0137.pdf, downloaded from https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/on August 8, 2023. Figure 3. Seals on 1928 notes: Dark‐green (L) and  yellow‐green (R). Notes courtesy of R. Vogel.   SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 242 6. Coolidge, T. to M. Eccles, January 3, 1936, correspondence. File frsbog_mim_v44_0137.pdf, downloaded from https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/on August 8, 2023. 7. Morrill, C. to Federal Reserve Agents, January 20, 1936, correspondence. File frsbog_mim_v44_0137.pdf, downloaded from https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/on August 8, 2023. 8. Morrill, C. to Federal Reserve Agents, January 20, 1936, correspondence. File frsbog_mim_v44_0137.pdf, downloaded from https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/on August 8, 2023. 9. Morrill, C. to Federal Reserve Agents, January 20, 1936, correspondence. File frsbog_mim_v44_0137.pdf, downloaded from https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/on August 8, 2023. 10. Bartelt, E. to F. Vinson, February 1, 1946, correspondence. “Historical Files, 1913-1960,” Entry UD-UP 13, Box 9, File 422.1. Record Group 53: Bureau of the Public Debt. National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Mary- land. 11. Upham, C to C. Opper, April 15, 1936, correspondence. “Historical Files, 1913-1960,” Entry UD-UP 13, Box 9, File 422.1. Record Group 53: Bureau of the Public Debt. National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland. 12. Bartelt, E. to F. Vinson, February 1, 1946, correspondence. “Historical Files, 1913-1960,” Entry UD-UP 13, Box 9, File 422.1. Record Group 53: Bureau of the Public Debt. National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Mary- land. 13. Bartelt, E. to Fred Vinson, February 1, 1946, correspondence, appendix: Special Procedure for Destruction of Federal Re- serve Notes, Series-1928. “Historical Files, 1913-1960,” Entry UD-UP 13, Box 9, File 422.1. Record Group 53: Bureau of the Public Debt. National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland. 14. Baughman, U. to F. Wilson, February 28, 1946, correspondence. “Historical Files, 1913-1960,” Entry UD-UP 13, Box 9, File 422.1. Record Group 53: Bureau of the Public Debt. National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Mary- land. 15. Dolan, P. to E. Bartelt, June 20, 1946, correspondence. “Historical Files, 1913-1960,” Entry UD-UP 13, Box 9, File 422.1. Record Group 53: Bureau of the Public Debt. National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland. 16. Annual Report of the Director of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1946. Government Print- ing Office (1946), 32. 17. Destruction committee to E. Bartelt, March 22, 1946, consolidated report: destruction of incomplete Federal Reserve notes. “Historical Files, 1913-1960,” Entry UD-UP 13, Box 9, File 422.1. Record Group 53: Bureau of the Public Debt. National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland. 18. None of the correspondence review by this author listed amounts of notes in returned packages or amounts of fit notes held by the agents. 19. Bartelt, E. to J. Maloney, July 17, 1946, correspondence. “Historical Files, 1913-1960,” Entry UD-UP 13, Box 9, File 422.1. Record Group 53: Bureau of the Public Debt. National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland. 20. Ellis, C. to W. Holloway, September 12, 1946, correspondence. “Historical Files, 1913-1960,” Entry UD-UP 13, Box 9, File 422.1. Record Group 53: Bureau of the Public Debt. National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Mary- land. 21. Holloway, W. to J. Snyder, September 16, 1946, correspondence. “Historical Files, 1913-1960,” Entry UD-UP 13, Box 9, File 422.1. Record Group 53: Bureau of the Public Debt. National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland. 22. Bartelt, E. to F. Vinson, February 1, 1946, correspondence. “Historical Files, 1913-1960,” Entry UD-UP 13, Box 9, File 422.1. Record Group 53: Bureau of the Public Debt. National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Mary- land. Other Sources: Containers 135 and 146, “Ledgers Pertaining to Plates, Rolls, and Dies, 1870s-1960s,” Entry P1. Record Group 318: Records of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland. Report: 1928 Series Federal Reserve Notes Held by Agents, January 15, 1946. “Central Subject Files, 1913-1954,” Entry A1, Box 2602, File 422.1. Record Group 82: Records of the Federal Reserve System. National Archives and Records Administration, Col- lege Park, Maryland. Report: Federal Reserve Notes-Series 1928, Destroyed by Special Destruction Committee, June 20, 1946. “Historical Files, 1913- 1960,” Entry UD-UP 13, Box 9, File 422.1. Record Group 53: Records of the Bureau of the Public Debt. National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland. Shafer, N. A Guide Book of Modern United States Currency, 2nd Ed. Racine, WI: Whitman Publishing Company, 1967. SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 243 Table 2. Series of 1928 Federal Reserve Notes: Totals printed in 1928‐35, and amounts destroyed in 1946 (values in thousands).  $5 $10 $20 $50 $100 $500 $1,000 $5,000 $10,000 BOSTON Total printed $215,280 $439,440 $243,360 $108,000 $132,000 $42,000 $52,800 $4,800 $9,600 Amount held by BEP $47,880 $0 $46,560 $50,400 $50,400 $30,000 $30,000 $2,000 $0 Amount held by Agent $19,200 $15,040 $12,800 $19,400 $7,600 $4,000 $5,800 $1,600 $2,400 Total destroyed† $67,080 $15,040 $59,360 $69,800 $58,000 $34,000 $35,800 $3,600 $2,400 NEW YORK Total printed $516,300 $739,440 $630,000 $227,400 $352,800 $170,400 $199,200 $12,000 $24,000 Amount held by BEP $87,560 $0 $25,200 $30,000 $87,600 $64,800 $54,400 $0 $6,000 Amount held by Agent $64,140 $0 $25,040 $45,600 $29,600 $26,000 $24,400 $0 $4,000 Total destroyed $151,700 $0 $50,240 $75,600 $117,200 $90,800 $78,800 $0 $10,000 PHILADELPHIA Total printed $232,800 $325,200 $268,800 $168,600 $170,400 $63,000 $91,200 Amount held by BEP $36,780 $15,160 $50,320 $75,000 $78,000 $42,000 $50,400 Amount held by Agent $1,840 $0 $2,560 $14,000 $19,200 $9,600 $13,200 Total destroyed $38,620 $15,160 $52,880 $89,000 $97,200 $51,600 $63,600 CLEVELAND Total printed $211,740 $325,320 $448,320 $159,600 $121,200 $77,160 $76,200 $12,000 $6,000 Amount held by BEP $37,040 $19,120 $107,440 $41,400 $28,400 $39,300 $31,600 $6,000 $0 Amount held by Agent $23,580 $4,000 $16,240 $32,800 $29,400 $22,600 $20,600 $4,900 $0 Total destroyed $60,620 $23,120 $123,680 $74,200 $57,800 $61,900 $52,200 $10,900 $0 RICHMOND Total printed $111,120 $176,040 $193,200 $90,000 $82,800 $46,500 $55,200 $15,960 $19,920 Amount held by BEP $22,340 $0 $0 $41,600 $27,200 $28,500 $21,000 $9,000 $10,000 Amount held by Agent $4,700 $0 $0 $8,600 $13,200 $11,500 $6,200 $5,280 $4,280 Total destroyed $27,040 $0 $0 $50,200 $40,400 $40,000 $27,200 $14,280 $14,280 ATLANTA Total printed $150,120 $155,760 $148,320 $50,400 $61,200 $32,100 $44,400 $5,160 $10,320 Amount held by BEP $6,760 $9,520 $36,720 $23,200 $20,000 $19,600 $16,400 $4,000 $9,320 Amount held by Agent $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 $0 Total destroyed $6,760 $9,520 $36,720 $23,200 $20,000 $19,600 $16,400 $4,000 $9,320 CHICAGO Total printed $324,060 $551,040 $620,400 $318,000 $414,000 $316,500 $403,596 $22,200 $24,000 Amount held by BEP $65,280 $0 $114,000 $88,200 $96,800 $108,900 $135,200 $16,000 $20,000 Amount held by Agent $23,000 $0 $5,440 $67,200 $95,600 $88,200 $87,800 $0 $0 Total destroyed $88,280 $0 $119,440 $155,400 $192,400 $197,100 $223,000 $16,000 $20,000 ST. LOUIS Total printed $140,040 $153,600 $137,040 $54,600 $85,200 $46,200 $55,200 Amount held by BEP $0 $0 $8,480 $19,200 $24,800 $18,400 $15,200 Amount held by Agent $0 $0 $0 $2,200 $0 $9,000 $2,400 Total destroyed $0 $0 $8,480 $21,400 $24,800 $27,400 $17,600 MINNEAPOLIS Total printed $57,180 $91,200 $116,880 $31,800 $51,600 $22,200 $23,400 Amount held by BEP $7,180 $2,200 $34,080 $12,000 $22,400 $13,300 $13,000 Amount held by Agent $6,200 $0 $800 $12,400 $10,000 $6,200 $5,400 Total destroyed $13,380 $2,200 $34,880 $24,400 $32,400 $19,500 $18,400 KANSAS CITY Total printed $90,180 $116,400 $148,800 $49,800 $78,000 $45,900 $58,000 $2,400 $2,400 Amount held by BEP $27,640 $0 $26,720 $22,600 $26,000 $25,500 $23,600 $0 $0 Amount held by Agent $5,140 $1,920 $9,200 $11,200 $19,400 $12,250 $16,300 $1,780 $1,740 Total destroyed $32,780 $1,920 $35,920 $33,800 $45,400 $37,750 $39,900 $1,780 $1,740 DALLAS Total printed $68,760 $87,120 $87,600 $37,800 $42,000 $35,700 $36,600 $1,200 $2,400 Amount held by BEP $7,760 $9,240 $22,640 $22,600 $20,000 $24,600 $23,400 $1,000 $2,000 Amount held by Agent $6,420 $9,400 $11,200 $7,970 $8,230 $6,170 $2,400 $45 $0 Total destroyed $14,180 $18,640 $33,840 $30,570 $28,230 $30,770 $25,800 $1,045 $2,000 SAN FRANCISCO Total printed $218,640 $234,480 $343,680 $75,600 $160,800 $52,500 $62,400 $6,120 $12,240 Amount held by BEP $12,260 $0 $13,440 $11,800 $26,400 $21,600 $17,200 $3,720 $9,840 Amount held by Agent $13,400 $33,680 $68,640 $13,400 $15,600 $11,000 $5,000 $2,400 $1,130 Total destroyed $25,660 $33,680 $82,080 $25,200 $42,000 $32,600 $22,200 $6,120 $10,970 None printed None printed None printed †Sum of amounts held by BEP and by Agents. Sources: Shafer (1967); Report: 1928 Series Federal Reserve Notes Held by Agents (1946); Report: Federal Reserve Notes‐Series 1928, Destroyed by Special  Destruction Committee  (1946). SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 244 $5 $10 $20 $50 $100 $500 $1,000 $5,000 $10,000 BOSTON High serial printed A43056000A A43944000A A12168000A A02160000A A01320000A A00084000A A00052800A A00000960A A00000960A Low serial  held by BEP A33480001A None A09840001A A01152001A A00816001A A00024001A A00022801A A00000561A None Qty. notes held by Agent 3,840,000 1,504,000 640,000 388,000 76,000 8,000 5,800 320 240 NEW YORK High serial printed B03260000B‡ B73944000A B31500000A B04548000A B03528000A B00340800A B00199200A B00002400A B00002400A Low serial  held by BEP B85748001A None B30240001A B03948001A B02652001A B00211201A B00144801A None B00001801A Qty. notes held by Agent 12,828,000 0 1,252,000 912,000 296,000 52,000 24,400 0 400 PHILADELPHIA High serial printed C46560000A C32520000A C13440000A C03372000A C01704000A C00126000A C00091200A Low serial  held by BEP C39204001A C31004001A C10924001A C01872001A C00924001A C00042001A C00040801A Qty. notes held by Agent 368,000 0 128,000 280,000 192,000 19,200 13,200 CLEVELAND High serial printed D42348000A D32532000A D22416000A D03192000A D01212000A D00154320A D00076200A D00002400A D00000600A Low serial  held by BEP D34940001A D30620001A D17044001A D02364001A D00928001A D00075721A D00044601A D00001201A None Qty. notes held by Agent 4,716,000 400,000 812,000 656,000 294,000 45,200 20,600 980 0 RICHMOND High serial printed E22224000A E17604000A E09660000A E01800000A E00828000A E00093000A E00055200A E00003192A E00001992A Low serial  held by BEP E17756001A None None E00968001A E00556001A E00036001A E000034201 E00001393A E00000993A Qty. notes held by Agent 940,000 0 0 172,000 132,000 23,000 6,200 1,056 428 ATLANTA High serial printed F30024000A F15576000A F07416000A F01008000A F00612000A F00064200A F00044400A F00001032A F00001032A Low serial  held by BEP F28672001A F14624001A F05580001A F00544001A F00412001A F00025001A F00028001A F00000233A F00000101A Qty. notes held by Agent 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 CHICAGO High serial printed G64812000A G55104000A G31020000A G06360000A G04140000A G00633000A G00403596A G00004440A G00002400A Low serial  held by BEP G51756001A None G25320001A G04596001A G03172001A G00415201A G00268397A G00001241A G00000401A Qty. notes held by Agent 4,600,000 0 272,000 1,344,000 956,000 176,400 87,800 0 0 ST. LOUIS High serial printed H28008000A H15360000A H06852000A H01092000A H00852000A H00092400A H00055200A Low serial  held by BEP None None H06428001A H00708001A H00604001A H00055601A H00040001A Qty. notes held by Agent 0 0 0 44,000 0 18,000 2,400 MINNEAPOLIS High serial printed I11436000A I09120000A I05844000A I00636000A I00516000A I00044400A I00023400A Low serial  held by BEP I10000001A I08900001A I04140001A I00396001A I00292001A I00017801A I00010401A Qty. notes held by Agent 1,240,000 0 40,000 248,000 100,000 12,400 5,400 KANSAS CITY High serial printed J18036000A J11640000A J07440000A J00996000A J00780000A J00091800A J00058000A J00000480A J00000240A Low serial  held by BEP J12508001A None J06104001A J00544001A J00520001A J00040801A J00034401A None None Qty. notes held by Agent 1,028,000 192,000 460,000 224,000 194,000 24,500 16,300 