The world of large size replacement nationals is somewhat inverted.  Rare is common, and common is rare.  For instance, Red Seals are highly prized among collectors of nationals because they are considerably scarcer than their Blue Seal counterparts.  Not so with LSRNs.  Of the 80 replacements documented from the relevant time period, half are Red Seals.  Why?  Because #1 notes were the most commonly damaged and needed to be replaced, and a good percentage of Red Seals that survive were saved as #1 souvenirs.  Over 60% of all the documented replacements ar

If you have been reading BNR and the recently issue of Paper Money, you will see that Fred Reed had done a wonderful job of outlining how postage and then fractional currency came into being, the laws, the players, etc.  But when did it actually first begin circulating?  A law was signed into service on July 17, 1862 that began postage currency.  The notes were first issued on August 21, 1862 and lasted until May 29, 1863.  The first notes were printed entirely by the National Banknote Company (which was printing the postage stamps of the day) and came in sheets that had