official journal of Blanton Douglas’ $1s & $2s Part 1 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. 135 Blanton's Ones & Twos--Part one--Mark Coughlan 146 $10 18-Subject Wrong Plate Serial Numbers--Peter Huntoon 152 Panic of 1907--Matt Hansen, Lee Lofthus & Peter Huntoon 168 Portraits on Parade--Tony Chibbaro 170 Pin Money--Terry Bryan 176 Great Seal of the U.S. on Guatemalan Bank Notes--Roland Rollins 186 Astoria, NY Post Office Robbed--Bob Laub SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 129 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 Small Notes Cherry Picker Corner Quartermaster Obsolete Corner 131 132 133 172 179 180 183 190 Robert Vandevender Benny Bolin Frank Clark Joe Boling & Fred Schwan Jamie Yakes Robert Calderman Michael McNeil Robert Gill Stacks Bowers Galleries IFC Pierre Fricke 129 Lyn Knight 144 PCGS-C 151 Higgins Museum 166 Executive Currency 167 F.C.C.B. 167 Greysheet 167 William Litt 167 Bob Laub 189 PCDA 193 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 * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 130 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 Brueggeman MEMBERSHIP DIRECTOR Frank Clark frank_clark@yahoo.com IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT Shawn Hewitt WISMER BOOk PROJECT COORDINATOR Pierre Fricke From Your President Robert Vandevender IIFrom Your President Shawn Hewitt Paper Money * July/August 2020 6 jeff@actioncurrency.com 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 Nancy and I have had a busy couple of months. My job in California finally came to an end the first week of April. The last major numismatic event we attended in California was the Long Beach Exposition which turned out to be the final one in 2025. The last two Long Beach shows scheduled in 2025 are being canceled due to venue problems. Nancy and I had to leave the Long Beach show a little early, so we left the SPMC table set up with all of our displays and applications. I turned over the case keys to VP Calderman who agreed to take down the display at the end of the show when he was leaving. Mr. Calderman contacted me as he was collecting our items and asked if I had removed everything from our cases as both of them were gone. I replied to him “no” and then contacted show staff regarding location of our cases. They confirmed they had collected the full cases and found them. At my request, they sent the case contents to my home in Florida by FedEx. I’m glad the cases on display weren’t cases full of currency but only a few copies of Paper Money magazine and the SPMC banner carrying case. We spent several weeks arranging to get out of the apartment in San Clemente and packing up our car with a laser printer, television, scanner and other belongings. The fortunate thing about the timing of this long drive was that it put us in Texas just before the start of the 4th Annual National Bank Note Conference held at Heritage Auctions in Dallas. We spent a very enjoyable two days with several of our collecting friends, many of whom provided interesting presentations. The Heritage staff gave us a tour of their facility where I had the opportunity to hold a 10-pound chunk of gold and a moon rock. We also got to see clothing and several artifacts owned by General George A Custer. The Heritage staff treated everyone to a wonderful dinner at Via Real after the first day of presentations. Day 2 of the conference was kicked off by Duston Johnston of Heritage passing out an envelope to each table containing copies of several large-size National Bank Notes. Each table “team” was then tasked with arranging the notes on the table in order of their issuance. The three of us in my group included Governor Derrick Higgins and Jamie Yates so we did well on this exercise. The conference came to an end with everyone being given a 20-question quiz on National Bank Notes, coordinated by Heritage staff member Governor Raiden Honaker. I didn’t do as well on this quiz as many others. Governor Cody Regennitter won the top prize by scoring over 90% on the quiz. Unfortunately, we will not be able to make it to the Central States show this year. Our next major event will be the ANA World’s Fair of Money show in Oklahoma City in August. I hope to see many of you there at our SPMC table. SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 131 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 8 months old. Crawling (albeit backwards—she seems to be stuck in reverse!!). What fun and a joy she is—and that is what I need right now. I am not playing on your emotions or trying to get sympathy, just merely apologizing. I am apologizing for the lateness of this and the last issue and for all the errors I did not catch. Likewise for not answering your emails in a timely manner. As a matter of explanation, since the end of January I have been very distracted and in a fog at times. My wife (Kim) of almost 43 years got a UTI and went into total lung failure and suddenly passed away on February 11 (ironically, my mother’s birthday). The care was great but the situation was horrible. It was made worse due to the fact that I am a long-time (42 Years) ICU nurse and knew almost way too much to handle it. Suddenly becoming a widower has been a difficult life transition. The small things are hard— cooking and shopping for one, being alone at night, etc. One small glimmer of good was that we were able to donate her kidneys. I encourage you all to love your family like you may not have them in the future. They can be gone in an instant! Enough about my sorrows. We are entering into the summer and many shows are coming up. Summer FUN, ANA, etc. Make plans to attend one now and think about exhibiting or presenting an educational seminar. They are all fun. I am going to be trying my hand at being a dealer. I was entrusted with dispensing of a LARGE collection of fractional currency collecion for a friend who passed away and decided to try to get rid of some notes this way. So, if the you go to TNA (Texas) show at the end of May/beginning of June, stop by and see me. I will also be attending the OKC ANA show for one day since it is so close. Not as a table dealer but maybe a vest- pocket one??? This issue of Paper Money has something we have not had in a long time. It is a split article. This issue contains part 1 of 3. I don’t genterally do that as I don’t like to split articles but it was necessary in this case due to how long it is. Let me know what you think of this way of presenting it as I have received a couple more long articles. So tell me—long or split? Anyway—thanks for putting up with my old idiosyncrasies. Have fun in the summer and wear sunscreen and a hat—Just say NO to melanoma! 132 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 03/05/2025 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. 15826 Craig Columbia, Website 15827 Michael Notarianni, Bank Note Rpr 15828 Stephen Haarstick, 15829 Bryan Scott, Don Kelly 15830 Delano Flemmer, Facebook 15831 Edward DeBellis, PMG 15832 Jason Douglas, Robert Calderman 15833 Michael Sandberg, Rahul Arora 15834 Chris Coulter, Robert Calderman 15835 Adam Mastronardi, Website 15836 Gregory Hester, Website 15837 Peter Jarzembovsky, Tatranska Webs 15838 Cameron Scheirer, Website 15839 Wayne Smith, Tom Denly REINSTATEMENTS None LIFE MEMBERSHIPS None NEW MEMBERS 4/05/2025 REINSTATEMENTS None LIFE MEMBERSHIPS None 15840 Steve Estes, Website 15841 Steve Blumberg, Robert V. 15842 Steve Blumberg, Robert V. 15843 Joel Bielinski, Website 15844 James Bowden, Website 15845 Jeffery Anderson, 15846 Ernest Molinari, Robert C. 15847 Ryan LaFountain, Website 15848 Robert Clarke, Website 15849 Ray Feller, Steven Feller SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 133 Dennis J. Forgue of Westchester, Illinois, a Chicago suburb, passed away peacefully April 12th after a lengthy illness. He was 80 years of age. He was surrounded by family, and was comfortable in his final days. He will be sorely missed by all who knew him. Mr. Forgue is survived by his brother Robert; his sis- ter Holly (Jim) Cerny; his daughter Melissa Forgue-Heer- both and her three children: Christopher, Daniel and Aidan; and his son Martin (Debby) and their four chil- dren: Samantha, Thomas, Ella and Nicolas. Dennis was also a loving uncle to many nieces and nephews. He was preceded in death by his brother Vernon and his beloved wife Marcia Ann. Mr. Forgue spent his childhood in central Illinois, while his father was working for the State of Illinois in Springfield, before the family moved to the Chicago area. He graduated from Proviso High School in Maywood and then attended Southern Illinois University in Carbondale where he received a B.A. degree in U.S. History in 1966. He began studies at Northwestern University School of Law and the John Marshall Law School but, after a short time, decided to pursue a career in professional numismatics (the hob- by and business of rare coins and currency). An offer was made to him to join the prestigious firm of Rare Coin Company of America (Rarcoa) located in downtown Chicago, and he even- tually became an officer of the company. After being employed there for more than a decade, he launched his own business and then worked for Harlan J. Berk, Ltd. at the same Chicago address that was previously occupied by Rarcoa. He held a position with that firm for a quarter century and retired in 2019 after more than 50 years in the profession. Although he was extremely knowledgeable about United States and Foreign Coins, his specialty was rare United States Currency, a field in which he was recognized as a highly regard- ed and distinguished expert. He was a 50-year member of the Professional Numismatists Guild, receiving their Sol Kaplan Award in 1979 for his consumer protection work in the numismatic marketplace. He was also a charter member and past President of the Professional Currency Dealers Association, a more than 50-year member of the American Numismatic Association, Central States Numismatic Society, American Numismatic Society, Tokens and Medals Society, the Manuscript Society, and many others. He was member #1067 of the Society of Paper Money Collectors. He could almost always be seen at his table at man of our shows. Mr. Forgue was a long-time member and supporter of the Chicago Zoological Society and Brookfield Zoo and was particularly fond of their animal care and conservation projects. In the summer of 2018 he accompanied a group, sponsored by the zoo, on a wildlife tour of Kenya and said about that trip that he had “the time of his life!” DENNIS J. FORGUE July 10, 1944 ~ April 12, 2025 SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 134 BLANTON DUNCAN’S ONES AND TWOS The Story of the Confederate Treasury’s First Change Notes Part One of a Three-part article by Mark A. Coughlan 1. Introduction The Act of April 17th, 1862, approved by the Confederate States Congress, authorized the issue of a further $170 million in Treasury bonds and notes. The vast majority of the Issue would be composed of interest-bearing $100 notes, known by the Treasury as ‘Seven-Thirty’ notes because they paid interest at 7.3% per annum, or two-cents per day. In addition, for the first time in any Issue, the Confederate Treasury earmarked a small sum of $5 million, for low denomination $2 and $1 change notes. This amount was later increased to $10 million by the Act of September 23rd, 1862. The Treasury had previously resisted issuing any government notes in denominations below $5 because it felt that such low value notes would dishonour the national currency. However, the reality was that due to the removal of specie (coins) from circulation, there was great public demand for change notes, and in the absence of any government issue, a plethora of unregulated, home-grown alternatives were soon introduced by municipalities, small businesses, and shop-keepers, creating a financial risk. The contract for producing these new $2 and $1 notes was given to Blanton Duncan, the cantankerous businessman from Louisville, Kentucky. Duncan had been in the engraving and printing business for less than twelve months, but even so, this should have been a straightforward assignment. Unfortunately, the manufacture of these change notes proved to be a particularly frustrating episode for both Duncan and the Confederate Treasury; it also left the citizens of the Confederate States somewhat bewildered by three different versions of the new $2 note, and two different versions of the $1 note. Anyone could be forgiven for thinking that Duncan and his engravers had been enjoying too much of South Carolina’s famous corn whiskey following their relocation to Columbia! 1.1 Duncan’s Early Life and Career Henry Blanton Duncan (1827-1902), from Louisville in Kentucky, was the only child of William Garnett Duncan, a wealthy lawyer, businessman, and politician who served in the United States House of Representatives between 1847 and 1849. Son followed father into the legal profession, but the energetic and ambitious young Duncan quickly became bored with the slow pace of life as a lawyer and turned his attention to politics. Duncan served as a political administrator and activist, initially for the Whig party, but later for more radical and divisive movements such as the “Know Nothing Party”; as the moral and political divisions between North and South intensified, Duncan established himself as a strong supporter and vocal advocate of Southern independence. The formal secession of South Carolina in December 1860 - followed by six more Southern States in early 1861 - soon escalated into hostilities, beginning with the bombardment of Fort Sumter in April 1861, and thereafter, a full state of War between North and South. Even though Kentucky had not seceded at that time - the divided border state SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 135 had adopted a fragile neutral status - Duncan’s Southern patriotism led him to form and equip the 1st Kentucky battalion of Confederate volunteers at his own expense. In May 1861, appointing himself as the unit’s Colonel, Duncan marched his battalion to Richmond, Virginia, placing the unit at the service of the Confederate War Department. Duncan’s energy, enthusiasm, and considerable ego, soon resulted in clashes with his military superiors, and when denied promotion to the rank of Brigadier General, he resigned in early July 1861. However, not to be outdone, Duncan served as an unofficial adjutant on the staff of General Pierre Gustave Toutant Beauregard at the Battle of Manassas (Bull Run) on July 21st, 1861. Duncan had a tenuous link to Beauregard through his father, Garnett, who had moved to New Orleans in 1850, and had become a trusted legal advisor to the General’s family. Basking in the glory of the South’s victory in this first major battle of the War, Duncan returned to Kentucky, where he once again turned his attention to politics. Kentucky’s fragile neutrality in the War had been violated on September 4th, 1861, by the Confederate military occupation of the town of Columbus, a strategic centre for railroad and river communications. Federal forces wasted no time in occupying the strategic railroad town of Paducah, and the pro-Union Governor happily declared Kentucky’s allegiance to the United States. However, Duncan and other Southern sympathisers organised a Secession Convention, held in Russellville in November 1861, and this led to the establishment of a shadow Confederate state government, and in Kentucky being recognised as the thirteenth Confederate State. These patriotic activities undoubtedly brought Duncan to the attention of the Confederate authorities in Richmond. Duncan had also used his connections in Kentucky and the neighbouring Northern border states to acquire supplies of paper and ink which were desperately-needed by the Confederate Treasury for the manufacture of its paper money. Seeing a business opportunity, and capitalising on the goodwill that his patriotic efforts had engendered with the Secretary Christopher G. Memminger at the Treasury, Duncan set about establishing a new engraving and printing business during the latter part of 1861. Duncan was neither engraver nor printer, but quickly built up his new business in Richmond, Virginia, by hiring respected and experienced professionals such as R.F. Wagner from Nashville, Tennessee, and by brazenly poaching as many staff as he could from local competitors such as Hoyer & Ludwig. Duncan, who habitually used his military title of Colonel, also pretended that his new engraving and printing business was operating under the control of the Confederate Department of War, and this illusion gave him preferential access to equipment, supplies, and the dozens of newly-arrived engravers and printers from Great Britain who the Treasury had arranged to be smuggled into the Confederacy aboard blockade running ships. Duncan’s business partner and deputy was Dr. George R. Ghiselin, a geologist and engineer who had previously been involved in coal mining concerns in Hancock County, Kentucky. Ghiselin, like Duncan, was also a political activist opposed to the Northern Republicans, and doubtless this had brought the two men together. Duncan’s new business, located on the corner of 13th Street and Cary in Richmond’s commercial district, began life by printing books for the War Department, most notably “Uniform and Dress of the Army of the Confederate States”, a colourful depiction of the military attire worn by Confederate Infantry, Cavalry, and Artillery units. However, Duncan’s primary objective was to secure larger government contracts, which he assumed would be highly profitable and would also enhance his social status. Duncan’s persistent lobbying of Treasury Secretary Memminger soon won him a contract with the Confederate Treasury, who at that time were engaged in the large Third Issue of Treasury notes. 1.2 Duncan’s early Third Issue Treasury Notes Under the Act of August 19th, 1861, $100 million of new Treasury bonds and notes was approved for the Third Issue; the Act of December 24th, 1861, authorized an additional $50 million, although almost $300 million was eventually issued in order to fund spiralling government spending as the War intensified. With only a handful of engraving and printing companies located in the South at the beginning of the War, Richmond-based Hoyer & Ludwig had dominated the Second Issue, manufacturing all but 15,556 of the 685,612 Treasury notes involved, as well as Figure 1. Blanton Duncan circa 1860 (Image courtesy of Mary L. Duncan). SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 136 various Treasury bonds. However, the quantities involved in the Third Issue were significantly greater, demanding more engraving and printing capacity, and thus, with the active support and encouragement of the Confederate Treasury, new engraving and printing companies such as those of Blanton Duncan, and of Leggett, Keatinge & Ball established themselves in Richmond, Virginia, during the latter part of 1861. Duncan’s company - like the early frontrunner, Hoyer & Ludwig - only possessed the capabilities to produce notes in the lithographic method, a planographic process which involved printing from a flat surface, one which had been engraved in a particular way. Lithography is based on a simple principle, whereby the printing medium is the flat surface of a polished slab of a specific type of limestone, which contains both the image- which has been drawn on using ink-absorbing substances - and the non-image areas - which are coated with ink-repelling substances. These porous, yellowish stones were made from a particular type of limestone which were mined at a quarry at Solnhofen, in Bavaria. Lithography was a popular method of engraving and printing in the mid-nineteenth century, and it was possible to produce high quality printed images, as can be seen from various individual pieces of art work, maps, and newspaper publications of the time. However, this required considerable skill and patience and was not suited to the mass production of bank notes which by their nature were small in size and would be exposed to considerable wear and tear. The industry leading engraving and printing companies of the age, who were all based in the Northern states, possessed the skills and technology to manufacture elegant and intricate designs upon steel plates using the intaglio method, whereby the image was incised into the surface. These companies, such as the American Bank Note Company, and the National Bank Note Company, had been engaged by the Confederate Treasury to produce its very first notes and bonds, but the outbreak of War understandably prevented any further such trade between the Confederacy and these Northern manufacturers, and Secretary Memminger was forced to make the best of the handful of small lithographic engraving companies that were located in the South. The resulting notes, lithographed by Hoyer & Ludwig, Jules Manouvrier, and later Duncan Blanton’s company, were generally crude - Treasury Secretary Memminger admitted to being embarrassed by the poor quality and even described them as “ugly”. More worryingly, these amateurish notes were very susceptible to counterfeiting. The first Confederate Treasury notes produced by Duncan’s company were the $10 (T29) and the $5 (T37); this work would have been started in late 1861, with the notes being issued by the Treasury from March 17th and April 7th respectively of that year. Figure 2. Typical 1861 Third Issue note produced by Duncan - $5 (T37). Duncan had barely got his business up and running - producing 286,627 of the $10 (T29) notes, and some 664,620 of the $5 (T37) notes for the Treasury - when he was forced to stop his presses in late April 1862. In the spring of 1861, the Confederate authorities became alarmed by the launch of U.S. General McClelland’s Peninsula campaign, with over 100,000 enemy soldiers advancing on Richmond. The Treasury decided to relocate its key suppliers to a safer location, almost four hundred miles to the south in Columbia, South Carolina. 