Paper Money - Vol. LII, No. 5 - Whole No. 287 - September - October 2013

I N S I D E Peter Huntoon writes about the Greatest Territorial NBN discovery Ron Horstman describes rare scrip from Mexican-American War PAPER MONEY OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY OF PAPER MONEY COLLECTORS VOL. LII, NO. 5 WHOLE NO. 287 WWW.SPMC.ORG SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2013 *Sept-Oct 2013 Paper Money_Jan/Feb Cover 8/1/13 12:31 PM Page 1 Going Going Gone $507 . . . do I hear $508? c. 1870 1933 1988 *Sept-Oct 2013 Paper Money_Jan/Feb Cover 8/1/13 12:31 PM Page 2 Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 321 TERMS AND CONDITIONS PAPER MONEY (USPS 00-3162) is published every other month beginning in January by the Society of Paper Money Collectors (SPMC), 101-C North Greenville Ave. #425, Allen, TX 75002. Periodical postage is paid at Hanover, PA. Post master send address changes to Secretary Benny Bolin, 101-C North Greenville Ave. #425, Allen, TX 75002. © Society of Paper Money Collectors, Inc., 2013. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any article, in whole or part, without written permission, 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 can- not be guaranteed. Include an SASE for acknowledg- ment, if desired. Opinions expressed by authors do not necessarily reflect those of the SPMC. Manuscripts should be typed (one side of paper only), double-spaced with at least 1-inch margins. The author’s name, address and telephone number should appear on the first page. Authors should retain a copy for their records. Authors are encouraged to submit a copy on a MAC CD, identified with the name and ver- sion of software used. A double-spaced printout must accompany the CD. Authors may also transmit articles via e-mail to the Editor at the SPMC web site (fred@spmc.org). Original illustrations are preferred but do not send items of value requiring Certified, Insured or Registered Mail. Write or e-mail ahead for special instructions. Scans should be grayscale or color at 300 dpi. Jpegs are preferred. ADvERTISINg • All advertising accepted on space available basis • Copy/cor re spond ence should be sent to Editor • All advertising is payable in advance • Ads are accepted on a “good Faith” basis • Terms are “Until Forbid” • Ads are Run of Press (ROP) unless accepted on premium contract basis • Limited premium space/rates available To keep rates at 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 (for example, Feb. 1 for the March/April issue). Camera-ready copy, or electronic ads in pdf format, or in Quark Express on a MAC CD with fonts supplied are acceptable. ADvERTISINg RATES Space 1 time 3 times 6 times Full Color covers $1500 $2600 $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 Requirements: Full page, 42 x 57 picas; half-page may be either vertical or horizontal in format. Single-column width, 20 picas. Except covers, page position may be requested, but not guaranteed. All screens should be 150 line or 300 dpi. Advertising copy shall be restricted to paper currency, allied numismatic material, publications, and related accessories. The SPMC does not guarantee advertise- ments, but accepts copy in good faith, reserving the right to reject objectionable material or edit copy. SPMC assumes no financial responsibility for typo- graphical errors in ads, but agrees to reprint that por- tion of an ad in which a typographical error occurs upon prompt notification.
Paper Money Official Bimonthly Publication of The Society of Paper Money Collectors, Inc. Vol. LII, No. 5 Whole No. 287 September/October 2013 ISSN 0031-1162 FRED L. REED III, Editor, P.O. Box 118162, Carrollton, TX 75011 Visit the SPMC web site: www.spmc.org FEATURES A Stroll across Richmond, Numismatically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323 By Steve Feller The Paper Column: Philatelist was Catalyst for Revisions . . .331 By Peter Huntoon & Andrew Shiva Dr. Borsodi’s ‘Constant’ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339 By Loren Gatch Signatures Recall Love Story . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 367 By Karl Sanford Kabelac Treasury Signatures on United States Currency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .346 By Jamie Yakes “If I had a hammer, I’d hammer in the morning ...” . . . . . . . . . 352 By Terry Bryan The Paper Column: Greatest Territorial Discovery of All Time 354 By Peter Huntoon & Andrew Shiva Mexican-American War Left Rare Scrip . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 372 By Ron Horstman The Hague Conference on Complementary Currency . . . . 394 By Loren Gatch The Buck Starts Here: America Papered the World! . . . . . . . . . . . 380 By Gene Hessler Small Notes: Silver made Gold Certificates legal tender . . . . . 381 By Jamie Yakes SOCIETY & HOBBY NEWS SPMC announces member awards at Memphis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .345 New Members . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .353 Longtime SPMC member John Glynn dies in United Kingdom . . . . . . . . . .353 President’s Column by Pierre Fricke . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .374 Uncoupled: Paper Money’s Odd Couple by Joseph E. Boling & Fred Schwan . .376 Death claims scholar/author Dr. Richard G. Doty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .384 Nancy & John Wilson’s camera capture Memphis highlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .386 SPMC Board of Governors Meeting Minutes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .393 Diverse Group talks up new books at forum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .396 Draft of SPMC’s Revised Book Publishing Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .398 Back of the Back Page by Loren Gatch & Fred Reed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .399 The Back Page with Paul Herbert and YOU . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .400 If your mailing label reads 2013 RENEW NOW Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287322 Society of Paper Money Collectors OFFICERS ELECTED OFFICERS: PRESIDENT Pierre Fricke, Box 1094, Sudbury, MA 01776 vICE-PRESIDENT VACANT SECRETARY Benny Bolin, 101-C North Greenville Ave. #425, Allen, TX 75002 TREASURER Bob Moon, 104 Chipping Court, Greenwood, SC 29649 BOARD OF gOvERNORS: Mark Anderson, 115 Congress St., Brooklyn, NY 11201 Gary J. Dobbins, 10308 Vistadale Dr., Dallas, TX 75238 Pierre Fricke, Box 1094, Sudbury, MA 01776 Shawn Hewitt, P.O. Box 580731, Minneapolis, MN 55458-0731 Matt Janzen, 3601 Page Drive Apt. 1, Plover, WI 54467 Scott Lindquist, Box 2175, Minot, ND 58702 Fred L. Reed III, P.O. Box 118162, Carrollton, TX 75011-8162 Michael B. Scacci, 216-10th Ave., Fort Dodge, IA 50501-2425 Lawrence Schuffman, P.O. Box 19, Mount Freedom, NJ 07970 Robert Vandevender, P.O. Box 1505, Jupiter, FL 33468-1505 Wendell A. Wolka, P.O. Box 1211, Greenwood, IN 46142 VACANT APPOINTEES: PUBLISHER-EDITOR Fred L. Reed III, P.O. Box 118162, Carrollton, TX 75011-8162 CONTRIBUTINg EDITOR Gene Hessler, P.O. Box 31144, Cincinnati, OH 45231 ADvERTISINg MANAgER Wendell A. Wolka, P.O. Box 1211, Greenwood, IN 46142 LEgAL COUNSEL Robert J. Galiette, 3 Teal Ln., Essex, CT 06426 LIBRARIAN Jeff Brueggeman, 711 Signal Mountain Rd. # 197, Chattanooga, TN 37405 MEMBERSHIP DIRECTOR Frank Clark, P.O. Box 117060, Carrollton, TX 75011-7060 PAST PRESIDENT Mark Anderson, 115 Congress St., Brooklyn, NY 11201 WISMER BOOK PROJECT COORDINATOR Pierre Fricke, Box 1094, Sudbury, MA 01776 REgIONAL MEETINg COORDINATOR Judith Murphy, P.O. Box 24056, Winston-Salem, NC 27114 BUYING AND SELLING HUGH SHULL P.O. Box 2522, Lexington, SC 29071 PH: (803) 996-3660 FAX: (803) 996-4885 CSA and Obsolete Notes CSA Bonds, Stocks & Financial Items Auction Representation 60-Page Catalog for $5.00 Refundable with Order ANA-LM SCNA PCDA CHARTER MBR 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 SPMC meeting is held in June at the Memphis International Paper Money Show. Up-to-date information about the SPMC, including its bylaws and activities can be found on its web site www.spmc.org. SPMC does not endorse any company, dealer, 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 18 years of age and of good moral character. Their application must be signed by a parent or guardian. Junior membership numbers will be preced- ed 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 eligi- ble to hold office or vote. DUES—Annual dues are $39. Members in Canada and Mexico should are $45 to cover postage; members throughout the rest of the world are $60. Life membership — payable in installments within one year is $800, $900 for Canada and Mexico, and $1,000 elsewhere. The Society has dispensed with issuing annual membership cards, but paid up members may obtain one from the Secretary for an SASE (self-addressed, stamped envelope). Memberships for all members who joined the Society prior to January 2010 are on a calendar year basis. Dues renewals are due each December. Memberships for those who joined snce January 2010 are on an annual year basis, for example March to March or June-June. These renewals are due before expiration date. Renewal envelopes appear in a fall issue of Paper Money. Checks should be sent to the Secretary.
SPMC LM 6 BRNA FUN Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 323 Itravel often In my career as a physIcIst. recently, I attended aprofessional meeting at the american center for physics in college park, md. my wife,Barbara, suggested we take amtrak to richmond for a day just for fun and we did so.amtrak business class was comfortable. the palmetto trains we rode in were both on time and the two hour trips to and fro sped by easily. Figure 1. The Palmetto Amtrak train at Union Station in Washington. Barb Feller graces the foreground. (Photo by Steve Feller) arrival at the staples mill road amtrak station in richmond necessitat- ed a $20 taxi ride downtown where we walked up shockoe hill. there in its sunny glory we came across the virginia state capitol building, see image fol- lowing. this wonderfully restored building, principal ly designed by thomas Jefferson, was first used in 1792. from may 1861 until april 1865 it served as the second capitol of the confederate states of america. curiously, at the same time, the building continued to hold meetings of the virginia legisla- ture. this building appeared on the t-69 confederate states $5 bill of the 1864 issue (as well as t- 53 and t-60). A Somewhat Frequent Series on Wonderfully Historic Confederate Notes -- 4 By Steve Feller A stroll across Richmond, Numismatically Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287324 this common note shows the capitol in its original form before the addition of the two modern wings seen today. note the pair of confederate flags that top the structure. We then walked about five minutes in humid southern heat to the White house of the confederacy, the wartime home of president Jefferson davis and his family. certainly, Jefferson davis is an interesting char- acter. he was the only president of the confederate states. It does not appear to be a position that he actively sought. he served several roles within the United states government including being in the army after graduation from West Figure 2. The capitol building of the State of Virginia and the Confederate States of America. (Photo by Steve Feller) Figures 3 a and b. Five dollar Type 69 and closeup. Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 325 point, senator, and secretary of War. Interestingly he argued against secession and he called the day he left the United states senate the saddest day of his life. he gave a moving farewell speech, not as a firebrand but as one resigned to the inevitable civil War, powerless to change that course. from the senate he went home to mississippi and thence to montgomery, alabama to become the confederacy’s first and only president on february 18, 1861. Figure 4. The White House of the Confederacy. (Photo by Steve Feller, note the author’s wife Barb at lower right.) Figure 5. Plaque outside the White House of the Confederacy. (Photo by Steve Feller) Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287326 Listen up, Your subscription expires if . . . If your mailing label reads any date for September or October 2013 (such as 10/1/2013, this is your LAST issue. You should renew now! If your label reads 12/31/2013 as in the example below, you should also renew now so as not to miss a single issue of this publication. ALL members received a mailing envelope inserted into this issue of Paper Money to facilitate your dues renewal. Please don’t forget to put a stamp on it! All members, including LIFE MEMBERs, may also use this envelope to make a tax-deductible donation to SPMC to further the Society’s goals. You may select the project that your donation will help fund, or donate to the general SPMC treasury. SPMC thanks you for your generosity. Donations will be rec- ognized in a future issue of Paper Money, or you may choose to remain anonymous. NOTICE: unless you are a current LM or a non-magazine member on the SPMC website, dues have gone up for the first time in 12 years. Details are on Page 366 in this issue. These new annual dues rates are also reflected on the return enve- lope you found tucked into this issue of Paper Money. Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 327 Figure 6. Jefferson Davis was the only President of the Confederate States of America. (wikipedia) Figures 7 and 7a. Jefferson Davis appears on a Type-66 $50 Confederate note, and closeup of Jefferson Davis from the Type 65 note. Davis also appears on numerous other notes of the Confederacy including Types 16, 50, 57, 63, and 72. Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287328 I’m a strong believer in using other fields to complement numismatics. for example, one can also collect Jefferson davis autographs. I show two below. the first item is known as a free frank and was clipped from an envelope. davis, as a United states senator, had the privilege to use the mails for free. the following autograph is a courtesy sent to a collector near the end of this president’s tragic life. he died in 1889. an intriguing item is shown below. this is a cover sent to davis by the secretary of state (ad Interim) of the confederate states, William m. Browne. note the intriguing word valuable inscribed at the top. Browne was the acting secretary from february 1, 1862 to march 17, 1862. this letter has a faint date of november 15, 1864. What could have been the valuable contents of this enve- lope? Figure 8. Free Frank. Note the date, October 16th 1860, just a few weeks before the election that brought Abraham Lincoln to the presidency. Figure 9. Jefferson Davis autograph of 1887. Figure 10. Cover sent to Jefferson Davis. Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 329 N O B O D Y does paper money better than PAPER MONEY • best reproduction • best audience • best rates . . . IN FULL LIVING COLOR, too! If you REALLY want to sell your killer notes . . . not just admire them in your inventory, this is . . . THE PLACE Discover . . . YOUR pot of gold HERE! Advertise in PAPER MONEY Figures 11a and b. The stamp from the dead rebel soldier and a closeup. above is an amazing item. this stamp with a vignette of Jefferson davis has a mes- sage that reads “confederate.” “this stamp was taken off a letter taken from a dead rebel’s pocket by c.c. tupper: the letter was from the soldier’s sweetheart.” corporal colby c. tupper was from co. G of the 150th pennsylvania Infantry "Bucktails." he was wounded at Gettysburg on July 1, 1863. next to the White house of the confederacy is the museum of the confederacy. It has an excellent collection of artifacts but they display precious few confederate notes. Figure 12. The Museum of the Confederacy. (Photo by Steve Feller) Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287330 Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 331 I n an artIcle In the JanUary-feBrUary 2013 IssUe of Paper Money, we revealed the surprising fact that the coats- of-arms for eight states and the district of columbia on the backs of series of 1882 brown backs were replaced or revised during the brief period october 1896 through June 1897. the affect- ed seals were alabama, district of columbia, Iowa, maryland, new york, north carolina, ohio, vermont and Wisconsin. not only were the seals replaced or revised, the work was car- ried out in almost perfect alphabetical order. clearly the revisions were part of a systematic reevaluation of the seals rather than periodic corrections sprinkled randomly through the series of 1882 brown back era. the timing of the changes followed immediately on the heels of the rash of admissions of seven new states beginning with the datokas and ending with Utah during 1889-1896. We surmised that there was linkage between the two events. specifically, it appeared that once the employees at the Bureau of engraving and printing finished with the state seals for the newly admitted states, they simply went on to revise existing state seals that were in need. this conclusion missed the mark based on newly uncovered documents in the national archives. The Paper Column By Peter Huntoon & Andrew Shiva Philatelist was Catalyst for Revisions to Coats-of-Arms on the Backs of Series of 1882 Nationals the reality is that a philatelist named robert stockwell hatcher set the program of revisions in motion on february 12, 1893, by writing to comptroller of the currency a. Barton hepburn inquiring why the coat-of-arms for maryland on the backs of nationals was not the seal adopted by the state. the comptroller bounced hatcher’s letter down to the chief of the Bep who responded as follows: march 2, 1893 hon. a. B. hepburn comptroller of the currency sir: I have the honor to return herewith a letter addressed to you, under date of february 12th last, by mr. r. s. hatcher, of chicago, calling attention to the fact that the coat-of-arms of the state of maryland is represented on the backs of all notes issued by the national banks of that state by a female figure of Justice standing holding a pair of scales in one hand and a sword and an olive branch in the other, and asking why the federal Government has used a device upon the currency other than that adopted by the state as its official seal, and forwarding by you under date of the 15th ultimo with the request that I give you the necessary information on this point. the coat-of-arms of maryland, with that of other states, was engraved for the national currency in 1863 or 1864 by the american Bank note co. of new york, and was turned over to this Bureau in 1875 when the printing of the national currency was transferred here by that company. this Bureau has continued the use of the coat-of-arms described by mr. hatcher without its being observed that it did not conform to the official seal of the state. I have asked the american Bank note company to explain how it occurred that this design was engraved instead of the correct one, and they answer that their records contain nothing that will throw any light on the subject. the secretary of state of maryland has, upon my inquiry, furnished me with the enclosed newspaper clip- ping relative to the origin and history of the great seal of that state. from this it will be seen that the design engraved by the bank note company was the design on the obverse of the seal adopted by the state in 1794. the seal of the state was subsequently changed in 1817, and in 1854 when the original seal of lord Baltimore was again adopted, although modified without authority. It would appear that, even at this time, the ancient arms of lord Baltimore were the arms of the state. the unauthorized modifications appear to have been eliminated in 1876, and since that time there can be no Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287332 Sign up for special free features on the official SPMC website www.spmc.org/pin Your one-time exclusive PIN is on your mailing label Figure 1. Robert S. Hatcher, the philatelist whose letter to Comptroller of the Currency Hepburn set in motion the revisions to several coats of arms used on the backs of national bank notes, was reading clerk of the Indiana State Senate when this photo was taken in 1895. (Photo from the Indiana State Library) 333Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 question as to what are the seal and arms of the state. It is perfectly clear that in 1863 and 1864 there was no authority for selecting the design which was engraved. I find, on comparing the seals of the several states appearing on the notes with published representations and descriptions of them, that there is a variation in the coat-of-arms of Iowa. the secretary of state of Iowa informs me that there has been no change in the seal of that state since 1863, except the correction of a slight mistake made by the engraver who executed the original work. the design on the official seal of the state consists of a man holding a flag, with a sheaf of grain and a steamboat in the back-ground; the design on the note consists of an eagle with an arrow in its beak. there is also a variation between the official seal of the state of alabama and the design appearing upon its currency, but the present seal was adopted in 1868, and this may account for the variation. I shall be glad to have, at your earliest convenience, your instructions as to what action, if any, this Bureau shall take with reference to the coats-of-arms of these three states. very respectfully, William m. meredith chief of Bureau Figure 2. The first coat-of-arms that philatelist Robert S. Hatcher flagged as incorrect was the obsolete Maryland seal on the left. The one on the right featuring Lord Baltimore’s family coat-of-arms was the current seal. Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287334 Important in meredith’s letter is that the work on the coats-of-arms prior to 1875 was contracted out to the american Bank note company, and aBnc was given responsibility for all aspects of obtaining the seals from the various states and getting them right. It is apparent that the work of the aBnc was accept- ed without vetting for accuracy by anyone in the treasury department. Figure 3. BEP Chief William Meredith determined that the American Bank Note Company had incorrectly modeled the Maryland seal on an obsolete coat-of-arms adopted in 1794. (Photo from BEP [2004]). hatcher turned out to be a very interesting fellow. once we had his name, we searched the letters sent by the chiefs of the Bep and came up with evidence of a lively correspondence between him and various comptrollers and chiefs. Google pro- duced additional interesting information on him. he was born february 15, 1865 at lafayette, Indiana. hatcher was a philatelist, who based on the type of inquiries he made, was what is today called a back-of-the-book guy, a person who collects material found in the back of the Scott’s Figure 4. Once Hatcher alerted the BEP to the problem with the Maryland seals, BEP Chief Meredith became aware that the seal used for Iowa also didn’t conform to the legal description of the state seal. It turned out that the seal in use (left) was the territorial seal. See Ehrhardt, 2012. 335Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 Specialized Catalogue of U. S. Stamps including revenue stamps and other exotic stamp-like items such as lock seals. he was an early member of the american philatelic association, having joined shortly after it was organized in 1886 as mem- ber #308. he actively sponsored several other members so his name appears in sev- eral of the earliest issues of The American Philatelist. the earliest letter we found to him from the Bep was the following response to a letter he sent when he was 23 years old. march 3, 1888 mr. robert s. hatcher laher house lafayette, Ind. sir: In reply to your letter of the 29th ultimo in which you ask me if the first plates engraved of the five dollar silver certificate had not the word “trust” on the reverse of one of the dollars spelled “trast”; and also if this was an error or intentional, and if subsequent issues have been altered, I have to say that on the plates from which the first five dollar silver certificates were printed the “u” in the word “trust” on the reverse of the dollar to the right of the center was slightly blurred so as to have had somewhat the appearance of an “a.” as soon as the defect was discovered it was corrected. respectfully yours, e. o. Graves chief of Bureau clearly hatcher was scrutinizing Bep engravings of all types, and bringing to bear a philatelist’s eye for minor varieties. In the ensuing couple of years he became something of a persistent pest by requesting samples of exotic items such as formal invitations and inaugurations that had been engraved at the Bep and seeking information about exotic varieties on revenue stamps and the like. hatcher was drawn to the seals on the backs of nationals, so the new seals that began to appear on notes from the recently admitted states caught his fancy. on november 29, 1891, he wrote Bep chief William meredith requesting copies of the new state seals for montana, north and south dakota, Washington and Wyoming. as with previous requests, this too was gracefully declined. hatcher was a lawyer who began his career in lafayette, Indiana, but had moved to chicago in 1891 at the time he requested the new state seals. his wife Georgia, whom he married in 1889, was prominent in social circles and her poodle was the Bench show winner of the american Kennel club in 1891. at the time they resided at 443 dearborn avenue. however, the hatchers returned home to lafayette, Indiana, at the end of november 1893. Figure 5. Hatcher’s first letter to the BEP, written in 1888 when he was 23 years old, inquired about the “u” in the word “trust” on the reverse of the dollar to the right of the center that had the appearance of an “a.” BEP Chief Meredith advised that the problem affected the first of the $5 Series of 1886 back plates and that they already had noticed and repaired the defect. Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287336 claude m. Johnson succeeded Bep chief meredith in 1893 before the hatchers returned to lafayette, and he aggressively tapped into hatcher’s knowledge of the coats-of-arms for the various states. Johnson wrote in november asking if hatcher would provide descriptions and samples of the state seals for alabama, Iowa and Wyoming. this was followed by a similar request in december for information on the maryland seal. over the next several months into 1894 hatcher eagerly responded with loans of legal descriptions and prints for the various state seals. he even submitted colonial notes and a wax impression bearing the maryland state seal. clearly Johnson was finding him to be a more reliable and convenient source for this information than the various secretaries of state. By then Johnson had promised to send hatcher proofs of all the seals under revision. the list of states seals under scrutiny grew as both hatcher and Johnson dis- covered additional discrepancies. for example, by september 1894, both knew that the new york seal required revision. hatcher’s career was maturing nicely to the point that he was elected reading clerk of the senate of the fifty-ninth General assembly of the state of Indiana, which commenced January 10, 1895. his interest in and knowledge of state seals gained official recognition when the Indiana senate passed senate concurrent resolution no. 20 appointing him commissioner to “Investigate the origin and history of the seal of the state of Indiana, and Whether said state has any legally authorized coat-of-arms or seal.” his report was submitted march 8, 1895. he concluded that “there is no provision in the [Indiana] constitution and none existing by statute as to what the state arms or seal shall be.” next, he was appointed reading clerk of the U. s. house of representatives at the beginning of the first session of the fifty-fourth United states congress in 1895. Figure 7. Hatcher was charged by the Indiana Senate in 1895 with the task of determining if Indiana had an official coat-of- arms. He concluded that it did not. The seal used on national bank notes featured a buffalo that could be confused with a charging wild boar! Indiana in 1963 finally adopted an official coat-of-arms along the lines of the seal used on nationals. Figure 6. Incoming BEP Chief Claude Johnson actively took advantage of Hatcher’s expertise and requested him to send legal descriptions and samples of coats-of-arms that required replacement or revision. In return, Johnson provided Hatcher with proofs of the new seals. Incidentally, the title Chief was changed to Director during Johnson’s tenure at his urging. (Photo from BEP [2004]). 337Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 there is a human dimension to this story that can serve as a lesson to all of us. this revolves around how the different Bep chiefs engaged mr. hatcher. hatcher was correct in his assessment that the maryland seal used on the backs of nationals was not the official state coat-of-arms. chief meredith acknowledged this with graciousness, but the tone of his correspondence with hatcher was that of the insiders versus the outsider. hatcher was a nuisance who was causing costly work for the government. even though correct, and even while the instance he raised was causing Bureau employees to scrambled to determine if there were problems with other state seals, he was being held at arms length. once the can of worms was exposed, the Bureau insiders pursued independent confirmation of discrepancies with the various secretaries of state bypassing hatcher even though he probably had all the information they needed at his fingertips. In contrast as soon as claude Johnson assumed office, he took the position that maybe this fellow hatcher might possess expertise that could benefit the Bureau, so why not engage him? listen to the cordial tone of his first letter to hatcher: november 21, 1893 mr. r. s. hatcher 443 dearborn ave. chicago, Ill. sir: learning of the great interest you have taken in the subject of the seals and coats of arms of the various states and the service you have rendered the Government in the correction of unnoticed errors in this regard, I write to ask if you have in your possession descriptions of the designs of the seals adopted by the states of Iowa, alabama and Wyoming which you can furnish me, or if you can refer me to a source from which I can obtain such descriptions. very respectfully, claude m. Johnson chief of Bureau after several exchanges, Johnson sent the following. february 12, 1894 mr. r. s. hatcher lafayette, Ind. dear sir: your favor of the 8th instant, enclosing copies of the seal of Iowa and quoting description of the same from the act authorizing it, is received. the preparation of the new bonds and other urgent work have retarded progress on the new seals somewhat, but it is expected that work on them will be resumed at an early day, and unless again interrupted by something more urgent, will soon be completed. the seal of maryland has not yet been taken up for execution, and I am unable to give you any definite information as to how soon it will appear on the currency for that state. I will return to you the copies of the seal of Iowa, as requested, when the engraving is completed. I will also take pleasure in having prepared for you impressions of all the newly prepared seals when the work on them is completed. permit me to again thank you for the assistance you have rendered this Bureau in connection with its work on the new seals. very respectfully, claude m. Johnson chief of Bureau of course hatcher fell all over himself under this stroking and in return provided everything he had at his disposal in order to assist. through simply cour- tesy and acknowledgment that hatcher might possess special expertise, Johnson enfranchised hatcher, drew him into the inner circle, and in return hatcher efforts on his behalf cut to the chase saving the Bureau months of laborious correspondence with the various secretaries of state. Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287338 notice the small touch where Johnson explained that work on the seals was delayed because of more pressing bond work. that fact didn’t need to be revealed, but if you are talking across the fence to a friend, it is just what would be said. Conclusion our findings reveal that the reason that the seals for eight states and the district of columbia were revised had nothing to do with the affected secretaries of state requesting changes. the changes were brought about through the evolving col- laboration between hatcher and the Bureau of engraving and printing personnel to scrutinize the legal descriptions of all the existing seals, and for the Bep to render new engravings for those where problems were found. much if not all of this work corrected problems introduced by the american Bank note company, which has been contracted to make the original seals prior to 1875, before the Bep assumed responsibility for printing national bank notes. In terms of the fidelity of the renditions of the seals used on nationals, the Bep used the following yardstick to judge their seals (Johnson to eckels, mar 11, 1897). an authority on coats of arms, in the employ of massrs tiffamy & co., who have given considerable attention to this subject, states that where the engraving conforms to the official description of the coat of arms, it should not be condemned as wrong, although it may vary slightly in the drawing, or in the posi- tion of the figures forming part thereof. Acknowledgment Jeffrey Bercovitz, specialist on the Indiana coat-of-arms on coins and paper, provided the link to robert hatcher’s photograph. References Cited and Sources of Data American Kennel Club Stud-Book, vol. vIII. new york: printed by rogers & sherwood, 14 & 16 vesey st., Jan 1-dec 31, 1891, 653 p. American Philatelist, the american philatelic association, 1887-1891. Bureau of engraving and printing. copies of official and miscellaneous letters sent. U. s. national archives, college park, md (318:/450/79/5-9), 1862-1912. Bureau of engraving and printing. certified proofs of national bank note face and back plates: national numismatic collections, national museum of american history, smithsonian Institution, Washington, dc, 1875-1929. Bureau of engraving and printing. record of dies received for national currency, plate vault division: record Group 318, U. s. national archives, college park, md, 1875- 1941. Bureau of engraving and printing. BEP History. Bep historical resource center, 2004. 30 p. ehrhardt, James c. “the seal on Iowa nationals revealed,” Paper Money, vol. 51 (nov-dec 2012), p. 437-442. hatcher, robert s. Report of the Commissioner Appointed by Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 20 to the Senate and House of Representatives of the Fifty-ninth General Assembly of the State of Indiana to Investigate the Origin and History of the Seal of the State of Indiana, and Whether Said State has any Legally Authorized Coat-of-arms or Seal: Journal of the Indiana State Senate during the Fifty-ninth Session of the General Assembly commencing Thursday, January 10, 1895, regular session. Indianapolis: Wm. Burford, contactor for state printing and Binding, march 8, 1895, pp. 993- 1001. huntoon, peter, and andrew shiva. “state seal varieties on series of 1882 national Bank note Backs,” Paper Money, vol. 52 (Jan-feb 2013), pp. 10-19. Indiana state library. “photo of robert s. hatcher,” Indiana state senate, Indiana state library General assembly photo albums, 1895 Indiana memorial digital collections. http://hatcherfamilyassn.com/getperson.php?person Id=I2148& tree=WmtheIm.
Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 339 WhIle many local monetary emIssIons arepragmatic responses to economic emergency or distress,others are more deliberate experiments that seek to explorethe practical applications of an idea or theory. such is the case of the exeter “constant” of 1972-1973, issued to circulate in the town of exeter, new hampshire by dr. ralph Borsodi. ralph Borsodi (1888-1977) was a follower of henry George and a major figure in the american decentralist move- ment of the 20th century. Both as a writer and activist, Borsodi sought throughout his long life to promote ideals of home- steading, land reform, and economic decentralization as reme- dies for the evils of modern civilization. as a practitioner of decentralism, his signature achievement was the establishment of the school of living, an intentional community whose home- steading practices represented practical tests of Borsodi’s convic- tion that small-scale production and self-sufficiency represented a lifestyle superior to that possible under industrialism. as a public figure, Borsodi’s influence peaked in the 1930s, when books such as This Ugly Civilization (1929) and Flight from the City (1933) offered desperate readers an alterna- tive to the grim economic conditions of the Great depression. With the advent of postwar affluence, Borsodi’s star faded. In his public advocacy after the 1940s Borsodi became increasingly concerned with the possibility of a catastrophic collapse of the monetary system, which he foresaw as a consequence of Keynesian monetary policies. In pamphlets such as What Americans Can Do ab out the Po stwar Co llapse (1943) and “Inflation is Coming!” and What to Do About It (1948) Borsodi set down his fears that high levels of government debt augured a debasement of the dollar. When a postwar collapse did not happen, Borsodi’s rep- utation as a public intellectual dimmed, and his writing turned away from public advocacy towards more recondite subjects. By the 1950s he had found Gandhian audiences in India more receptive to his decentralist message, and Borsodi resided there for some years. only in the mid-1960s did Borsodi return to the United states for good, retiring in the small town of exeter, in southern new hampshire. Dr. Borsodi’s ‘Constant’ By Loren Gatch Dr. Ralph Borsodi Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287340 ralph Borsodi lived long enough not only to witness america’s departure from the gold standard in 1933, but also the demise of the Bretton Woods system of fixed exchange rates in the early 1970s. In a manuscript published posthumously as Inflation and the Coming Keynesian Catastrophe, Borsodi recounted how, while wintering in escondido, california, he resolved to embark upon a monetary experi- ment that would demonstrate the feasibility of a commodity-based unit of account that would be more stable in value than the ailing U.s. dollar. In a document dated march 3, 1972, that he styled as the “escondido memorandum,” Borsodi asked, “can an experiment be conducted—say for a year—in circulating through our banks and clearing through the federal reserve system—the notes representing such a sta- ble ‘money of account’? are there any legal roadblocks that must be removed to make such an experiment possible?” returning to exeter that april, Borsodi quickly sought to create such a money, which he called the “constant.” his organizational vehicle for this experi- ment was the Independent arbitrage International (IaI). Borsodi defined the constant in terms of a basket of internationally traded commodities, for which he constructed an index whose fluctuations would affect the value of the constant when translated into U.s. dollars. Borsodi claimed to have worked up this list by taking the 30 most important commodities in interna- tional trade, determined by the dollar value of their volume of world production based on 1970 prices (Borsodi gave gold and silver disproportionate weights because of the two metals’ traditional monetary signifi- cance). the specific quantities of each commodity rep- resented their respective weights within the index, such that the sum total of their values equaled an initial $10,000 (again, at 1970 prices). Borsodi called this aggregate the “Unit of repayment.” next, Borsodi defined the constant as 1/50,000 of this Unit, or twen- ty U.s. cents at its initial value. In the inflationary envi- ronment of the 1970s, Borsodi expected the value of the constant to rise against the dollar (remaining, of course, ‘constant’ in terms of the basket of physical commodities that defined it). What immediately leaps out from images of the checks and currency is that Borsodi’s symbol for the constant is almost exactly the same as the euro (€), leading one to wonder just what sort of windfall Borsodi’s estate would have enjoyed had he registered the symbol as a trademark! the exeter constant scheme seems implausibly elaborate for the octoge- narian activist to have invented during some california holiday. Indeed, the origins of the constant actually dated back to 1966-7, when Borsodi and a collaborator, robert swann, sought to launch an ambitious plan to link the provision of an infla- tion-proof currency to rural financing and land reform in underdeveloped coun- tries. In their earlier plan, Borsodi and swann sought to align the interests of rich- country investors with borrowers in poor nations. Investors seeking shelter from inflation would exchange national currencies for Borsodi’s constants. In turn, Borsodi would invest the proceeds in commodities that would serve as the backing for the new currency. as the value of the commodity backing rose in an inflationary environment, so too would the value of each constant in terms of the commodity index that defined the unit of account. farmers and other producers of commodity staples in poor nations entered the picture in two ways. first, they would be recipients of constant-denominated loans. like many other advocates for the rural poor, Borsodi identified inadequate and usurious access to credit as a major impediment to their economic empower- Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 341 ment, particularly insofar as it prevented them from putting land to productive use. second, once operating on a large scale the commodity purchases made to back the constants would themselves create buffer stocks that would protect small producers from the vicissitudes of international markets. In these ways, Borsodi sought through the constant plan to bring together his longtime interests in monetary and land reform. While the concept of backing or defining a currency in terms of a commod- ity basket was hardly new, Borsodi’s constant plan entailed a number of twists. first and foremost was the sheer scope of Borsodi’s ambition. for the plan to have worked best it would have had to scale up to a global level. his original idea was not to actually take possession of the commodities in the constant basket, but instead to purchase contracts on established commodity exchanges using the national cur- rencies that represented the original investments in constants. as these contracts appreciated, so would the constants upon which they were based. Indeed, Borsodi insisted that by engaging in commodity “arbitrage” (the simultaneous purchase and sale of the same commodity across different markets), managers of the constant would in fact generate the profit that would make the scheme self-financing. While it is unclear exactly what market inefficiencies Borsodi’s arbitrage would have exploited, the use of contracts instead of physical possession of commodities at the very least promised to keep management costs to a minimum. Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287342 finally, Borsodi’s conviction that currency issue was inseparable from proper banking practices meant that the provision of constants would be a mirror of real economic activity, and not generated by mere financial speculation. though Borsodi cited prominent economists like Irving fisher, friedrich hayek and frank Graham to justify his plan, the real influence on Borsodi’s thinking was probably the more obscure monetary reformer, edwin clarence (e. c.) riegel. riegel’s ideas about “pri- vate enterprise” money issued competitively merely to serve the legitimate ends of trade resonated with Borsodi’s own libertarian, decentralist outlook. Borsodi was con- vinced that tying the provision of money to productive activity rather than to debt issuance or government fiat would be inherently non-inflationary. as Borsodi put it, “the issuance of new money to finance investments is bad enough; the issuance of new money to finance government deficits is worse; the issuance of new money to finance speculation is worst of all.” Borsodi also did not mince words in expressing what he thought were the global advantages of a commodity-based, private money: “It elimi- nates political considerations and national interests from the issuance of money. It makes it possible to avoid taxes and other hindrances in nearly every country, includ- ing the United states, on the movement of funds from one country to another.” Borsodi’s views on land and monetary reform gained little traction in post- war america, and in the 1950s and 1960s he looked to India as a potential model for economic development that represented a third way between capitalist and commu- nist systems. In particular he was enamored by the example represented by India’s co- operative villages (gramdan), in which he saw realized henry George’s ideas about (Source: Milne Special Collections and Archives Department, University of New Hampshire Library, Durham, NH) Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 343 land reform. there, Borsodi thought, would be the perfect setting to implement the constant plan: small-scale lending in constants to these cooperatives would enable them to escape the clutches of loan sharks, while rich-country investors would find in the constant an inflation hedge. a prominent leader of India’s co-op movement, the Gandhian politician Jayaprakash (J.p.) narayan, was sympathetic to Borsodi’s and swann’s proposal, and a publicity and fundraising trip by narayan to the Usa in late 1966 was planned to inaugurate the project. much to Borsodi’s bitterness, narayan begged off at the last minute, succumbing to pressure from his government not to endorse a monetary scheme that challenged the position of the Indian rupee. Un-tested, the constant plan was put on a shelf. dusting off the plan on short notice in 1972 did entail a few shortcuts. though defining its value in terms of the commodity basket, Borsodi introduced his currency without first purchasing the corresponding contracts. Instead, Borsodi simply sold constants for U.s. dollars, promising through the IaI to redeem them at whatever inflation-adjusted rate prevailed in the future. rather than issuing constants in the form of paper currency, Borsodi began in the fall of 1972 by first offering checking accounts in the new medium, initially out of his home, and then by october as the business grew from an office established at 105 Water street in exeter. Borsodi needed banking connections to make his plan work, and two local institutions, the Indian head national Bank and the exeter Banking company, cooperated with Borsodi to the extent that they allowed the IaI to establish checking accounts for users of constants. the latter bank handled the largest volume of trans- actions since its vice-president, edwin r. Baker, was both a friend of Borsodi’s and shared his concern with rising american inflation. Banking with constants worked in the following way. customers seeking constant accounts paid U.s. dollars to Borsodi, who then deposited the funds in the local banks. a single IaI checking account thus had multiple signatories, reflecting the fact that individual account holders did not actually have relationships with the exeter banks, but rather with Borsodi’s IaI. the dollars initially paid in by accoun- tholders were simply bundled and deposited into the shared checking account, while the equivalents, in constants, of accountholders’ balances were disaggregated and tracked separately by Borsodi and his staff. as a general matter, checks written on any american bank had of course to be cleared in dollars, not constants, and the bookkeeping required to calculate the variable value of accountholders’ constant balances was the responsibility of the IaI, and not the banks. Initially, check amounts were actually written in terms of constants, with a final calculation of the prevailing dollar equivalent written in by the holder of the check at the time of presentment. this practice quickly raised the ire of the federal reserve, and henceforth checks could only be written for dollar amounts. By february 1973, Borsodi supplemented the checking accounts with a paper currency in denominations of €1, 5, 10, 25, and 100 (silver rounds were also coined). While it was inherently difficult to spend a medium whose value in dollars had to be calculated continually, apparently it did circulate to some extent among local businesses. Indeed, the town of exeter was generally welcoming of the currency experiment. the town’s prep school, the phillips exeter academy, maintained its own constant account and conducted some thousands of dollars’ worth of retail trade in constants. the local newspaper was also supportive, and Borsodi drew upon the expertise of economists at the University of new hampshire in nearby durham, particularly for the construction and maintenance of the constant index. for their part, federal authorities registered their indifference to the constant exper- iment. In the comptroller of the currency’s opinion, “they can circulate clamshells or pine cones if they want to, as long as people accept them…the law only provides that you have a right to demand payment in Us currency as legal tender if you want to.” according to paul salstrom, who served as the first of the three successive comptrollers of the constant experiment, Borsodi intended to embark upon the pur- Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287344 Write the Editor and speak your mind the socIety presented aWards for oUt-standing achievement and service at spmc events during the recent memphis International paper money show. Nathan Gold Lifetime Achievement Award — frank clark Nathan Goldstein Award ( for recruiting) — Jason Bradford Forrest Daniels Literary Award of Excellence — mark tomasko Presidential Awards — Bob moon — Benny Bolin — heritage Galleries Social Media Award — Jim phillips Wismer Award (Book of the year) — pierre fricke and fred reed The History of Collecting Confederate Paper Money Honorable Mention — robert Kravitz A Guidebook of Fractional Currency — Kroll, harold World War II Pap er Mo ney and Financ ia l Instruments of Nazi Germany Dr. Glenn Jackson Award (article using specimens, vignettes, proofs, etc) — mack martin First Place Paper Money Article Awards — Joe Gaines Jr. — harold don allen — paul herbert — shawn hewitt — Jamie yakes, douglas nyholm, henry Brasco. Second Place Paper Money Article Awards —Joe Gaines Jr., harold don allen, fred reed, James simek, Quintin trammel, Jamie yakes, doug murray, lee loftus Best in show exhibit — mack martin Athens, GA: The Early Days-Antebellum Banks Honorable Mention exhibits — shawn hewitt Large Size Replacement Notes — Jerry fotchman Fractional Currency Paper Julian Blanchard Exhibit Award — nancy Wilson Ecuador Specimen Set
Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 345 chase of commodity contracts once the funds invested reached $1 million. In the event, the amount invested in the constant checking accounts peaked in the summer of 1973 at $750,000 divided across several dozen IaI accountholders. at no time in the course of the experiment did Borsodi actually purchase any of the commodities that comprised the “Unit of repayment.” Instead, Borsodi’s IaI financed the cost of compensating account holders for the inflation-driven increase in the dollar equiva- lent of their constant balances entirely through IaI’s own seed funds. In the end, this amounted to about $35,000. after the summer of 1973, Borsodi wound down the exeter constant exper- iment, convinced that his ideas about non-inflationary money had gained some vin- dication. he died in 1977 at the age of 90. several years later Bob swann co-found- ed the e. f. schumacher society, a western massachusetts center for decentralist thought and practice that has over the decades kept alive a tradition of local curren- cy activism spurred by Borsodi’s example. References Bacon, richard m. “dr. Borsodi’s Quiet revolution,” Yankee, may 1973, pp. 64- 68, 174-179. Borsodi, ralph. Inflation and the Coming Keynesian Catastrophe: The Story of the Exeter Experiments with Constants. e. f. schumacher society and the school of living, 1989. Exeter News-Letter, January 25, 1973; June 28, 1973. “the causes of Inflation and a commodity-Based currency,” Mother Earth News, may/June 1974. salstrom, paul. “ralph Borsodi’s constant and the exeter experiment,” unpub- lished manuscript. swann, robert. “Borsodi’s search for honest money,” Green Revolution, fall 1983.