356 174 DALLAS High serial printed K13752000A K08712000A K04380000A K00756000A K00420000A K00071400A K00036600A K00000240A K00000240A Low serial  held by BEP K12200001A K07788001A K03248001A K00304001A K00220001A K00022201A K00013201A K00000041A K00000041A Qty. notes held by Agent 1,284,000 940,000 560,000 159,400 82,300 12,340 2,400 9 0 SAN FRANCISCO High serial printed L43728000A L23448000A L17184000A L01512000A L01608000A L00105000A L00062400A L00001224A L00001224A Low serial  held by BEP L41276001A None L16512001A L01276001A L01344001A L00061801A L00045201A L00000481A L00000241A Qty. notes held by Agent 2,680,000 3,368,000 3,432,000 268,000 156,000 22,000 5,000 480 113 None printed †Serial numbers calculated from amounts l isted in Table 2; ‡B00000001A‐B99999999A, B00000001B‐B03260000B. Sources: Shafer (1967); Report: Federal Reserve Notes‐Series 1928, Destroyed by Special Destruction Committee (1946). Table 3. Series of 1928 Federal Reserve Notes: Serial numbers held by BEP and amounts held by Agents.† Difference between high serial printed  and low serial held by BEP  is the amount held by the BEP and destroyed in 1946. If the BEP held none, then all notes  printed were shipped to the bank. The quantity of notes held by Agent  were also destroyed, but an accurate range of serial numbers can't be determined. If the  BEP and the Agent held no notes, all notes likely were issued into circulation. None printed None printed SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 245 Robert Calderman $5 - Score & Seven Years Ago! Seven years ago, this column began in 2018 with the sole intention of growing the hobby by sharing my knowledge of great currency varieties and contributing content here in Paper Money Magazine, this amazing bi-monthly Journal of the Society of Paper Money Collectors. In this short span of time, it has already been a wild ride of fantastic collecting adventures! I’ve spoken with many of my fellow dealers and hard core collecting brethren, and it is uncanny how we already find ourselves reminiscing rather frequently on how we miss the good old days! How can this be, with less than a decade of time passing us by? The stark reality here, are all of the outrageous events that have caused this short period of time to seem like a lifetime has already been lived. Seven years ago, we still had IPMS the Memphis, TN International Paper Money Show… (Albeit in Kansas City at this point) the pinnacle paper money gathering place for over 40 years! Beginning in 1977, this was truly the world stage of paper money collecting excitement that unfortunately may never be duplicated again in our relative lifetimes. Secretly I hope that someone proves me wrong, and one day we relive a time where we have a 150+ table paper money only numismatic smorgasbord of a convention! I was very fortunate to attend IPMS within a very short span from 2013-2019. The first year I attended, I made it just in the nick of time to sit in on a talk about Five Dollar Mules, by Jamie Yakes. A subject that was completely foreign to me at the time. I had no inkling back then while sitting up front and avidly taking notes that I would crawl down this rabbit-hole and very soon after pursue every single back plate 637 and 629 note that I could possibly lay my hands on! While there are no regrets taking this path, there is no doubt that it absolutely cost me dearly, wreaking havoc on my wallet, ha-ha! A few short years later, I had the pleasure of actually speaking myself at IPMS on Cherry Picking Paper Money Varieties, while secretly sweating bullets as I gave my presentation to a large room of my collecting peers. I was told the next day that I drew the biggest crowd for that year’s convention and was, by default, officially signed up to speak again the following year, regardless of my desire to do so. Lol, what had I gotten myself into! This is in jest of course; I enjoyed the opportunity very much! Meeting your fellow collectors and creating friendships with people from all over the country and sometimes even around the world, that all SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 246 have one thing in common; their love for collecting paper money… this is what makes the hobby come alive! Seven years ago, (Are you now noticing the trend here?) we also had a thriving Long Beach Expo! Three annual shows in Long Beach, CA that were all can’t miss events, especially for those collectors and dealers within the local region. While this painful wound is still very fresh, the last LB being this past February, I still hold out hope that we will have at least a single annual event somewhere on the West-Coast that will again be a noteworthy numismatic gathering! Seven years ago… (Okay, okay, I’ll lay off the history lesson soon) we had a thriving PCGS-Currency Registry Program and Population Report with Annual Registry Parties that were an absolute joy. These fun dinner parties can only truly be appreciated at their full value now that they sadly exist only in our memories. This installment seems rather somber at this point, reliving joyous in-person events that have come and gone. While this was not the goal here, a bit of retrospect eventually becomes part of our journey whether we prefer it or we do not. The good news is, we still have fantastic opportunities to build new amazing memories with fellow collectors! The annual January FUN Show in Orlando, FL is a fantastic convention that also features our SPMC Annual Breakfast Meeting and always entertaining Tom Bain Raffle! With mystery box prizes and occasional gag gift laughs… this event alone is well worth the trip for all paper money enthusiasts to attend! Also, the ANA Summer Convention known as the World’s Fair of Money is another can’t miss annual event. This year’s convention will be held in Oklahoma City August 19-23rd. There is still time to plan to attend if you do not already have it locked-in on your calendar! So what brought about all of these retrospective memories? Why are we already reliving the beginning of this column from just 2018? Why, because of a recent fabulous Cherry Pick note of course!!! A few short days ago, someone landed a spectacular 1934A Five Dollar Federal Reserve Note Mule with the infamous Back Plate #637!!! To make things even better, it is from the New York District, the