1.3 Duncan’s later Third Issue Treasury Notes Surprisingly, some companies refused to comply with the Treasury’s request, but Blanton Duncan, hoping to gain business advantage, readily agreed, and hastily arranged for the relocation of his employees, his machinery, and his supplies by rail and wagon to the Palmetto State. By mid-May of 1862 Duncan’s company had resumed its operations in Columbia, housed in the Charles Beck building, which was located on the southeast corner of Main and SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 137 Washington Streets. A second series of the $5 (T37) note (some 338,672 notes) was soon delivered, along with a combined total of almost five million new $20 (T20) and $10 (T30) notes. Whilst this level of output was welcomed by the Treasury, Duncan’s work continued to be of average quality and an easy target for counterfeiters; his lithographed designs were markedly inferior to the steel engraved designs being introduced by the Treasury’s preferred supplier, Keatinge & Ball, who had also relocated to Columbia, South Carolina from Richmond. Hoyer & Ludwig, who had come to the Treasury’s rescue in mid-1861 by rapidly producing millions of Second and Third Issue notes, had declined to relocate to Columbia. Secretary Memminger could not force the company to move – it was after all a private company, not Government-owned - but he could terminate its contracts with the Treasury. He could also request the return of the equipment and personnel which had been leased to Hoyer & Ludwig to facilitate its rapid expansion. The result of this was that Hoyer & Ludwig was forced to sell a large part of its business, and the new owner was James T. Paterson, a Scottish-born dental surgeon who previously ran a successful medical practice in Augusta, Georgia. Paterson was well connected politically and socially in Georgia, with Vice President Alexander H. Stephens personally lobbying Treasury Secretary Memminger on the Scotsman’s behalf. Paterson saw an opportunity to enrich himself by printing bank notes for the Confederate Treasury, whilst also ensuring that he would be exempted from military conscription. Paterson and Memminger agreed terms, and the bulk of Hoyer & Ludwig’s business was soon transferred to Columbia, where operations resumed under Paterson’s name. The competition for Treasury contracts in Columbia was intense, with three suppliers already on the ground in mid-1862, and a fourth - Evans & Cogswell - set to arrive before the year was out. Whilst the quality of Duncan’s work relative to his peers certainly disadvantaged him - despite his efforts to undercut his competitor’s prices - a second problem was his cantankerous nature and his questionable business practices. Winning was everything to Duncan, and he had no qualms about playing dirty, constantly looking for ways to nobble his competitors. This led to a toxic environment amongst the engraving and printing companies in Columbia, with frequent disputes and even violent incidents which Treasury officials could not ignore. Joseph D. Pope, the mild- mannered and highly respected professor of law who ran the Treasury Note Bureau in Columbia at that time, was driven to despair by this un-Southern behaviour. Pope particularly abhorred Blanton Duncan, referring to him as a “vulgar Western braggart” and on several occasions raised concerns to Secretary Memminger regarding the Kentuckian’s mental health. These ongoing problems resulted in Duncan being placed at the back of the queue for any new contracts, and this was evident with the Fourth Issue of Treasury notes. 1.4 Duncan and the Fourth Issue of Treasury Notes As mentioned previously, the primary aspect of the Fourth Issue was the introduction of the $100-denominated 7.30% interest-bearing notes, and over $120 million worth were issued by the Treasury between May 5th, 1862, and January 16th, 1863. These notes could be acquired at par in exchange for earlier non-interest-bearing notes and were intended to offer the investment benefits of a bond, but also the flexibility of paper money should the holder wish to use the note for some purpose or other. The notes proved extremely popular, but were circulated freely rather than being held, and thus, did not have the desired effect of reducing the amount of money in circulation as the Treasury had hoped. Contracts to manufacture the $100 notes were issued to two suppliers in early April 1862, namely Keatinge & Ball, and Hoyer & Ludwig, resulting in two different designs, although the latter company’s contract was soon novated to James T. Paterson & Co. for the reason previously explained. These notes are extremely popular with collectors, and the subject of many articles in the SPMC archives, so will not be covered further here. The new $2 and $1 change notes, were of much lower priority to the Treasury, but nonetheless were important, although the Treasury did not wish to distract Keatinge & Ball or Hoyer & Ludwig with this work. A letter sent by Secretary Memminger, dated May 21st, 1862, instructed Blanton Duncan to take on this work from his new premises in Columbia, South Carolina: “As soon as you can make up the arrears, resulting from the removal of your establishment, I wish you to make a plate of ones and twos and print them.” Memminger followed-up with another letter just two days later, demanding that Duncan should focus all of his operational capacity on the manufacture of these change notes for the Confederate Treasury, and not to be distracted by any other requests (Duncan had been in discussions with the North Carolina State Treasury to produce a set of notes): SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 138 “We have also been obliged to notify disbursing officers to confine their checks to multiples of fives, for want of ones and twos. Under these circumstances we need the utmost power of all your force. I hope therefore you will at once answer all applications to you for printing by a simple refusal, without referring them to me.” Duncan set to work, and by the end of May presented some essay notes to the Treasury for review. Whilst Memminger was keen to get things moving, he was also cost-conscious, and in a letter of June 4th, 1862, informed his subordinate, Joseph D. Pope at the Treasury Note Bureau in Columbia that these change notes should be of a smaller size than the standard measurements which were used for other denominations, namely 3 to 3¼ inches by 7 to 7¼ inches in size. Memminger provided an example of an 1861 $1.50 note - sized at 2¾ by 6⅛ inches - which had been manufactured by John Douglas for the New Orleans, Jackson & Great Northern Rail Road Company, stating the benefits: “It is a very pretty plate, has but one number, and is so small that it will not lumber the pocket. It is probable too that ten notes can be put upon a sheet instead of eight - all of which are improvements. I think, therefore, Duncan had better get up other plates of this size, instead of the plates he has made.” Figure 3. 1861 New Orleans, Jackson & Great Northern Rail Road Co. Change Note. Thus, Duncan’s engravers were forced to return to the drawing board - or rather the engraving stone - to comply with Memminger’s request. It took some two weeks for the necessary changes to be made, as a letter to the Treasury dated June 13th, 1862, from Dr. G.R. Ghiselin, Duncan’s deputy, confirmed: “Will commence printing $2 bills tomorrow”. However, another letter from Ghiselin dated June 14th, 1862, indicated that this did not happen. Duncan had requested a last-minute alteration, namely, to erase one of the two serial number boxes which featured in the note’s design - Secretary Memminger had been specific that only one serial number was required to be written onto these low value notes. 2. THE FOURTH ISSUE $2 NOTE 2.1 Design features of the $2 note The central vignette prepared by Duncan’s engravers for this note is generally referred to as “The South striking down the Union” (see Figure 4 below), and a letter at the time from Duncan himself to Secretary Memminger confirmed this was the intention. Figure 4. Central vignette adopted by B. Duncan for the 1862 Fourth Issue $2 note. SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 139 However, this scene was unquestionably drawn from Greek mythology, being based on the fable of Hercules liberating the titan Prometheus from his imprisonment and interminable torture. Prometheus, was the god of fire and credited with the creation of the human race, to which he imparted certain valuable skills and technologies. Prometheus was punished for this action by Zeus - King of the Gods - and placed in chains for eternity at the top of a mountain, where each day an eagle would attack him, eating his liver. Being immortal, Prometheus could recover from his wounds each night, but his suffering was endless until he was liberated by the demigod, Hercules, who, in exchange for his kind deed, wished to glean valuable knowledge from the Titan which would help in his own quest for immortality. The Author has developed the following interpretation of this dramatic scene: Southern pride and military power - as represented by the angry, sword-bearing female warrior on the left - can be seen slaying a ferocious eagle. This bird of prey is intended to symbolize the North, and its aggressive, invasive nature. The distressed maiden to the right, pinned to the ground, was probably intended to symbolize the South, which was thus saved from the unwelcomed Northern oppression by the action of the brave sword-bearing female warrior. In short, the Southern Army would unquestionably triumph over the Northern invader and protect the innocent citizens of the South. This was not actually how things worked out, and much destruction was wrought upon the citizens of the Confederate States as Federal military leaders introduced the world to total warfare, focusing on civilian targets as well as military ones. In the top left-hand corner was a second vignette, bearing the bust of Judah P. Benjamin (1811-1884). Although born in London, Benjamin’s family, who were merchants from the Sephardic Jewish community, moved to the British colony of St. Croix in the Caribbean, when he was an infant. From there, the family moved to the United States, eventually settling in New Orleans, Louisiana, where Benjamin established himself as a successful lawyer and statesman. When the Confederate States government was formed in late February 1861, President Jefferson Davis appointed Benjamin to the position of Attorney General. In November 1861 he was reassigned to the position of Secretary of War, but his lack of military experience led to repeated clashes with key Generals, and resulted in President Davis quickly changing Benjamin’s role again, this time to Secretary of State; he served in this role until the end of the War. Following the collapse of the Confederate government in 1865, Benjamin and his family fled to London, where he worked successfully for many years as a barrister. His final years were spent in Paris, where he died from heart disease, almost thirty years after he had fled the Confederacy. Benjamin’s bust became a standard feature on all $2 Confederate notes after the Fourth Issue, appearing on the T54 note from the Fifth Issue (dated December 2nd, 1862), the T61 note from the Sixth Issue (dated April 6th, 1863), and the T70 note from the Seventh Issue (dated February 17th, 1864). Whilst this was impressive, it would appear that in Confederate money parlance, a “Benjamin” was considerably less valuable than its namesake today! With the design features and the physical size now finalised, the actual production work should have proceeded smoothly for Blanton Duncan, but, unfortunately, this would not prove to be the case. 2.2 The $2 error note (T38) and its replacement the (T42) note Treasury correspondence indicated that, after almost a month of preparatory work to design and engrave the new change notes, Duncan’s presses began printing the First Series of $2 notes on Monday June 16th, 1862, producing 947 sheets representing 9,470 notes with a face value of $18,940. Blanton Duncan himself was not present in Columbia at that time, so the task of monitoring production and submitting the required production reports to Treasury officials fell to his deputy, Dr. Ghiselin. The Treasury Note Bureau closely monitored the production of all of its suppliers to ensure that they were delivering the promised quantities of Treasury notes and bonds on a daily basis. Figure 6 (below) shows the report from Duncan’s company from June 17th, 1862. These reports were also used to reconcile suppliers’ invoices. The table below this- Figure 7 is extracted from the relevant daily activity reports for the week of Monday June 16th, 1862, to Saturday June 21st, 1862, and summarises the quantities of $2 notes produced by Duncan’s company during that period, some 178,670. These notes would have been speedily delivered to the Treasury Note Bureau, where they would be registered, numbered, signed, and cut into individual notes before being issued. Figure 5. Upper lefthand corner vignette adopted by B. Duncan for the 1862 Fourth Issue $2 note. SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 140 Treasury correspondence indicated that, after almost a month of preparatory work to design and engrave the new change notes, Duncan’s presses began printing the First Series of $2 notes on Monday June 16th, 1862, producing 947 sheets representing 9,470 notes with a face value of $18,940. Blanton Duncan himself was not present in Columbia at that time, so the task of monitoring production and submitting the required production reports to Treasury officials fell to his deputy, Dr. Ghiselin. The Treasury Note Bureau closely monitored the production of all of its suppliers to ensure that they were delivering the promised quantities of Treasury notes and bonds on a daily basis. Figure 6 (below) shows the report from Duncan’s company from June 17th, 1862. These reports were also used to reconcile suppliers’ invoices. The table below this- Figure 7 is extracted from the relevant daily activity reports for the week of Monday June 16th, 1862, to Saturday June 21st, 1862, and summarises the quantities of $2 notes produced by Duncan’s company during that period, some 178,670. These notes would have been speedily delivered to the Treasury Note Bure, where they would be registered, numbered, signed, and cut into individual notes before being issued. Date  QuanƟty of sheets  QuanƟty of notes  Value of notes  June 16th, 1862 947 9,470 $18,940 June 17th, 1862 1,992 19,920 $39,840 June 18th, 1862 2,848 28,480 $56,960 June 19th, 1862 3,939 39,390 $78,780 June 20th, 1862 3,953 39,530 $79,060 June 21st,, 1862 4,188 41,880 $83,760 Weekly total  17,867 178,670 $357,340 Figure 7. Summary of $2 notes manufactured during first week of production. Figure 6. Extract of Duncan’s Production Report for June 17th, 1862. SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 141 Unfortunately, upon delivery of the first shipment of these $2 notes to the Treasury Note Bureau, a significant error was discovered - the note had been engraved with the wrong Issue date. These $2 non-interest-bearing notes which formed part of the Fourth Issue were supposed to have been dated June 2nd, 1862, but Duncan’s engravers had mistakenly used the Third Issue date of September 2nd, 1861, [see Figure 8 below]. Whilst this may seem like an elementary mistake, it should be noted that, at that time, Duncan was still operating under instructions from the Treasury to print large quantities of his Third Issue $5 (T37), $10 (T30), and $20 (T20) notes, which were dated September 2nd, 1861. In his daily report to Secretary Memminger dated June 17th, 1862, Duncan responded to the Treasury’s discovery of the problem, but played it down, and attempted to deflect any blame away from his company: “The draft of the $2 which I sent to you, and which was approved, bore date September 2, 1861, and was accordingly so engraved. I presume that all the supplemental acts would refer back to the original and bear same date.” Figure 8. 1862 Fourth Issue $2 First Series Error Note (T38) - Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions. Nonetheless, Duncan acknowledged the error, and informed Secretary Memminger that he had already instructed his engravers to change the date to June 2nd, 1862. Duncan added that, in addition to the initial quantity of notes delivered to the Treasury Note Bureau, he had a further 29,000 notes (290 sheets) of these incorrectly-dated notes on hand at his factory, which he hoped could/would still be accepted by the Treasury. A later communication - issued that same day - from Duncan to Secretary Memminger increased the estimate of error notes on hand at the factory to 35,000; the presses had obviously still been running whilst these discussions had been going on. [Note - A small quantity of these notes had already been sent to the Treasury]. Whilst the Author has not been able to find any correspondence from the Treasury records which confirmed any specific course of action, it appears that the stock of these incorrectly-dated $2 sheets was used by the Treasury and placed into circulation. Hundreds of surviving notes have been discovered which bear the tell-tale signs of wear and tear, which was considerable in most cases. This might have been because the problem was not discovered before some of the new $2 notes had already been placed into circulation, but since Treasury correspondence indicated that the incorrect date had been discovered very quickly, the Author is inclined to believe that, after some deliberation, the Treasury simply decided to use these error notes. The Treasury department was under huge pressure to issue more notes of all denominations, paper and other materials were in short supply, and the ultimate responsibility for the $2 date error rested with themselves. The error notes were still legal tender and at least had a valid date for the Third Issue, even if they were funded as part of the Fourth Issue - the Third Issue, was already significantly over budget by at least $80 million, so this small additional sum of wayward $2 notes was trivial. Thus, it made sense to use the notes rather than destroy them. Early collectors assumed that the $2 September 2nd, 1861, note was an undocumented part of the Third Issue, but research by later numismatists (dating back to H.D. Allen in his September 1917 article in the Numismatist) revealed the truth, that it was an incorrectly-dated Fourth Issue note. Based on observations of a selection of surviving SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 142 notes, and Duncan’s own correspondence from that time, it was believed that some 35,000 of these $2 error notes, all First Series, had probably been issued. Classifications for the $2 error note and for its replacement are shown in the table below: Note and Reference J.W. Haseltine Guide (1876) W.W. Bradbeer Book (1915) Philip H. Chase Book (1947) Grover Criswell Jr. Book (1957) $2 error note Dated September 2nd, 1861 54 286 113 38 / 286 $2 corrected note Dated June 2nd, 1862 63 334-337 205 42 / 334-337 Figure 9. Classification of $2 error note and its replacement. The classification system defined by Grover Criswell Jr. in the late 1950s has become the de facto standard for Confederate Treasury notes, and thus the universal term used today for the $2 error note is the T38, and for the corrected note is the T42, and this classification will be used throughout this article. Figure 10. 