We'll finish our blog series with the diagnostics published in "Identification of Series of 1882 and 1902 National Bank Replacement Notes Printed in the 1903-1915 Period" by R. Shawn Hewitt and Peter Huntoon.  SPMC members can read the article here.

Diagnostics

National bank notes meeting the following criteria are replacement notes printed after the general conversion to new style fonts (circa September 1903):

In our article, Peter Huntoon and I call 1915 the end of the era when old style font presses were used to make up replacement sheets of nationals.  At the time it was written, we had not found a single Plain Back replacement.  That has changed, but the picture is somewhat fuzzy.

I would have to say that Date Backs (both 1882 and 1902) are my favorite types of large size replacement nationals.  That’s because as replacements they’re scarcer than most other types, yet they’re less expensively priced compared to other types when they come up for sale.  Further, there is no ambiguity about when you find one with the old style font.  Recall that for Red Seals and Brown Backs, the earliest of those used the old style serial number fonts, and you need to do a little homework to determine the date of printing.  By contrast, any Date Back with the old st