Banknote Reporter July 2021

Finally, after well more than a year, it seems the COVID-19 pandemic has finally eased up on the United States, with a large percentage of the population having received at least one dose of the available vaccines. Perhaps now, as things reopen, we will finally be able to get back to normal numismatics, with local and regional coin shows reappearing. I certainly hope so. For this month, continuing my attempts to move about the country, I thought we would take a visit to Putnam County, New York, just north of New York City, and investigate the small but robust community of Mahopac, New York. I recently added a Mahopac note to my collection, so let’s go! Mahopac is a hamlet in the town of Carmel in Putnam County, New York. Also known…

In December 2020, this feature carried Bobbie Mills’ significant number 1 Hawkinsville, Georgia $20 Series of 1902 red seal. It was pointed out that it was only the second Georgia number 1 red seal recorded in the National Currency Foundation census. The other was a $10 from The First National Bank of Fort Valley (7459) with provenance to the Grinnell sales of 1945-6. It was offered twice as lots 1659 and 3302, when it finally sold for $25. I knew of no sales record of it since. Current owner Jeff Macpherson fired off the photo of it for you to see. High grade with beautiful penned signatures of president W. H. Harris and cashier J. C. McDonald, from an issue of only 625 sheets of 10-10-10-20 red seals from a…

For internal fiscal reasons I have never been sure of, a number of countries assign the issuance of smaller denomination notes to a government office instead of a bank. One possible reason is that the bank charter calls for notes of no less than 5 gulden as bank issues. Thus, the currency of Surinam in values of 2 1/2 gulden or less has been issued first under the title of Zilverbon up to 1960 and Muntbiljet afterwards. The earlier notes are apparently backed by silver as the literal meaning of the word is Silver Note; the later appellation refers to the currency as Money Note. 1961 was the same time as countries around the world were beginning to remove the silver from their daily coinage and replacing it with a…

Gerald Dzara brought this bank with a great town name to my attention. Fairchance is located in south-central Fayette County 50 miles south-southeast of Pittsburg. According to Wikipedia, it is located at the western base of Chestnut Ridge, the westernmost major ridge of the Appalachian Mountains. It has a current population of about 2,200. Some townspeople claim Fairchance got its name in the early days of transportation when travelers from Morgantown, West Virginia, who made it to the borough by 4:00 pm had a fair chance of making it to Uniontown before sundown. Another explanation cited in the book Fairchance Through the Years, compiled by the Fairchance Centennial History Committee, is that Fidelio H. Oliphant, who operated iron furnaces in the area, went to a bank in Uniontown to borrow…

This time we get a look at an old piece of exographic value from Surinam. It’s a second of exchange, meaning that there was at least one other document similar to this issued at the same time-- a first of exchange. Apparently fiscal papers like this became damaged or befell some misfortune often enough that duplicates in the form of numbered bills of exchange had to be issued along with the original. This particular piece is dated 7 November 1872 and was made for payment of 3000 gulden. If the first of exchange is not encashed by a certain number of days, this second of exchange becomes valid and payable. Surinam offers precious little in the way of exographically desirable examples like this.…

This article will profile titles where the Comptroller’s clerks had to append the town names because the bankers failed to do so. We’ll use the Original and 1875 notes made for The Cambridge National Bank in New York state, charter 1275, to illustrate why this happened and how it was handled, not once but twice for this bank. The official definition of a bank title as used by the Comptroller of the Currency was the name of the bank including the name of town, but not that of the state. The bankers had to file an organization certificate that specified their title. The bankers or their attorney had to write the title between quote marks on a blank reserved for the title on that form; and then, in two succeeding blanks, specify…