1862 Fourth Issue $2 First Series Corrected Note (T42) - Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions. The Fourth Issue, $2 (First Series), ran from serial numbers 1 - 47000, with plate letters 1 to 10, thus, giving a total of 470,000 notes. Based on observations by experts over the years, the $2 (T38) error notes are all known to have been part of the First Series, with lowish serial numbers, as detailed in the table below: First Series - Serial Number Range Quantity of Notes Issued 1 - 2000 (plate numbers 1 to 10) 20,000 4101 - 4800 (plate numbers 1 to 10) 7,000 5001 - 5800 (plate numbers 1 to 10) 8,000 TOTAL 35,000 Figure 11. Previously estimated serial number ranges of $2 Error Note (T38). Although it is known that Duncan quickly began delivering the sheets containing the new $2 notes to the Treasury Note Bureau - and this was how the error was quickly discovered - it is also known, from Treasury records, that none of these $2 notes were processed by clerks in the Treasury Note Bureau for numbering, signing, and cutting until July 1st, 1862. Priority at that time was being given to higher value $5, $10, and $20 notes from the tail-end of the Third Issue, and after this, the new interest-bearing $100 notes from the Fourth Issue. Once Treasury officials had made the decision to retain the error notes rather than to destroy them, they were duly signed, numbered, and cut to size by the Treasury Note Bureau clerks, alongside stocks of the corrected notes which Duncan had begun delivering. Thian, in his Register of the Confederate Debt, made no distinction between these two types of First Series $2 notes - viewing them all as one contiguous block of serial numbers / signers (pages SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 143 39-40) in the section covering the Act of April 17th, 1862. He similarly summarised this First Series of $2 notes under the Act of April 17th, 1862, on page 175: “1-1 to 10-10, 1st Series 1-47000 $940,000.00” Over the last three years, the Author has been engaged in a project to address the gaps and anomalies in Thian’s Register, with the objective of creating a digital (relational database) version of the original paper-based manuscript, enriched with newly discovered data, and with known errors corrected. This work has required, amongst many other things, some detailed research into the surviving population of Fourth Issue $2 and $1 notes, looking at a wide range of data sources such as dealer websites, auction house archives, books, online collections, and private collections. As a result of this research to date, the Author believes that the total quantity of type T38 notes issued was probably 37,000, slightly higher than the previous consensus of 35,000; although, this figure could increase further to 39,000 if some of the currently unobserved blocks of serial numbers (e.g. 2001-2200) proved to be formed of type T38 notes. It should be stated that is also possible that the sheets of T38 and T42 notes were so liberally interspersed that it is possible that a single serial number block of one hundred notes could be composed of a mixture of both types. No examples of this have been witnessed to date, but the only way that this could be determined with absolute certainty would be to observe each and every First Series serial number. This is a task that is likely to be impossible. The summary table below (Figure 12) summarises the results of this research so far for the First Series of $2 notes: Figure 12. Revised serial number ranges of First Series $2 notes containing types T38 and T42. As we know from Treasury records, Duncan’s company printed 29,930 $2 notes in the first two days of production before the problem was identified, and these would have been engraved with the incorrect date of September 2nd, 1861. A further 28,480 $2 notes were produced on the third day, and it is probable that at least some of these would have been the type T38 error notes, printed before production was halted and Duncan’s engravers were required to make a hasty correction to the plates (stones) used for printing. Ongoing research may unearth new evidence, but for now the Author is confident to state the quantity of First Series T38 notes issued as being 37,000, with the balance of 433,000 notes being type T42. [TO BE CONTINUED] SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 144 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 $10 18-Subject Intermediate Size Plate Serial Number 1597 Backs and other Wrong Size Plate Serial Numbers The focus of this article is intermediate size back plate serial number 1597 on $10 1950A, B and C FRNs, a variety that few people know about because nothing much has been written about it. Along the way, we’ll look at its cousins. Decades ago, someone pointed out 1597 on the back of a $10 Federal Reserve note from the 1950 series. Here is what I learned about it. The notes bearing the variety were printed from an 18-subject flat plate. Those were the last plates used to print notes on wetted paper. Consequently, the notes bearing the variety have terrific eye appeal characterized by crisp inks and paper that possesses a distinctive crackling The Paper Column Peter Huntoon Figure 1. $10 1950A FRN with intermediate size back plate serial number 1597, Back 1597 also was mated with 1950B and C FRN faces. Figure 2. Size comparison between micro (228), intermediate (1597) and macro (1335) plate serial numbers, SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 146 texture and feel when new. Many collectors of small size notes refer to notes printed on wetted paper as coming from the classic small note era; specifically, notes printed from 12- and 18-subject flat plates used for the 1928 through 1953 series. I watched for the proof for 1597 among the 18-subject proofs as we were sorting the proofs at the Smithsonian. When it appeared, I saw that the plate was certified for use on August 20, 1954 and all 18 subjects had intermediate size plate serial numbers. The plate was made a little too late to have appeared on Series of 1950 Clark-Snyder notes. The plate number in the plate margin was 5125, which is from a running set of numbers assigned to small size backs of the various denominations of that vintage. In contrast, plate serial numbers differ from plate numbers in that they thread only through the plates of the same denomination and are the little numbers found within the notes. Jamie Yakes located records for the use of the plate in the National Archives in January 2024. They reveal that it saw extensive service in numerous press runs inclusive of August 22, 1954 and July 5, 1962. Its long life is attributed to numerous re-entries. Of course, the plate was used to produce notes for any number of Federal Reserve districts in each of the 1950A, B and C series, including star notes. I don’t know of anyone who has attempted to catalog the possible varieties. I found only one star note with a l597 back, a Series of 1950A with serial B17398034*. I let it go to Logan Talks who for years maintained a census of scarce and rare small size notes. He always appreciated plate number varieties on replacement notes. As I was writing this article, I remembered that note so I contacted him to see if he recorded the serial number. I’ll be darned if he didn’t still have the note for you to see. The real challenge for me was to find the variety on a $10 1953 series silver certificate because 1597 had to have been used on some silvers. I have looked at a slew of 1953 $10 silvers over the years and never found one. They have to be rare based on my frustrated experience, Small size U.S. variety collecting has enjoyed a huge surge in popularity during the past several years. One area that has received attention are the notes with wrong size plate serial numbers. They certainly add to enjoyment for those who have the patience to pursue them. Some Figure 3. Logan Talks’ $10 Series of 1950A star note with intermediate back 1597 is proof that as expected the variety comes in the form of replacement notes. SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 147 turn out to be rarities. Three very popular and avidly collected varies that have come down the pike are these: (1) $5 Series of 1934B New York Federal Reserve notes from face plate 212 with intermediate size plate serial numbers on all subjects, (2) intermediate backs that occurred on the right half of 32-subject back plate 1821 used to print $1 1974 FRNs, (3) $1 1988A FRN face 106 made for use in Fort Worth that carried a large plate number otherwise reserved exclusively for the backs printed at Fort Worth. One stellar unreported possibility is a $5 1934B FRN New York with intermediate face 212 mated with micro back 637. This potential find ranks at the absolute top of my list as the ultimate small note variety. Plate 637 was in use when 212 faces were being printed. Someone is going to score big time by finding one. Robert Calderman reeled in a spectacular $5 FRN changeover pair in 2023 consisting of a 1934A and 1934B 212; respectively bearing serials B78811218B and B78811219B. This significant discovery was the first such pair ever reported. The stuff is out there, all you have to do is look. Intermediate size plate serial numbers were first brought to my attention by a die-hard small size variety collector named Meyer Fulda in 1970. Meyer, a contemporary of small note cataloguer Figure 4. $5 FRN New York 1934B with intermediate size face plate serial number 212, probably the first intermediate small size plate serial number recognized by numismatists. Find this variety on a star note and you will have come up with a stellar rarity. Find it mated with micro back 637 and you will have discovered the ultimate variety sought by small note variety collectors. Figure 5. Comparison between normal back plate serial number 1821 on the left and intermediate on the right. These appeared on 1974 FRN $1s. The intermediate numbers occurred only on the right half of the back plate. The challenge is to find specimens of both sizes. The normal 1821 is the hardest to find. The note that provided the normal 1821 shown here happened to have serial K73337333A. SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 148 Leon Goodman, probably introduced me to the $5 1934B NY $5 212 intermediate face. Chuck O’Donnell used to call the intermediates Philippine numbers because they resembled in size the plate serial numbers on the Philippine notes printed at the BEP during our occupation of those islands. I got lucky once in a modest way with $1 1974 FRNs with intermediate back 1821. They started to appear around 1975. I was down from Laramie, Wyoming, visiting my in-laws in Claremont, California, when we went out for dinner at a nearby restaurant one Sunday. In getting change from the cashier, I noticed she was peeling off $1s from a new pack, from which she handed me three. I looked at their backs and saw that one was an 1821. I hurriedly asked where the restaurant banked and she pointed to a branch bank down the street. I was at that bank Monday morning asking the head teller if I could buy some new $1s. I had a little over $400 with me so in due course she obtained that amount from the vault. I gleefully noted that every fourth note had an 1821 back. I had a lot of fun trading them around. People seemed to want four consecutive notes from those packs so they could have their 1821 bookended by the three notes with normal plate serial numbers. The Federal Reserve $1 1988A notes printed at the Fort Worth plant bearing large face plate serial number 106 are a slightly different animal than the intermediate plate serials profiled above. They were created the same way though. Fort Worth notes printed from 32-subject plates are deliberately distinguished from those printed in Washington, DC, by having: (1) an FW prefix in front of the face plate serial number and (2) large plate serial numbers on the backs. The heights of the plate serial numbers on the faces of both Washington, DC, and Fort Worth notes printed from 32-subject plates are identical having heights equal to the height of the FW prefix letters on the Fort Worth notes. In the case of Fort Worth $1 face 106, the engraver accidentally dialed in the large size reserved for the backs. I’m mentioning 106 here owing to it having the same cause, a wrong setting being made on a pantograph machine. Bob Kvederas Jr. was one of the first to discover the variety right after the September 11, 2001 tragedy. He is the author of catalogs on the popular Web Press $1 FRN Figure 6. Fun note with an 80 percent second generation offset transfer of the face onto the back of a $1 1974 FRN with intermediate back 1821. This note was won by Tom Conklin at the Society of Paper Money Collectors Tom Bain Raffle at the 2001 International Paper Money Show. SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 149 .notes. His discovery was made while the notes were still in the pipeline so it created quite a stir. Bob even found the variety on some star notes. Plate serial numbers are added to printing plates by engravers who etch the numbers into the surface of the plates. The area where the numbers occur on a plate are coated with a resin. The engraver uses a pantograph etching machine to scribe the number through the resin onto the plate. The pantograph machine has a template with numbers that the engraver traces and the machine mechanically reduces them to the desired size as it scribes several subjects at a time onto the plate. This process produces a trace of the number through the resin onto the plate surface. Next, the engraver puts a drop of acid on the resin and the acid etches the number to the desired depth into the surface of the plate so it can hold ink. The acid etching process is sped up by placing an electrode onto the drop of acid and applying a current through it. The pantograph machines have an adjustment that governs the size of the plate serial numbers. Once in a great while, the operators dial in the wrong setting. Figure 7. This note is a real sleeper because you have to know subtle technical details to spot it. The large size of the plate serial number on the face of this $1 1988A is the size reserved exclusively for back plate serial numbers printed at the Fort Worth plant. The normal height for 106 should be the same as the FW prefix. SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 150 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 The Panic of 1907 and Secretary of the Treasury Cortelyou’s 3% Certificates of Indebtedness Purpose The objective of this article is to describe how the Treasury Department under the leadership of Secretary of the Treasury George Cortelyou created an increase in the volume of national bank notes to help stem runs on banks and to offset hoarding of currency attending the severe but short-lived Panic of 1907. His measure temporarily created approximately $40 million in new national currency that was injected into the nation’s economy between November 1907 and the end of November 1908. The well- publicized announcement of this infusion of new money into the national banking system had a Matt Hansen Lee Lofthus Peter Huntoon Figure 1. $50 Act of June 13, 1898, one-year 3% Certificate of Indebtedness issued during the Panic of 1907 with a November 20, 1908, maturity. A specimen of the face was sold by Stack’s in 2010 for $34,500. National Numismatic Collection photo. SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 152 calming effect on the public about the safety of the banking system, so mid-November 1907 marked the turning point toward recovery from the panic. Cortelyou’s $40 million injection increased total national bank circulation by 5.8 percent as of December 31, 1907. Particular attention will be focused on the unorthodox issuance of $50 one-year 3% Certificates of Indebtedness authorized by the Spanish-American War funding Act of June 13, 1898. Those certificates secured $15,436,500 of new circulation, which alone represented 26 percent of the spike in national bank note circulation between November 15 and December 31, 1907 (Cortelyou 1908a, p. 126). The Panic of 1907 The global Panic of 1907 resulted from the collapse of a speculative bubble, the beginning of which is attributed to the suspension of the Knickerbocker Trust Company in New York City on October 22, 1907. Trust companies in New York operated under state charters and were bank-like institutions that accepted deposits subject to withdrawal—and were subject to runs. They loaned to speculators in industries and the stock market. The Knickerbocker Trust was brought down by a run ignited by news of failed loans to speculators who were attempting to corner the stock of United Copper Company, a ploy that unraveled. (Moen and Tallman, 2015). A domino collapse of public confidence quickly spread first within New York City to other leveraged trust companies, and then beyond to banks in general. Runs developed across the country and Figure 2. Knickerbocker Trust Company, 352-364 Fifth Avenue, New York City. The Panic of 1907 was triggered by the suspension of this institution on October 22, 1907. Wikipedia photo. SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 153 the stock market swooned, producing an economic paralysis second only to the future Great Depression. Currency vanished from commerce as massive hoarding ensued. Although severe, the panic began to subside in mid-November. By the beginning of 1908, the premium on currency disappeared as public confidence in the banking sector began to return (Cortelyou, 1908a, p. 12). Panics and Banking in 1907 It is necessary to spell out how money panics such as occurred during 1907 impacted a bank in order to understand how Secretary of the Treasury George Cortelyou attempted to mitigate those impacts. The immediate problem faced by the banks was withdrawals of deposits and hoarding of the cash that severely weakened them and deprived the economy of liquidity that allowed it to function. Stepping back, there were two major weaknesses that plagued the national banking system in 1907. There was no deposit insurance at the time and national banks had an inherently brittle structure. The lack of deposit insurance was particularly onerous. In reality, each depositor was investing in the success of the bank. Depositors were relying on the integrity and business acumen of the bank management to protect their nest eggs with no recourse should things go wrong. Therefore, all bank depositors were a continually nervous lot who would run for the exit with their money at the slightest hint of a problem. The issue of brittle banks was more subtle. Each national bank was a stand-alone corporate entity that had to endure economic stresses on its own. There were no provisions for pooling risk between banks that could be brought to bear if one ran into trouble. Specifically, if customer confidence in a bank fell, runs on the bank developed whereby its depositors withdrew their money, thus weakening the bank by drawing off its operating funds. Banks were required to maintain cash reserves against both customer deposits and the national bank circulation issued by the bank. For example, the required reserves for banks in small towns were 15 percent of the deposits and 15 percent of the circulation. Runs could quickly deplete those reserves. National banking law required the banks to close when the reserves were depleted and enter a receivership that would eventually liquidate its assets to recover as much money as possible to repay its depositors and other creditors. National banks were designed to be short-term lenders to their business community. For example, in rural areas the bankers would make loans to farmers that allowed them to purchase machinery, seed, fertilizer, etc. to get their crops in. Those loans matured as the crops were harvested. At that point the bankers loaned to produce brokers to allow them to purchase the crops and arrange for them to be shipped and sold to distant markets for processing or consumption. Similarly, short-term seasonal loans were made to implement dealers to fund purchases of machinery to be sold to the farmers, and so on to other business enterprises throughout the local economy to keep it humming. The money that the bankers loaned came from the paid-in capital of the bank’s shareholders and customer deposits, the majority from the latter. A well-managed bank also had a surplus fund consisting of accumulated profits held as a cushion against adversities such as defaulted loans. The point being that the money available to the bankers was not sitting in the vault, but rather was out in commerce working in Figure 3. Panicky investors swarm around Federal Hall, a block from the New York Stock Exchange, at the outset of the Panic of 1907. New York Public Library photo. SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 154 the form of loans to facilitate the ability of creditors to create wealth in the local community. That money was fungible and circulated through the community and beyond. When a run developed, only a fraction of the bank’s capital was on hand, most in the form of its legally required reserves. There was an immediate liquidity problem. A serious run would quickly deplete the reserves before the bankers could recover the money out on loan. Even though the loan portfolio might prove to be sound, the threshold forcing closure due to depletion of reserves could easily be surpassed and the bank would find itself in receivership. Thus, the banks were delicate—that is, brittle. Not only the bank but the entire economy of the community would be throttled by runs as withdrawn cash was stuffed into mattresses for safe keeping, A major factor was the inability of the bankers to continue making loans to allow the local economy to thrive. Framing Relief Secretary Cortelyou realized that two relief measures were imperative to blunt a money panic. The most urgent was to somehow infuse the banks with additional funds to keep them solvent in the face of runs. A second priority was to create additional currency that could be pressed into the economy to keep it functioning despite the hoarding that was taking place. The problem Cortelyou faced was that there was no legislation that directly provided for such relief. In the past the Treasury had little