SPMC announces member awards at Memphis Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287346 UnIted states cUrrency has dIsplayed the sIGnatUresof two senior treasury officers since first issued in 1861. from then until1914, the register of the treasury-U.s. treasurer combination was used.since 1935, the U.s. treasurer-secretary of the treasury pairing has been standard. Both combinations appeared on different classes from 1914 to 1935. these signatures certified to citizens and foreigners alike that the notes were legitimate issues of the United states, and that the U.s treasury would honor their obligation to redeem the notes according to the applicable laws. legal requirements for treasury signatures originally rested in the 1860s legal tender and national Banking acts. In the 1870s, treasury policy superseded those requirements for all but national currency, and thereafter has guided the sig- natures used on treasury and federal reserve currencies. Early Laws Divided by Treasury Policy congress established a legal precedent for treasury signatures on U.s. cur- rency in the act of July 17, 1861, as amended by a supplemental act passed august 5. the July act authorized the issue of $50,000,000 in demand notes--the first circu- lating federal currency--and the august act required that they have the signatures of the U.s. treasurer and register of the treasury. the choice of those signatures recognized the roles assigned to those offi- cers by the treasury act of september 2, 1789. It charged the treasurer to receive and disburse currency and the register to keep accounts of those receipts and expen- ditures, effectively making them the government officials responsible for overseeing the nation's currency supply. lawmakers carried forward similar language from the 1861 act into the Treasury Signatures on United States Currency By Jamie Yakes Figure 1. Series of 1862 “Legal Tender Notes were the first U.S cur- rency to carry the actual signatures of treasury officials, in this case the reg- ister and treasurer. As shown here, Register Chittenden and Treasurer Spinner were the very first pair. (Heritage Auction Galleries) Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 347 legal tender acts of february 25, 1862, July 11, 1862, and march 3, 1863, and the national Bank acts of february 25, 1863, and June 3, 1864. respectively, these acts authorized series of 1862 and 1863 U.s. notes and original series national currency, all of which also carried register-treasurer signatures. register lucius e. chittenden and treasurer francis e. spinner were in office while these acts were passed, and have the honor of being the first treasury offi- cers whose signatures appeared on currency. however, their names never appeared on the 1861 demand notes, as those were instead hand-signed by treasury clerks for chittenden and spinner. the men's signatures first appeared when the Bureau of engraving and printing began surface-printing them onto series of 1862 legal tender notes (Figure 1) in march 1862.1 not all provisions for currency passed in the 1860s called for specific signa- tures. section 5 of the march 3, 1863, act authorized series of 1863, 1870, 1871, and 1875 Gold certificates, but mentioned nothing about signatures on those notes. neither did section 9 of the act of July 12, 1870, that authorized national Gold Bank notes. regardless, treasury officials followed the precedent set in 1861 and used reg- ister-treasurer signatures for each of these issues. the existing legal differences eventually led to a divergence in the require- ments for treasury signatures by the 1870s. language in separate sections of the 1862 and 1863 legal tender acts had made the form of U.s. notes the choice of the secre- tary; technically, the form, or design, included the signatures. treasury officials even- tually interpreted those sections to exclude the register-treasurer signatures required by those same acts. In 1874, congress removed any ambiguity regarding signature requirements on U.s. notes when they codified the design of the notes to be simply "as the secretary deems best."2 this permanently ended any specific legal dictate for signa- tures on U.s notes. By contrast, the signatures on national currency remained defined by law. accordingly, series of 1875, 1882, 1902 and 1929 national Bank notes car- ried register-treasurer signatures in accordance with the 1864 national bank act. United states notes would also continue having those same signatures, but only because treasury officials adhered to precedent. the same went for silver certificates, Gold certificates, and treasury notes authorized by various acts in the 1870s, 1880s, and 1890s. typically, those acts mentioned nothing about signatures, or stated they were the secretary's choice. The Dockery Act: Secretary Replaces Register late in 1914, treasury officials replaced the register's signature with the sec- retary's on plates for series of 1914 federal reserve notes (Figure 2), authorized in the federal reserve act of december 23, 1913. Under section 16, the treasury secretary had discretion to design the notes, just as he had with most other classes. Figure 2. Series of 1914 $5 Federal Reserve Note plates from Richmond and Dallas were the first plates certi- fied that carried the Treasury Secretary's signature paired with the treasurer's. (National Numismatic Collection/Peter Huntoon) Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287348 the first plates certified were richmond and dallas $5s on october 28,3 which bore the inaugural signature pair of treasurer John Burke and treasury secretary William G. mcadoo. federal reserve Bank notes, also authorized in the federal reserve act, were excluded from the signature change. although circulated by the federal reserve banks, section 18 of the act required they issue them under the same provisions applied to national Bank notes, including the basic design of the notes. fittingly then, like nationals, series of 1915, 1918, and 1929 federal reserve Bank notes car- ried register-treasurer signatures (Figure 3). the switch from register to treasurer recognized the changed roles among treasury officials made two decades prior by the dockery act. the act emanated from the dockery-cockrell commission authorized by congress on march 3, 1893, at the request of treasury secretary charles foster.4the commission assumed the names of the chairmen, representative alexander m. dockery and senator francis m. cockrell. the commission continued an effort undertaken by congress since 1869 to critically examine the operational deficiencies plaguing the government's executive departments.5 foster elicited an audit of the treasury by requesting a formal review of how federal funding was being disbursed and how public accounts were being maintained. the dockery commission focused on that fiscal management, and ulti- mately submitted to congress several reports about their findings and recommended improvements, which led to the dockery act passed on July 31, 1894. the act shifted several responsibilities within the treasury department, including transferring management of the federal appropriations accounts previously handled by the register to the new division of Bookkeeping and Warrants. afterwards, the register's position was reduced to a token role with little activity, except for the occasional duty assigned by the secretary. Bookkeeping and Warrants fell under the secretary's watch, thereby elevat- ing his involvement with currency, even if only by association. It took another 20 years for treasury officials to acknowledge his new role when they added his signa- ture to federal reserve notes. It would take 15 more years for the change to encom- pass all currency. Uniform Signatures on Small-Size Plates the treasury placed the secretary's signature on most other classes when they converted to small-size notes in 1928 and 1929. this provided them the perfect opportunity because the Bureau of engraving and printing needed to prepare new master dies and master plates for every class and denomination. the influential public debt commissioner William s. Broughton champi- oned for the change in the spring of 1928. In a letter6 to assistant treasury secretary henrick h. Bond on march 17, Broughton argued that “further consideration Figure 3. Federal Reserve Bank Notes were authorized in the 1913 Federal Reserve Act with provisions very similar to those for National Currency, including the use of regis- ter-treasurer signatures. This Series of 1915 $5 note has Register Tehee- Treasurer Burke signatures.(Heritage Auction Galleries) Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 349 should be given to the matter of signatures on the reduced-size currency, and that the precedent set in 1914 for federal reserve notes should be followed with respect to treasury issues.” “treasury issues” included U.s. notes, Gold certificates, and silver certificates. Broughton expressed an even greater desire in a second letter to Bond two months later:7 the revision of designs in connection with the reduction in size gives convenient opportunity to make the same change with respect to [U.s. notes, gold certificates, and silver certificates]. the secretary is charged with the issue; the treasurer is the active agent for the issue. It seems entirely logical that the secretary and the treasurer shall express the obligation of the United states. the register now has no connection with the currency issues of the United states. his signature on the cur- rency means nothing; and it is an anachronism. Bond obtained approval from treasury secretary andrew W. mellon on may 15,8 and the Bureau incorporated the secretary's and treasurer harold t. tate's signatures onto series of 1928 $1 silver certificate plates (Figure 4) starting in august. they certified the first plates on october 15.9 they moved forward preparing series of 1928 small-size plates with those signatures for U.s. notes, Gold certificates, and federal reserve notes during the remainder of 1928 and much of 1929. a year earlier, in november 1927, the Bep had produced small-size plates for $1 silver certificates with register Walter o. Woods's and treasurer frank White's signatures (Figure 5) in anticipation of the new currency size.10 these were the only small-size plates aside from national currency plates to bear a register's sig- nature. mellon's approval in may 1928 made them obsolete, so they were never used, robbing us of a spectacular variety. Figure 4. Series of 1928 $1 Silver Certificates plates were the first small- size plates certified by the BEP. They were also the second class after Federal Reserve Notes to carry trea- surer-secretary signatures. (National Numismatic Collection/Peter Huntoon) Figure 5. This Series of 1928 $1 Silver Certificate proof made in 1927 carried the signatures of Register Woods and Treasurer White. It was never used owing to the change made in 1928 that replaced the register's signature with that of the treasury secre- tary's on small- size notes. (National Numismatic Collection/Peter Huntoon) Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287350 series of 1929 small-size national currency plates were the only small-size plates never to carry the secretary's signature (Figure 6). provisions in the national Banking act preserved the register-treasurer signatures for that class, even for the reduced-size notes. nationals continued with that combination to their end in august 1935.11 since then, treasurer-secretary signatures have been the only signatures to appear on U.s. currency. the recent series of 2009 federal reserve notes bear the signatures of treasurer rosa G. rios and treasury secretary timothy f. Geithner (Figure 7). We were presented a new signature combination in 2013, as Geithner resigned as treasury secretary. to succeed him, president Barack obama appointed Jack lew, his White house chief-of-staff. congress concurred with the president's nomination. series of 2013 federal reserve notes with rios-lew signatures will start circulating later in the year. Acknowledgements the professional currency dealers association and the society of paper money collectors provided support for this research. peter huntoon proofread the manuscript for improvements. Figure 7. The most current circulating Federal Reserve notes, Series of 2009, carry the signatures of Treasurer Rios and Treasury Secretary Geithner. (Heritage Auction Galleries) Figure 6. This Series of 1929A $10 National Currency proof has the signatures of Register W. W. Durbin and Treasurer William. A. Julian, and also bears a legal tender clause in response to new laws passed in 1933 and 1934. However, the Bureau of Engraving and Printing never used any of the 1929A plates because the printing of National Currency was ended in 1935. (National Numismatic Collection/Peter Huntoon) Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 351 End Notes 1. U.s. treasury, history, 3. 2. U.s. statutes, revised statute 3571. 3. U.s. treasury, plate ledgers, volume 4. 4. trask, 14. 5. Ibid. 6. Broughton to Bond, march 17, 1928. 7. Broughton to Bond, may 5, 1928. 8. Bond to mellon, may 12, 1928. 9. U.s. treasury, plate ledgers, volume 10. 10. huntoon (2007). 11. huntoon (1973), 15. References Cited Bond, henrick, h., assistant treasury secretary letter to andrew W. mellon, treasury secretary, may 12, 1928. Bureau of public debt files, paper money of the United states, record Group 53/450/82/04/01, box 1, file f724.5, national archives and records administration, college park, maryland. Broughton, William s., Bureau of public debt commissioner letter to henrick h. Bond, assistant treasury secretary, march 17, 1928. Bureau of public debt files, paper money of the United states, record Group 53/450/82/04/01, box 1, file f724.5, national archives and records administration, college park, maryland. _____, letter to henrick h. Bond, assistant treasury secretary, may 5, 1928. Bureau of public debt files, paper money of the United states, record Group 53/450/82/04/01, box 1, file f724.5, national archives and records administration, college park, maryland. heritage auction Galleries. Auction 3521, lot 17333 (fig. 1); auction 338, lot 19018 (fig. 3); auction 3516, lot 16564 (fig. 7). huntoon, peter. "the series of 1928 design that failed." Paper Money 46, no. 5 (2007). huntoon, peter, and van Belkum, louis. The National Bank Note Issues of 1929- 1935. chicago: hewitt Brothers, 1973. roger r. trask. Defender of the Public Interest: The General Accounting Office, 1921-1966. Washington, d.c: United states Government printing office, 1996. accessed october 21, 2012, from http://books.google.com/ books?id=aemZprtlW2Uc. United States Revised Statutes, section 3571. United states statutes. act of July 12, 1861; act of august 5, 1861; legal tender acts of february 25, 1862, July 11, 1862, and march 3, 1863; national Bank acts of february 25, 1863 and June 3, 1864; act of July 12, 1870; federal reserve act of december 23, 1913; pertaining to currency issues. United states treasury. Bureau of engraving and printing. ledgers pertaining to plates, rolls and dies, 1870s-1960s. volumes 4 and 10. record Group 318. records of the Bureau of engraving and printing. national archives and records administration, college park, maryland. _____. History of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing, 1862-1962. Washington, d.c.: United states Government printing office, 1962.
Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287352 “If I had a hammer, I’d hammer in the morning; I’d hammer in the evening all over this world . . .” Hi Fred, I took the opportunity to visit the ham- mer collector who had input in my article on bank hammers that ran in Paper Money in July/august. he has two bank hammers in his collection of 15,000 hammers. they are all nicely displayed in a large barn on his farm. they are categorized and cataloged. It was a wonderful place, and I learned a lot about hammers. I like and understand col- lectors, and this man is as dedicated as any numismatist. Regards, Terry Bryan Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 353 SPMC NEW MEMBERS 07/05/2013 - 14076 - 14084 14076 mahdi Bseiso (c & d), mark anderson 14077 Gordon rouze, 815 lakespur drive, sugar land, tX 77479 (c, nationals), Website 14078 richard Wiederhold (c), Website 14079 mike lang, Box 192 (c & d), Judith murphy 14080 david l. tidball (c), Judith murphy 14081 dennis J. lutz, md, po Box 1027, minot, nd 58702- 1027 (c, World paper money), mark anderson 14082 donald noss Jr. (c), Website 14083 Jay hull, 43 hahnemann lane, napa (c), Website 14084 robert calderman, po Box 7055, Gainesville, Ga 30505 (c & d), Judith murphy REINSTATEMENTS 13426 arthur fundeklian (c), Benny Bolin LIFE MEMBERSHIP lm411 andrew d. manns converted form 12298 SPMC NEW MEMBERS 06/05/2013 - 14067 - 14075, 13781, LM410 14067 Website test 14068 Website test 14069 website test 14070 Kent "Kd" dickerson, po Box 392, Kimberling, mo 65686 (c, errors, stars, $50s and $100s), Website 14071 frank leppert (c), Website 14072 John hay, po Box 987, austell, Ga 30186, (c, arizona nationals), Website 14073 roger Burdette (c), Website 14074 Gerard smith (c), Website 14075 Gary fox (c), Website REINSTATEMENTS 13781 Brian edwards (c), Website LIFE MEMBERSHIP lm410 paul young (c), Website
longtime spmc member John Glynn of hempstead, United Kingdom (member #3267) has passed away. mr. Glynn was a 42-year member of the society, having joined in 1971. at the time of his death, he was the senior overseas member of spmc having the lowest regular membership number. In the 1980s especially, mr. Glynn was a frequent contribu- tor to our society journal Paper Money. during the period 1982-1984, he won spmc literary awards three years in a row. his interest spanned British paper money, the money used by polish officers in German prison camps of World War II, German notgeld, oB-ost notes used in lithuania. mr. Glynn’s most recent articles appearing in the society journal were “collecting paper money depicting assassinated U.s. presidents,” in the n/d 2004 issue. In the n/d 2007, he wrote on “the festival of christmas depicted on World paper currency,” which also earned him a literary award. Paper Money editor fred reed, who knew the deceased from the 1970s expressed sadness on hearing of mr. Glynn’s passing. “for many years John was involved in the cataloging of new york obsoletes for the spmc Wismer project. John was a good friend, and exerted a very positive influence on my own collecting trajectory. a former new yorker, he and I shared an interest in eastman Business college scrip, and exchanged many letters at first and then emails on our shared interests.” a very fine obituary noting mr. Glynn’s passing apppeared in the recent issue of the IBNS Journal, written by past IBns president peter symes. It is published courtesy of journal editor ron richardson, who also supplied the photo of the deceased. John Glynn (1927 – 2013) John Glynn, an early stalwart of the IBns died earlier this year. Born in new york city in 1927, John lived much of his life in the United Kingdom. a collector of paper money from 1959 and an active member of the IBns from 1962, John held numer- ous positions in the IBns. most notably, he was the IBns librarian for the United Kingdom and europe for 14 years from 1971 to 1984. he was also assistant treasurer (1973-1974), director (1979-1980) and first vice president (1980-1984). John took a keen interest in attracting young people to bank note collecting. In 1974 he commenced a project to supply material and displays of banknotes to the teachers at the school his children attended, in an effort to show the different types of money used throughout the world. from 1979 he was co-chair- man of the IBns Junior project, a program designed to increase junior membership. John also created and pro- moted an interest in paper currency by writing short arti- cles in the company paper where he was employed. John was a member of the london IBns committee from its inception and organized and assisted in many european (london) congresses; sometimes reporting on the congresses in the IBNS Journal. he was also an entrant in competitive displays at the congress and won several prizes. John was interested in all types of literature on the Baltic states, poland, russia and prisoners of War. his interests led to writing five articles in the IBNS Journal, his earliest article was published in volume 10 of the Journal and his last in volume 45. his articles were: “croatia – the nazi puppet state during World War II – early history;” “World War II: United Kingdom prisoner of war money;” “stamps used as prisoner-of-war tokens;” “money used in county limerick Ireland;” and “albania's national hero depicted on bank notes.” John wrote several book reviews for the Journal and, importantly, he was credited in several articles sub- mitted to the IBNS Journal for assisting the authors. It is through members such as John the IBns prospers today and his efforts are not forgotten. In 2011 John was recog- nized for his contribution to the society by being presented with a 50th anniversary award. -- Peter Symes IBNS #4245
NEW MEMBERS Membership Director Frank Clark P.O. Box 117060 Carrollton, TX 75011 Longtime SPMC member John Glynn dies in UK Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287354 Imet andreW shIva one evenInG dUrInG decemBer2012 in a hotel room in Washington, dc. We were in town con-ducting research at the smithsonian, and we were joined by coryWilliams who was grading the treasury collection at the division of numismatics. It was a typical high octane conversation that ranged all over the map but focused largely on nationals. each of us had been up to our ears in notes or proofs for a couple of days, so we were interrupting each other trying to give our impres- sions and tell our tales. shiva grew pensive. clearly he wanted to get serious. he looked squarely at me and asked: “What are the greatest nationals left to be discovered?” come on, we both know the answer to that! But he had deposited the quarter in my slot and I blurted out: “$1,000 original/1875, alaska brown back, The Paper Column by Peter Huntoon The Greatest Territorial Discovery of all Time Figure 1. The discovery Series of 1882 Alaska territorial brown back is from the first sheet, sent to the bank in a shipment of 221 sheets May 6, 1898. Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 355 WANT ADS WORK FOR YOU We could all use a few extra bucks. Money Mart ads can help you sell duplicates, advertise wants, increase your collection, and have more fun with your hobby. Up to 20 words plus your address in SIX BIg ISSUES only $20.50/year!!!! * * Additional charges apply for longer ads; see rates on page above -- Send payment with ad Take it from those who have found the key to “Money Mart success” Put out your want list in “Money Mart” and see what great notes become part of your collecting future, too. 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"#$%!&'!$%!($))!*+!,-.!/)-.$'&!01..+234!&2'!0-$2%!&2'!5!(-1)'!)$6+!7-!.12!7#&7!,-.!&))!%$8!&'%!,-.!9:;<=! /012345$%62278%9$584$%138-$ KLK&E%&Z%&IJ4'&>-"##-&R&>0(-#&UWYB&U/8,&O,-/5B&!T&YYLYK& 7:)+;'<:"#=$<>$?&(+$2+)&>@$/'&*<=+$:<>(#$ABCC$ a.>.4&DNO&EPZ&ZPU&>.4P& www.flacurrencycoin.com Z#&<0C&,5$&)#11&9,5C&$(33#"#5-&,5$&050)0,1& &N%&>%&70""#58C&(-#9)&,5$&E#,-&S,A#"&@9#"(8,5,%& D#$=&$>&)$;EF$&*$:#''$)"<*=$G+*)F$H*+=#=$%E**#>(FI$ !/"&9/"#&(53/"9,-(/5&8,11&P$&]0)^9,"&R&V_KWY`IW[VVK& & S1#,)# ,(1&9#&,5$&1#-&9#&25/*&(3&-+()&,11&*(11&*/"2%&&.&*(11&<#&<,82&(5&-+#&)+/A&/5&40#)$,CB&,5$&*(11&)#5$&C/0& -*/&8+#82)&3/"&bIIV%&&D5#&3"/9&7/11#8-/",9,B&,5$&-+#&/-+#"&3"/9&!1/"($,&70""#58C&,5$&7/(5)%&&4+,52)%& P$&]0)^9,"! FLORIDA CURRENCY AND COINS 2290 NW Boca Raton Blvd. Suite 9 Boca Raton, FL 33429 Mail: PO Box 294049, Boca Raton, FL 33429 VISIT OUR NEW WEB SITE www.flacurrencycoin.com We buy and sell many different and unusual U.S. Currency items and Neat Paper Americana. We do not buy or sell third party graded Currency. For more information call Ed Kuszmar – 561-392-8551 Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287356 hawaii red seal. everything else is secondary.” a sly grin crossed his face. out came his tablet and he excitedly fired it up and started flicking images across the screen. I’m thinking this guy is going to try to blow my socks off. the twinkle in his eyes grew to super nova proportions as he finally handed the thing to me. from across the space that separated us I could easily spy a $10 brown back coming my way on the screen. there was no question what was coming. I knew I was going to be choking down a Juneau brown back. look, I owned the Juneau $20 1882 date back - until this moment the best ever territorial discovery. But this was no time to play mr. cool and feign noncha- lance at what was about to slip into my sweaty hands. no, I was going to be looking at an epic note. you don’t have that experience but a few times, and the moment was on me. as my eyes focused on what you are looking at on page 354, all I could do was croak out a breathless WoW! my former date back had been left in the dust. I didn’t even need to look at the bank serial. the condition told me the note was going to be from the first sheet. alaska territorials occupy the pinnacle of the territorial hierarchy because fewer of them are reported than from any other territory. now there are two. they are the gatekeeper territorials. completeness is impossible without one. to fully appreciate any territory of alaska note, you must realize that only 6,792 were issued between 1898 and 1918, and all came from the small Juneau bank. that’s 770 sheets of 1882 10-10-10-20 brown backs and 928 sheets of 1882 date backs. most of these notes were replacements for others that had worn out and been redeemed from circulation. a total of 3,080 brown backs were issued, but the maximum reported circu- lation for the bank during the brown back era was $11,810 in 1908. this means that at the high water mark, only 945 of the notes were in circulation. Shiva’s Accomplishment acquisition of the Juneau territorial won for andrew shiva admission to the Figure 2. J. L. Irish (below left) and Andrew Shiva (below right) are the only collectors in history to complete a set of one territorial note from every issuing territory. Irish accomplished the feat in 1981; Shiva, in 2012. Irish’s Alaska territorial was the $20 Series of 1882 date back; Shiva’s the brown back illustrated here. Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 357 most exclusive club open to national Bank note collectors. he is the second person in history to assemble a complete set of notes from every territory in the country. the first was J. l. Irish, who accomplished the feat in 1981. Irish’s alaska territory note was, of course, the $20 series of 1882 date back. The Bankers this wonderful note is signed by bank president William t. summers and cashier herman h. eddy. Both relocated from santa Barbara, ca to Juneau specifi- cally with intent to organize the first national Bank on alaskan soil. the following from the Los Angeles Herald (february 17, 1898), announced their departure. to BanK at JUneaU the fIrst natIonal BanK to Be estaBlIshed In alasKa santa Barbara capital Interested. W. t. summers, president, and h. h. eddy, cashier santa BarBara, feb. 16. - two young bankers of this city, with the backing of a sufficient amount of santa Barbara’s hardest cash, leave here this evening for Juneau, alaska, where they will open the first national bank ever established on alaskan soil. the president of the first national bank of Juneau will be W. t. summers, and the cashier herman h. eddy. Both have established reputations in business circles here, and they have behind them the santa Barbara county national bank, of which mr. summers has been for several years assistant cashier, and mr. eddy bookkeeper. mr. eddy’s father is W. m. eddy, president of the santa Barbara bank mentioned, and e. s. sheffield, cashier of this institution, is an uncle of mr. summers. the Juneau bank will begin existence with a capital of $50,000, a large share of which is subscribed in this city. mr. summers visited Juneau last fall, and then decided to found the bank, which will soon be in operation. the bank was organized february 15, 1898, chartered april 4th and opened monday, april 18, in the horseshoe Building (Alaska Mining Record, april 20, 1898). the initial bond deposit to secure their circulation was $12,500 on april 4th, an amount that remained unchanged until november 3, 1932, when it was raised to $50,000. the bank was organized during a mining boom when such mines as the treadwell Gold mine at douglas and several smaller mines in the silver Bow Basin were in full production. summer’s vision for a bank at Juneau was his conviction that Juneau was considerably more accessible to mines in the outlying areas than sitka, which was the capital at the time. the maximum circulation that the Juneau bankers could issue was: $11,250 1898 through march 1900 90% of value of bonds $12,500 march 1900 - november 1932 100% of value of bonds $50,000 november 1932 - 1935 100% of value of bonds the first printing of 10-10-10-20 series of 1882 brown backs was received at the comptroller’s office on may 6, 1898, and consisted of sheets t248587- t248836, 1-250, with no regional letter. three more printings of brown backs were received over the ensuing years as follows: dec 28, 1899 U718006-U718205 251-450 no regional letter Jan 7, 1905 n57949-n58068 451-570 regional letter p apr 22, 1907 U21885U-U22084U 571-770 regional letter p Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287358 the first shipment to the bank was sent may 6, 1898, and included sheets 1 through 221, amounting to $11,050. clement m. summers replaced herman eddy as cashier shortly after the startup. eddy thereafter served as assistant cashier in both the Juneau bank and Bank of alaska, skagway, in which the summers also had an interest. eddy then returned to the santa Barbara county national Bank, charter #2456, where he served as assistant cashier (1900-1903), cashier (1903-1907), vice president (1908- 1917), and eventually president. the Juneau bank was moved to the northwest corner of front and seward streets in 1899, where it stayed until 1925 when it was relocated into the hellenthaull Building, which the bank purchased. the outstanding circulations and officers as reported in the annual reports of the comptroller of the currency during the brown back and summers era were as follows: year circulation president cashier 1898 2,350 W. t. summers c. m. summers 1899 7,900 W. t. summers c. m. summers 1900 6,410 W. t. summers c. m. summers 1901 4,350 W. t. summers c. m. summers 1902 2,870 W. t. summers c. m. summers 1903 5,000 W. t. summers c. m. summers 1904 10,000 c. m. summers s. G. holt 1905 8,270 c. m. summers s. G. holt 1906 9,500 c. m. summers s. G. holt 1907 11,150 c. m. summers s. G. holt 1908 11,810 c. m. summers s. G. holt 1909 11,150 c. m. summers s. G. holt 1910 12,000 c. m. summers s. G. holt the reported circulations are particularly interesting because the amounts are what the bankers reported as outstanding for tax purposes. the fact that these amounts generally are but a faction of the allowable circulation reveals that the Figure 3. The First National Bank of Juneau building was on the northwest corner of Front and Seward streets, where the bank remained until 1925. The banking facilities are currently occupied by a McDonald’s hamburg- er restaurant. Florida Paper Money Ron Benice “I collect all kinds of Florida paper money” 4452 Deer Trail Blvd. Sarasota, FL 34238 941 927 8765 Benice@Prodigy.net Books available mcfarlandpub.com, amazon.com, floridamint.com, barnesandnoble.com, hugh shull Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 359 MYLAR D® CURRENCY HOLDERS PRICED AS FOLLOWS BANK NOTE AND CHECK HOLDERS SIZE INCHES 50 100 500 1000 Fractional 4-3/4" x 2-1/4" $21.60 $38.70 $171.00 $302.00 Colonial 5-1/2" x 3-1/16" $22.60 $41.00 $190.00 $342.00 Small Currency 6-5/8" x 2-7/8" $22.75 $42.50 $190.00 $360.00 Large Currency 7-7/8" x 3-1/2" $26.75 $48.00 $226.00 $410.00 Auction 9 x 3-3/4" $26.75 $48.00 $226.00 $410.00 Foreign Currency 8 x 5 $32.00 $58.00 $265.00 $465.00 Checks 9-5/8 x 4-1/4" $32.00 $58.00 $265.00 $465.00 SHEET HOLDERS SIZE INCHES 10 50 100 250 Obsolete Sheet End Open 8-3/4" x 14-1/2" $20.00 $88.00 $154.00 $358.00 National Sheet Side Open 8-1/2" x 17-1/2" $21.00 $93.00 $165.00 $380.00 Stock Certificate End Open 9-1/2" x 12-1/2" $19.00 $83.00 $150.00 $345.00 Map & Bond Size End Open 18" x 24" $82.00 $365.00 $665.00 $1530.00 You may assort note holders for best price (min. 50 pcs. one size). You may assort sheet holders for best price (min. 10 pcs. one size). SHIPPING IN THE U.S. (PARCEL POST) FREE OF CHARGE Mylar D® is a Registered Trademark of the Dupont Corporation. This also applies to uncoated archival quality Mylar® Type D by the Dupont Corp. or the equivalent material by ICI Industries Corp. Melinex Type 516. DENLY’S OF BOSTON P.O. Box 51010, Boston, MA 02205 • 617-482-8477 ORDERS ONLY: 800-HI-DENLY • FAX 617-357-8163 See Paper Money for Collectors www.denlys.com Harlan J. Berk, Ltd. “The Art & Science of Numismatics” 31 N. Clark Street Chicago, IL 60602 312/609-0016 • Fax 312/609-1305 www.harlanjberk.com e-mail: info@harlanjberk.com A Full-Service Numismatic Firm Your Headquarters for All Your Collecting Needs PNG • IAPN • ANA • ANS • NLG • SPMC • PCDA WANTED: New Advertisers The quality of our SPMC Journal and information available to YOU depends on the quality and quantity of our ADVERTISERS It’s a fact: advertising plays an important role in funding this high quality magazine Dues only cover part of costs Our advertisers do more than sell you notes; They bring you our magazine -- So pay them HIGGINS MUSEUM 1507 Sanborn Ave. • Box 258 Okoboji, IA 51355 (712) 332-5859 www.TheHigginsMuseum.org email: ladams@opencominc.com Open: Tuesday-Sunday 11 to 5:30 Open from Memorial Day thru Labor Day History of National Banking & Bank Notes Turn of the Century Iowa Postcards Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287360 bankers were holding substantial numbers of notes in the bank rather than placing them in circulation. notice for example the $2,870 figure for 1902, which is a quar- ter of what they could have circulated then. the summers brothers were born in ottumwa, Iowa, William thomas in 1867 and clement m. in 1871. Both set their sights on careers in banking. William went to Iowa state University and then on to california as the assistant cashier of the county national Bank of santa Barbara before relocating to Juneau to organize the first national Bank. clement graduated from princeton in 1895, returned to ottumwa to study law, then moved in 1898 to Juneau to become the cashier of the first national Bank alongside his brother. he simultaneously served as vice president of the Bank of alaska, skagway, from 1900 to 1904 where he resided. William relinquished the presidency of the Juneau bank to clement in 1904, so clement moved back to Juneau. William returned to california where he organized the Union national Bank of san luis obispo, charter #7877, in 1905. In 1910, he went on to organize the first national Bank of paso robles, charter #9844. he served as president of both institutions from their founding through 1915. cashier stuart Garfield holt was family as well. clement summers was married to his holt’s sister, harriet. It is here that things get interesting. the Juneau bank was purchased by the Bradley mining interests in 1911. h. shattuck and J. e. Beale, respectively took over as president and cashier in 1911, quickly followed by t. f. Kennedy and a. a. Gabbs in 1912. all was not well with the bank’s books because during the first week of January 1911, clement summers and his bother-in-law stuart holt were indicted on charges of fraudulent banking by a federal Grand Jury. this earned clement a con- viction and five-year prison sentence, which he appealed all the way to the supreme court where the conviction was set aside on a technicality. the following appeared in the New York Times in 1913: Washington, nov. 10. the prison sentence imposed upon c. h. summers, president of the first national Bank of Juneau, alaska for alleged misapplication of the bank’s money, was set aside to-day by the supreme court. summers was found guilty of fifty-six separate offenses and was sentenced to five years on each, the sentences to run concurrent- ly. the court held that only one count should have been included in the indictment. clement relocated to oregon in 1911 whereupon he became vice president and treasurer of the Ketchican power company, a manufacturer of lumber and mill products in ashland. he died in 1919. Figure 4. The Series of 1902 plate for the Juneau bank made in 1918 gave its location simply as Alaska. It should have been labeled Territory of Alaska. Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 361 Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287362 So What’s the Big Deal! the big deal with alaska in national Bank notes is that the labels on the notes from the two large-size-issuing banks usually didn’t reflect the legal status of alaska at the time the plates were made or when the notes were issued. the first national Bank of Juneau was the first national Bank chartered in alaska. the series of 1882 plate made for the bank, a 10-10-10-20, carried a territo- ry label. the series of 1902 10-10-10-20 plate made upon extension in 1918 simply says alaska. neither label was correct! In contrast, the other issuing bank, the first national Bank of fairbanks, chartered in 1905, issued notes that are labeled district of alaska. alaska was a judi- cial district at the time that plate was made so that label is okay. however, congress decreed in 1906 that the place should be called a territory, yet the district labels weren’t changed on the fairbanks plates! What is a truly serious territorial collector to do? If going for completeness in large size notes is the criterion, then you have to attempt to collect all three possi- bilities: territory, district and unspecified! suddenly the Juneau bank is the key but it offers a virtually insurmountable challenge. there are plenty of fairbanks district notes to go around, but not Juneau territorials! you have to digest some really interesting history to understand the labels on alaska nationals. In a nutshell, the place was the first U. s. colony, viewed not as a potential state, but as a land of resources to be exploited by special interests pro- tected by a compliant congress, a congress that didn’t consider enfranchisement of the alaskan population a particularly pressing concern. Our First Colony alaska was our first possession, purchased from russia during the adminis- tration of president andrew Johnson on august 1, 1868. the vast wilderness ceded to us, following more than one hundred years of russian rule, was not taken very seriously by congress. at that point in time congress and the country were preoccu- pied with reconstruction following the civil War. the federal treasury was groan- ing under civil War debt, and most of the public and those in congress thought spending $7,200,000 for ice and snow northwest of canada to be an extravagance. Instead, this unique, wonderful and valuable land was the prey of special interests who, abetted by an indifferent congress, feasted on its natural resources. Worse, but by design, the population in alaska was to remain disenfranchised until 1912. much of the following discussion is summarized from hulley (1953) and Gruening (1968). the acquisition of alaska is credited to secretary of state William seward Figure 5. The Series of 1902 plates for the First National Bank of Fairbanks were correctly labeled District of Alaska at the time they were made in 1905. Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 363 who negotiated its purchase with Baron edouard stoeckel, russian minister to the United states in march 1867. russia’s loosening grip on the place was influenced by several factors, among them the fact that alaska was too far from saint petersburg for the czar to effectively rule it. the wealth in furs that sustained most of russian interest was almost depleted. rumors of gold in the interior aroused russian con- cern that the place would become ungovernable, particularly if americans and canadians overran the place in the inevitable rushes. russia was in dispute with Britain at the time, so a sale to the United states was a thumb in the eye to the British, especially because the natural attachment of the place seemed to be to canada, not the United states. the land was sold without formal boundaries for about two cents per acre. the sale was paid for with draft 9759 on treasury Warrant 927, dated august 1, 1868, for $7,200,000 in coin. It was made out to edouard d. stoeckel, envoy extraordinary, and signed by francis e. spinner, treasurer of the United states, and noah l. Jeffries, register of the treasury. the russians, who had governed the land with a strict authoritarian hand, moved out as the americans moved in. however, the americans did not bring a gov- ernment with them. congress neglected to enact legislation giving the land any form of civil government during the next 17 years. various commissioners and military men assumed limited jurisdictions over the southeastern panhandle, but they did not govern, nor were the people who settled the land given any form of representative voice in their affairs. the normal route to statehood was for a territory to be organized by an organic act passed by congress. such acts established a civil government, provided for land distributions, and considered other matters necessary to prepare a region for statehood. this process fell flat for alaska. “seward's Ice Box” was held at arm’s length much like puerto rico, Guam and samoa today, and primarily for the same reason: the population was not dominantly caucasian and did not speak english. First Organic Act congressional attitudes were little improved when the alaskan organic act finally was signed into law by president chester arthur on may 17, 1884. senate Bill 153, drafted by senator Benjamin harrison of Indiana, constituted alaska as a civil and Judicial district, not a territory. this totally inadequate act provided for no representative government; rather a governor, district judge, clerk of court and four subsidiary judges were appointed by the president. General United states land laws were specifically excluded by the act, although the mining laws were put into effect. the laws of oregon were declared the law of the district so far as they might be applicable; however, there was a major flaw. the civil government in the oregon code assumed town and county forms of government, yet both were excluded in alaska because the general land laws were denied by the act. local governments could not be created, and if they were, their functions could have no legal standing and their mandates could have no authority. no representative, even a non-voting one, was allowed to be seated in congress. alaska was formally designated the district of alaska. former alaskan Governor ernest Gruening (1968, p. 53) wrote: alaska was a civil district in which the civil administration was authorized only to inspect, enforce the laws, and report, yet denied the means either to inspect or enforce. alaska was a judicial district, but congress had so confused its mandate that no judge could be certain what the law was, and the mar- shal and his deputies often lacked the wherewithal to enforce a court order or sentence when there was one. alaska was a land district, but without land laws. Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287364 the dismal administrative situation that resulted from the first organic act was compounded by public apathy toward and ignorance of alaska. It would take major gold rushes before the people in the lower 48 would become conversant with the land and marginally aware of the alaskans’ plight. the first major cry of gold came from Juneau in 1880, when gold was dis- covered along the Inland Waterway by Joseph Juneau and richard harris. next, in 1897, came the Klondike gold discoveries giving birth to dawson city in the yukon territory. the resulting stampede brought 50,000 fortune seekers, and most trav- eled through the northern part of the alaskan panhandle on their way to the gold fields in canada. skagway and dyea, alaska, became the primary disembarkation ports during the years 1897 and 1898. the Klondike strikes were followed by those on the golden beaches of nome in 1900, and fairbanks in 1902. nome and fairbanks were in alaska, so the fever settled on american soil. the economic fabric of alaska between 1884 and the early 1900s was domi- nated by a small group of very wealthy, politically influential corporate exploiters, foremost among them the morgan-Guggenheim copper interests. however, civil government, and even basic justice, languished. Under the weight of the gold rush population, successive congresses belat- edly, tentatively, and with piecemeal legislation imperfectly tried to correct the defects of the first organic act. this process proved to be fitful, inadequate and painfully slow. one piece of legislation passed in 1906 provided for the election of a dele- gate to congress, and decreed that alaska should be referred to as the territory of alaska. Gruening (1968, p. 139) wrote cynically that this act conferred "a promo- tion without the expense of territorial government or the self-governmental features inherent in territorial status." In 1908, the articulate and forceful Judge James Wickersham was elected to serve as a non-voting delegate to congress. With his influence, sentiment developed in both alaska and the states for congress to enact a second organic act that hope- fully would establish a territorial form of government, which would pave the way for statehood. second organic act president William howard taft signed into law alaska's second organic act on august 24, 1912. alaskans could now elect a legislature for the first time in 54 years. Unfortunately, as with previous alaskan legislation, the second organic act was notable not for what it did, but rather for the powers and rights that it neglect- ed. land distribution was left in a continuing state of disarray, and many taxing and legislative powers normally accorded territorial legislatures were specifically preclud- ed or omitted. alaska in 1912 was formally a territory both in name and in legal substance, but the people felt cheated of an effective vehicle to transform their land into a state. they were correct. It would take another 47 years to achieve that goal. a reluctant congress put occasional patches on the second organic act, but that act always proved to be inadequate, but consistent with the past treatment of our north- western colony. Congresses belatedly, tentatively, and with piecemeal legislation imperfectly tried to correct the defects of the first organic act. Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 365 Labels on Alaska Large Notes Important in the foregoing is that alaska was a district from 1884 to 1906, and a territory from 1906 to 1957. the Juneau series of 1882 plate made in 1898 reads territory, which was wrong at the time it was made. the place was a territory when the series of 1902 plate was made in 1918, but territory was omitted from that plate! the large size fairbanks plates made in 1905 correctly carried the district label at the time they were made. however, notice that when alaska was declared to be a territory in 1906, and later when it was awarded more formal territorial status in 1912 by the second organic act, no steps were taken at either juncture by treasury officials to have the fairbanks plates altered to reflect its new status. this is odd because as the various territories in the lower 48 gained statehood during that same era, their elevated status was acknowledged by removing territory from the plates of the affected banks. Figure 6. The organization report for The First National Bank of Juneau shows unambiguously that the bankers placed their bank in the Territory of Alaska. The legal status of Alaska was that of a District at the time. Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287366 precisely why did the series of 1882 10-10-10-20 plate for Juneau come out reading territory of alaska? the answer is simple and unambiguous, and no blame can be leveled at anyone in the federal government. the clerks in the comptroller of the currency’s office used the language provided by the Juneau bankers on their organization certificate. the Juneau bankers listed their location as “territory of alaska!” See Figure 4. twenty years later in 1918, when the series of 1902 10-10-10-20 plate was ordered for the Juneau bank upon extension, the comptroller’s clerks gave the bank a defacto title change by simply labeling the place alaska. they should have used territory of alaska at that time, so they were culpable in mislabeling the 1902 plate. References Cited and Sources of Data Alaska Mining Record, april 20, 1898, Juneau bank opens. alaska state library, Juneau historical subject files,http://library.alaska.gov/ hist/hist_docs/docs/ms010/ms10_juneau_historical_subjects_files_B.pdf). comptroller of the currency. Annual Reports of the Comptroller of the Currency. Washington, dc: U. s. Government printing office, 1898-1910. comptroller of the currency, national currency and bond ledgers, 1863-1935, record Group 101, U. s. national archives, college park, md. Gruening, ernest. The State of Alaska. new york: random house, 1968, 661 p. hulley, clarence c.. Alaska, 1741-1953. portland, or: Bifords and mort, 406 p. huntoon, peter. Territorials, a Guide to U. S. Territorial National Bank Notes. n.p.: society of paper money collectors, 1980, 169 p. Juneau Daily Empire, october 14, 1955, first national Bank has long history tied to alaska growth. Los Angeles Herald, february 17, 1898, to bank at Juneau, p. 6. The New York Times,november 11, 1913, Juneau Banker’s sentence annulled. The Princeton Alumni Weekly, may 7, 1919, clement m. summers death notice, p. 617. United states statutes, organic acts pertaining to alaska, may 17, 1884, 1906, august 24, 1912, 1959. Washington, dc: U. s. Government printing office.
**************** Important Notice **************** At a special board meeting called for June 23rd and conducted via telephone, the SPMC continued over its discussion from its recent Memphis board meeting discussing its dues schedule. The Society has held the line on a dues increase for the past 12 years. At its June 23rd telephonic meeting, the board voted a new dues schedule commencing for Calendar Year 2014: U.S. Regular Membership $39/annum Canada & Mexico Regular membership $45/annum Other Foreign membership $60/annum U.S. Life membership $800 Canada & Mexico Life Membership $1000 Other Foreign Life Membership $1200 Electronic (no magazine) memberships at www.spmc.org remain the same as before You will see these increased rates for magazine subscription memberships reflected on the dues renewal envelope that you found inserted into this issue of Paper Money. All members can also use this evelope to designate their tax-deductible gifts to support SPMC’s special projects or general fund. Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 367 hree national Bank notes in the heritage auctions april 2008 sale bring to mind a long-lasting love story that began over a century and a half ago. they are the palmyra ny notes, one being the uncut sheet of series 1882 five dollar notes signed by pliny t. sexton as president. the other two, a series 1882 twenty dollar note and a series 1902 ten dollar note, are both signed by h. h. sexton, with a hardly distinguishable “v” after the name, signifying a vice presi- dent. and indeed harriot (hyde) sexton was pliny s wife and served as vice presi- dent of the bank for almost 40 years. palmyra is a village in upstate new york, about 25 miles southeast of rochester. Both the erie canal and the new york central railroad were built through it in the nineteenth century. Its population was 1,937 in 1900 and slightly over 3,500 today. the first national Bank of palmyra was founded in 1864, the outgrowth of a private bank. It received charter #295. pliny t. sexton was the first cashier and became the president upon the death of the founding president in 1876. and at the 1881 death of his father, who was a director and vice president of the bank, harriot became a director. the next year she also became the bank’s vice president, a posi- tion she would hold for 39 years. pliny titus sexton had been born in the village on June 12, 1840. his Quaker father was a banker and businessman and active in the abolitionist move- ment. pliny attended the classical Union school in the village and studied law in poughkeepsie, ny. he was admitted to the new york state bar in 1861 and admit- ted to practice before the United states supreme court in 1882. But he seldom practiced law, as he kept active with his banking and real estate interests. he also served in various civic roles. he was the village president from 1879 to 1883 and president of the local Board of education from 1883 to 1889. But perhaps his most important public role was as a member of the Board of regents of the University of the state of new york from 1890 to 1921. he served as their chairman from 1915 to 1921. (this is not an actual university, but rather the gov- ernment agency that charters and oversees educational organizations, such as schools, colleges, universities, libraries, museums, etc. in the state. the Board of regents is the head of the state education department, the administrative arm of the University.) signatures recall love story By Karl sanford Kabelac t Above: Pliny T. Sexton at his desk in the bank, 1910. (Courtesy Historic Palmyra) Right: Harriot (Hyde) Sexton as a young woman. (Courtesy Historic Palmyra) Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287368 at his death, The New York Times editorialized on the important role he had played in a complex reorganization of the regents’ authority in the first decade of the twentieth century. they noted that he “gave his whole mind and heart and strength to it. his appearance, as of an ancient prophet or philosopher, comported with his character and wisdom. he lived the part he looked.” a biographical entry in the National Cyclopedia o f American Biography (volume 20) noted his particular interest in the education and general welfare of children. on a very serious level, this was shown in the three decades he served as a regent. on a more personal level, an obituary noted that every christmas morning for nearly fifty years he would give a shiny new dime to each village child who came to the bank and signed his or her name in a book he kept for that purpose. In addition he founded a free kindergarten for the village chil- dren. he was a loyal and important supporter of the public library. he provided the village with an attractive park with playground equipment for the children. In the summer free moving pictures were shown in the park, and in the winter they were shown in the palmyra opera house. harriot hyde was born in the village on april 16, 1839, and thus was a year older than pliny. she also attended the palmyra classical Union school. they were married on september 17, 1860, when she was 21 and pliny only 20. although there were no children, they adopted and brought up lucy angell, a niece of mrs. sexton. an 1896 reference noted that the sextons had a summer home at lake George, stating “the tastes of mr. and mrs. sexton lead them to outdoor recreations, walking, boating and horseback riding. It recalled that in the winter of 1865/66, right after the civil War, the young couple made a 1,500-mile trip by horseback through the south.” towards the end of her life, mrs. sexton was in poor health. the 1920 cen- sus shows that a maid, a housekeeper, and a nurse were assisting the elderly couple. at her death on november 22, 1921, one obituary noted that they “were united in matrimony over sixty years ago. they were playmates in childhood and were com- panions all through their life journey. during mrs. sexton’s long illness her hus- band rarely left her side, and it has been his constant prayer that he might be spared to minister to her through her closing years of feebleness.” at her death she was buried in the lawn of the impressive building at the edge of downtown palmyra that served as both their home and the bank. a simple The Sextons adjacent entries in Who’s Who in Finance (1911). She is one of the few women in the 1087-page vol- ume. Above: View of the FNB Palmyra and the Sexton home. The door on Main Street with the circular stairs opened into the bank. The door on Williams Street with the regular stairs opened into their home. (Courtesy Historic Palmyra) Above: A group of men on the bank stairs, 1890. The gentle- man in the light jacket (second from left) is Robert M. Smith the cashier. Next to him in the doorway is Pliny T. Sexton, the president. (Courtesy Historic Palmyra) Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 369 block of granite marked the spot. thus they would remain close together as long as he lived on. and when he died they both were then interred in the village cemetery. after her death, pliny s own health began to fail and he died almost three years later on september 5, 1924. he had been associated with the bank for 60 years, and had served as its president for the last 47 of those years. the next year his major interest in the bank was sold. two years later the bank moved out of its former home into a newly constructed building. the old bank building became the village post office. eventually part of it was removed and a the- ater built, while the other part became a grocery store for awhile before being torn down in the 1960s. the bank itself merged with another bank in 1929 and, with subsequent mergers and name changes survives today as a branch of the community Bank. during its 65-year existence the bank issued $6,503,750 worth of national Bank notes; 739,896 large size in denominations ranging from $1 to $100 and a mere 876 series 1929 notes in $5, $10 and $20 dollar denominations. there is, of course, another signature on these notes. It is that of the cashier, robert m. smith. he too was a native of palmyra and a contemporary of both pliny and harriot, having been born in the village on november 23, 1839. after service in the civil War he returned to the village and became a teller in the first national Bank. When pliny moved from being cashier to president on december 30, 1876, smith became the cashier and served in that role, and later also as a vice president of the bank, until his death in January 1925. his obituary noted that, as a lifelong friend and decades long business asso- ciate of pliny, the sadness occasioned by pliny s death hastened his own death sev- eral months later. It was just south of palmyra where the mormon church had its beginnings. among pliny’s extensive landholding in the area was mormon hill (now called hill cumorah) , the site where Joseph smith said he received the Golden tablets, and thus a spot of great importance to the mormons. In 1928 his heirs sold it to the mormons, who every year have a com- Above: Bird’ eye postcard view of Palmyra, ca 1910. The bank is in the far background, left of center. The pole in the far background, right of center was an election pole from 1892. Below: The First National Bank of Palmyra building and home of the Sextons. The Sampson Gun, placed in front of the building and dedicated in 1903, commemorates William Sampson (1840-1902) a Palmyra native who had a distinguished naval career spanning almost four decades. Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287370 Uncut sheet from the Heritage auction of a Series 1882 Brown Back $5 bills of the FNB of Palmyra signed by Pliny T. Sexton as president. (Courtesy Heritage Auctions) Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 371 memorative festival there reenacting the dramatic story of the founding of their religion. A Note on Sources rochester ny had four english language newspapers during the 1920s. obituaries for the sextons and for smith appeared in most, although they ranged greatly in length. In addition, obituaries for the sextons also appeared in The New York Times. several local history volumes were especially useful. these included George Washington cowles, Landmarks of Wayne County, New York, 1895; henry hall, America’s Successful Businessmen, v. 2, 1896; thomas l. cook, Palmyra and Vicinity, 1930; and Betty troskosky, Palmyra: A Bicentennial Celebration, 1989. several other sources are noted in the text. the assistance of Bonnie hays of historic palmyra is gratefully acknowledged.
The condition of the bank on September 5, 1900, as reported in the annual report of the Comptroller of the Currency for 1900. A Series 1882 Brown Back $20 bill signed by H. H. Sexton as vice president of the bank. She was Harriot (Hyde) Sexton, the wife of bank president Pliny T. Sexton. (Courtesy Heritage Auctions) H. H. Hyde as vice president signed this Series 1902 red seal $10 bill. (Courtesy Heritage Auctions) Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287372 In 1836, mexico granted to texas limited indepen- dence in the area north of the rio Grande river. residents of this land desired complete separation and protection from european interests and so requested annexation by the United states. the U.s. attempted to negotiate this matter with mexico but mexican troops crossed the rio Grande river into texas to regain this land. this action brought about a declaration of war in 1846. after 15 months of fighting, the U.s. captured their capital, mexico city, and forced them into a treaty granting texas complete independence and transfer of new mexico and california to the U.s. Under the terms of this treaty, the U.s. agreed to pay $15 million for the land and an addtional $3 million to texas for war damages. Mexican-American War left rare scrip By Ron Horstman Above: One Hundred Dollar Treasury Warrant. Intended to be issued to those who fought in the war and chose not to accept 160 acres of land. Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 373 Above: Ten Thousand Dollar War Warrant to be used to settle claims of American citizens against the Mexican government. The United States agreed to pay this debt as part of the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo. Below: One Hundred Dollar War Bounty Scrip. Issued to enlist- ed men who served at least one year or to families of men who lost their lives in the conflict with Mexico. It could be exchanged for 160 acres of land or One Hundred Dollars. Records indicate that most chose the land. This certificate was exchanged for neither.
Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287374 We’ve returned home from the International paper money show in memphis, tn much richer for the experience. these shows are always fun, educational and something is almost always found to add to our collections. lyn Knight continued the tradition of educational emphasis at memphis with an out- standing set of exhibits and speaker series. the society of paper money collectors (spmc) was present in full force with our annual breakfast, members meeting lecture, authors forum, and board meeting. the show was well attended by dealers and col- lectors, particularly those focused on worldwide currency and U.s. nationals. these areas were very well represented on the bourse floor as well as in lyn Knight’s auction. oh yeah, and mark anderson passed the gavel off to yours truly! I attend the memphis show as a dealer, collector and spmc officer; this keeps me quite busy! a lot goes on and having a table keeps one from quite a bit of it. tables cost quite a bit of money and there are people who want to see you to discuss, buy and/or sell paper money who expect to find you at the table. that being said, as an officer of spmc, I make an effort to go to the key events. even with the cost and obligation of a table and travel, I find these events worthwhile and encourage both dealers and collectors to attend. let’s review these. the annual spmc breakfast kicks off the formal events on friday morning before the show opens to the public. this is a great social event and this year was no exception. Up to and sometimes surpassing 100 people in attendance, we had the opportunity to catch up with old friends and make new ones too. tickets in advance are $20 and support the event which includes socializing, eating a good breakfast, awards and a raffle. this year the raffle was particularly strong with a donation of earlier 20th century banking memorabilia. also, it is always fun to see who wins the publication awards, including a new social media contribution award given by shawn hewitt who has been the key leader of our 21st century web and online social pres- ence. Benny Bolin and Wendell Wolka did a great job running the awards and raffle with a very entertaining presentation for- mat! noon on friday sees the start of the spmc authors forum. this is another annual event led by fred reed and emceed by Wendell Wolka that I’ve attended for several years. the featured attraction of the authors forum is to hear writing and publish- ing experiences from leading authors who have gone through the publishing process. many collectors and some dealers have a passion they’ve collected and would love to write about. this is the event to learn how to do that whether writing about a very specialized topic all the way to delivering a mass market book. We’ve relocated this event to be closer to the bourse floor to make it easier to attend, and it’s well worth taking a break from the floor to attend. I think the speaker series at memphis is one of the best programs in either paper money or coins at any of the shows I attend. perhaps the ana and early american coppers series are peers. other shows are working to make a speaker series a major part of their event, and I’m glad to see it. the speaker series for 2013 memphis show may be found in the pdf file - http://www.memphisipms.com/2013_speakersseries_updated.p df. Where else can you go for two days and have the opportunity to learn so much from such experts?!? Unfortunately my table kept me from most of these sessions, but I did attend shawn hewitt’s large size replacement national Bank notes, 1903–1920. this session also was the location for the spmc members meeting and talk and was very well attended. shawn took us through a great tour of these fascinating notes holding the audience’s attention throughout. saturday morning saw the spmc board meeting starting at 8am. this is our primary face-to-face business meeting for the year and we range through a set of agenda items. everything from membership status, the treasury, Paper Money magazine, active work groups such as the web presence, regional meetings, etc... new business can include new governors and officers, new awards, publishing programs or grants, meeting schedules and a new webinar series being driven by Judith murphy. this was mark’s last board meeting to run and we got a lot done. at the end of the meeting, mark passed the gavel to me, a great honor for me to be sure! another major feature of memphis is the exhibits. this is another area that lyn Knight has improved by giving the exhibits prime real estate on the floor as well as a new award ses- sion at the front of the hall on saturday afternoon. I’ve been a regular exhibitor at these shows for quite a few years, and it’s really a thrill to set up my exhibit and share it with fellow collec- tors. this was the only year I did not do an exhibit due to work concerns leading into the show, but I expect to be back at it next year. one can learn a lot about the notes we collect, meet fellow collectors and increase interest and discussion in areas we pas- sionate about by doing an exhibit. mark anderson and lyn Knight co-hosted the awards ceremony at the front of the hall, a new format, with many taking time out from floor activity to watch the proceedings. congratulations to the winners. there were many great exhibits. sunday saw the usual wind down, but I like to stay and visit with people. catch up on how the show went and perhaps do some business. most are breaking down their exhibits either saturday night or sunday morning, so one needs to see these earlier on saturday or before. By noon, most dealers are leaving, but the show does continue into the afternoon with some staying till the end. memphis is not the only show that spmc has a presence, but it is the closest thing to an “spmc show” that we have. We are lucky that lyn Knight runs this with an eye to education and supporting us in the spmc. this is a great show for education, socializing, and yes, even buying and selling paper money. I hope to see you there next year, perhaps even doing an exhibit or a presentation! Pierre
The President’s Column Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 375 WANT ADS WORK FOR YOU We could all use a few extra bucks. Money Mart ads can help you sell duplicates, advertise wants, increase your collection, and have more fun with your hobby. Up to 20 words plus your address in SIX BIg ISSUES only $20.50/year!!!! * * Additional charges apply for longer ads; see rates on page above -- Send payment with ad Take it from those who have found the key to “Money Mart success” Put out your want list in “Money Mart” and see what great notes become part of your collecting future, too. (Please Print) ______________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ___________________________________ ONLY $20.50 / YEAR ! ! ! (wow) $$ money mart Paper Money will accept classified advertising on a basis of 15¢ per word (minimum charge of $3.75). Commercial word ads are now allowed. Word count: Name and address count as five words. All other words and abbre- viations, figure combinations and initials count as separate words. No checking copies. 10 discount for four or more insertions of the same copy. Authors are also offered a free three-line classified ad in recognition of their contribution to the Society. These ads are denoted by (A) and are run on a space available basis. Special: Three line ad for six issues ‘ only $20.50! Stamford CT Nationals For Sale or Trade. Have some duplicate notes, prefer trade for other Stamford notes, wil l consider cash. dombongo@earthlink.net (293) WANTED: 1778 NORTH CAROLINA COLONIAL $40. (Free Speech Motto). Kenneth Casebeer, (828) 277-1779; Casebeer@law.miami.edu (292) WORLD PAPER MONEY. 2 stamps for new arrival price list. I actively buy and sell. Mention PM receive $3 credit. 661-298-3149. Gary Snover, PO Box 1932, Canyon Country, CA 91386 www.garysnover.com. (288) WRITINg A NUMISMATIC BOOK? I can help you with all facets of bring- ing your manuscript to publication. Proven track record for 40 years. Create a legacy worthy of your efforts. Contact Fred Reed fred@spmc.org (288) Authors can request a free one-time ad. Contact the Editor (A) WANTED: Notes from the State Bank of Indiana, Bank of the State of Indiana, and related documents, reports, and other items. Write with description (include photocopy if possible) first. Wendell Wolka, PO Box 1211, Greenwood, IN 46142 (288) WANTED: MATERIAL FROM WHITEHALL, NY. Obsoletes, Nationals, Scrip, etc. Jeff Sullivan, P.O. Box 902, Manchester, MO 63011 (A) WANTED: charters #769 Whitinsville, Mass., #1022 Uxbridge, Mass.; #1385 Tolland, Conn.; national bank notes and obsolete currency contact: Terry Jackson, P.O. Box 783, Tolland, CT 06084-0783 email: Terry.Jackson@comcast.net (286) FREQUENT PAPER MONEY AUTHOR (Joaquin Gil del Real) Needs a copy of the Mar/Apr 1997 issue of the SPMC journal to complete his col- lection.  You can contact the editor if you can assist in this matter. (A) TRADE MY DUPLICATE, circulated FRN $1 star notes for yours I need. Have many in the low printings. Free list. Ken Kooistra, PO Box 71, Perkiomenville, PA 18074. kmk050652@verizon.net (288) vIRgINIA NATIONAL BANK NOTES FOR SALE -- For list, contact jameslbecknerjr@gmail.com (285) BUYINg ONLY $1 HAWAII OvERPRINTS. White, no stains, ink, rust or rubber stamping, only EF or AU. Pay Ask. Craig Watanabe. 808-531- 2702. Captaincookcoin@aol.com (291) Coming Soon. Civil War Stamp Envelopes, the Issuers & Their Times (A) allied military marks were one of many currencies created to be issued jointly by the liberating/occupying powers following WWII. It is the only one that the soviets active- ly insisted on sharing with the other allies. Because Germany was the only axis country that the Ussr actively campaigned in, they doubtless figured that the other allies could scarcely deny them a role in the economic side of the occupation. a very interesting book titled From Major Jordan's Diaries, written by the major himself (George racey Jordan, assisted by richard l. stokes), details the complex workings of the lend- lease program related to the soviet Union. suffice to say that about $10 billion worth of industrial equipment, manufactured goods, raw materials, and foodstuffs, and priceless amounts of blueprints, patents, and other intellectual property, were transferred to the soviet Union during the years that lend-lease operated (1942-45 for the soviets). major Jordan was for two years the official expediter of these transfers, to which he objected strenuously, leading to his being told repeat- edly to sit down and shut up. a year after he was moved to other duties, he learned about the "money plane" that had crashed in siberia, and in 1950 he tracked down the story behind it for inclusion in his book. It seems the soviet government demanded that pro- duction materials for allied military marks be made avail- able to them so that they could print the notes to be pro- vided to soviet troops occupying Germany. If such means were not provided, they threatened to print their own notes for the occupation, which Us and British diplomats saw as an undesirable lack of unanimity in establishing occupation policies. too bad - had the soviets issued their own currency, they might have been expected to back it up. as long as their military marks were indistinguishable from those issued by the Us and Britain, they could (and did) demand that those powers provide the backing for the marks. so in may 1944 two shipments of five c-47s each (and a third, using an unspecified number of aircraft) left Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287376 how could this happen? I never have good timing, but this time I lucked out. Just as Joe and I were planning on writing about allied military marks, I received a copy of michael schöne's latest book Military Canteen and Camp Money Issues Since 1944 in Germany. this is a really great book. true, it is in German, making it a bit hard to understand for most of us. on the other hand, it is profusely illustrated (in full color), making it self explanatory in many ways. furthermore, if you will work on it a bit, you can develop your German numismatic vocabulary. the first allied troops entered Germany on september 10, 1944, near aachen. this was, of course, a very big day in the history of the world. those allied sol- diers had allied military marks in their pockets as the bat- tles dragged on. these mark notes had started out months earlier as operation Wild dog at forbes lithograph manufacturing company in chelsea, massachusetts. Ultimately, victory was won in 1945, but the am marks continued in use until June 1948. I began to say that the am marks were the most fasci- nating of the allied military issues, but caught myself. each of the issues is fascinating. each issue has special twists. michael has 14 pages of great images and informa- tion on the am marks. much of the information overlaps what we knew, but a careful reading (or at least examina- tion) reveals new information. michael was very kind to provide us with images of counterfeit am marks which neither Joe nor I had seen. I really love replacements! you probably know that. the am marks provide an interesting challenge in this regard. first, the basics. the forbes-printed replacements are indicated by substituting a hyphen (often incorrectly called a dash) for the leading zero of the serial number, such as -01234567 (actually more like -00012345). the subtlety of this system has made for great cherry picking over the decades! I have never been very lucky (think of my problem with timing above). of course the small denominations are the most commonly found, and con- versely the values above 10 marks are quite scarce. the rarity escalates with denominations above 20 marks. In forty or more years of collecting, I had a chance at a 100 mark replacement only a few times, probably twice. I U n c o u p l e d: Paper Money’s Odd Couple Allied Military Marks Joseph E. Boling Fred Schwan Please turn to page 378 . . . never had a chance at a 1000 mark replacement. In spite of that, I was party to the sale of one of these great replacements. david seelye located one in Germany about ten years ago. he arranged to sell it to harold Kroll. then tragedy struck. the dealer who had the replacement in Germany was hospitalized and died. david was, just barely, able to have the note rescued without untold legal difficulties. It is a beauty, too! I had to wait a while before I got to examine the note. a little twist in the whole story is that the forbes specimens are made from left-over replace- ments. therefore it is possible (if not easy) to alter a speci- men to an issued replacement. I have never seen such an alteration, but it occurred to me that with a huge price differential, anything is possible. this replacement is gen- uine and gorgeous. one huge mystery hangs over the story of the am marks. the am mark serial numbers have nine characters: nine numerals or eight numerals and a hyphen prefix. the mysterious exception is a small number of soviet-printed 100 mark notes with eight numerals and a letter prefix. such notes are known with leading letters: m, n, o, p, and t. these notes were not discovered until the 1980s. michael lists eight serial numbers (a useful list to be sure). Joe and I might have two more numbers that we will send to michael. the first and obvious theory is that they are modern fakes to fool collectors. the notes have been subjected to intense scruti- ny and have met the test. -00031953: A Forbes replacement 1000- mark note - with very regular serials, and the Forbes colophon (not visible in this illustration). however tantalizing the theory is that these are soviet-printed replacements, that is just not likely. If such replacements had been created and issued, they would be much more common than reported. a collector who actually worked in the factory that created the american numbering machines suggests that the letters could have been temporary repairs to broken numbers, but this does not seem to be a very satisfactory solution. michael seems to have also struggled with an explanation, calling the purpose unclear. finding a conclusive answer might be very difficult in this case--that is not all bad, mystery is good for collect- ing. t80502954: An example of the mysterious leading letter in a serial number (appearing on both serials of the note). so the allied military marks continued to circulate into June 1948. By then the cold war had broken out and the Western allies were losing out to the soviet strategy of indiscriminate issue of am marks. the United states lost hundreds of millions of (1945) dollars to this scheme. finally, on June 24th the Western allies caught the soviets off guard and ended the use of the am marks in the Western zones. the conversion introduced the deutsche mark, pre- cipitated the Berlin blockade and airlift, and introduced an issue known as "special army currency." this entire episode begs another duo column. I hope that we can get to it--soon.
Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 377 Schwan continued . . . Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287378 Washington dc for Great falls, montana; fairbanks, alaska; and the soviet Union (with soviet pilots beyond fairbanks - the planes themselves were always part of the lend-lease deliveries). these planes carried glass positives and negatives of all denominations of am marks, samples of paper and inks, other chemicals, specimens of the notes as produced by forbes in chelsea, mass., and all manner of other materials needed for the soviets to set up their own printing plant for these notes. an additional plane- load went out in June to replace the materials lost in the siberian crash. the printing took place at a plant in leipzig, deep in the soviet occupation zone and not sub- ject to inspection or supervision by the other allies. But the soviets were not as cunning as they imagined. In fact, their notes were distinguishable from those issued by the other allies, and it was soon apparent that they were releasing immense amounts into the German econo- my, in an apparent attempt to undermine allied economic policy. distinguishable how? they did not appreciate that forbes' specimen books were composed of replacement notes, indicated by a leading en-dash in each serial num- ber instead of the high-order ninth digit intended to appear on ordinary notes. (I will argue with fred over the correct terminology for the dash/hyphen.) Until the soviets actually overran that high-order digit, and had to remove the dash, their notes were easily separated from the regular issues of the other allies. In the event a dash- bearing serial was suspected of being a forbes-printed replacement, all one had to do was find the forbes colophon to confirm its status. lacking the colophon, all soviet printings were identifiable. In practice, almost all soviet printings are also identi- fiable by the lack of regularity in the serials. the soviets did not have nine-digit serial numbering machines. they had to mount a six-digit numbering block next to a three- digit block (likely composed of fixed numerals, since a million notes could be printed in one 1000-mark note raised and recolored from a 50-mark note (originally with blue counters, now green). 100-mark counterfeit, a pretty good effort (the serials are too good for a Soviet-printed note). position on a sheet before one of the leading three digits would need changing). the two number blocks are usually misaligned. In addition, they are also frequently of different font sizes, the leading three digits being larger than the trailing six (see fred's illustration of the t-block note, for example). so it's usually quite easy to identify a soviet- printed note without looking for the forbes "f." oK, you are waiting for me to broach my favorite topic - counterfeits. not many exist for am marks. With all the notes in the market from soviet sources, few entre- preneurs took up the challenge of making notes from scratch or of raising lower-valued notes. fred mentions michael schöene's collection of images, which schöene has graciously provided to us. I use them to show a 50- mark note raised to 1000 marks, and a made-from-scratch 100-mark note. soviet-printed notes were so common that even the counterfeiters used the leading dash in their seri- als.
Boling continued . . . Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 379 sIXty years after Its IntrodUctIon, the 20thedition of Paper Money of United States, the “standard refer- ence book on United states paper money,”tm is being released by the coin & currency Institute. In 1953, the late robert friedberg (1912-1963) broke new ground when the treasury department granted permission for photographs of american paper money to be printed for the first time. the current edi- tion's 328 pages sets the standard once again by featuring notes from america's greatest currency collections, all reproduced in full color. the inaugural edition of Pap er Money o f the United States also intro- duced other innovations never before attempted. “the subject became stan- dardized and the book earned a perma- nent place on reference shelves,” co- author art friedberg noted. during the past three decades, it has been complete- ly expanded, revised, and edited by Ira s. friedberg and arthur l. friedberg, who has been recognized by the International association of professional numismatists with its highest honor, the title of honorary president. as with any price catalog, the 20th edition of Paper Money o f the United States is a snapshot in time – and as the new edition debuts, the paper money market has recovered from its recession- ary depths and some notes are once again setting price records. as with every edition, all valuations have been adjusted to reflect market conditions, which are mostly up. the prices are given in up to seven states of preservation from very Good (vG8) to Gem Uncirculated (Gem65). “there are also several other significant additions and revisions to the new volume, making it a necessity for every collector and dealer of american currency,” friedberg stated. from the first year of federal paper money, 1861, to the present, the fronts and backs of all classes and types of currency, from 3 cents to 10,000 dollars are illustrated. these are accom- panied by text listing, describing and pricing every variety of paper money ever issued, more than 10,000 prices in all. “With close to 1,000 color photographs, the result is a complete pictor- ial, descriptive and numismatic history of the currency of the United states,” according to friedberg. supplemental sections on colonial and continental currency (notes issued from 1680 to 1788), the treasury notes of the War of 1812, considered by some to be the first national currency, a comprehensive listing by type of the issues of the confederate states of america, and sections devoted to paper money errors, postage envelopes, and encased postage stamps are also included. “the latter two, along with fractional currency, were created to alleviate the shortage of change needed for com- merce during the civil War,” he said. the appendix lists the 14,348 national Banks that existed from 1863 to 1929 also shows the numbers of large size and small size notes known to exist for each note-issuing bank. “paper money collectors depend on the ‘friedberg numbering system,’tm a uniform method of cataloging bank notes that is the international standard for american currency. this numbering shorthand, along with the hundreds of photographs, enables anyone to instantly locate a specific ban- knote, and allows a dealer to advertise a note without need of extensive descrip- tion,” the publisher noted. “a distin- guished panel of acknowledged experts on paper money has assisted the authors, enabling them to establish accurate and up-to-the minute valuations for all issues,” he added. Paper Money o f the United States has been an invaluable asset to currency collectors and numismatists for genera- tions. It possesses an appeal and value of its own, not just to lovers of americana and of the fine art of engraving, but to students of american history, finance and economics, the publisher said. “It is recognized as a landmark work and is the undisputed standard reference on american currency – internationally acknowledged as the most comprehensive and universally quoted guide on the subject. Banks in america and throughout the world will find this book especially useful in that it makes possible the immediate identification of all obsolete but still legal tender paper money, while simultaneously giving the collector’s value of each note. It is a book which belongs in every library, public and private,” he added. sample pages from the 20th edition may be seen on the book’s website, www.papermoneyoftheUs.com. the book is available in three formats. a low-price, easy to carry soft cover version (IsBn 978-087184-520-7) is $42.50. a long-lasting, hard-bound copy with sewn binding (IsBn 978087184-720-1) is $67.50. an e-book edition (IsBn 978- 087184-0202-2) costs $29.50. the books are available or may be ordered from book stores, coin and paper money dealers, and from internet book sellers. copies may also be obtained from the coin & currency Institute, p.o. Box 399, Williston, vermont 05495. $5.75 should be added to each order for shipping and handling. major credit cards are accepted. call toll-free 1-800- 421-1866. fax (802) 536-4787. e-mail: info@papermoneyof theUs.com. In europe, contact spink & son, ltd., london.