same variety featured here in our very first installment of Cherry Picker’s Corner! No, the example that sold recently did not bear the same serial number as the note we featured previously, and that is good news! Every time a new example appears on such an incredibly difficult variety it allows another collector to experience the intoxicating joy of adding such an incredible treasure to their collection! Finding an example of bp.637 on any $5 Federal Reserve Note is a trophy regardless of condition. Examples can be found on various districts within the series of: 1934, 1934A, 1934B, and 1934C. 1934 series examples are non- mules with micro plate numbers on the face and micro bp.637. All other series are mules with macro face plate numbers and micro bp.637. Pictured here is both the example from our very first CPC installment that was plucked at a brick and mortar shop for the incredible sum of only $19.95 featuring serial number B69362503B and also the newly discovered eBay find that was purchased by an anonymous collector for a very reasonable $526 featuring serial number B71491186B. The eBay find is imaged on a smaller scale due to the poor image quality available to us. For 1934A NY $5 Mules, so far only six examples in total have been observed, all on the B-B block. While the eBay note was not necessarily a gift price, when you consider its rarity, it was still a very solid deal in my opinion! These are so tough that they most often trade privately and rarely if ever find themselves hitting the auction block! If you have a similar example, please reach out so your note can be added to the census of known examples! Do you have a great Cherry Pick story that you’d like to share? Your note might be featured here in a future article and you can remain anonymous if desired! Email scans of your note with a brief description of what you paid and where it was found to: gacoins@earthlink.net Recommended reading: - Cherry Picker’s Corner by Robert Calderman. Paper Money Sep./Oct. 2018 Whole #317 - The Enduring Allure of $5 Micro Back Plates 629/637 by Peter Huntoon. Paper Money Sep./Oct. 2015 Whole #299. SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 247 Greece 5,000 Drachma Hagia Sophia Banknote by Roland Rollins The story of the Greece 5,000 Drachma note produced in 1923 is actually three stories! Notice I didn’t say the note was released. That’s the first story. The notes were never intended to be issued. All surviving "issued" notes were stolen from the printing facility by an American Bank Note Company employee, who added serial numbers and spent the notes. The intact notes were attributed in the “Pick” catalog (Standard Catalog of World Paper Money, General Issues) as P77a. 1,000,000 or 950,000 of these were produced, depending on the source with serial number ranges of ΔΜ100 - ΔΕ071, ΕΚ070 - ΕΜ041, and ΗΛ100 - ΗΟ051. The Bank Note Book assigns B477a for this uncut version. Very few notes exist in an uncut form and are not assigned a value in either catalog. The stolen signed notes were not assigned a Pick number while The Bank Note Book assigns P477ax. When these were found in circulation, they were hole punched, but not all destroyed. Specimens exist with two red SPECIMEN diagonal overprints that have all zero serial numbers. These were assigned P77ct in Pick (color trial) while The Bank Note Book assigned B477as. The remaining notes provide the second story. They were indeed issued three years later, after being bisected in half, in 1926. These were assigned P82 in Pick. The Bank Note Book assigns B486a1 for the left side and B486a2 for the right side. The third story is why Greece chose to highlight a site in now Turkey that was no longer part of Greece. This site shown on the reverse is the Hagia Sophia in Istanbul. Hagia Sophia (literally “Holy Wisdom”) was the spiritual center of Eastern Orthodoxy from 360-1204 AD and 1261-1453 AD. Here’s a canceled note for reference: SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 248 The church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople (now Istanbul) was first dedicated in 360 by Emperor Constantius, son of the city’s founder, Emperor Constantine. Hagia Sophia served as the cathedra, or bishop’s seat, of the city. Originally called Megale Ekklesia (Great Church), the name Hagia Sophia came into use around 430. The first church structure was destroyed during riots in 404; the second church, built and dedicated in 415 by Emperor Theodosius II, burned down during the Nika revolt of 532. After the riots, Emperor Justinian I (r. 527–65) ordered the church rebuilt. The new building was inaugurated on December 27, 537. The vast, airy naos, or central basilica, with its technically complex system of vaults and semi-domes, features a high central dome with a diameter of over 101 feet and a height of 160 feet. This central dome was often interpreted by commentators of the day as the dome of heaven itself. Its weight is carried by four great arches, which rest on a series of tympana and semi-domes, which in turn rest on smaller semi-domes and arcades. Tympana are vertical recessed triangular space forming the center of a decorated pediment. Nearly a millennium later, Emperor Constantine XI was defeated and killed in 1453 by the Ottoman Sultan Mehmet II’s forces. Hagia Sophia was converted to a mosque (Ayasofya Camii), which it remained until the fall of the Ottoman Empire marked by the abolition of the Ottoman sultanate in 1922. In 1935 it became a museum, before being designated again as a mosque in 2020, generally called Hagia Sophia Grand Mosque. The banknote was printed after the area of Hagia Sophia was no longer part of the Byzantine Empire which included Greece, but now Turkey. The significance of this main site of Eastern Orthodoxy is it remains important to Greek citizenry - 90% to 98% of Greek residents identifying as Eastern Orthodox. SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 249 The front of the Type-39 Treasury note endorsed by Anthony J. Guirot, Assistant Treasurer, CSA. Note the red date stamp, 122762, in the upper left, which a bank used to authenticate the note on December 27th, 1862. Image: Randall Smith Anthony J. Guirot Assistant Treasurer, CSA here are two endorsements on Confederate Treasury notes which stand out for the elegance in their