recourse but to passively stand by as panics brought down not only perfectly good banks, but the businesses of sound creditors that depended on them. Unemployment soared. The legacy was economic depressions that often took years of recovery. He implemented two means to help the banks: (1) provide the banks with Treasury money in the form of temporary deposits to offset the loss of customer deposits and (2) increase national bank note circulation by providing new bond issues that bankers could use to secure additional circulation. Cortelyou already had modestly experimented with depositing Treasury funds in national banks to improve their liquidity between August 28th and October 14th in sections of the country where business activity was at a maximum and currency in short supply. This activity attended the movement of crops, which heretofore created a perennial shortage of cash in rural areas. Those deposits totaled about $28 million (Cortelyou 1908a, p. 7-8). Deposits in Banks Before the crisis broke, the Treasury on July 31 had $238,574,188 in its General Fund that was not immediately obligated (Cortelyou, 1908a, p. 7). Cortelyou worked with his staff using input from the nation’s bankers to identify banks throughout the country where temporary deposits of money would exert the most influence in stemming the panic. These funds drawn from the General Fund were geographically disbursed for obvious political impact but necessarily focused on sections of the country where depositor confidence was lowest and runs were taking place or imminent. The deposits were preferentially lodged in correspondent banks in the major money centers where country bankers maintained deposits. The first, and ultimately largest, share of these deposits necessarily went to major New York City banks owing to the fact that New York was the financial hub of the nation. The deposits created an outward ripple effect of stability and liquidity as country bankers retrieved their deposits from the correspondent banks if needed. The Treasury deposits were non-interest bearing and callable as the crisis abated. The high point of deposits occurred on December 27, 1907, at $259,994,271.77, which at the time left only somewhat more than $5 million in the General Fund to meet the foreseeable government expenses (Cortelyou, 1908b, p. 12). The deposits consisted of existing money placed at the disposal of the economy to help offset some $296,124,469 that was estimated to have disappeared from circulation during the seven weeks following the collapse of the Knickerbocker Trust on October 22nd. This drain represented 1/10th of entire circulation of the country, $215 million of which was from the New York City banks alone (Cortelyou, 1908a, p. 14-15). Of course, the purposes of the deposits were to provide money to keep the economy running and to boost depositor confidence in order to quell or prevent runs. There was a degree of showmanship involved. Gold coin was advantageously provided for many of the deposits. Cortelyou (1908a, p. 8-9) wrote: SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 155 Gold coin was paid in many cases, at the request of certain institutions, because they found that payment of coin to depositors tended in a measure to discourage runs. It was not because the coin was preferred to notes; on contrary, it was because the depositors did not desire to be burdened with taking away the coin, and would have preferred notes of large denominations. * * * The transfer of large amounts of gold from the Treasury to the banks made it necessary to run the mints at high pressure * * *. It is important to keep in mind that the deposits just described consisted of existing money that already was in the Treasury. Increased Circulation Addressing the need to create new money to offset money lost to hoarding required imagination and innovation. National bank circulation was limited by the availability of Federal bonds that bankers bought to deposit with the U.S. Treasurer to secure their national bank note issues. There was a scarcity of the bonds on the market because the available supply already was tied up by the national banks for their circulations. Cortelyou had no means to increase national bank circulation without issuing additional bonds. How he solved this dilemma was unorthodox. Treasury officials delved into the revenue laws to determine if any authorized Federal debt remained unsubscribed. They found two opportunities, one in legislation passed in 1902 to provide money for the construction of the Panama Canal and the other dating from 1898 to fund the Spanish-American War. Conveniently, the Panama Canal authorization happened to be current. Section 8 of the Act of June 28, 1902—An Act to provide for the construction of a canal connecting the waters of the Atlantic and Pacific oceans— contained this language: That the Secretary of the Treasury is hereby authorized to borrow on the credit of the United States from time to time, as the proceeds may be required to defray expenditures authorized by this Act (such proceeds when received to be used only for the purpose of meeting such expenditures), the sum of one hundred and thirty million dollars, or so much thereof as may be necessary * * *. The key words here were “from time to time.” The canal was still under construction and the total amount of debt authorized for it had not been funded yet. Cortelyou simply authorized the Treasury to invite subscriptions for an additional $50 million worth of bonds to continue the work—probably a bit prematurely in terms of need, but certainly within his powers. His handling of the Act of June 28,1898—An Act to provide ways and means to meet war expenditures, and for other purposes—represented a reach that only lawyers would appreciate. This is the language in stand-alone Section 32 of that act: That the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized to borrow from time to time at a rate of interest not exceeding three per centum per annum, such sum or sums as, in his judgement may be necessary to meet public expenditures, and to issue therefor certificates of indebtedness in such form as he may prescribe and in denominations of fifty dollars or some multiple of that sum; and each certificate so issued shall be payable, with the interest accrued thereon, at such time, not exceeding one year from the date of its issue, as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe: Provided, That the amount of such certificates outstanding shall at no time exceed one hundred millions of dollars; and the provisions of existing law respecting counterfeiting and other fraudulent practices are hereby extended to the bonds and certificates of indebtedness authorized by this Act. Of course, the war was history but one fact remained. There was the provision authorizing $100 million worth of Certificates of Indebtedness that had not been exercised. Yes, the act pertained to funding the Spanish-American War but incorporated in its title was the throwaway clause “and for other purposes.” There was nothing in Section 32 that linked the authorization for the $100 million loan to the war effort or that put a sunset clause on the authorization. All that was said was “sum or sums as, in his [Secretary of the Treasury’s] judgement may be necessary to meet public expenditures.” Secretary Cortelyou had just such an “other purpose”! Cortelyou ran the plan by President Roosevelt in a letter dated November 16, 1907, and received his letter of approval the next day (Cortelyou, 1908a, p. 230-232). Invitations soliciting bids for $50 million worth of 2% Panama Canal bonds and announcing the sale of $100 million of 3% Certificates of Indebtedness were published by the Treasury Department on November 18th. SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 156 Results The money raised from the sale of the Panama Canal bonds and Certificates of Indebtedness was as follows (Cortelyou 1908b, p. 15). Panama Canal bonds $24,631,980 Certificates of Indebtedness $15,436,500 $40,068,480 Although the sale of these securities was advertised as being open to anyone, the announcements for the sale of each type of securities contained caveats such as this for the bonds: “The Department also reserves the right to reject any or all bids, if deemed to be to the interests of the United States so to do,” Shortly after bids began to be received for the canal bonds and offers to buy the certificates began to be processed. Secretary Cortelyou ultimately restricted the sale of the certificates to national banks so eventually all were used to boost national bank circulation. He also restricted the sale of the Panama Canal bonds to national banks and small investors. Consequently, $24,540,160 worth of the Panama Bonds went to the banks and $91,820 to investors (Cortelyou 1908a, p. 21-22; 190-213). Careful attention was being paid within the Treasury to the perceived need for new money in the face of the placement of the huge volume of deposits of existing public money into the banks. The widely reported active Federal intervention in providing both the deposits and sale of securities to mitigate the currency crisis by President Roosevelt, Cortelyou and various economic pundits had an almost immediate impact on quelling public fears about the currency crisis. Consequently, Treasury management terminated the sale of the securities well before the full offerings were sold. The Treasury was assiduously attempting to avoid inadvertent inflation by creating too much new money. The creation of new money through the security sales ultimately totaled about $40 million whereas the deposits of existing money reached $259 million. Obviously, the deposits did the heavy lifting in terms of quelling public anxieties. The panic was easing before the new money could be created beginning at the end of November 1907, a month after it began. Figure 4. The U.S. Treasury issued 2% Panama Canal bonds that national banks could purchase to secure additional issues of national bank notes in order to inflate the currency supply during the Panic of 1907 to offset currency lost from circulation by hoarding. This canceled water-damaged survivor dates from 1906 but is of the same design as those used during the Panic of 1907. Weil Art Gallery, Panama City, Panama photo. SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 157 Table 1 is a record of the Series of 1882 brown backs and 1902 red seals that were created by the 3% Certificates of Indebtedness that were sold by the Treasury to help alleviate the currency stringency. Even more of each came from the sale of Panama Canal bonds. Congressional politicians were watching. Many Congressional Republicans were cheering President Roosevelt on, who took ownership for the success (Boston Globe, Nov 11, 1907 & Nov 19, 1907). They did so despite the fact that Congress was not in the loop owing to long-term partisan gridlock over the so-called lingering money problem. Of course, public sentiment was behind Roosevelt. Bankers, stock traders, the business community, and economists were overwhelmingly ecstatic (Nebraska State Journal, Nov 19, 1907; New York Times, Nov 19, 1907; Washington Post, Nov 19, 1907). New for panics was aggressive intervention by the Treasury. That mitigation was slow to arrive owing to how fast the measures could be implemented. Obviously, rapid deposits of public money into the banks were far more effective than the creation of new national bank circulation attending the securities sales. In hindsight, the creation of new money amounted to a footnote to the entire program, although it appeared to have the greater impact on public perception. Politically controversial were the sheer magnitude of the deposits of public money in the national banks and the employment of the Spanish-American 3% Certificates of Indebtedness to create new national currency (Boston Globe, Nov 18, 1907). Treasury Bankrolls the Purchases The U.S. Treasury provided a huge incentive to national bankers to buy the Certificates of Indebtedness and Panama Canal bonds. In the cases of bankers who bought these bonds in order to increase their circulations, the Treasury allowed them to deposit most of the purchase price in a deposit account temporarily held for the credit of the Treasury identical to the temporary deposits the Treasury was making in other banks to shore them up. In effect, this provided public money to cover most of the cost of the bonds used to increase the banks circulation. Thusly, the bulk of the temporary increase in circulation that was provided by this gyration was funded by public money. The following describes how a purchase of $100,000 worth of 3% Certificates of Indebtedness created new money. The identical track was followed for the Panama Canal bonds except the bankers only had to remit 10% of the purchase price of the bonds to the Treasury instead of 25% for the Certificates of Indebtedness (Cortelyou, 1908a, p. 154). The bankers won an allotment of $100,000 worth of Act of June 13, 1898 3% Certificates of Indebtedness. Their $100,000 was deposited in an account in their bank that they maintained for the credit of the U.S. Treasury. However, Treasury required them to remit only 25% of those funds to the U.S. Treasurer leaving $75,000 on deposit in the bank. The $100,000 purchase was logged in with the U.S. Treasurer as fully paid, and the Treasurer held the Certificates of Indebtedness as security for $100,000 worth of new national currency that was issued by the Comptroller of the Currency to the bank. Because $75,000 worth of the bank's purchase price remained on deposit with the bank, the bankers retained the use of that money for their business identically as they did for normal customer deposits. Consequently, as long as the Treasury allowed the bank to hold its $75,000, the bankers had that amount plus the $100,000 of new national bank notes available for their use. In essence, the $25,000 of the banker’s money sent to the Treasurer now allowed them to have on hand $175,000 to conduct their business, $100,000 of which was newly created money. The $175,000 that the bankers controlled could be loaned at peak rates during the crisis to keep their local economy humming and/or they could loan it to their correspondent bank(s) in the money centers where the premium on currency was high. Either way, this machination increased the money in circulation to satisfy the Treasury's short-term goal to offset the withdrawal of currency from circulation by hoarders. This mechanism reversed when the Certificates of Indebtedness were sold by the bankers or matured. At that time, the circulation of the bank—and the country— contracted by $100,000. Notice that the reality here is that the bankers only had to remit $25,000 of their money to the Treasury to receive $100,000 worth of new national bank notes. Thusly, the $25,000 they had to withdraw from circulation to buy the certificates was replaced by four times as much new money. SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 158 Table 1. National banks that used $50 Act of June 13, 1898 1-year 3% Certificates of Indebtedness to increase their circulations during 1907-8 to help mitigate currency withdrawn from circulation owing to hoarding during the Panic of 1907 (Treasury, 1907-8). Ch. No. Location Bank $ Increase 1461 NY New York The National City Bank of 2,151,000 29 NY New York The First National Bank of the City of 2,000,000 733 NY New York The National Bank of Commerce in 1,250,000 200 MD Boston The First National Bank of 1,000,000 2370 NY New York The Chase National Bank of the City of 1,000,000 6301 PA Pittsburgh The Mellon National Bank of 1,000,000 2045 NJ Newark Union National Bank of 800,000 592 PA Philadelphia The Girard National Bank of 500,000 3069 LA New Orleans The Whitney-Central National Bank of 500,000 4817 WI Milwaukee The Wisconsin National Bank of 500,000 8424 NV Reno The Nixon National Bank of 500,000 475 MA Boston The Merchants National Bank of 300,000 7876 LA New Orleans The German-American National Bank of 300,000 290 NY New York The Fourth National Bank of the City of 250,000 539 PA Philadelphia The Philadelphia National Bank 250,000 1499 NY New York The Chemical National Bank of 250,000 1686 NY Buffalo The Manufacturers and Traders National Bank of 250,000 1336 MD Baltimore The Merchants National Bank of 180,000 5045 GA Atlanta The Fourth National Bank of 170,000 1657 TX San Antonio The San Antonio National Bank 168,000 8666 VA Richmond National State Bank of 150,000 6023 PA Pittsburg The Federal National Bank of 135,000 252 PA Pittsburgh The Second National Bank of 100,000 643 MA Boston The Atlantic National Bank of 100,000 1069 DC Washington The National Metropolitan Bank of 100,000 1231 NY New York The Importers and Traders National Bank 100,000 1413 MD Baltimore The National Mechanics Bank of 100,000 1633 NE Omaha The Omaha National Bank 100,000 2506 VA Lynchburg The National Exchange Bank of 100,000 8734 LA New Orleans The New Hibernia National Bank of 100,000 204 MD Boston The First National Bank of 80,000 3515 VA Petersburg The National Bank of 75,000 7709 VA Petersburg The Virginia National Bank of 70,000 5644 GA Forsyth The First National Bank of 67,000 5214 OH Sidney The First National Exchange Bank of 59,000 7936 DC Washington National City Bank of 52,000 1324 NY New York The Gallatin National Bank of the City of 50,000 1375 NY New York The Phenix National Bank of the City of 50,000 2599 CT Wallingford The First National Bank of 50,000 4645 NY New York The Liberty National Bank of 50,000 5776 MD Baltimore Maryland National Bank of 50,000 7027 SC Greenwood The National Loan and Exchange Bank of 50,000 8665 NY New York National Copper Bank of 50,000 1527 MA Boston Webster and Atlas National Bank of 46,000 8560 AL Gadsden The Gadsden National Bank 35,250 3660 TN South Pittsburg The First National Bank of 31,250 2758 KS Atchison The Exchange National Bank of 30,000 3907 GA Dalton The First National Bank of 18,500 1884 WV Wellsburg The Wellsburg National Bank 16,000 4101 TX Marshall The Marshall National Bank 15,000 8788 NC Thomasville The First National Bank of 15,000 7247 GA La Fayette First National Bank of 13,750 2912 KS Washington The First National Bank of 12,500 7549 GA Calhoun The Calhoun National Bank 12,500 7125 KS Larned The Moffet Brothers' National Bank of 10,000 8344 PA Richland The Richland National Bank 10,000 8640 TN Winchester The Farmers National Bank of 8,750 6908 WI West Allis The First National Bank of 5,000 15,436,500 SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 159 By leaving $75,000 of the purchase price of the certificates on deposit in the bank, the Treasury was in fact bankrolling the increase in circulation. Impact The total national bank note circulation on selected dates during 1907 and 1908 was as follows (Cortelyou. 