Banknote Reporter March 2022

Can you believe that here we are in March of 2022, and the COVID-19 situation is still with us, still disrupting our daily lives, cancelling our coin shows, and taking up all the news? I can’t. I am fully vaxxed and boosted, and I am tired of hearing about COVID. That said, this month I have selected another note from my collection and take you on a visit to its hometown. So, let’s head to the heart of the Midwest, and visit Gillespie, Ill. Gillespie, Ill. is a very small city located in Macoupin County, in the south-central part of the state, northeast of St. Louis and due south of the state capital, Springfield. Gillespie lies at the junction of State Routes 16 and 4, just west of Litchfield and Mount…

It is not widely known among collectors that the seals on U.S. Treasury currency were printed and the notes separated within the U.S. Treasury building under the auspices of the U.S. Treasurer between 1885 and 1910. All the rest of the printing operations, including serial numbering, were carried out at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The printing of the $1 Series of 1935 silver certificates was a big deal for both the U.S. Treasury in general and the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in particular. The production of the notes represented an important innovation for the Bureau. They were the first small size notes with overprinted signatures of the Secretary of the Treasury and U.S. Treasurer. For the Treasury, there was a behindthe-scenes factor of much greater consequence. President Franklin D.…

The Eric P. Newman sale of Federal currency conducted by Heritage Auctions on April 23, 2015, contained the double denomination note illustrated here from The Aetna National Bank of Kansas City, Missouri, charter 4251. This piece, in vg condition, sold for $70,500. The issuing bank was chartered March 10, 1890, and liquidated only three years later on March 9, 1893, having a circulation of $45,000 for the duration. A total of 460 sheets of Series of 1882 brown back 50-100 notes was issued from the bank to support that circulation. The double denomination note is the only reported survivor; specifically, note A330250-72-A signed by president R. W. Tubeman and cashier L. D. Cooper. Nebraska national bank note collector Matt Hansen came upon a 1907 newspaper clipping from a Beatrice, Nebraska, newspaper that…

I have found the title block layout used on this Decherd, Tenn. proof on notes for only five banks in the entire country. The distinctive feature is “at” followed by the town name, where both are presented in bold squat letters directly above the “will pay” line. Two were Series of 1882 issuers, The Peoples NB of Roxbury at Boston, MA (595) and The N Rockland B of Roxbury, MA (615). The other two 1902 issues were The NB of Gallatin Valley at Bozeman, MT (7444) and The First NB of Coos Bay at Marshfield, OR (7475). The plates for all five were made between October and December 1904. In 1895, the Comptroller of the Currency sent a directive to the BEP requesting that the name of the town be…

It is not widely known among collectors that the seals on U.S. Treasury currency were printed and the notes separated within the U.S. Treasury building under the auspices of the U.S. Treasurer between 1885 and 1910. All the rest of the printing operations, including serial numbering, were carried out at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. The Notes from Washington column in February 2022 dealing with the period when Treasury seals were printed on Treasury currency between 1885 and 1910 contained a misstatement that is too important not to correct. The italicized material in the following paragraph that I wrote is incorrect. The question is: how had misprints been handled when the sheets were damaged during the sealing operation in the Treasury Department between 1885 and 1910? The Treasurer’s office simply maintained…

The idea of building a waterway through the isthmus of Panama (also one or two other locations being considered) has long been on the minds of various individuals for several hundred years. Finally in 1880 the French began the project, only to sell the whole thing to the United States in 1902 after they had realized that the technical level of construction had not developed enough to accomplish such a task. But that sale occurred in 1902. Why then should the image of a purely 19th century politician appear on a check (10c!) for canal loan interest dated 1916? That portrait was of James Gillespie Blaine, a prominent statesman of the late 1800’s. Blaine, born in 1830, lived through some momentous years in the history of this nation. He also participated heavily…