penmanship, and both were government agents, not military officers. James T. Miller’s signature on notes issued by the depository at Wilmington are well known and eagerly sought by collectors. The elegant endorsement of Anthony J. Guirot, Assistant Treasurer for the Confederate States, can be found on Type 39 $100 notes with a rarity of R-11 and 13 known examples. No Type 41 notes with his endorsement are known. The illustrated treasury note was discovered by Randall Smith, a dedicated member of the Trainmen group which researches the endorsements on interest- bearing Type 39, 40, and 41 $100 notes. This note was featured on the covers of the author’s book, Confederate Quartermasters, Commissaries, and Agents, and it bears a somewhat rare red date stamp which was used by banks to validate these notes at a time when counterfeits started to appear in quantity. The full endorsement on the back reads: “Jackson Miss(issippi) July 18th 1862 A. J. Guirot Ass(istan)t Tr(easurer) C(onfederate) S(tates)” Anthony (Antoine) Joseph Guirot (biographical data researched by Charles Derby) Antoine Joseph Guirot was born in the West Indies in about 1803 to French parents who moved to New Orleans soon after his birth. Guirot was educated in New Orleans, lived there his entire life, and held many public offices. He was the public treasurer of the police in 1846, he ran as a Democrat for mayor that same year but narrowly lost, and he was elected to the Louisiana House of Representatives in 1848-1849. T The Quartermaster Column No. 43 by Michael McNeil Image: Randall Smith SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 250 Guirot was the official Notary Public in New Orleans in 1852. Of special note to collectors of his endorsement, the New York Times on April 9th, 1853, noted that he was appointed as the coiner and treasurer of the New Orleans Branch of the U.S. Mint. Guirot was later involved with the coining of the 1861 Confederate half dollar, an effort which yielded only four original examples from the dies. The 1850 census reports that Guirot owned $15,000 in real estate, which in today’s dollars would be 165 times that amount, or $2.5 million (an ounce of gold was then denominated at $20 but is today selling for $3,300―this an accurate measure of real inflation). Guirot lived with his wife, Julie Pamela Guirot (age 36), a son, Alexander Guirot (age 5), a son, John Guirot (age 0), and a clerk, H. Alpuente (age 18). 1861 Soon after Louisiana seceded from the Union in January of 1861, Guirot took possession of the holdings of the U.S. Mint at New Orleans for the benefit of the State of Louisiana. Guirot’s letter of January 31st to U.S. Secretary of the Treasury John A. Dix conveys this theft in formal, impersonal business language: “A special committee of the Convention of the State of Louisiana now sitting in this City, acting under instructions of that body did, as 9 1/2 O’clock this morning, take possession of the New Orleans Branch Mint in the name of the State of Louisiana. As soon as I will procure from that Committee a receipt for all the funds held by me as Treasurer of the Branch Mint and Assistant Treasurer of the U. S. I will transmit the same to the Department.” The Wilmington Daily Herald of February 6th noted that Guirot refused to transfer $300,000 ($49.5 million in today’s dollars) from the New Orleans Mint to Philadelphia, and that it had “fallen into the hands of the State [of Louisiana].” On March 7th the government of the State of Louisiana ordered Guirot to transfer the mint and its holdings to the Confederate government, at which point Guirot became an Assistant Treasurer in the Confederate Treasury Department. This is a very rare title, but we should remember that New Orleans was largest port in the South and an economic powerhouse. 1862 New Orleans fell to Union forces on April 25th. Guirot fled to Jackson, Mississippi, presumably with much of the holdings of the mint, and assumed the position of depositary at that location. His elegant endorsements on interest-bearing Type 39 notes are issued from this location. His endorsement can be found on the backs of many of the stunning Type 1-4 Montgomery and Type 5-6 Richmond notes issued in New Orleans in 1861, but these will cost the collector a great deal more than the Type 39 examples. 1863 to 1865 Union General Ulysses S. Grant moved his forces against Vicksburg, Mississippi, in early 1863, and he ultimately forced its surrender on July 4th by first pushing northward toward Jackson, and then laying siege to Vicksburg from the east. Guirot left Jackson in March of 1863 and spent the rest of the war in Mobile, Alabama, serving there as a depositary with the unusual title of Assistant Treasurer. A telegraph from Mobile, dated June 21st, 1863, from Guirot to Mississippi Governor J. J. Pettus, inquired as to whether Gen’l J. E. Johnston had issued a draft of $20,000, payable in gold, on Guirot’s account in the governor’s favor. As many historians have noted, Gen’l Johnston’s refusal to fully engage his forces when Grant pushed northward toward Jackson opened the way for Grant to push westward and capture Vicksburg. After the war Guirot withdrew from public life and retired. On July 15th, 1865, he signed an oath of allegiance to the United States, and he was pardoned on August 2nd. The New Orleans Crescent of January 31st, 1869, reported that a suit had been brought against Guirot for transferring the assets of the U.S. Mint at New Orleans to the Confederate States. He left his estate to his wife in a will written entirely in French, and he died at the age of 68 in December, 1870. Reflections from history’s distant mirror Guirot’s rare endorsement is a prize in my collection for its historical significance and its elegant penmanship. Guirot was a powerful man who supported the institution of slavery, and history suggests that his parents did as well. In 1802 Napoleon signed a law to maintain slavery where it had not yet disappeared, and this included Haiti. The record notes that Guirot’s parents moved from the West Indies to New Orleans soon after his birth in 1803, perhaps fleeing the 1803 revolution by Haiti’s slaves. In January of 1804 “most of the remaining French colonists fled ahead of the defeated French army, many migrating to Louisiana or Cuba.”1 Not to put too fine a point