1908a, p. 126; Murray, 1908, p. 130). Oct 15, 1907 $607,118,742 before the crisis broke Nov 15, 1907 $631,344,943 before the bond issues were announced Dec 31, 1907 $690,130,895 after the bond sale June 1, 1908 $698,449,517 approximate high point Dec 1, 1908 $667,178,177 after 3% Certificates of Indebtedness matured Sixty-eight percent of the $58.8 million spike in circulation between November 15 and December 31 is attributable to the $40 million raised from the sale of the additional Panama Canal bonds and the 3% Certificates. The 3% Certificates by themselves represented 26 percent of the spike. Urgency Cortelyou outlined his plan to sell the 2% Panama Canal bonds and 3% Certificates of Indebtedness that national bankers could purchase to secure additional issues of national bank notes to President Roosevelt by letter November 16, 1907. Roosevelt’s letter of approval arrived the next day. Of course, Roosevelt and Cortelyou had been formulating the plan previous to the two formal letters. The Treasury announced the sale of the securities November 18. Implied was the availability of the actual securities being offered. The Treasury had on hand stocks of current 2% Panama Canal bonds authorized by an Act dated June 28, 1902, and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing possessed current plates for printing more. However, no 3% Certificates of Indebtedness had been made let alone issued during the Spanish-American War, so neither stocks of them nor plates from which they could be printed were in existence. The immediate production of 3% Certificates of Indebtedness demonstrates how agile the Cortelyou Treasury was in making them available in a timely fashion. The Bureau of Engraving and Printing, starting from scratch on November 16, would begin delivering them to the Treasurer’s office ten days later, only three days after the first purchases were logged in at the Treasury. Testament to this remarkable achievement silently resides in old die, roll and plate ledgers (BEP, 1907b). The engravers fabricated full-face and back dies for the 3%s by supplying a patchwork of intaglio design elements that siderographers laid into and stitched together to create the full-face dies. These consisted mostly of design elements barrowed from previous work such as Hamilton’s portrait, counters, white-line border elements, Vernon-Treat signatures, etc., coupled with a generous dose of newly engraved dies sporting text specific to the 3%s. The new component dies had to be hardened by means of a heating and quenching process. Once hardened, rolls were made from each that also had to be hardened before the images they carried could be laid into the full-face dies. Once the full face back and face dies were completed, at least one roll was made from each, hardened, and then used to fabricate the needed printing plates. The idea here is that this laborious process required contributions from a sizable staff of engravers, siderographers and hardeners. In the short-fuse operation that was mounted to roll out the 3%s, the work likely involved working around the clock. We know from the die records that some of the date entries for November 17th were proudly labeled Sunday. The following synopsis captures the remarkable speed at which the work on the 3%s was carried out. Be aware that not only was the BEP heavily involved, the rest of the Treasury Department was similarly mobilized to rush the panic mitigation strategy to fruition. Oct 22, 1907 — Failure of the Knickerbocker Trust Co.; beginning of the Panic of 1907 Nov 16 — Cortelyou formally proposes bond sale to President Roosevelt Nov 16-25 — rolls 12158-12184 prepared and hardened Nov 17 (Sunday) — President Roosevelt formally authorizes the bond sale Nov 17-19 — dies 6983-6989 prepared and hardened Nov 18 — bonds offered for sale SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 160 Nov 20 — first back plate certified for use Nov 21 — first back plate sent to press Nov 23 — first face plate certified for use Nov 23 — first sale of 3%s logged in at Treasury Nov 25 — first face plate sent to press Nov 26 — first 3%s serial numbered at the BEP Nov 26-27 — deliveries to U.S. Treasurer begin; seals applied at Treasurer’s office The first two sales of the 3%s were logged into the 3% Certificate of Indebtedness bond register November 23. The very first was for $100,000 worth for The National Metropolitan Bank of Washington, DC (Register, 1907-8). Production of the Certificates of Indebtedness As soon as the decision to use the Certificates of Indebtedness was made, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing embarked on a crash program to produce them. Oddly, Treasury hurriedly ordered them as bearer instruments; that is, payable to whomever held them, rather than being registered to an individual or corporation. Worse was that they were denominated only as $50 certificates although their authorizing legislation allowed for more convenient multiples of that amount. An issue of $50 certificates implied that they would be retailed to the public in contrast to being high denomination instruments suitable for sale to banks and for handling within the Treasurer’s Office. Their small denomination missed the mark and would prove to be a true nuisance. The manufacture and use of the plates in November 1907 are summarized on Table 2. The certificates were then overprinted with serial numbers at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, and Treasury seals applied at the Treasurer’s Office. The value of them delivered to the Register of the Treasury was $69,200,000, implying a high serial number of 1384000 (Cortelyou, 1908b, p, 496). Handling the Certificates of Indebtedness It is doubtful any of the issued Certificates of Indebtedness ever left the Treasurer’s Office. Orders received for them would have been filed with the Treasurer as security for a like amount of currency issued by the Comptroller of the Currency. At maturity, the certificates would be canceled, and in due course, destroyed, There were two considerations in handling them. They were bearer bonds and they had a par value of only $50. The bearer form didn’t appear to be a significant problem. Section 16 of the National Bank Figure 5. Right: An unissued temporary receipt to be sent by the Secretary of the Treasury to the Register of the Treasury acknowledging a purchase of $50 3% Certificates of Indebtedness pending delivery of the certificates from the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. Left: Stub for the receipt for The National Metropolitan Bank of Washington, DC, for its purchase of $100,000 worth of certificates on November 23, 1907, the first order logged into the ledger (Treasury, 1907). SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 161 Act of June 3, 1864, required that registered bonds be used to secure national bank circulation. However, if the bankers submitted coupon bonds, the Secretary of the Treasury was required to replace them with registered bonds from the same loan. In this regard, the distinction between a coupon bond and a bearer certificate of indebtedness was insufficient to raise eyebrows if anyone even considered the distinction. The problem was that no Act of June 13, 1898, registered bonds were made. The ad hoc solution settled upon was that packets holding convenient numbers of certificates were made up, respectively having values of $250, $500, $1,000, $10,000 and $50,000, The packets in each group were assigned their own serial number set and the packets were consecutively numbered within that set. The packets carried language to the effect that they were registered instruments owned by the banks, thus satisfying the registration requirement. The packets were logged into a bond register in which the packet numbers were used to distinguish ownership (Register, 1907-8). They were filed with the Treasurer. The $15,436,500 worth of packets sold to the banks required over 100 feet of shelf space. Most of the certificates were held to maturity on November 20, 1908. Winding the Treasury Stimulus Down It was clear by the end of 1907 that the nation had weathered the storm. Hoarded money was returning to circulation and as deposits in banks so bank resources were recovering. The Treasury started recalling its deposits from the New York banks in mid-December (Cortelyou, 1908a, p. 12). By November Table 2. Dates associated with the manufacture of plates for the production of $50 Act of June 13, 1898 1-year 3% Certificates of Indebtedness in 1907 (BEP, 1907). Treasury Plate No. Plate Serial No. Begun Certified On Press Back Plates 25718 1 Nov 20, 1907 Nov 21, 1907 Nov 21, 1907-Nov 26, 1907 25719 2 Nov 21, 1907 Nov 21, 1907 Nov 21, 1907-Nov 26, 1907 25723 3 Nov 21, 1907 Nov 22, 1907 Nov 22, 1907-Nov 26, 1907 25724 4 Nov 21, 1907 Nov 22, 1907 Nov 22, 1907-Nov 26, 1907 25725 5 Nov 21, 1907 Nov 22, 1907 Nov 22, 1907-Nov 26, 1907 25726 6 Nov 21, 1907 Nov 22, 1907 Nov 22, 1907-Nov 26, 1907 25727 7 Nov 21, 1907 Nov 22, 1907 Nov 22, 1907-Nov 26, 1907 25732 8 Nov 22, 1907 Nov 22, 1907 Nov 22, 1907-Nov 26, 1907 25733 9 Nov 22, 1907 Nov 22, 1907 Nov 22, 1907-Nov 26, 1907 25734 10 Nov 22, 1907 Nov 22, 1907 Nov 22, 1907-Nov 26, 1907 25736 11 Nov 22, 1907 Nov 23, 1907 Nov 23, 1907-Nov 26, 1907 25737 12 Nov 22, 1907 Nov 23, 1907 Nov 23, 1907-Nov 26, 1907 25738 13 Nov 22, 1907 Nov 23, 1907 Nov 23, 1907-Nov 26, 1907 25745 14 Nov 22, 1907 not finished 25746 15 Nov 22, 1907 Nov 23, 1907 Nov 23, 1907-Nov 26, 1907 25747 16 Nov 22, 1907 Nov 23, 1907 Nov 23, 1907-Nov 26, 1907 25748 17 Nov 22, 1907 Nov 23, 1907 Nov 23, 1907-Nov 26, 1907 Face Plates 25761 Nov 23, 1907 not finished 25762 1 Nov 24, 1907 Nov 24, 1907 Nov 25, 1907-Nov 27, 1907 25763 2 Nov 24, 1907 Nov 24, 1907 Nov 25, 1907-Nov 29, 1907 25764 3 Nov 24, 1907 Nov 25, 1907 Nov 25, 1907-Nov 29, 1907 25765 4 Nov 24, 1907 Nov 25, 1907 Nov 25, 1907-Nov 29, 1907 25766 5 Nov 25, 1907 Nov 25, 1907 Nov 26, 1907-Nov 29, 1907 25767 6 Nov 25, 1907 Nov 25, 1907 Nov 26, 1907-Nov 29. 1907 25771 7 Nov 25, 1907 Nov 26, 1907 not used 25773 8 Nov 25, 1907 not finished 25774 9 Nov 25, 1907 Nov 26, 1907 Nov 26, 1907-Nov 29, 1907 25775 10 Nov 25, 1907 Nov 26, 1907 not used SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 162 18, 1908, the deposits across the country had diminished to $118,379,536, which was 45 percent of the high. After November 20, 1908, the currency taken out against the Certificates of Indebtedness was in retirement and the public money held in the banks that purchased them was returned to the Treasury. Bankers who bought the Panama Canal bonds had two choices. They could return the public money to the Treasury that was used to buy the bonds at which time the bonds would be redeemed and the currency secured by them retired. Otherwise, they could return the Treasury’s money and remit the remaining 90 percent of the purchase price of the bonds to secure the circulation issue against them. Secretary of the Treasury George Cortelyou George Bruce Cortelyou (July 26, 1862-October 23, 1940), Secretary of the Treasury under President Theodore Roosevelt between March 4, 1907, and March 7, 1909, is the prime mover in this tale. Cortelyou was a very capable individual, a person who was a political insider; an operative who didn’t rise to prominence as an elected office holder but rather as an appointee to high office who rode in on the coattails of presidents. Cortelyou was born in New York City, educated in the public schools of Brooklyn, at Nazareth Hall Academy in Pennsylvania, and at Hempstead Institute on Long Island. At 20, he graduated with a BA degree from Westfield Normal School, a teachers college in Massachusetts. He went on to earn law degrees from George Washington University and Georgetown University. He then began teaching, later taking a stenography course and mastering shorthand. In 1888, he married Lily Hinds, with whom he fathered five children. He began his government career as a stenographer and typist with the U.S. Customs Service. In 1891, he obtained a position as secretary to the chief postal inspector of New York from which he was promoted the following year to secretary to the Fourth Assistant Postmaster General in Washington, DC. President Grover Cleveland hired Cortelyou as his chief clerk in 1895 on the recommendation of Postmaster General Wilson Bissell. Cleveland went on to recommended him to his successor, President William McKinley. McKinley took him on as his assistant secretary in March 1897 and ultimately as secretary to the President in 1900, a position he held beyond McKinley’s assassination. McKinley was greeting visitors at the Temple of Music at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York, on September 6, 1901, when he was shot by 28-year-old anarchist Leon Figure 6. Secretary of the Treasury George Bruce Cortelyou, progressive Republican, served President Theodore Roosevelt from the start of Roosevelt’s second term from March 4, 1907 to March 7, 1909 during which time the severe Panic of 1907 broke out and his aggressive mitigation measures helped bring it to a quick end. One of a Kind Collectibles Auctions photo. SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 163 Czolgosz. As McKinley collapsed, he was caught by his aides, including Cortelyou. McKinley died eight days later. Theodore Roosevelt, upon assuming the presidency, charged Cortelyou with transforming the White House operation into a professional organization with appropriate protocols. Among Cortelyou’s innovations, the press was provided with formal briefings, news releases and a dedicated work space. In due course, Cortelyou emerged as Roosevelt’s most trusted and intimate advisor. Recognizing his administrative talents, Roosevelt appointed him the first Secretary in the newly established Department of Commerce and Labor in which post he served from February 1903 to June 1904. Cortelyou resigned that cabinet position to chair the Republican National Committee and to manage Roosevelt’s 1904 reelection campaign. Roosevelt then named him Postmaster General at the start of his new term in March 1905, where he served until January 1907. In that capacity, Cortelyou reduced the postal deficit to its lowest point in years. From there, Roosevelt moved him on to Secretary of the Treasury from March 1907 to the end of Roosevelt’s term in March 1909. Following his government service, Cortelyou was hired as president of the Consolidated Gas Company, later renamed Consolidated Edison. Politically, Cortelyou evolved as a progressive Republican consistent with the Roosevelt model of that era. He had come of age during the McKinley administration as the Republicans pushed through the Gold Standard Act of 1900 that put the nation on the gold standard. Cortelyou was a believer. The foregoing bibliographic sketch was distilled from Wikipedia and millercenter.org Conclusion and Legacy Cortelyou, the political progressive in the progressive Theodore Roosevelt cabinet, assumed office in March 1907, seven months before the U.S. economy slipped into the chaos of the Panic of 1907. His actions reveal that he believed the duty of the Treasury Department was to actively and aggressively bring its powers to mitigate the situation. However, he found little in the way of legislated authority to do so. Rather than be an administrator constrained by what was explicitly authored by the law, he looked beyond for opportunities not specifically denied by law. This carried political risks. Time was of the essence. Panics came on in a matter of days, far too quickly for Congress to address with remedial legislation even if it was predisposed to act. The actions that Cortelyou brought to bear were necessarily cumbersome but he moved the Treasury bureaucracy and the nation’s bankers to as Figure 7. Syndicated Detroit News cartoon from the November 26, 1907, Syracuse (New York) Herald following the Treasury’s announcement of its plan to sell up to $150,000,000 in new securities to allow national banks to inject new money into circulation to alleviate the crushing Panic of 1907 currency stringency. Newspapers.com. SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 164 best a solution as he could muster within a month. This was a feat analogous to turning a battleship around; not because there was resistance, but because there were so many moving parts within the Treasury Department that had to be marshalled as well as getting the banking community on board. He had one new advantage over his predecessors, an act passed coincidentally on March 4, 1907, the day he took office. That act authorized the Secretary of the Treasury to designate national banks at his discretion to serve as depositaries for public funds. Those depositaries generally funneled money owed to the government to the Treasury. He turned that around by funneling money to the banks from the Treasury. This movement was not unprecedented. Pratt & Sons (1910, p. 285) explain this as follows. The first extensive use of the banks for this purpose was made in 1879, at the time of the resumption of specie payments, which resulted in the accumulation of a large surplus, and, from time to time, when the Government receipts have been largely in excess of expenditures, the Secretary has placed such surplus in circulation by designating some of the banks as Depositaries. When it came to creating new national currency, Cortelyou’s hands were tied because there were no alternatives outside of bankers using bonds to secure additional infusions. This was where he and his Treasury were most creative by pulling the Panama Canal bonds and 3% Certificates of Indebtedness out of their hats to allow the creation of new national currency. Even so, the mechanisms employed took weeks to implement, thus having the appearance of too little, too late. One can never know what would have transpired if nothing had been done. The facts are that the Panic of 1907 was severe and felt world-wide, but it turned out to be brief. The American banking system was well on the road to recovery in early 1908. As measured by national bank failures, there was hardly a blip. Only 21 failures were recorded during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1908, out of 6,827 banks at the beginning of that year (Cortelyou, 1908b, p. 21). Most of those failures are attributed to causes unrelated to the panic. Of course, Cortelyou’s actions were controversial and certainly there was angst on Capitol Hill that the authority and even the prerogatives of Congress may have been circumvented by the bureaucracy, especially when it came to the creation of the new money. President Roosevelt commended Cortelyou and his Treasury whereas the Senate Committee on Finance passed a resolution requesting a detailed accounting of what was done (Aldrich. 1907). Cortelyou’s historically significant response has been cited numerous times in this article (Cortelyou, 1908b). Cortelyou emerged without censure. The Panic of 1907 added urgency to Congress’ attempts to deal with the deficiencies of national currency, particularly its inelasticity. Its volume in circulation could not inflate and contract in response to business cycles and certainly not to economic crises. This was because volume of it was predicated on the all but immobile capitalization of the banks rather than temporal variations in credit demand. As a result, national currency contributed to the stringency of money in the all too frequent related panics. Within a year, the first fitful attempt to address elasticity came in the form of the Aldrich-Vreeland Emergency Currency Act of May 30, 1908. Its provisions gave bankers a rather cumbersome process to introduce a degree of elasticity into the national currency system. The act provided them with a means to obligate commercial and non-Federal government debt instruments to secure temporary infusions of national currency to meet periodic heavy demands. This was followed by the Federal Reserve Act of December 23, 1913, that created a true elastic currency predominately secured by commercial debt instruments that reflect the variable credit needs of the economy. Thus, Federal Reserve currency ultimately supplanted national currency. There was a progression from Cortelyou’s actions to the Federal Reserve System. The process of using the short-term 3% Certificates of Indebtedness and Panama Canal bonds subsidized by the Treasury to temporarily increase the volume of nationals in circulation was similar to using commercial paper and non-Federal government debt instruments to secure the temporary infusions under the Aldrich-Vreeland Act. The difference is simply the character of the debt instruments. In 1907, Cortelyou was bound to using Federal debt instruments acceptable under existing national banking law. Use of commercial paper to back currency appeals to theoretical economists because such paper accurately reflects the volume of money needed to keep commerce humming. Use of it for the elastic component in the Aldrich-Vreeland Act was a step in the right direction. Only Congress could adopt that SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 165 change. The Federal Reserve Act put the use of commercial debt instruments at center stage in the creation of modern currency. Sources Note: a number of newspaper articles are cited. Of course, newspapers were saturated with news of Treasury relief efforts during the Panic of 1907, usually wire service releases. Listed here are a minute sampling from diverse papers., Aldrich, Nelson W., R-RI, Dec 12, 1907, Senate Resolution 33, Financial Statistics: Congressional Record-Senate, p, 291. Boston Globe, Nov 11, 1907, $150,000,000 for relief: p. 1. Boston Globe, Nov 18, 1907, His Authority is in Act of June 13, 1898: p. 2. Boston Globe, Nov 19, 1907, Action is Liked in Washington: p. 8. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, 1907a, Certified proofs of Act of June 28,1898, $50 3% Certificates of Indebtedness face and back plates: National Numismatic Collection, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Bureau of Engraving and Printing, 1907b, Record of Dies, Rolls and Plates in the United States and Miscellaneous Vault, Office of the Custodian of Dies, Rolls and Plates: Record Group 318, Entry P1, Dies=Container 5; Rolls=Container 8; Plates=Container 25, U.S. National Archives, College Park, MD. Cortelyou, George B., 1908a, Response of the Secretary of the Treasury to Senate Resolution No. 33, of December 12, 1907: Senate Document 208, 60th Congress, 1st Session, Vol. 8, Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 232 p. Cortelyou, George B., 1908b, Annual report of the Secretary of the Treasury on the state of the finances for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1908: Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 539 p. Moen, Jon R., and Ellis W. Tallman, 2015, The Panic of 1907. Murray, Lawrence O., 1908, Annual Report of the Comptroller of the Currency to the Second Session of the Sixty-First Congress of the United States: Government Printing Office, Washington, DC, 856 p. Nebraska State Journal, Lincoln, Nov 19, 1907, A Happy Stroke: p. 1. New York Times, Nov. 19, 1907, Bankers Comment Favorably: p. 2. Pratt & Sons, 1910, Pratts Digest of National Banking Laws: A.S. Pratt & Sons, New York, 421 p. Stack’s- Auctions, Sep 30-Oct 2, 2010, The Philadelphia Americana Sale, Part One: Lot 1138, Act of June 13th, 1898, November 20, 1907, Fifty Dollars, 3% One Year Certificate of Indebtedness: (realized $34,500). Treasury Department, Division of Loans and Currency,1907, Loan Certificates Regarding 3% Certificates of Indebtedness, 1898, 1907: Bureau of the Public Debt, Record Group 53, Entry UD286 (53/450/52/14/4 vol 1), U.S. National Archives, College Park, MD. Treasury Department, Division of Loans and Currency, 1907-1908, Register of Certificates of Indebtedness Issued Under the Act of June 13, 1898: Bureau of the Public Debt, Record Group 53, Entry UD145 (53/450/51/18/2 vol 1), U.S. National Archives, College Park, MD. United States Statutes, various Acts of Congress: Government Printing Office, Washington, DC. Washington Post, Nov 19, 1907, Bond Plan Pleases: p. 1-2 & Brisk Jump in [Stock] Prices: p. 10. https://ww.federalreservehistory.org/essays/panic-of-1907 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_B._Cortelyou https://millercenter.org/president/roosevelt/essays/cortelyou-1903-secretary-of-commerce-and-labor SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 166 SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 167 Portraits on Parade: Another Case of Mistaken Identity By Tony Chibbaro At the time that I purchased the $50 proof note of the Bank of Sing Sing illustrated below I believed that it displayed a portrait of Union General Robert Anderson. I had for many years harbored an interest in Anderson due to his role as the commanding officer of the Federal garrison inside Fort Sumter during the opening engagement of the American Civil War. I was basing my belief that the portrait on the note was Anderson’s on Roger Durand’s attribution in his book Interesing Notes About Portraits (Volume I). In it, Durand illustrates an example of the same note and identifies the portrait as Anderson. Above: $50 proof note of the Bank of Sing Sing, New York, (Haxby NY-2580-G14a). Roger Durand, in his book Interesting Notes About Portraits (Vol. I), erroneously identified the portrait at the lower right as Union officer Robert Anderson. But after several closer looks at the note I began to have my suspicions about Durand’s attribution. So I began comparing known photographs of Robert Anderson to the engraving on the banknote and, after much deliberation, reached the conclusion that the note did not display his portrait. But if not Anderson, then who was the distinguished- looking Union officer portrayed on the note? Enlargement of the portrait displayed on the $50 proof note of the Bank of Sing Sing, New York Photograph of Major Robert Anderson by Mathew Brady, circa 1861. Anderson was promoted to brigadier general in May of that year. SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 168 I briefly entertained the idea that the portrait might be that of Union Admiral David Farragut, but soon dismissed this notion because the officer’s uniform was not one of naval issue. I then consulted Wikipedia’s page on Union generals of the Civil War. Containing photographs of over 500 general officers, the site provided an answer after about 20 minutes of searching. A portrait accompanying the entry on General John Ellis Wool (1784-1869) matched the engraving on the note perfectly. Wool was one of the lesser-known general officers to serve in the Union Army during the course of the war. According to the Wikipedia site, he was one of only five general officers in the Army at the beginning of 1861. Wool was older than Winfield Scott and would become the oldest general to serve on either side during the conflict. Along with Scott, Wool had participated in the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Indian Wars, and the Civil War. He was 77 years old in 1861 when he was given command of the Union’s Department of Virginia. Wool was promoted to the rank of major general in 1862, but was marginalized later in the war due to his advancing age. On August 1, 1863, he was forced to retire. Wool was 79 years old at the time. Wool’s tenure in the service of his country was not without controversy, however. Despite being described as “a fearless and loyal soldier of extraordinary drive and intellect,” he was accused of lacking “the talent of an inspirational leader.” During the war with Mexico, Wool was nicknamed “Old Fussy” and was also called an “epauletted granny” because of his excessive attention to detail. He was censured for his later role in the Confederate capture of Harper’s Ferry in 1862 and was criticized for awarding lucrative military contracts to his brother-in-law. Despite his failings, Wool should be remembered for his exemplary service during the War of 1812 and especially the Mexican War, where he was responsible for the American victory at the Battle of Buena Vista. In my last article I mentioned the database I am developing of portraits displayed on banknotes. I now have over 1800 portraits compiled in it and will be happy to entertain any questions readers may have about identifying the men and women portrayed on their notes. You may contact me by email at tony@sctokens.com. Sources: Book review: Courage Above All Things - General John Ellis Wool and the U.S. Military by David T. Dixon Wikipedia Page: John E. Wool Daguerreotype portrait of General John E. Wool (1784- 1869) by Southworth & Hawes, circa 1850. SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 169 PIN MONEY Terry A. Bryan Today “pin money” means an insignificant amount, a pittance. American Suffragists used the term to characterize the wage discrepancy between men and women. Issues of this journal contain Professor Loren Gatch’s column “Chump Change”—a synonym for pin money. The humble straight pin originated in ancient times. Crowns, hats, wigs and clothing were held on or together with pins. Pins averted costume malfunctions; buttons were merely ornamental in ancient times. [Modern buttons preceded the invention of the buttonhole by a few hundred years. Buttons were available to the rich and were still largely decorative well into the 1600s. Today’s Old Order Amish avoid visible buttons. They eschew any decorative show. Their costumes are traditionally held together with pins and concealed buttons.] Some pins were heavyweights for bulky fabrics; some were tiny for beads and jewels. The materials of the day were used, from wood to bone to bronze to modern steel. Pins were vital to the craft of making and tailoring clothes. Because of the handwork involved, old pins could not be mass-produced. Wire was drawn through a die, sharpened, heat-treated. A jagged head might be hammered crudely on the blunt end. In the1600s, copper and iron pins had heads applied by wire wraps or hollow balls squeezed onto the pin. In any era, pins were household necessities. The price of pins came down in the mid-1700s as Europeans developed more streamlined steps in the manufacture. Early hand-made pins might require 20 steps. The American colonies were dependent on England for their pins and hardware. Industrial capacity here was lacking in those early days. The first mechanized pin factory in the U.S. dated to 1836. In a colonial marriage the husband customarily controlled the purse. The wife received an allowance for routine personal and household expenses. In most families virtually all the clothing was made at home. Expensive imported needles and pins were a significant part of the budget. Cloth, thread and sewing notions were necessities. The allowance for such things (and maybe everything that a wife would want or need) came to be called “pin money”. The American colonies’ money experiments placed pieces of paper with money value into the hands of the public. A metal coin might be lost by accident, but it would not break in half, be eaten by insects or burn up in a fire. Safeguarding your paper money was a constant concern. Early notes were indented. An irregular cut separated the note from a numbered stub. The note was verified by fitting it to the cut in the stub. Damage to the indenture could render your money worthless. Similarly, losing half of your note through paper damage was a disaster. Much colonial currency was printed on heavy hand-laid linen paper. Modern papers have a grain pattern; they tear cleanly in the direction the roll comes from the machine. The slurry of natural fibers in hand-laid papers is isotropic; the fibers lay in all directions. The old papers were tough. The old money paper was also rather thick. Repeated bending would weaken the crease. Creasing would occur most easily across the smaller dimension. Many Sewing was a survival skill taught to girls in colonial times. The material and tools often had to be obtained from England. 18th century pins were hand-made from wire with an applied wrapped pinhead. Corrosion often stained fabrics…and paper money. This brass pinhead has a wire wrap, rounded to make a relatively smooth surface. This antique pin came with my colonial note at no extra cost. SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 170 of my own colonial notes are creased or completely broken in two. Collectors through the years have used tape and stamp hinges to keep the pieces together. When these notes were actual money, people desperately tried to keep them intact, too. Half a note was worthless. You find notes sewn together with thread. Pertinent to this article, there are many notes tacked together with 1700s straight pins. Humble straight pins contribute to the miracle of survival of some treasured pieces of our early currency. Numismatists have taken to calling bills with these make-do pin splices “pin money”. One might think that to be the origin of the expression. It’s not. The earliest known written use of the term was in 1674. It entered into a court record; since it was used in a legal document it may be presumed that the term was in common use well before that date. Fittingly, the case involved a wife suing her husband about his promised allowance of “pin money”. References: Beaudry, Mary C. Findings, The Material Culture of Sewing. New Haven: Yale University Press: New Haven, Conn., 2006. Boyle, Colleen. “History of the Straight Pin”. Fairfax County, Virginia Archaeological Research Team Newsletter, October 2016. Glass, Don. “The Science Behind Tearing Paper”. Indiana Public Radio’s Moment of Science. www.indianapublicmedia.org. April, 2010. Newman, Eric P. The Early Paper Money of America. Racine, Wis.: Whitman, 1967. www.mirriamwebster.com/dictionary. “pin money”. www.grammarphobia.com. “pin money”. This brass pinhead has a wire wrap, rounded to make a relatively smooth surface. This antique pin stayed with a colonial note since the 1750s. “Pin money” entered the language after early domestic litigation. SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 171 U N C O U P L E D : PAPER MONEY’S ODD COUPLE Joseph E. Boling Fred Schwan An old-time deception This month’s Stacks-Bowers Hong Kong sales included a rare genuine example of a Macao 10 patacas note from the 1920s-1940s. I first was able to examine a genuine example of this piece when Neil Shafer asked me to give an opinion about a note he had. We met at a show in Chicago and I brought the counterfeit that I already owned. The note was printed in London by Barclay and Fry Ltd. by letterpress. The earliest date I have seen on one is January 1922 on a recurring counterfeit; the latest date is December 1941 on an apparently genuine piece (“apparent” because I have been able to examine only a photograph of the note). A few years ago one of the counterfeits showed up in a London sale. When I pointed out its lack of legitimacy, the note was withdrawn. A couple of months later it appeared in a Hong Kong sale of the same auction house. Again it was withdrawn at my urging. Next it came to a US auctioneer, who sent it to me for an opinion. I was happy to finally be able to see the note in-hand. I was able to confirm my previous calls to have it suppressed, and again it was not placed for bidding. Where it is today I don’t know. Whatever the counterfeiters used for ink has not held up well in circulation. The blue tint has turned sickly yellow-green. This alone is a good initial diagnostic for separating the genuine from the spurious. Figures 1-4 are illustrations of this month’s Stacks-Bowers offering and my piece. The difference in shade for the tint should be obvious. See Boling page 174 MPCFest 2025 Every year at this time, we give you a report on MPCFest. Most of you must be at least vaguely aware of this annual meeting of collectors of military payment certificates and other military issues. This was the twenty sixth anniversary Fest. There is some dispute about numbering the Fests because Covid interrupted the event, but everyone can agree that this was the 26th anniversary of the first Fest in 2000. In working on this report for you, I realized that the Fest was virtually an SPMC meeting! Joe and I are clearly SPMC members--approximately 100 years combined membership. Many other Festers also belong to the society. The Fest does not officially start until Friday evening, but there are a few events earlier in the day. The most obvious of these is that we have a traditional “show” on Friday. By that I mean a bourse. I am quite sure that this is the only public numismatic show in the country that is held exclusively on Friday. While it is a small event as shows go, it is active and you can find much material unlike that found at other shows around the country. In the tradition of many shows, we have some special interest group meetings during the bourse hours. This year we had meetings for collectors of war bonds, military stamps (postage yes, but more so war savings and the like), and Japanese invasion money. These events and the bourse are free and open to the public. I do not think that we have ever had someone travel to attend one of these specialized meetings, but people have travelled multiple states to attend the bourse. We celebrate marriage anniversaries at dinner on Friday in recognition that Joe and Louise Boling were married at MPCFest VI! Fig. 1 SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 172 After dinner the preliminary rounds of the collector national championship are held. This contest is a single elimination quiz show type tournament the winner of which is crowned the military numismatic national champion. Unofficially, our contest is called March Madness because the event is modeled after the real March Madness and the two events are often held at about the same time. This year the overlap was perfect. Our finals were held on Saturday evening. The basketball finals were held on Monday night. Saturday evening concludes with pay call. Yes, Festers are paid to attend the fest! Pay is in military fest certificates (MFC). This year they were paid in notes from Series 241. This series was first issued last year at Fest XXV. Of course some Festers are interested in keeping examples for their collections and all collectors study their MFC for replacements, errors, fancy serial numbers and the like. A variation of this theme is that several Festers have collections of specific numbers. The king of this approach is SPMC member Larry Smulczenski who collects serial number 39. He has hundreds of notes, MFC and otherwise. Numbers 1, 2, 4, 7, and 8 among others are collected. We have a full day of educational programs on Saturday. Most clubs around the country call these show’n tells, lectures or some variation of the theme. We call them staff briefings and they are great. The variety of briefings is quite amazing. They range from short presentations on the discovery of a minor variety to major reports of new finds. Among the most unusual ever was presented by Doug Bell this year. Doug displayed and demonstrated the device that he created for taking photographs of notes under ultraviolet light. Steve and daughter Ray Feller (both SPMC members) plan, schedule and moderate the briefings. This year we had over twenty briefings. The ages of presenters ranged from 8 to 88! The Bob Olson award is presented to the most outstanding briefing. This year it went to Jim Downey (SPMC member of course). I should mention that Joe is the audio-visual operator for the briefings. Late on Saturday afternoon Fest headquarters announced that there had been a financial emergency resulting in the retirement of Series 241 MFC. Festers were required to attest to the legal status of their MFC holdings and to turn their notes in for conversion to a new series which was ultimately revealed as being Series 251. Remarkably, such an emergency has occurred at approximately the same time at all but one Fest since Fest II in 2001! After evening chow, March Madness continued culminating in SPMC member Dave Frank being crowned national champion after defeating defending champion Larry Smulczenski in the semifinals. The Ray Toy award is presented to a numismatist for extraordinary service or achievement. The 2025 Ray Toy award went to Doug Bell for his many contributions to the hobby. Doug is an advanced collector and leader in applying innovation and technology to military numismatics. (Remember, he invented a UV photography device for notes.) Late Saturday night is another of our unusual events--an MFC poker game! How does that justify a report here? The official reason is that poker was commonly played by military personnel using MPC and other military currencies, making the game a Fest reenactment. Furthermore, poker is important to our research in that a high percentage of the photographs that we have of military money being used is of poker games. The real reason, however, is that the Festers who play are very ego involved in the game! The winner of the poker tournament receives a bracelet, a Fest war bond, and, most importantly exclusive bragging rights for a year and residual rights forever. You will perhaps understand best with an example. I was knocked out of a previous tournament by close friend Steve Feller, who came from far behind to beat me on my final hand! To make it worse, Steve went on to win the tournament! Steve’s daughter Ray is a three-time winner--a fact known by every Fester, player or not. The Larry Smulczenski Charity Auction is held on Sunday morning. The auction raises money for scholarships to the American Numismatic Association Summer Seminar classes on military numismatics. This year, more than $3000 was raised. Our little group has funded more than forty scholarships since Larry had the auction idea in the early two thousands. You are invited to donate cash or material directly to the scholarship fund, or to consign material to our specialized auction. The ANA classes are taught by Joe and me. We would love to have you in class in 2026 (no class is scheduled for this year). By Sunday afternoon about half of the Festers had departed. The remaining Festers assembled for field training. We visited the North Coast Veteran’s Museum in Gibsonburg, Ohio. It is a small museum that is just loaded with artifacts including MPC and AMC (Allied military currency), a few other notes and other numismatic items SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 173 It must sound like that was the end of the Fest. No. On Sunday evening Joe held his famous class on detection of counterfeit paper money. Nine Festers learned to see paper money in a new way--at twenty power. That about wraps up the report on 2025, but doing the report gave me a new idea. On Sunday evening before or after Joe’s class or in alternating years or by some other scheme, we could offer some other alternate classes. These could be either beginning or advanced topics in MPC, AMC, JIM, war bonds or any other subject for which we have students and a qualified instructor. I will bring this subject up for discussion in the MPCGram, which is our electronic newsletter. In the meantime your thoughts on the matter are certainly welcome. If you have questions, comments, or want to subscribe (free) to our electronic newsletter MPCGram, contact me at fredschwan@yahoo.com. You can also find other information on past and future fests as well as other information at militarypaymentcertificates.us. Boling continued; But a better diagnostic is the counterfeiter’s signature on the back of the note. Not an actual signature, of course, but a change in the plate so that the counterfeit is instantly recognizable by anyone who knows what to look for. Counterfeiters almost always sign their work in some fashion, either out of pride in their production, or to enable them to quickly recognize their own work so they don’t become victims of their own making when accepting a note in commerce. The blue tint is composed of repeated triangles bearing the name of the bank (Banco Nacional Ultramarino) on their three sides, with a large “10” (the note’s denomination) inside the triangle. On the counterfeits, one of those numbers on the left side of the back is inverted. In the second row of triangles above the Chinese denomination box at lower left back, the third “10” from the left says “01.” See figures 5-7. There are also differences in the quality of the lettering in the small bank title above the ship on the face. See figures 8 and 9. The tops of the letters “A” and “N” are crisp with sharp corners; on the counterfeit those corners are rounded. Fig 2 Fig. 3 Fig. 4 Fig. 5 Fig. 6 Fig. 7 Fig. 8 Fig. 6 SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 174 The imprint is also much nicer on the genuine note (though still nothing to brag about) (figures 10 and 11). Overall, the production quality is below par for a security printer, although it was obviously good enough for the notes to circulate for years. If one of these is on your want list, look for these diagnostics before you commit to buying one. The one at Fig 1 sold for US$4200 plus juice. Fig. 10 Fig. 11 FEST PHOTOS SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 175 The Great Seal of the United States – On a series of Guatemalan banknotes? By Roland Rollins While the Great Seal appears out of place on Guatemalan banknotes, a glance at the bank of issue helps explain why this could happen. With The American Bank of Guatemala establishing American influence, starting in 1892, one could expect symbols of the United States to grace at least some of their banknotes. Equally important to the Great Seal appearing is the security printer procured to print the notes – the American Bank Note Company. ABNC is/was arguably the undisputed leader in the business practice of “recycling” vignettes. ABNC produced a large inventory of vignettes. These included allegorical figures, people (named & unknown), locations, trains (especially steam powered), animals (domestic and wild), and ships. As long as the vignette was not specific, the number of uses could include:  Checks  Stocks/Bonds  Vignette sheets  Souvenir Cards  Paper Money for various issuers Designed by Charles Thomson, William Barton, and John Prestwic, the identity of the engraver of the Great Seal in unknown, though there is conjecture it was Robert Scot. After several changes, the first seal was officially adopted by the Continental Congress in 1782. . Notice the shield is not square on the top! On the next page is a poster published in 1876 which clears up this discrepancy. The shield in the poster was an earlier version. The current type as shown previously on the U.S. $1 banknote was developed in 1884 and remains essentially the same to this day. Here’s The Great Seal of the United States as it appears on the U.S. dollar.  