on it, the victorious Blacks in SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 251 “Revenge taken by the Black Army for the cruelties practiced on them by the French.” By Marcus Rainsford (19th century), image in the Public Domain via Wiki- pedia.1 American Marines in 1915 defending the entrance gate in Cap- Haitian. Image via Wikimedia Commons in the Public Domain.4 Haiti repaid their oppressors in kind, providing strong motivations for the French to leave. History records that after Haitian Blacks won their independence, France exacted reparations from them for the loss of their slaves. Interest on reparation loans was not paid off until 1947, leaving the failed state of Haiti that we see today. Haiti became deeply in debt to American banks, and U.S. Marines violently occupied Haiti from 1915 to 1934 to protect the interests of American banks.1, 2 Haiti was the turning point for Smedley Darlington Butler, the famous U.S. Marine General, “in which he fully grasped that the Marines were being used to subjugate native populations around the world to protect American investments.” General Butler later characterized his military career as “a racketeer for capitalism.”2 Butler demonstrated his true patriotism when a coup was orchestrated and funded by Wall Street investors in 1933 with a $3 million plan ($283 million in current dollars) for arming 500,000 veterans to forcefully remove President Roosevelt from the White House. The Wall Street insurrection failed because the investors behind it approached General Butler to lead their private army. Butler was appalled. He gathered hard evidence and presented it to President Roosevelt and J. Edgar Hoover. Roosevelt had an off-the-record meeting with the Wall Street insurrectionists, and likely gave them the choice of prison or getting behind the New Deal.3 The 2010 Citizens United ruling by the Supreme Court has allowed wealthy interests to capture our government without having to resort to armed force. Southern capitalism went to war to preserve its economic engine of slavery. Western capitalism’s need today for unlimited growth, cheap labor, and cheap resources in an overpopulated world of diminishing resources drives our current wars, and we are seeing a great disquiet in our electorates as global capitalism transfers vast wealth from the many to the few. What shock will it take to finally force us to regulate our capital markets and stop the flow of cheap labor through open borders? In the lifetime of Anthony J. Guirot, it took the shock and loss of two brutal wars. Carpe diem “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” ― George Santayana, 1906 References: The biographical data used to write this article was researched by Charles Derby, using the noted original documents, newspaper articles, and census data. Historical background and analysis is by the author. 1. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Haiti. 2. Sally Denton. The Plots Against the President, Bloomsbury Press, New York, 2012, pages 176 to 213. President Roosevelt, often called “a traitor to his [very wealthy] class,” was adept at handling his adversaries, turning many of them into allies and using the threat of proof of past transgressions to keep the worst of them in line. Neither political party has since produced the likes of him. It will take a great shock to produce another FDR. 3. ibid. 4. East Oregonion, October 21st, 1915, DAILY EVENING EDITION, via en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Haiti. SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 252 “A Mile in Travel for a Dollar in Trade”: Travel Coupons of the American Scrip Company, 1914-1915 by Loren Gatch The success of good ideas can depend not only upon their proper execution but also upon simply the time and place they are proposed. In the present day, loyalty marketing programs like airlines’ frequent flyer miles are used widely as incentives to increase customer traffic. Yet decades before the advent of passenger air service, a group of marketing men established a similar program suited to the era of rail and steam. Founded in early 1914 under the slogan “A Mile in Travel for a Dollar in Trade”, the American Scrip Company of Los Angeles, California, pitched a distinctive premium coupon service to consumer-facing retailers. Instead of offering to redeem coupons for the typical array of gifts that customers might choose from a premium catalog, the American Scrip Company promised to redeem its coupons for miles of travel by boat or railway. Armed with a new idea, the company grew rapidly at first. Unfortunately, the scheme collapsed in bankruptcy not much more than a year later, leaving miles and miles’ worth of useless scrip in the hands of retailers and the public. Origins Articles of incorporation for the American Scrip Company were filed in Los Angeles in February of 1914 by five men, Harold C. Bolster, William P. Bardshar, Myron W. Tilden, William A. Sumner, and M. C. Miller. Bolster was described as the originator of the plan. Shortly thereafter the company ran classified ads for commission salesmen; by August, reports appeared in the southern California press of promotional drives by company representatives seeking to sign merchants up to the premium plan. Starting in early September large newspaper ads touting the American Scrip Company’s scheme ran in Los Angeles and surrounding cities. The mechanics of the plan were quite simple. American Scrip offered to sell to participating merchants coupons that could be redeemed for travel. Handed out to customers at the rate of one mile for one dollar spent, the coupons denominated in one-tenth, one-quarter, and one mile promised customers that, through their repeated purchases, they could accumulate sufficient mileage to exchange them for tickets good for travel by rail or ship. With San Francisco’s Panama-Pacific International Exposition due to open in February of 1915, the anticipated surge in passenger rail traffic promised a tailwind to this new venture. Front and back of a 1/10 mile travel scrip note from the American Scrip Company. Compared to other, more crudely printed, premium coupons of the time, the American Scrip Company’s emissions were impressive. Measuring 2 ¼ by 4 inches, the front of each note features a globe emblazoned with the word “Scrip” in