Here’s the Great Seal on the El Banco Americano de Guatemala. SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 176 Let’s look at one of the Guatemalan notes. One needs only view one as the entire five note series are identical. Here’s a table of the specifics. Pick Number1  Denomination  Number Produced2  PS‐111  1 Peso  2,800,000  PS‐112  5 Pesos  1,570,000  PS‐113  25 Pesos  350,000  PS‐114  100 Pesos  367,000  PS‐115  500 Pesos  129,000  The banknotes have print dates from 1895 to 1924, still displaying the older seal not having a straight top on the crest! These ABNC printed banknotes of Guatemala with eye appeal can be procured for prices from $250 to $750, based on recent sales. The specimen notes in better conditions are actually available at more reasonable prices than the issued but used conditions. SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 177 1. The Standard Catalog of World Paper Money – Specialized Issues, George Cuhaj 2. Latin American Bank Note Records, Recardo Magan SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 178 $MALL NOTE$ By Jamie Yakes If you’re a serious collector of early small-size notes, then you should have bookmarked the webpage PaperMoneyProject.com. Webmaster Jeremy Dansie has provided a great service to collectors by developing this site to be a one-stop shop for data fanatics. At the site’s core are censuses of numerous Series of 1928, 1934, and 1935 varieties for United States Notes, Silver Certificates, and Federal Reserve Notes, that include mules, late- finished plates, wide and narrow varieties, stars, and scarcer blocks. These censuses are present- ed as user-friendly tables that can be downloaded. In addition, the site provides detailed write-ups with scans for numerous types; down- loadable files of serial number and block data; and links to articles published in Paper Money. There is also a form to submit new notes for inclusion into the census. The site’s URL is www.papermoneyproject.com. Check it out. SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 179 Robert Calderman Block Party!!! Spring has sprung, the weather is amazing (At least in the Southeast), and it’s time to get outside… despite the current extreme pollen onslaught! Have you purchased anything for your collection recently? Are you hunting relentlessly for treasures hiding at shows, your local coin shops, and on the internet? Has studying paper money varieties paid off for you yet, or is that amazing moment of hitting pay dirt still evading you? Your new acquisitions cannot all be cherry picks! Remember that the toughest notes needed for your collection can often be so challenging to locate that you should count yourself lucky just for an opportunity to purchase them… at nearly any price! When notes are so scarce that they have become nothing short of legendary trophy notes, finding bargains on them is unfortunately not a consideration. Is it impossible to cherry pick notes at this level? Of course not, but the odds are against you my friends. Today we will look at two incredible block varieties that are fantastic trophies to have in your collection regardless of condition. One is relatively available in circulated condition, yet becomes prohibitively rare in uncirculated condition. The other we will examine is rare in absolutely any grade, and should be praised even if it has been run over by a locomotive and large pieces of it are missing! If you are unwilling to consider adding a note so wretched to your collection, you may be doing it wrong! Waiting for the perfect note could take several lifetimes… so take whatever you can get when these rarities become available! Likewise, if an incredible note in nosebleed high grade condition becomes available, do not shy away from a price tag that seems too overwhelming to stomach. It may turn out to be your one and only opportunity to step up to the plate. SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 180 In the bullion realm, physical gold has recently hit an all time high “Again” and gold fever is something that thankfully has never been my cup of tea. When it comes to notes, our first variety is a significant golden bargain that you definitely need to be on the lookout for. Series of 1928 small size gold certificates were issued and made available to the public in the following denominations: $10, $20, $50, $100, $500, and $1,000. Surprisingly, only one of these had a non-star block variety! The $10 B-A block note is a fabulous note to have in your collection. It is the only non A-A block small size gold certificate you can get and it often flies under the radar allowing for the keen eye to spot an unattributed treasure! I have been fortunate myself to purchase several of these B-A gold tens at no premium vs. their A-A counterpart. What exactly are we talking about? With the exception of national bank notes, there are eight digits in a small size note’s serial number, and typically once one hundred million are printed, the prefix rolls over! Hence the A-A block $10 gold certificate becoming a B-A block! However, the same is not true for Federal Reserve notes that feature their district letter as their prefix. In this case the suffix would instead roll over from A to B. So for our one and only B prefix gold certificate, how tough are they? Currently, PMG has graded nearly one thousand-six-hundred of the common A- A block 1928 ten dollar gold certificates. For the B-A block variety, the tally in all grades combined comes in at just 112 notes! Wow, only three percent of all of these $10 GC’s graded are from the B-A block! When examining these amazing notes in uncirculated condition, we find that on the A-A block there are 433 examples listed in the population report in CU vs. only TWO NOTES on the B-A block that fall into the uncirculated category! Wow, what a mind blowing rarity to find a B-A example in uncirculated condition! Both of these two examples graded by PMG are found in 64 without the Exceptional Paper Quality modifier. The most recent sale for one of these two examples meeting this lofty grade occurred back in January 2022 when Heritage Auctions sold the example pictured here for $3,840. For comparison, a typical A-A block $10 1928 gold certificate in PMG 64 including the EPQ designation commonly sells in the $900 - $1200 range. Now you know to keep your eyes peeled for a B-A block gold ten dollar bill at your next local coin show! The next incredible variety featured in this installment is an absolutely legendary rarity and by far it is the ultimate key note required to complete a five dollar silver certificate block set collection! A complete block set collection is arguably the most rewarding accomplishment possible for an avid small size paper money collector. Specialized varieties and star notes are spectacular in their own right, but initially the vast majority of collectors, that have found their favorite type and denomination, set their sights on building a complete block set. Just as many of us at one time collected wheat cents and buffalo nickels in coin boards, a paper money block set is a natural progression once collectors finally graduate from coin collecting and become paper money aficionados! Five dollar silver certificates are a very popular fan favorite and a logical first choice for new paper money collectors. Featuring Abraham Lincoln, fives are a welcome sight since those wheat cents many of us collected feature the same president! Spanning eight individual series from 1934 SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 181 through 1953b, there are a total of thirty-five notes required to complete a basic five dollar silver certificate block set. Again, we are excluding specialized varieties and star notes for the purposes of a basic block set. All of these 35 notes except one can be found in uncirculated condition with only a moderate level of patience required. The one exception is so extremely difficult to locate that many astute collectors have lost sleep agonizing when the day will finally come that they will have an opportunity to actually own one of these amazing treasures, regardless of condition! The note in question here is the 1934B M-A block five dollar silver certificate. A note that was very likely not intended to exist at all! In May of 1947 when 1934C plates were already in use, three months after 1934B plates had subsequently been pulled from service, unexpectedly… a total of three 1934B were check out and sent to press for a minuscule four day period of use! The plate numbers in question are: 1769, 1771, and 1772. This unlikely occurrence resulted in our now infamously rare M-A 1934B $5 SC’s! To date, an example from the M-A block has not been observed bearing face plate #1771. If you become the lucky collector to finally see an example, make it known! Incredibly, there have only been nine M-A 1934B $5 SC examples in all grades combined certified by PMG. Five of these are in circulated condition, leaving just four examples in uncirculated grades available to collectors at this time. No wonder they are so very difficult to locate! Does this make collecting five dollar silvers by block a fool’s errand? Of course not! What is a collection without a solid challenge? When deep pockets can write a check and have a full collection completed in just a matter of a few days, this is not an impressive accomplishment to admire. When a collecting adventure seems like an impossible herculean task, one that requires intense fortitude and endurance… that my friends is a journey that is worth the miles! For reference, the single finest example 1934B $5 silver certificate M-A block note graded PMG 66 EPQ featured here, sold via Heritage Auctions a decade ago April 24, 2015 realizing $7,637.50 an amount that now seems like a bargain considering its incredible rarity! For more detailed information on the ‘34B M-A block, take a look at the recommended reading section listed at the end of this article. 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: - Rare $5 Silver Certificate Series of 1934B M-A Block Notes by Jamie Yakes. Paper Money Nov/Dec 2009 Whole #264 SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 182 The front of the Type-41 Treasury note endorsed by William F. Burton, QM Agent, CSA. Image: Heirtage Auctions, HA.com William Fort Burton QM Agent, Missouri State Guards e sometimes encounter an endorsement on interest-bearing Confederate Treasury notes which is signed not by a military officer or depositary but by an agent who supplied services to quartermasters, commissaries, and sometimes collected what was known as a “tax-in- kind,” a practice which allowed a citizen to pay taxes in the form of goods like corn or cattle. Tax-in-kind agents were sometimes criminally abusive and worked not for the government but in their own self interest. Two notable quartermasters, Griff Theobald in Mississippi and Edward Wharton in Texas, complained bitterly about the damage done to citizens and the Confederacy by rogue agents. But not all of these agents were corrupt, and some were military privates or sergeants who were eventually commissioned as officers. Caleb Audette at Heritage Auctions and Wendell Wolka recently discovered a new endorsement by agent William F. Burton on the illustrated treasury note. Thanks to Charles Derby, we know a great deal about Burton, who was a Sergeant, a Private, a Quartermaster for the Missouri State Guards, and an Agent for the Confederacy. The endorsement on the discovery note reads: “Issued April 11th/63 W F Burton C(onfederate) S(tates) Ag(en)t” William Fort Burton William Fort Burton was born on August 22nd, 1837, to Martha Emily Fort and Ambrose Waller Burton in Randolph County, Missouri. His father, a farmer who was not wealthy, died in 1851, and his mother remarried. At the start of the Civil War William Burton was a merchant in College Mound, Macon County, Missouri. W The Quartermaster Column No. 42 by Michael McNeil Image: Heritage Audtions, HA.com SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 183 The endorsement of “W F Burton, Agt for Genl Prices Army,” with an added honorific of “Capt. &” in the script of the disbursing officer, Capt. William Oliver, AQM, at Monroe, Louisiana on June 24th, 1863. Image courtesy of Fold3.com. General Sterling Price, 1862. Described by President Jefferson Davis as “the vainest man I ever met,” Price clearly worked in his own self interest. According to the referenced article in Wikipedia, when the Civil War broke out he was pro-Union in his public stance, but conspired with pro-Confederate Governor Claiborne Fox Jackson to take the Federal arsenal St. Louis. The plot was foiled, and Price was no longer able to hide his sympathies for the Confederacy. Governor Jackson appointed Price as commander of the Missouri State Guards, and Price chafed when Richmond tried to assume authority over his command. Richmond solved the problem by appointing General Van Dorn as the commander of the Army of the West, under which Price served. After Van Dorn was murdered by the husband of the woman he had seduced, Price went to Richmond to request the restoration his independent command of the Missouri State Guards, earning the ire of President Davis, who sent him back to Arkansas without his command.1 Image: Public Domain, Library of Congress, unknown author. 1861 On December 6th, at the age of 21, Burton enlisted at St. Clair County, Missouri, as a Private in Capt. Thomas G. Lowry’s Company F of the 3rd Missouri Infantry commanded by Gen’l Sterling Price. A National Archives summary card noted that Burton was paid by Albert Danner, a Missouri Capt. and AQM well known to collectors. 1862 Burton was hospitalized in Memphis, Tennessee, on April 11th, and later participated in the Battle of Farmington, Mississippi, which was a part of the siege of Corinth from April 29th to May 30th. He was promoted to 2nd Sergeant on June 16th. The record shows that Burton was detailed by Quartermaster Isaac Brinker on July 4th as an Assistant Quarter Master in Col. James A. Pritchard’s 4th Regiment, 3rd Division Infantry of the Missouri State Guards. This title was not recognized by Richmond when it took command of the state militias, and as a result we see no records of an officer’s commission for Burton in Richmond records. This explains why we see Burton signing as an “Agent” on government documents from Richmond. Burton’s rank was reduced to Private on August 2nd. 1863 Burton was detailed in March to go to Monroe, Louisiana, to procure three mules and other supplies for Gen’l Sterling Price at Little Rock, Arkansas. Gen’l Price has an interesting history, and he made a very poor impression during a visit to President Jefferson Davis in Richmond, who declared Price to be “the vainest man I ever met.”1 Price would later lose control of Little Rock to Union forces. Burton received his mules and supplies from Capt. William Oliver, AQM, at Monroe, Louisiana, on June 24th, and he signed as “W. F. Burton/ Agt for Genl Prices Army.” Using his bolder script, Capt. Oliver added the title “Capt. &” to Burton’s endorsement, an honorific addition. A muster roll of Burton’s company noted that during the months of November and December Burton was absent and detached on duty “west of the Mississippi River.” SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 184 William F. Burton, Sarah Coleman Battle Burton, and their family. Image courtesy of Dale Davidson, 2012, Houston, Texas, Ancestry.com 1864 Burton was detailed by Gen’l E. Kirby Smith as a shoemaker in Shreveport, Louis- iana, serving in that position from February 18th. 1865 Burton served as a teamster and Private in Company F of Anderson’s Regiment, Texas Cavalry, presumably at Shreve- port, but there is no record of the location in this role. He was paroled at Shreveport, Louisiana, on June 7th as part of the army commanded by Gen’l E. Kirby Smith. After the war Burton married Sarah Coleman Battle in Boston, Bowie County, Texas, on June 1st, 1865, and he was baptized the same day. They had a large family of nine children. He moved to Denton, Texas, in 1870 and established a retail dry goods business. He moved to Slidell, Wise County, Texas, in 1877, where he remained for the rest of his life and became the Reverend Burton, a Baptist minister. He was a member of the UCV Ben McCulloch Camp, No. 30. In 1880-1882 Burton served as a County Commissioner in Wise County. His wife died in January, 1902. He remarried in 1903, but this lasted only three weeks in an amiable separation where his new wife wanted to remain with her children.2 In his application for a pension, Burton noted that he was not a commissioned officer of the Confederate States but had served in the role of an Assistant Quarter Master in the Missouri State Guards. Reflections from history’s distant mirror Burton died at the age of 85 on January 25th, 1923, at his daughter’s home in Wise County, Texas. My uncle was born the year before Burton died, and he is still alive and well with a deep interest in numismatics and history. My grandmother was the granddaughter of the Treasury note signer Sarah Pelot, and she named him Francis Marion McNeil after the famous Revolutionary War general of that name from South Carolina. My uncle’s classmates in Los Angeles, with no appreciation of Southern history, mercilessly tormented him about this name, and he later changed the name to Marvin McNeil. The passions of history and numismatics are intertwined, and it is sobering to consider that my uncle was alive in the year Burton died. The past is not as distant as it sometimes seems. Carpe diem “Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” ― George Santayana, 1906 References: 1. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sterling_Price. 2. Wise County Messenger, October 30th, 1903. SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 185 Astoria, N.Y. Post Office Robbed, July 5, 1887: By Bob Laub. Formatting by Skye. Background: Several years ago (let’s say 20), I was very fortunate to have been offered the most incredible Postal Note pictured below. That note is what I refer to as a Type II-a.1, which will be explained later in the article. This is currently the only known surviving Postal Note of the 43 which were in the original book associated with the robbery of the Astoria, NY, Post Office. Its survival is probably due to being long held in an evidence locker from a pending court case. Likely discovered years later, long after the case had been settled. When I first purchased this postal note, there was not a hint of a story in need of research. The story came about years later while searching the New York Times archives files for anything related to series 1883-1894 Postal Notes. Imagine my shock when a number of articles began surfacing relating to a robbery at the Astoria Post Office which directly involved Postal Notes. Obverse Image: Astoria, N.Y. Postal Note, # 000977 issued for $4.99, stolen on July 5, 1887. (Type II-a. 1) Astoria N.Y. Post Office: Astoria, located in Queens County N.Y. is at the extreme western end of Long Island. Previously known as Hallett’s Cove. The name was changed to Astoria, August 16, 1842. The Astoria P.O. was discontinued March 31, 1888, and replaced by Astoria Station, Long Island City. A Post Office Department Memo: “Changes in The List of Money Order Offices”, dated March 20, 1888, reads as follows: Notice is hereby given of the fact that the Postmaster General has directed the discontinuance of the money order post offices at Astoria and Ravenswood, Queens County, New York, March 31, 1888, and has authorized the issue and payment of domestic money orders and postal notes at the following stations to be established their instead April 1, 1888. Astoria Station, Long Island City, New York. Ravenswood Station, Long Island City, New York. Outstanding money orders drawn on Astoria, N.Y., will be paid at the former, and those drawn on Ravenswood, N.Y. at the latter station. (Pg. 18, April, 1888, Official Postal Guide). Postmaster Andrew Flanagan: Andrew Flanagan was nominated to a position as Postmaster of Astoria, N.Y. by the U.S. Senate, April 28, 1886, and confirmed by the House of Representatives, May 25, SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 186 1886. According to official Post Office records. In July, 1887 Postmaster Flanagan’s annual compensation was listed as $1100. When the Astoria P.O. was ordered to close, and became Astoria Station, Long Island City, N.Y. Andrew Flanagan’s position went from Postmaster to the position of a postal clerk, with annual compensation reduced to $500. Could this have been a form of disciplinary action taken by the Postmaster Generals office, due in part to the Astoria P.O. robbery nine-months earlier. Part of the robbery account from a N.Y. Times article, September 2, 1887 mentions when the two thieves entered the post office, “the Postal Note book was lying on a desk near at hand”. This was a clear violation of post office protocol. The Postal Note book, when not in use, was to be placed in a secure location, i.e. office safe. If that rule had been followed, the two suspects would not have had an opportunity to continue with their nefarious plans. They would have been forced to exit the building in a hasty retreat with the attempted robbery then foiled. Reverse image: Stolen Postal Note clearly showing July 5, 1887, the actual date of the robbery. This postal note, intended to be issued at the Money Order window of the Astoria Post Office, was instead issued “unofficially” by the would-be thieves. In the early afternoon hours of Tuesday, July 5, 1887, two young men, entered the Astoria Post Office. This was usually the time of day when the postmaster would occasionally take a pail of beer into the back room for some refreshment. The men, who had been watching the postmasters’ activities for a few days, took that time to seize the opportunity. They made off with a partial booklet of Postal Notes, numbers 957-1000, which had been left in plain sight on the desk. These booklets typically would contain 500, 300, 200, or 100 Postal Notes, and later in the series sometimes as few as 50 notes, depending on the needs of individual post offices. As each post office booklet supply diminished, it was the responsibility of the postmaster to place an order for more booklets. Also stolen during the robbery was the conductor’s punch. These punches were provided by the Post Office Department. This would be used to punch the cents and dimes columns on the note. Unlike Type- I note’s there was no dollar column to be circularly punched. That design aspect was replaced by four-dollar coupons which merely needed to be removed in accordance with the designated amount issued. Additionally, the date canceler was also taken. Until early 1890 these hard-rubber cancellers were custom ordered by each Postmaster. After then they were issued by the government. This was to establish more uniformity with the applied cancels. (generally a single or double circular cancel). The thieves now had all the necessary elements to go into business for themselves. The only missing part of a more successful equation was finding local shop keepers where the stolen postal notes could be fenced. This final element proved to be the thieves’ ultimate downfall. SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 187 The note pictured is issued in the maximum allowable amount of $4.99, which was according to government regulations. In 1887, $4.99 was considered a tidy sum, especially for two young boys. In the 1880’s a common Laborers’ weekly wage, for a 60-hour work week, was on average $8.10. A decade later labor compensation had increased to $9.06 per week, or approximately 15-cents per hour. These numbers are referenced according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. My guess would be if your plan was to rob a post office to steal a book of postal notes, and you had all the necessary issuing tools to accomplish this, you would probably want to garner as much as possible from each note. No doubt the young thieves attracted a good deal of attention as they attempted to negotiate the notes. There were 43 Postal Notes remaining in the book the two boys stole. If each note was filled out for the maximum allowable amount of $4.99, there entire windfall associated with the crime (robbery of a U.S. Post Office) would have garnered them $214.57. Postal Notes: Series 1883-1894 Postal Notes were one-time usage documents produced by three different private printing companies, and issued by the United States Postal Service. Their function was to facilitate a safer means of transmitting smaller monetary amounts (1-cent to $4.99) more conveniently through the postal system. Each note issued carried a three-cent administrative fee plus the requested issued amount. In all there were five major Types (I-V), as well as four sub-types (II-a, II-a. I, IV-a, and V.0I). Each Type I, and Type II Postal Note, were to be made payable to a specific city and state, designated by the purchaser at the time of issue. This feature was designed to increase the probability of the note getting to the correct recipient for redemption. If stolen in route a would-be thief would have no idea where to present a note for payment. Unfortunately, this protocol had it’s down-side as it greatly limited where the note could be cashed, either the city where the note was issued, or where it was designated to be cashed. Type II-a notes are designated as transitional notes. They were the first type payable at Any Money Order Office, and were to be either rubber stamped or hand-written on the line where the city and state were previously entered. These changes in design were largely brought about by an out-cry from postal patrons who were tired of the cashing in restrictions implemented on Ty. I, and Ty. II Postal Notes. I have designated the hand-written variety as Type II-a.1., an extremely rare minor sub-type, compared to the rubber-stamped variety, and therefore should have its own sub-type designation. Type III Postal Notes followed next in the series, and had the words Any Money Order Office engraved into the design. (The wheels of justice begin to turn). Frank Sweeny Arrested: (As published in the N.Y. Times July 13, 1887): United States Deputy Marshal Biggart went from Brooklyn to Astoria yesterday and arrested Frank Sweeny, an employee of the post office there. He was taken to the United States Court and held for examination. District Attorney Wilber and his assistants were strangely reticent about the case and refused to allow anyone to see young Sweeny. He had been arrested, they said, in connection with the theft of Postal Notes from the Astoria Post Office, some of which Howard Warner tried to sell to a Bowery storekeeper a few days earlier, and was arrested. The amount of money involved in the theft is small. Sweeny is the son of General George J.J. Sweeny, to whom the city of Brooklyn presented a sword in 1862. More About Frank Sweeny’s Arrest: (As published in the N.Y. Times July 14, 1887): Frank Sweeny, who was arrested on Tuesday in connection with the theft of Postal Notes from the Astoria Post Office, stated that he never was a clerk in that office. Additional Arrest Coverage: (As published in the N.Y. Times July 15, 1887): Frank Sweeny, who was arrested on charges of stealing 43 Postal Notes from the Astoria Post Office and forging the signature of Postmaster Flanagan to them, was held for trial on $4,000 bail yesterday. His father, Timothy Dale and William Hoffman furnished his bond. Young Warner Confesses: (As published in the N.Y. Times September 2, 1887): The examination of Frank Sweeny, the son of General Sweeny, who was arrested for stealing a package SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 188 of Postal Notes valued at $4.99 (each) from the Astoria Post Office, was begun before United States Commissioner Morie, in Brooklyn yesterday. Sweeny’s associate, Howard Warner, testified against him. Sweeny is 19 years old, and Warner is 16. The latter said that he frequented billiard rooms and beer saloons with Sweeny. On the night of July 2nd (1887), the witness visited Sweeny’s house and was introduced by the prisoner to a nephew of Davis the Sawdust-Swindler. This young man is known as the “Fakir”. At this meeting, the “Fakir” proposed a trip to Meriden, Connecticut, and young Sweeny asked the witness if he knew where any money could be obtained. The latter said there was a little over $4.00 in a drawer containing Postal Notes at the post office. Sweeny wanted to know if there was any chance to steal the notes, and the “Fakir” called him a fool for risking his reputation for such a small amount. (“Fakir”, Arabic origin, literally means “poor man”, first used in 1609, synonyms: chiseler, confidence man, impostor, scammer, swindler, trickster). The next day the witness saw the “Fakir” and young Sweeny in Schwartz’s saloon, in Astoria, talking to young Flanagan, the son of the Postmaster. The question of going to Meriden (CT.) was again broached, but not settled, and on July 5th the witness met Sweeny and Flanagan outside the door of the post office. The Postal Note book was lying on a desk near at hand, and when (Postmaster) Flanagan sent for some beer and went into an outhouse to drink it, Sweeny picked up the Postal Note book and (postal) stamp and calling to Warner to take the (conductor’s) punch, ran off. The witness took the punch and met Sweeny at the Ninety- Second Street ferry. Warner identified the notes found on Sweeny as the ones stolen, and the hearing was adjourned. Frank Sweeny Released: (As published in the N.Y. Times, September 30, 1887): Frank Sweeny, son of General Sweeny, of Astoria, who was arrested on the charge of stealing Postal Notes from the Astoria Post Office, has been discharged by United States Commissioner Morie, who decided that there was no evidence upon which to hold him. In Conclusion: Not only was justice served to a degree, in September 1887, but also the preservation of this single $4.99 Postal Note from Astoria, N.Y. That, in no small part, was likely due to many years being retained in some dusty, long forgotten prosecutors’ evidence files. I’m sure that greatly contributed to the over-all survivability for at least some of the past 137-years since the robbery. Many thanks to the New York Times. Without their archival section this story could not have been told. Additionally, thanks to my friend, fellow writer, researcher, and collector, Kent Halland. His technical support was invaluable throughout this latest journey, and for having my back time and time again. Hope you enjoyed my article, Astoria, N.Y. Post Office Robbed, July 5, 1887. I would also be interested in hearing about any Postal Notes you may have. Questions, and comments are always welcomed at briveadus2012@yahoo.com. Many thanks. SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 189 The Obsolete Corner The Hoboken Banking and Grazing Company by Robert Gill Hello paper money lovers. Wow, how time flies! As you’re reading this, the year is almost half over. It seems as fast as the world is moving these days, things change at a pace that it’s hard to keep up with what’s going on. Hopefully, all will straighten up before too long. As I write this article, one day there are tariffs and the next day they are on hold. And it seems that every day the disgusting waste of billions of our tax dollars is being uncovered. There appears to be no end. But one thing is for sure, the paper money market is strong, and collector interest is soaring. So now, let’s look at the Obsolete sheet out of my collection that I’ve chosen to share with you. In this issue of Paper Money, let’s go back to early 1800s New Jersey and look at a very important part of its development, that being the Meadowlands. Because of the determination of a few, an approximate thirty square mile area has become a very important part of the financial structure of the Garden State. And part of that was made possible because of The Hoboken Banking and Grazing Company. So, let’s look at the history behind this old company, and the reason why we paper lovers have been blessed with a part of its legacy. Some citizens grow uneasy, if not down-right insecure, when they read about schemes to develop the vast Meadowlands that stretch from Hackensack to Newark Bay, New Jersey. But they might take some comfort from history. The road to the Meadowlands development stretches back in time over two hundred years and is strewn with the financial bones of many a promoter who saw an opportunity to make a fast buck, but whose plans foundered in the salty marshes of the Hackensack River Valley. One of the most persistent attempts to reclaim the Meadowlands and make them pay revolves around the Brothers Swartwout - John, Robert, and Samuel. Their story can be traced from data on file at the Messler Library on the Rutherford Campus of Fairleigh Dickinson University. These include documents dating from 1813 material compiled by Mrs. Lois Ely of Paramus, from originals at the New York Public Library, and an excellent 1957 piece in the popular magazine, The New Yorker, by the New Jersey novelist John Brooks. Descendants of a family that had come to America well before the Revolution, the Swartwout Brothers were prominent New Yorkers who could be described as “soldiers, promoters, politicians, and merchants”. They had friends in high places all the way up to the White House. Robert, the brother who was to make the Meadowlands reclamation virtually a life's obsession, was a friend of such political bigwigs of the time as Henry Clay, James Monroe, and Andrew Jackson. In 1813, at the age of thirty-five, Robert was named Quartermaster General of the Army, a potentially lucrative post. Together with brothers Samuel and John, a prosperous paint merchant, and a General in the New York militia, Robert began buying parcels of the Meadowlands near Hoboken for speculative purposes. Eventually the Swartwout Brothers acquired about four thousand acres, mostly in the area between Hoboken and Newark that is now traversed by the Penn-Central tracks, the Pulaski Skyway, and the New Jersey Turnpike. In 1816, the first of several companies were organized whose purpose was to exploit the Meadowlands. The most notable of these was the Hackensack and Passaic Meadow Company. It contracted with Comfort Tyler, one of the original settlers of Syracuse, to dig a system of drainage ditches and earthen dikes. By 1819 it had managed to reclaim about one thousand three hundred acres on which they grew a variety of crops with the aid of farmers recruited from New England. SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 190 SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 191 Because the Swartwout Brothers’ project was recognized with such importance, it was once described as "one of the most magnificent undertakings that has ever distinguished the liberal spirit of this great State." But there was a problem. The profits did not come rolling in, and the Brothers ran into debt. They applied to the Common Council of New York City for a mortgage on three thousand of their acres but were turned down. Even then, New Yorkers took a dim view of bailing out anything in New Jersey. The Swartwout Brothers went next to Holland, hoping that Dutch bankers, acquainted with what could be done to reclaim land from the sea, would be understanding and lend them money. No dice! So, in 1820, they reorganized as the New Jersey Salt Marsh Company. That didn't go either. Their next move, during the following year, was to obtain a charter for a bank. It was hoped that being affiliated with a bank would help them get the funds needed for the Meadowlands project. On November 15th, 1822, Robert Swartwout and a man by the name of Charles Haines received a fifteen-year charter to do banking operations under the name of The Hoboken Banking and Grazing Company. It was one of seven banks with dual-purpose charters from the New Jersey Legislature. The banking house was located on Second and Washington Streets. Its purpose was for "embanking, draining, ditching and cultivating certain large tracts of salt marsh in the county of Bergen” (which then included Hoboken). They started the first large scale reclamation project to dike and drain the Meadowlands for habitation and agriculture. This institution operated successfully for a few years. But at some point, its Officers engaged in some type of fraud that resulted in a Legislative inquiry and official report. The Hoboken Banking and Grazing Company was on Bicknell’s Reporter list of broken banks by 1831. In 1827, Robert found a backer, a New York merchant named John Coster, who was married to a Lorillard Tobacco heiress. Coster loaned the General, as Robert Swartwout was known, $75,000. Coster ended up foreclosing, but the General refused to quit. "These lands," he wrote in his diary at one point, "are too valuable to remain unimproved. They lie too near this splendid city (New York) to be abandoned. They must and shall be placed in a position to produce revenue." Borrowing money from his brother Samuel, who had long since lost interest in the venture, Robert leased one thousand nine hundred acres back from Coster and set up The New York and Bergen Dairy Company. The idea this time was to supply milk to thirsty New Yorkers. But Robert's poor business sense, plus the burrowing of the muskrats that played havoc with the dikes that were part of the Meadowlands project, curdled his venture as well. For several years Robert kept going with the help of frequent loans from brother Samuel, who had gotten himself appointed Collector of the Port of New York. Samuel wrote to his brother that he was wasting both his time and his money. But Robert, by now utterly obsessed with the yearning to develop the Meadowlands, wrote in response: "I have long set my heart upon this project. No consideration can divert me from its prosecution, and I therefore beseech you as a brother professing kind feelings... not to cross my path in this great object of my life." When Samuel’s auditors found a million- dollar shortage in his accounts, Robert's financial crutch was amputated for keeps. He went bankrupt in 1844. After one final try, organizing The New Jersey Agricultural Company and seeing it go the way of all the rest, he ended up pathetically living in Manhattan rooming houses and writing proposals of marriage to wealthy women. So goes the Swartwout Family ties with what was once referred to as the “Swartwout New Jersey Meadowlands”!! And there’s the history that I’ve been able to put together on this old enterprise. As I always do, I invite any comments to my cell phone (580) 221-0898 or my personal email address robertdalegill@gmail.com And until next, HAPPY COLLECTING! SPMC.org * Paper Money * May/June 2025 * Whole Number 357 192 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. PCDA To be assured of knowledgeable, professional, and ethical dealings when buying or selling currency, look for dealers who proudly display the PCDA emblem. For further information, please contact: The Professional Currency Dealers Association PCDA • Holds its annual National Currency Convention in conjunction with the Central States Numis- matic Society’s Anniversary Convention. Please visit our Web Site pcda.com for dates and location. • Encourages public awareness and education regarding the hobby of Paper Money Collecting. • Sponsors the John Hickman National Currency Exhibit Award each year, as well as Paper Money classes and scholarships at the A.N.A.’s Summer Seminar series. • Publishes several “How to Collect” booklets regarding currency and related paper items. Availability of these booklets can be found on our Web Site. • Is a proud supporter of the Society of Paper Money Collectors. Or Visit Our Web Site At: www.pcda.com Susan Bremer – Secretary 16 Regents Park • Bedford, TX 76022 (214) 409-1830 • email: susanb@ha.com Paul R. Minshull #16591. BP 20%; see HA.com 79461 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 1.75 Million+ Online Bidder-Members U.S. CURRENCY SIGNATURE® AUCTION GACC – Dallas | October 8 – 10 Fr. 2221-K $5,000 1934 Federal Reserve Note PMG Choice Uncirculated 64 EPQ Fr. 2200-L $500 1928 Federal Reserve Note PMG Gem Uncirculated 66 EPQ Serial Number 1. San Francisco, CA - $10 1882 Brown Back Fr. 482 The Crocker-Woolworth National Bank Ch. # 3555 PMG Very Fine 30 Petaluma, CA 1874 $100 National Gold Bank Note Fr. 1165 CH# 2193 First National Gold Bank PMG Very Good 12 Fr. 2308 $10 1934 Mule North Africa Silver Certificate PCGS Gem New 66PPQ Oakland, CA - $10 1875 Fr. 419 The Union National Bank Ch. # 2266 PMG Choice Very Fine 35 Highlights from The Charlton Buckley Collection Consignment Deadline: August 18 For a free appraisal, or to consign to an upcoming auction, contact a Heritage Expert today. 800-872-6467, Ext. 1001, Currency@HA.com or HA.com/Currency.