cursive, on either side of which bursts forth a railroad locomotive and a steamship. The denomination in 1/10, 1/4 , or 1 mile appears at each corner of the design border, each value differing only in the color printed. On the reverse, each note makes the extravagant promise that it is valid for “travel on any Steam Railway, Interurban Railway or Steamship line in the world, unless regular fair is in excess of three cents a mile, in which event extra SCRIP will be required to cover the excess charge.” That qualifying clause gestured toward the underlying economics of the scheme. According to newspaper accounts, the American Scrip Company sold its coupon service to merchants on a sliding scale ranging from five to SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 253 three cents a mile (larger establishments getting the lower rate); the price of train and ship travel was estimated to lie between two and two and a half cents a mile, which created the spread from which the company hoped to profit. On its face, the scheme was promising and represented a creative twist on premium marketing practices of the time. In the typical premium arrangement, customers accumulated coupons through their purchases which they could then redeem for consumer items listed in a catalog. In contrast, offering coupons exchangeable for travel miles involved none of the expenses of maintaining an inventory of premiums. As described in newspaper ads and in the language printed on the travel scrip itself, customers were simply to take their coupons to a local American Scrip Company office, where they could exchange them for the desired travel tickets. Notably, this arrangement did not treat the railroads and ship lines themselves as participants in the premium plan, other than being issuers of the tickets which American Scrip purchased on behalf of coupon redeemers. These customers could not spend their scrip directly with a railroad or steamship line. At the beginning of October 1914, when American Scrip opened its office in Portland, Oregon, it advertised that “our traffic manager will be glad to assist you in choosing your route, securing your Pullman ticket and reserve your Hotel accommodations.” Given the basic simplicity of the premium plan—one mile for every dollar spent—and the fact that it was American Scrip redeeming the coupons and not the transportation companies, it was impossible for the premium marketer to avoid operating something like a travel agency, especially as its travel scrip stipulated that any travel expenses above three cents per mile had to be paid by the customer in cash or in additional scrip. Thus, the American Scrip Company had to be prepared to price any upgraded service in the appropriate way. Expansion and Headwinds By October, ads pushing American Scrip’s travel coupons ran in newspapers in southern California towns like San Bernadino, San Diego, Venice, Ventura, and Long Beach, with another redemption office opened up the coast in San Francisco. In addition to Portland, Oregon, satellite offices were also established in Boise, Salt Lake City, and Chicago. An early October advertisement in the San Francisco Examiner listed some two-dozen businesses across a variety of retail lines that gave scrip. To highlight the practical value of its scrip the company also offered to exchange 125 miles’ worth for booklets of “commutation tickets” good for 30 round-trip boat rides around the Bay area. Likewise, the Salt Lake City branch of the company offered 50 streetcar tickets for 75 miles, while the Boise office gave 22 tickets good for the Idaho Traction Co. in exchange for 40 miles in scrip. Two complications to these ambitious expansion plans soon arose. The first came in the form of copycat enterprises that promoted their own version of travel scrip. While it might have been a testament to the underlying attractiveness of the idea, a clutch of these upstarts with names like the Merchants Scrip Co., the Globe Travel Scrip. Co, the Universal Scrip Co., the National Mileage Co., and the American Travel Scrip Co. all jumped into the game. In particular, American Travel Scrip, founded in Portland in late September 1914, not only copied the plan but coined its own advertising slogan –"A Mile of Travel for Every Dollar Spent”—that was plainly derivative of American Scrip’s. Even worse, American Travel Scrip, which had filed articles of incorporation in Portland only a few days before the American Scrip Company registered to operate as a foreign corporation in Oregon, then pivoted to seek a ruling from the state corporation commissioner that would have enjoined its California rival from selling its services One of many newspaper ads run by the American Scrip Company. Source: The Oregon Daily Journal, October 6, 1914. SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 254 in the state, on the grounds that American Travel Scrip’s incorporation filing predated American Scrip’s registration! By the end of October, the state’s authority gave the green light for both companies to operate, leaving them to go to court to resolve their dispute. In the meantime, the companies ran dueling advertising campaigns proclaiming the virtues of their versions of travel scrip. The second challenge to the travel scrip idea came from retailers themselves. Retail merchant associations across the country were generally opposed to coupon premium plans, claiming that their benefits were illusory. If one establishment bought the service, it might gain a real advantage in customer traffic over its neighborhood competitors. Yet as each competitor succumbed to the incentive to buy the service, the competitive advantage correspondingly diminished, even as the profit to the premium company increased. Merchants collectively feared a situation where, if all establishments subscribed to the same premium service, none gained an advantage but any one of them might be hurt if they abandoned the plan. At that point, the premium company was simply extracting its pound of flesh from the retail community without providing any benefit in return. Consequently, retail associations across the country regularly importuned state legislatures to pass laws restricting the use of coupons, trading stamps, and the like on the grounds that they were gift enterprises. As the secretary of the Southern California Retail Grocers’ Association put it, “all schemes involving prizes are wrong, not only because it fosters the gambling spirit of ‘obtaining something for nothing’, but because in the end the consumer has to pay the extra cost by receiving an inferior quality for his outlay.” Yet the temptations of premium marketing posed a challenge to the solidarity of merchants’ groups. This became embarrassingly clear in the case of American Scrip when the President of the Southern California Retail Grocers’ Association, J. W. Miller, was forced to resign because his company used the travel scrip and refused to disavow it. The retail trade press opined to its readers about travel scrip in unsparing terms. When legal squabbles emerged between contending premium firms, The Retail Grocers’ Advocate of San Francisco relished the turmoil: “let them go and fight their heads off. We hope the will eat each other up and the merchants will be rid of the ‘scrip’ nuisance.” The emergence of one competitor, the Chicago-based National Mileage Company, was peculiar in that one of its officers, William Bardshar, had also been involved in the earlier establishment of the American Scrip Co., which suggests that a parting of ways had occurred among its original founders. By the end of 1914 both travel scrip companies were competing in the Chicago market. In reaction, The Retail Grocers’ Advocate commented that “we hope the Chicago grocers are as successful in coping with these two leeches on the retail business as the grocers in San Francisco have been.” Decline and Fall If the volume and continuity of advertising was any measure, the business model pioneered by the American Scrip Company seemed to be sustainable through the early months of 1915. February saw the opening of the travel- generating Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco, to which American Scrip was selling admission tickets at the rate of 18 miles’ worth of scrip notes. However, the first crack in the plan appeared in mid-March, when the company closed its Salt Lake City office. Newspaper ads for the premium service continued to run through late May. In July, notices appeared in Oregon newspapers directing scrip holders to mail any redemption requests to the Newspaper ad for the American Travel Scrip Company, a copycat competitor. Source: The Oregonian, October 5, 1914 SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 255 company’s Los Angeles office. By August 1915, circulars sent out by the company officially proclaimed its insolvency with a rambling mea culpa: The downfall of this company has been brought about in the attempt to run a new and untried business by inexperienced agents, a number of whom have been utterly reckless in the expenditures of moneys, and in involving the company in heavy debts without the knowledge of the officers of the company … and also the company’s unwise move to undertake business in the east when neither the time, the conditions nor the capital paid in justified such a movement, and also the springing up of competitors like mushrooms overnight, and which competitors destroyed our very prosperous business, but like Samson of old, they likewise destroyed themselves. Owing its creditors some $65,000-$75,000, the company proposed paying them 35 cents on the dollar. As for its outstanding travel scrip, estimated at one million miles’ worth (and for which merchants had originally paid between 3 and 5 cents a mile), the company offered 1 cent per mile while its money lasted. Of those “mushrooms” referred to in the statement, only the National Mileage Company remained in travel scrip business, persisting until 1916 when it too closed its doors. ***** REFERENCES The Chicago Tribune, November 22, 1914. The [Salt Lake City] Deseret News, September 5, October 10, 1914. Dry Goods Reporter [Chicago], November 14, 1914. The [San Bernardino] Evening Index, August 31, 1915 (quote explaining bankruptcy). The [Boise] Idaho Stateman, October 14, 30, 1914. The Long Beach [California] Press, October 27, 1914. The Los Angeles Times, February 14, 1914. The [Portland] Oregon Daily Journal, September 22; October 1, 4, 14, 19, 22, 25; November 5, 1914. The [Portland] Oregonian, September 29, 1914; October 1, 1914. The Pomona [California] Progress, November 4, 1914. The Retail Grocers’ Advocate [San Francisco], September 18; October 23; November 6 (“leeches” quote); December 25 (“scrip nuisance” quote), 1914. The Richmond [California] Independent, December 6, 1914. The Salt Lake City Telegram, October 6, 1914; March 18, 1915. The San Francisco Examiner, October 4, 7, 1914; February 20, 1915 The Venice [California] Daily Vanguard, August 31, 1915. The Ventura [California] Weekly Democrat, October 2, 1914. SPMC.org * Paper Money *July/Aug 2025 * Whole Number 358 256 OUR MEMBERS SPECIALIZE IN LARGE SIZE TYPE NOTES They also specialize in National Currency, Small Size Currency, Obsolete Currency, Colonial and Continental Currency, Fractionals, Error Notes, MPCs, Confederate Currency, Encased Postage, Stocks and Bonds, Autographs and Documents, World Paper Money . . . and numerous other areas. THE PROFESSIONAL CURRENCY DEALERS ASSOCIATION is the leading organization of Dealers in Currency, Stocks and Bonds, Fiscal Documents and related paper items. 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BP 20%; see HA.com 79462 U.S. CURRENCY SIGNATURE® AUCTION GACC – Dallas | October 8 – 10 DALLAS  |  NEW YORK  |  BEVERLY HILLS  |  CHICAGO  |  PALM BEACH LONDON  |  HONG KONG  |  MUNICH  |  TOKYO  |  PARIS  |  AMSTERDAM  |  BRUSSELS  |  GENEVA  Always Accepting Quality Consignments in 50+ Categories Immediate Cash Advances Available 2 Million+ Online Bidder-Members Western National Highlights Consignment Deadline: August 18 Inquiries: Dustin Johnston | Senior Vice President | 214.409.1302 | Dustin@HA.com | HA.com/Currency Serial Number 5 Wheeler, OR - $5 1902 Plain Back Fr. 609 The First National Bank Ch. # 12427 PMG Very Fine 2 Shoshoni, WY - $10 1902 Red Seal Fr. 614 The First National Bank Ch. # 7978 PMG Extremely Fine 40 Portland, OR - $50 1882 Brown Back Fr. 515 The First National Bank Ch. # 1553 PMG Very Fine 20 Round Up, MT - $20 1902 Plain Back Fr. 652 The First National Bank Ch. # 9165 PMG Choice Very Fine 35. 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