Coin & Currency Institute releases 20th edition of Paper Money of the United States Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287380 america papered the world! In amerIca, BanK note enGravInG emerGed atthe turn of the 18th century. John coney (cony), who was born in Boston in 1655, could be the first american to engrave upon copper. the archives of massachusetts for 1702 acknowl- edge the colony's indebtedness to John coney (cony) "for grav- ing plates for Bills of credit." coney is known to have engraved massachusetts notes dated november 21, 1702, november 21, 1708, and may 31, 1710. Within four decades, some 20 years before the american revolution, the art of engraving in america had made important advances. the art was developed by nathaniel hurd, henry dawkins, robert aitken, paul revere, amos doolittle and peter rushton maverick. By the mid-19th century, american security engraving, exe- cuted on steel, had set the standard throughout the world. Jacob perkins' invention of siderography was soon called the “american system.” siderography is the process through which an engraved plate is reproduced by a cylinder of soft steel (called a “roll”) that is moved back and forth over the hard-steel original. engraved details that are recessed on the plate transfer as raised details on the roll. the soft-steel roll is then hardened and moved over soft-steel plates to prepare precise copies. the soft-steel copies are then hardened. In 1858 individual engravers and engraving companies that evolved from the early 18th century came together to form american Bank note company (aBnco). this company literal- ly “papered” the world. By 1959 aBnco and its affiliates had prepared bank notes for 115 countries, or all but about 18 coun- tries in existence at the time. By 1878 the Bureau of engraving and printing (Bep) was charged with the responsibility for engraving and printing all U.s. postage stamps and security paper. (Before that time it had shared the responsibility with private security-printing compa- nies.) the United states was the engraving center of the world, and bank notes that emanated from aBnco and the Bep are examples of the "golden age" of the art. on a trip to czechoslovakia (now the czech republic) in 1990, I visited the state printing Works for securities in prague. In the engrav- ing room I noticed about six bank note engravings hanging on the wall; these were used as models for apprentice por- trait and picture engravers. (apprentice portrait engravers, who spend up to 10 years perfecting their craft, often copy subjects from existing bank notes.) at least two models on the wall were works from the american “golden age.” one was the vignette the Great Eagle created by William croome (1790-1860) and engraved by alfred Jones (1819- 1900) . this vignette appears on numerous U.s. registered and coupon bonds, and the $50, three- year interest-bearing treasury notes (h[essler] 946-948) authorized by the act of July 17, 1861. this same eagle was also copied by apprentice american engravers, including William o. marks (b. 1899) at the Bep and British engraver Joseph Keen (1919-2004). the other engraving I noticed in prague was a portrait of e.d. Baker originally engraved by charles Burt (1823-1892). Baker's portrait was used on the $5,000 currency certificate of deposit (h1441 & 1442) authorized by the act of June 8, 1872. there is less and less need for hand engraving. this highly specialized craft is rapidly being supplanted by photoen- graving and computerized imaging. sadly, it is becoming, to use the words of contemporary engravers, “a dinosaur art.” Reprinted with permission from The Numismatist, April 1994
A Pr imer for Col lectors BY GENE HESSLER THE BUCK Starts Here Above: A three-year $50 interest-bearing treasury note proof with The Great Eagle. Below: A canceled certificate of deposit with the portrait of E.D. Baker. conGress made Gold certIfIcates leGal tenderin 1919, to entice banks to hold them instead of legal tender notes as the legal tender payments required for redeemed con- tracts.1 In turn, the released legal tender notes would fill the void left by an anticipated reduction in the supply of silver certificates. the whole cycle was sparked by the dramatic increase in the price of silver during World War I. during the war, increased global demands for silver coinage and a concurrent decrease in global production combined to raise the market price of silver to $1.37 an ounce by november 1919 from 46 cents in late 1915.2 the 1919 price exceeded the treasury's monetary value for sil- ver of $1.29, and made the silver dollar worth more as bullion than its face value. It then became profitable to redeem silver certificates for sil- ver dollars and sell the coins as bullion--an action that would permanently remove silver certificates from circulation. If conducted on a large scale, this could hamper commerce because silver certificates comprised the majority of small-denomination bills. fearing such a dire situa- tion, treasury officials immediately countered with a simple solu- tion. the act of march 4, 1907, gave the treasury the option, when the supply of silver certificates contracted, to break up large-denomination legal tender notes and issue smaller denomi- nations in their place. they had implemented this option two years earlier when they issued series of 1917 $1 and $2 legal ten- der notes, and is how they intended to resolve the current situa- tion. a problem they faced was that many large-denomination legal tender notes were being held by banks. although limited in scope,3 legal tender notes were the only legal tender paper money circulating in 1919. financial institutions often held them, in addition to gold coin, as the obligated payments for contracts that stipulated payment in legal tender, such as bonds. to encourage the banks into releasing legal tender notes, congress moved to allow them to hold Gold certificates as legal tender. circulating Gold certificates were first authorized by the act of July 12, 1882, and again in the acts of march 14, 1900, and march 4, 1907. the notes were issued against deposited gold bullion and redeemable for legal tender gold coin, but by law weren't legal tender themselves. By an act of december 24, 1919, congress gave legal tender status to Gold certificates, meaning banks could now hold them for legal tender payments. the treasury could now break the legal tender notes into smaller denominations, buttressing the silver certificate sup- ply. the first Gold certificates bearing a legal tender clause wouldn't appear for three more years, until the treasury issued the series of 1922 notes. Acknowledgments the professional currency dealers association and the society of paper money collectors provided support for the research. Image courtesy of heritage auction Galleries. References Cited 1. mills, o., Undersecretary of the treasury, may 14, 1929 letter to ms. a. vaughan, about Gold certificates becoming legal tender in 1919: record Group 53, Bureau of public debt, series K currency, Box 12, file K741. national archives and records administration, college park, maryland. 2. leavens, d. Silver Money. Bloomington, In: principia press. 1939, pp. 135-139. 3. huntoon, p. and yakes, J. "new deal changes to the legal tender status of currency." Paper Money 51, no. 2 (Jan/feb 2012), pp. 7-20.
Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 381 Small Notes by Jamie Yakes Silver Made Gold Certificates Legal Tender SPMC Web Blogger Appreciates recognition Dear Shawn, I just wanted to thank spmc for the social media award that you guys sent me. It was really unexpected and greatly appreciated. I'll definitely keep spmc at the top of my volunteering list and I hope to meet some of you at the next memphis get together. let me know if there is anything additional I can help with in the future and again "thank you"! -- Jim Phillips
Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287382 WANTED Paper Money editor’s cupboard is nearly bare Send your articles now Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 383 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 Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287384 numismatic scholar and author dr. richard G. doty suc- cumbed to lymphoma at the powhattan nursing home in falls church, va. on June 2. dr. doty was born in portland, or on January 11, 1942. he was 71 years old. at the time of his death, dr. doty was senior numismatic curator at the smithsonian Institution’s national museum of american history. as such, he was the primary caretaker of the national numismatic collection. he was well known to many Paper Money readers for his support of their researches into diverse and archane aspects of numismatic history. dr. doty’s reputation was international in scope. he was “considered one of the top numismatists in the world because he was both a specialist in the field of minting and printing technologies and a general expert on all things coin- and currency-related, particularly the objects’ places in history,” noted his colleague at the nnc Karen lee in the Washington Post. “most numismatists specialize in a geographical area or a certain time period, but dr. doty’s ‘renaissance personality’ drove him to learn everything he could about coins and paper money and what stories they told about their time periods. I have never seen anybody do that before. you could ask him a question about anything, literally anything.” she added. doty traced his interest in numismatics to age 8, when he discovered a family cache of chinese and Japanese coins brought back from World War II. as opportunities presented them- selves, he traded with fellow schoolmates, and his interests grew. he was graduated in 1964 from portland state University and received an earned doctorate in latin american studies from the University of southern california in 1968. doty spent the next five years teaching history and latin american studies at central college, pella, Ia, city University of new york, and the University of Guam. he was recipient of a fulbright fellowship to the University of madrid. doty said he applied for a job at the american numismatic society “on a lark,” but got the job in 1974, and served 12 years as the ans curator of modern coins and currency until 1986, when he joined the smithsonian. “dick” as he was known by his many numismatic friends and colleagues, shared his enthusiasm for “all things numismat- ic” with fellow hobbyists and historians repeatedly. While at the ans he moderated the society’s annual “coinage of the america’s conferences,” a moveable feast of scholarly convoca- tions with themes on aspects of Western hemisphere numismat- ics. after these conferences, he edited the collections of papers presented there for dissemination in book form. topics includ- ed “america’s copper coinage, 1783-1857,” “money of the caribbean,” and “the token, america’s other money.” dick liked telling numismatic stories. Based on his wide exposure to all fields of numismatics, he wrote popular titles Coins of the World, published by Bantam Books in 1975, Paper Money of the World, published by Grossett & dunlap in 1978, and the scholarly the Macmillan Encyclopedic Dictionary o f Numismatics, published in 1982. this book is truly a gem. “old coins are as much antiques, works of art, as chippendale chairs or paintings by rubens,” he once told the New York Times. “they afford us fascination and great pleasure and they are within the reach of everyone.” the deceased was an expert on coinage technology, and studied the effects of the industrial revolution and contributions of matthew Boulton on the development of coining. In 1987, amos press published seri- alized his “British tokens and the Industrial revolution” as supplements to Coin World. however, dr. doty’s international rep- utation rested largely on his 1998 history of the advent of the mechanization of coinage, The Soho Mint and the Industrialization of Mo ney, co-published by the British numismatic society and spink & son, london. “this book reflects his rare scholarship on the life of the greatest mint master. Boulton was the father of the private mint. doty was the father of numismatic Biography,” fellow minting scholar and medallic art co. historian dick Johnson opined. also in 1998 Krause publications brought out dr. doty’s wonderful narrative America’s Money, America’s Story that offered stories behind the objects in a wonderfully relatable way. this work was revised and republished by Whitman a decade later. his most recent work is the fabulously successful, descrip- tively titled Pictures from a Distant Country: Seeing America through Old Paper Money, also published by Whitman this year. fortunately dick doty’s legacy will live on. a frequent conference and convention speaker, many of his learned and witty presentations were captured on video recordings and are available for purchase, or loan from the american numismatic association library. these include presentations on the “development and use of the screw press for coinage production,” “World’s first Industrial coiner: Boulton, Watt & co..” “making money in early massachusetts,” “monetary Innovation in early massachusetts,” “america’s currency of fame: our 19th century Bank notes,” and “america’s coin renaissance as Inspired by augustus saint-Gaudens.” doty was remembered fondly by his publisher dennis tucker: “dick was ill toward the end of production on Pictures From a Distant Country, but he was very pleased to see the fin- ished product and to bask in the glowing reviews and coverage it’s been getting, including in the Wall Street Journal. he was also happy to assist on Karen lee’s Private Sketchbook of George T. Morgan.he was helpful and generous to the end.” among his laurels are the royal numismatic society millennial award medal, the ans huntington medal, and an ana lifetime achivement award. doty is survived by cindi roden, his wife of one month. “We will not see anyone like him again,” she said. -- Fred Reed
Death claims scholar/author Dr. Richard G. Doty Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 385 Do color ads in Paper Money Really Work? Just Did! . . . Gotcha Isn’t it time that YOU advertised in Paper Money? 386 Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 Nancy & John Wilson’s cameras capture highlights of 2013 Memphis Show Above left: The annual SPMC breakfast and Tom Bain raffle, under leadership of Mark Anderson, Wendell Wolka and Benny Bolin was a great success. Above right: Frank Clark is honored with the Nathan Gold Lifetime Achievement award by immediate past winners Len Glazer and Allen Micho at left and outgoing SPMC President Mark Anderson at right. Above left: At a power table down front before the podium, incoming SPMC President Pierre Fricke and Paper Money columnist Joe Boling and friends observe the goings on. Above: Len Glazer and Allen Mincho were honored with a Presidential Award by Mark Anderson. At left: How many volunteers does it take to assure SPMC runs smoothly? A whole bunch. Here is a group that cameraman John Wilson pulled together on the bourse floor. Seated from left: Judith Murphy, Linda Wolka, Fred Reed. Standing from left: Benny Bolin, Mark Anderson, Claud Murphy, Bob Vandevender, Bob Moon, Wendell Wolka and Shawn Hewitt Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 387 Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287388 Above left: A Society also needs an active membership, and Mark Anderson congratulates Jason Bradford, who recruited the most new members the previous year and won the Nathan Goldstein Memorial Award. A Memphis show tradition since 1978, when organizers remembered the recently deceased dealer William P. Donlon, is the Memorial Roll, current show owner Lyn Knight posted. Exhibiting is also a mainstay of the hobby and the Memphis show. Above left: Bank Note Reporter Editor Bob Van Ryzin (right) presents the publication’s coveted “Most Inspirational Exhibit Award. Above right: Mack Martin shows off his exhibit hardware, the Memphis Coin Club’s Bill Sharp Award for the best obsolete cur- rency exhibit at Memphis and SPMC’s “Best in Show” award. Right: Benny Bolin congratulates Jerry Fochtman for winning the FCCB exhibiting award. SPMC honors members... Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 389 Stack’s Bowers Galleries takes tremendous pride in the expertise and competency of our associates, which include some of the most prominent numismatic authorities in the world. Whether you are a seasoned collector or are looking forward to your first consignment, the experts at Stack’s Bowers Galleries are just a phone call away, ready to share our numismatic knowledge and guid- ance to help you earn top dollar for your currency. Stack’s Bowers Galleries is accepting consignments to auctions throughout the year, including the Official Auctions of the Whitman Baltimore Expos. Peter A. Treglia Matthew W. Quinn Bruce Roland HagenJohn M. Pack Peter A. Treglia ANA LM # 1195608 Chris Napolitano ANA LM # 4430 Ron Gillio ANA LM # 950 Richard H. Ponterio LM #2163 Peter A. Treglia Matthew W. Quinn Bruce Roland Hagen John M. Pack 800.458.4646 West Coast Office 800.566.2580 East Coast Office 1063 McGaw Avenue Ste 100, Irvine, CA 92614 sINFO STACKSBOWERSCOMsWWWSTACKSBOWERSCOM Àۈ˜iÊUÊ iÜÊ9œÀŽÊUÊ7œviLœÀœÊUÊ->˜ÊÀ>˜VˆÃVœÊUÊœ˜}Êœ˜}ÊUÊ*>ÀˆÃ SBG PM 7.26.13 The Stack’s Bowers Galleries Official Auction of the Whitman Coin and Collectibles Baltimore Expo November 4-10, 2013 | Consign World Lots by August 12, 2013 Consign U.S. Lots by September 16, 2013 Call one of our currency consignment specialists to discuss opportunities for upcoming auctions. They will be happy to assist you every step of the way. :HVW&RDVW2IILFH‡(DVW&RDVW2IILFH Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287390 Above left: Prolific researcher and author Peter Huntoon has really come into his own as the chairman of the educational lecture series that show owner Lyn Knight has added to the Memphis show fare. He poses at left with his co-author collector Andrew Shiva (at right) in front of Shiva’s non-competitive exhibit of a unique, newly discovered First National Bank of Juneau $10 note. Right: One of the fine speakers this year was SPMC governor Shawn Hewitt, who delivered the SPMC-sponsored lecture. Shawn’s topic was his research on large size replacement notes of the 1903-1920 period. Left: SPMC President Benny Bolin presents new “Past President” Mark Anderson a ceremonial gavel to remember his successful four years at the helm of the Society. Memphis show sports powerful lecture series... Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 391 Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287392 Promoting the health of the hobby through active participation and encouragement in the publication of worthwhile numismatic books has been a hallmark of SPMC for a half centu- ry. At left five of the six speakers at the Society’s 10th Annual Authors Forum and emcee Wendell Wolka (far right) mug for John Wilson’s camera. From left: Fred Schwan, Howard Daniel, Pierre Fricke, Fred Reed, Harold Kroll. For reasons not clear to this edi- tor at present, the sixth speaker Neil Shafer is not shown, but he was there too. Honest! SPMC recognized authors at the annual breakfast. Above: Pierre Fricke holds his share of Pierre and Fred Reed’s Wismer Book of the Year” award for their The History of Collecting Confederate States of America Paper Money, vol. 1, 1865-1945. Above right: President Mark Anderson congratulates Roger Urce, who accepts Harold Kroll’s Honorable Mention Award for his World War II Paper Money and Financial Instruments of Nazi Germany. At right: Anderson also congraulates Rob Kravitz for his Honorable Mention Award for the second edition of his A Collector’s Guide to Postage and Fractional Currency, The Pocket Change of the Union. Society’s authors come to the fore at Memphis
Society of Paper Money Collectors Board of Governors Meeting June 15, 2012 Boardroom, Marriott Downtown, Memphis, TN Present: Mark Anderson, Pierre Fricke, Robert Moon, Shawn Hewitt, Wendell Wolka, Frank Clark, Fred Reed, Mike Scacci, Benny Bolin, Ron Horstmann, Judith Murphy, Jeff Bruggeman, Scott Lindquist, Gary Dobbins, Robert Vandevender Absent: Larry Schuffman,. Call to order: The meeting was called to order at 8:00am by President Anderson Governor Election: Secretary Benny Bolin cast the lone ballot to elect Gary Dobbins and Scott Lindquist as new governors. Election of Officers: Officers were elected. President—Judith Murphy nominated Pierre Fricke & Wendell Wolka second. Unanimous Vice President–Deferred until further action by President Fricke Secretary—Wendell Wolka nominated Benny Bolin & Mike Scacci second. Unanimous Treasurer—Wendell Wolka nominated Robert Moon & Robert Vandevender second. Unanimous. Financial Report: Treasurer Moon gave an update on the finan- cial condition of the Society. The treasurer’s report had been pre- viously distributed via e-mail and a yearend will be mailed after the fiscal year ends on June 30. Tom Bain Raffle and breakfast report: 85 physical attendees ($1,870), including 51 early and 34 late; $1310 in raffle tickets sold; $2130 total cost; $1,050 profit (approximately); Next year reservations made. President Anderson will draft formal letters of thanks for raffle items and support to Andy MacKay and Heritage Auction Galleries. Primary concern is loss of sizable amounts of advertising rev- enue. Discussion held related to need for dues increase. President Fricke will convene a conference call for further discussion and decision. Membership report: Membership chairman Frank Clark asked for questions about his report that had been previously circulated via e-mail. None were received. Membership report: Membership secretary Benny Bolin gave a synopsis of his report that had been previously circulated via e-mail and is attached. No questions received. Editors Report: Editor Reed gave update of and additions to his report that had been previously circulated via e-mail and attached. No questions received. Publication Committee Report: Chairman Fricke went over the report related to printing of books with SPMC assistance that had been previously been circulated via e-mail and solicited input and changes. The report was adopted by a unanimous vote after move by Anderson and second by Wolka. This will be published in the Sept/Oct issue of PM. Educational Grants: Chairman Horstman reported that we had two requests this year, one by Peter Huntoon for $1000 and one by Benny Bolin for $750. Regional Director Update: Coordinator Judith Murphy gave an update of past and future regional meetings. Regional meetings have been very active and doing well. Plan is in final stages of development to have webinars for members to view. Librarian: Librarian Jeff Bruggeman said there had been three requests for books but that the most commonly requested item was article reprints. Audit Committee: Chairman Scacci reported that the audit was done and it was in agreement with the financial report done by Treasurer Moon. Report attached. Exhibits: Exhibit co-chair Moon reported there were a total of 28 exhibits for a total of 132 cases. A lengthy discussion was held and more will be forthcoming about how to improve and increase the exhibits for next year. Bequeaths: President Anderson reported the society gave $1,000 to Lyn Knight to promote the exhibits and education. President Anderson reported that the Higgins Foundation will have their program every two years, so we will cancel the previously approved request for funds. Website report: Webmaster Hewitt gave an update of his report that had been previously distributed via e-mail including updates on pricing, development and issues and is attached. Meeting Schedule: President Anderson stated that the 2014 meet- ing schedule for Memphis would be the same as this year. Board Development: President Anderson asked the board to be thinking of people who could be leaders in the Society, for commit- tee, project and governorships. Names and ideas on how to do this are requested to be sent to President Fricke. The board is still short two governors. Hall of Fame Report: The Hall of Fame report was introduced again and a motion to finalize the program for board approval was made by Scacci and seconded by Wolka. Unanimous. A new com- mittee was proposed by Anderson and seconded by Moon with Chair—Fred Reed and members Murphy, Wolka, Scacci and Moon. Unanimous approval. Archives: President Anderson stated that the society had received a 50-year membership plaque from the ANA as well as other items. He requested the board to be thinking about the need for a perma- nent archive. Adjourn: President Anderson adjourned the meeting at 9:59am.
Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 393 Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287394 the memphIs shoW Is rIGhtly reGardedas the high point of the year for paper money collec- tors. In this brief note I’d like to report on another event that took place about the same time: the 2nd International conference on complementary currency systems (June 19-23), which I attended in the hague, netherlands. hosted by the International Institute of social studies of erasmus University, this second conference billed itself as “an event for academics, policy-mak- ers and practitioners from all over the world to exchange knowledge on the sustainability and diversity of money” (the first conference took place in lyon, france, in 2011) . Whether concerned with the theory, history, or implementation of non- national and alternative exchange media, conference attendees share a commitment to the importance of mone- tary reform as a tool of social and economic transforma- tion. ranging in form from paper scrip like Germany’s Regiogeld or Brazil’s Banco Palmas to ledger-based credit arrangements such as local exchange trading systems (lets), the swiss Wirtschaftsring (WIr) and time Banks, these so-called complementary currencies seek to promote community and regional development as antidotes to the disruptions occasioned by the global economy. as a student of the history of such exchange media, I value these conferences as opportunities to present my own research before audiences that are appreciative of what the monetary past teaches about possibilities in the present. I also get to touch base with dear colleagues and to find out what’s new! Whether one is interested in the theory and practice of complementary currencies, or simply wishes to collect examples of them, the work of scholars and activists in this field is invaluable for documenting the circumstances of these monetary experiments, many of which have proven quite ephemeral and about which information can be scarce. the next conference is tentatively scheduled for Brazil. two websites that provide useful sources of information and analysis about complementary cur- rencies are: www.complementarycurrency.org and www.ijccr.net. Left: Dr. Bert Helmsing of Erasmus University delivers the conference’s closing address. The Hague Conference on Complementary Currencies: A Brief Report By Loren Gatch Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 395 Above: Sharing notes during a conference break. Left: The Boniato, a new local currency in Madrid. sIX Well-KnoWn hoBByIsts dIscUssed theIr neWnumismatic books and how they came about at the 10th annual spmc authors forum on June 23rd during the recent memphis International paper money show. attendees were wel- comed by outgoing society president mark anderson. once again able raconteur Wendell Wolka emceed the event, orga- nized by Paper Money editor fred reed. leading off the event was new spmc president pierre fricke. during the last decade pierre fricke’s name has become synony- mous with confederate currency. he has been a collector since 1969, first specializing in early large cents by variety, and then Bust halves. In 2001 he began collecting csa paper, and maintains a website on the series. pierre wrote Collecting Confederate Pap er Mo ney – Comp rehens ive Ed i ti o n (2005) , Co lle c ting Confederate Paper Money – Field Edition (2008), and coau- thored Confed era te Trea sury Certificates: A Collector’s Guide to IDRs (2010). all three won awards. In 2012 he co-authored with fred reed History of Confederate States of America Paper Money, Volume 1, 1865-1945, which won last year’s nlG “Best U.s. paper money Book award.” today he will speak on another recent book, Confederate Currency, covering the historical aspects of the series, published in england by shire. next up was editor reed. fred reed has been a collector for 55+ years, and began collecting lincolniana with lincoln cents in 1955. during his six-year stint at Coin World, he developed his special taste for “all things lincoln,” spe- cializing in lincoln imagery. he was mentored in this field by the pre- eminent lincoln photographic histo- r i a n l l o y d ostendorf, who developed the sys- tem of lincoln photograph cata- loging that has dominated the field since 1962. fred has shared his lincoln discoveries in more than 100 articles in all the leading numis- matic publications as well as the prestigious quarterly Linc o ln Herald. fred’s first lincoln Book, Abraham Lincoln, the Image of his Greatness won “Book of the year” awards from spmc, pcda and nlG. his new opus is a sequel, Ab raham Linc o ln , Beyo nd the Ameri c an Ic o n. fred is editor/publisher of Paper Money and TAMS Journal and colum- nist for several numismatic publications. rounding out the first session was veteran author howard daniel. howard has been collecting U.s. coins and paper money since he was a child and changed to southeast asia numismatics in 1964. Besides collecting, he also started researching and writing. he pub- lished his first catalog in 1975 and his most recent catalog about cambodia was published about six months ago. he is currently work- ing on a lao catalog, which will be published later this year. he has also written more than 100 articles for World Co in News, Banknote Reporter, The Stamp Co llector (about postal financial instruments), Coin World, and many other numis- matic and philatelic periodicals. howard is a member of spmc, IBns, ana, nBs, nlG and several societies in southeast asia. his new catalog, Camb o d ia Co ins and Currency, describes all the known legal tender coins and paper money from the 16th century to date, as well as other financial instruments. more than 850 items are listed. attendees were treated to a twin look behind the scenes of numismat- ic publishing by the next duo harold Kroll and fred schwan, the publisher of Kroll’s new work. a transplanted alabama resident, harold Kroll is a collector and researcher of World War II financial documents at Banknote Warehouse. he is co-author of World War II Finance: Canada and Newfoundland w i t h dick dunn and dan freeland (Bnr press, 2010) that received an spmc literary award of merit. he will be talking about his new monograph World War II Pap er Money and Financ ia l Ins truments o f Nazi Germany, published by Bnr press in 2012, which won last year’s nlG best specialized world paper money book award. this 64-page full color, 8.5 X 11 inch monograph covers Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287396 Diverse group talks up new books at forum Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 397 You are invited to visit our web page www.kyzivatcurrency.com For the past 12 years we have offered a good selection of conservatively grad- ed, reasonably priced currency for the collector All notes are imaged for your review NATIONAL BANK NOTES LARGE SIZE TYPE NOTES SMALL SIZE TYPE NOTES SMALL SIZE STAR NOTES OBSOLETES CONFEDERATES ERROR NOTES TIM KYZIVAT (708) 784-0974 P.O. Box 451 Western Springs, IL 60558 E-mail tkyzivat@kyzivatcurrency.com DBR Currency We pay top dollar for • National bank notes • Large size star notes • Large size FRNs and FRBNs www.DBRCurrency.com P.O. Box 28339 San Diego, CA 92198 Phone: 858-679-3350 info@DBRCurrency.com Fax: 858-679-7505 See our eBay auctions under user ID DBRCurrency reichsbank issues, German army issues, credit treasury notes, poW money, lotteries, tax payment notes, traveller’s checks and other items. In addition to notes from Kroll’s collection, other illus- trations are of items in the collec- tions of neil shafer and larry smulczenski. researcher, author and publish- er carlton f. “fred” schwan needs no introduction to collectors of paper money, expecially mpcs, amcs and similar items. a collector for a half century, schwan is the pro- prietor of Bnr press, publisher of fine numismatic titles, including his own works: World War II Military Currency (1978), The Paper Money of the E.A. Wright Bank No te Co . (1978), Comprehensive Catalog o f Military Payment Certificates (four editions), World War II United States Savings Bonds and Stamps (2011), and World War II Remembered: History in Your Hands (1995), co-authored with Joseph Boling that won the nlG “Book of the year” laurels. he wrote the foreword and is the publisher of harold Kroll’s book on nazi items, one of five magazine-sized color monographs on the WWII era he has published. schwan was recently named the spmc George W. Wait memorial award winner. rounding out the presentations was former spmc gover- nor neil shafer. neil shafer has been a professional numismatic cataloger and author for more than 50 years and has been inducted into both the american numismatic association and International Bank note society halls of fame. he writes monthly for Bank No te Reporter. his extensively illustrated new work co-authored with tom sheehan, Panic Scrip of 1893, 1907 and 1914: An Illustrated Catalog of Emergency Monetary Issues (mcfarland 2013) catalogs all known U.s. emergency currency issues of the panics of 1 8 9 3 , 1 9 0 7 a n d 1 9 1 4 . nearly 900 photographs show these privately produced substitutes for money. the book also includes con- textual historical information and authoritative appendices by steve Whitfield on labor scrip and loren Gatch on the background leading to these currency issues.
Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287398 the society of paper money collectors, Inc. [the “spmc”] is chartered to advance the hobby through education. a key articulation of its fulfillment of this mission is the help it has provided over the decades to authors interested in publishing books whose principal subject matter relates to the study of paper money, fiscal documents and/or related history. In many cases, these books are works whose publication is not warranted from a commercial perspective, due to either the costs of production or ultimate size of print run, but which are deemed important to the hobby. neither the spmc nor its officers nor the members of the spmc Book committee are professional publishers and historically have not had adequate free time to become publishers and or project managers for these books. as a result, any prospective book author must be pre- pared to be a driving force throughout the project. however, the spmc recognizes that it can be a significant partner to any author looking to publish specialized works for the hobby, providing a vari- ety of forms of help, advice, direct, non-recoverable grants, production funding, and marketing help. the following represents an effort to clarify the roles and processes which have historically proved successful in the roughly 40 previous books published by the spmc. the society recognizes that every publication is created for a different audience, in a different environment, with unique authorship, and as such, recognizes that the following can only represent a general starting point for a successful partnership. the society views its partnerships with authors as [generally] falling into three phases: the authorship phase, the pre-publication phase, and the publication phase. It is highly recommended that any author considering approaching the spmc for assistance involve the society as soon as possible. Authorship Phase: this phase can generally be thought of as the creative phase, in which the work is written, and brought to the point of pre-publication readiness. • the author is responsible for writing the book. spmc members and other individuals may function as editors and reviewers, subject to their and the author’s desire. • the author should use a format that may be readily converted into camera-ready pdf, Indesign or Quark (ready-to-publish for- mat). microsoft Word or some other format that can be converted to rich text format input into microsoft Word are likely choices. • pictures will need to be identified and delivered to an editor/layout person separately from the Word document. 300 dpi, 100% size scans or photographs are the minimum recommended reso- lution and size. Blow-ups or magnified close-ups should be scanned at 600 dpi [100% true size] or 400 dpi if already at the desired level of magnification (200%, 300%, etc.). at any rate, 300dpi is the absolute minimum. Us federal note scan/picture requirements will need to be met. photographs of notes are discouraged. • the author and/or his/her financial sponsors are responsi- ble for getting the book edited, laid out, and prepared for publication in a ready-to-publish format. this includes preparation of the images and text of the front and back cover, as well as arranging for an IsBn number. (the spmc can assist with contacts and procedures for this). Pre-Publication Phase: as soon as is practically possible, the author and/or his/her financial sponsors are requested to submit a proposal to the spmc Book committee. that proposal would ideally include the following information: • proposed title for the book; • authorship; • number of pages; •anticipated or suggested format, i.e., 6” x 9”, 8.5” x 11”, or other, color or black and white or some combination thereof • Whether issuance in dvd and/or eBook (e.g., Kindle, nook, ipad) format is a meaningful alternative or additional possibility • proposed number of copies to be printed • the “value proposition” for the intended purchaser, i.e., “Why would someone want to buy this book?” • clarification as to who will own the copyright – the spmc or the author[s]. • the intended retail price. Generally, spmc publications have been discounted [per industry norms] by 40% to dealers who order 3 or more copies, and by 55% to wholesalers ordering by the case quan- tities. Buyers [retailer, dealer or wholesale] pay shipping. • a very basic marketing plan, i.e., which dealers, wholesalers and/or retailers can be expected to sell the book and why. While the spmc will promote the book through its journal, its website and other channels, the role of and support of the author[s] is critical, and their plans for their own advertisements and/or web related sites or activities is important to us. It is the responsibility of the author(s) to ensure that no viola- tions of third party copyrights occur with respect to any text, photo- graph, or other image or material contained in the book. It is similarly the responsibility of the author(s) to solicit, obtain and maintain any and all releases necessary to the publishing of the work. Upon receipt of the proposal, the spmc will endeavor to get printing estimates, from domestic and international suppliers, includ- ing any suggestions from the author[s]. In addition, the spmc will seek out a logistics provider to house inventory, and handle wholesale and dealer orders, which the spmc will also fund. after all costs have been identified, the spmc will incorporate the sales estimates and proposed price, and review the complete proposal. If the project proceeds, a contract between the author(s) and spmc will be negotiated. the spmc will underwrite some to all of the cost of the printing and shipping expense, depending on the busi- ness case. to the extent that the cost of publishing the book is recouped over time, the health of early sales is critical [generally half of a specialized currency book’s sales occur in the first four months of sale]. In order to reduce the society’s financial risk and exposure to inventory, authors are strongly encouraged to consider their own will- ingness to support the project in the form of a commitment to pur- chase a portion of the book’s print run [at 45% of the cover price (wholesale price)] with the understanding that the author’s subsequent sale of those books will not be discounted below a certain price until the spmc’s inventory has been fully liquidated. If the feasibility of a print book is questionable other alternatives may make sense – e.g., a dvd, or eBook. Publication and Sales Phase: once all necessary clarifications are in place, the parties proceed to contract. Unless other arrangements are made, the author remains the project manager, and will drive the printing, rollout and supplying the logistics firm. the spmc can con- tinue throughout this phase to provide the author with any necessary contacts or advice. Upon delivery of the books, sales activities begin. receipts for book sales flow to the spmc’s treasurer for deposit to the spmc’s accounts to replenish the publication fund’s expenditures to publish and print the book. Upon full reimbursement of spmc expenses, additional proceeds will be delivered per the publishing contract. In Closing: the spmc is vitally interested in encouraging and assisting potential authors with publications. the foregoing is intend- ed as a clarification of the ways in which the society can advance the hobby through education. We are vitally interested in hearing from the author community about ways in which we can be more helpful. comments or questions are encouraged, c/o pierre fricke, p.o. Box 1094, sudbury, ma 01776 or pfricke@csaquotes.com.
Draft of SPMC’s revised Book Publishing Policies Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287 399 Bitcoin, Gold, and the psychology of trust Both Gold and Bitcoin have given their owners whiplash recently. What interests me is how each expresses a distrust of government-created money from opposite directions. the supply of gold is fixed by nature, while the ultimate supply of Bitcoins is fixed by the cryptographic protocols established by its creator. Both are beyond the control of governments. yet any given amount of gold is genuine because it’s atomically identical to any other amount. In contrast, each Bitcoin is mathematically different from any other. each is genuine because each is unique. We are witnessing an ongoing experiment playing out as to which model of private money will prove more viable. In the early nineteenth century, a similar debate played out about the technical genuineness of paper money. the industrial revolution begot standardization and interchangeable parts, and Jacob perkins was to banknotes what eli Whitney was to muskets. perkins’ stereotyped steel plate gave the appearance of banknotes greater uniformity, requiring counterfeiters to match the new technical standards. as e. J. Wilber and e.p. eastman described the new standard, “the utmost skill of the hand cannot equal the machine.” abel Brewster, a rival of perkins, objected that unifor- mity would only make the counterfeiter’s job easier. publishers of counterfeit detectors knew that, once the features of a fake note were described, the bad guys simply corrected their prod- uct. and anyway, what good was it to describe fakes, if people didn’t know what genuine notes looked like? In The Confidence-Man, herman melville depicts a stock swindler seeking to convert a mark by showing him a phony prospectus, which the victim declines to view: “But you have not examined by book.” “What need to, if already I believe that it is what it is let- tered to be?” “But you had better. It might suggest doubts.” “doubts, may be, it might suggest, but not knowledge; for how, by examining the book, should I think I knew any more than I now think I do; since, if it be the true book, I think it so already, and since if it be otherwise, then I have never seen the true one, and don’t know what that ought to look like.” melville understood that commerce requires gullibility, making “confidence” both indispensable, and an occupational hazard. our modern distrust of government-issued money just sets us up to fall for something else down the line.
The Editor’s Notebook Fred L. Reed III Fred@spmc.org farewell, good fellow, rIp national numismatic collection curator dr. richard doty’s obituary is elsewhere in this issue. When I first met dick doty in the mid-1970s, we were both considerable less grey. a former col- lege professor, he was a newly minted curator at the american numismatic society and I was hired on as a staff writer at Coin World. We kept in touch after my move to probe ministries and later to Beckett publications, both in dallas, and he went on to the smithsonian Institution and the national numismatic collection. In 1986, I traveled to Washington, dc on a grant from the american numismatic association and researched at the smithsonian, the national archives and the library of congress. I was also there for the annual american philatelic society conven- tion. dick took almost a whole day out of his busy schedule assist- ing me with my research on civil War money at the smithsonian. When my encased stamp book came out in 1995, dick wrote a nice blurb for the back cover dust jacket. more recently he has assisted this columnist with many other research projects repeatedly. most recently, readers of my Bank Note Reporter column may recall, dick assisted with research on the thian Registers and the smithsonian’s accession of the crofoot fractional currency materi- als, which added materially to those columns. But dick helped me out in many other ways too, including supplying illustrations for my lincoln books, and writing up the history of the smithsonian’s rebel note hoard as an appendix to the book I co-wrote with pierre fricke on the history of csa note collecting. Withall dick and I lunched over the years, including at a recent ana convention at which he was speaking. We exchanged many emails on all kinds of subjects, including during the time he was gravely (we now know) ill on leave from the smithsonian. my friend dick doty was a wonderful and very generous scholar, completely unpretentious, funny, a wonderfully engaging writer and a good friend. I think the thing that so distinguished dick doty from other numismatic geniuses that I have met over the last half century was that he was persuadable. he did not think so highly of his own opinion that it became an idée fixe from which he could not retreat. try persuading a John J. ford Jr. or a dr. douglas Ball of something they hadn’t already thought up . . . good luck. With dick, discussions were an exploratory journey toward understanding. not so with some others, unfortunately. I told my Whitman publisher dennis tucker that the blurb dick wrote for my new lincoln book’s cover was the nicest thing I can recall anybody ever saying about me or my work. I liked it so well, I put it at the top of my personal website’s homepage. I can hardly fathom how fortunate I was to make such a friend as dick doty so long ago, nor what I did to deserve his friendship over so long a period of time. We won’t see his likes soon or possibly ever again. rest in peace, good fellow. rest in peace, dear friend.
Chump Change Loren Gatch Paper Money • September/October 2013 • Whole No. 287400 money as art you may not have noticed it yet, but U. s. dollars seem to be taking on another function. In addition to their role as eco- nomic currency they’ve added: things you use as art. for years artists have been cutting up dollars and creatively gluing them back together to depict people, animals, and various objects. andy Warhol painted 200 one dollar Bills, which sold at auc- tion in 2009 for the equivalent of $44 million. the fifteen- minute man also painted a roll of dollar bills. Indeed, mr. Warhol was doing dollars-as-art before dollars-as-art was cool. recently this area has become a real cottage industry for artists. search Google and you’ll find numerous examples of dollars used as art. one artist “sculpted” a paper skull from 11,000 one-dollar bills; another shredded 1,000 dollar bills and stitched the shreds together to sew what looks like a wearable evening gown. other artworks include grenades, pistols, rifles, and even skyline silhouette cutouts crafted from dollars. there’s a guy who creates chandeliers out of dollars; for international flair pesos and euros can also light up your room. In 2012, someone posted on the Internet a photograph showing an old automobile with its bumper covered with dollar bills. I recently saw a photograph of a room that had been wall-papered with dollars. an artist named feldmann won an art prize that came with $100,000. he was also provided an opportunity to put on a solo museum exhibition. What would you do if they gave you $100,000 and a solo exhibition? Why that’s easy—take the $100,000—all 100,000 one-dollar bills and pin them up on the wall! Indeed it was an art work: the museum estimated it would take thirteen days to pin up all that money. you probably have seen the television commercial for the insurance company where a guy covered in dollars drives around on his motorcycle, oblivi- ous to the fact that he’s shedding money. the concept is that some people throw money away and don’t know it. maybe, how- ever, they don’t mind throwing it away as long as it’s for art’s sake. yes, it’s art so it’s supposed to be clever and unusual, and indeed these works are that. But maybe there’s another message here, perhaps an ominous one, like, don’t bother looking, but our money is losing value, so much so that people are using it for things other than for what it was intended. When people start gluing dollars to the back of their old automobile bumpers or cutting them up to make pictures are they creating art or-- amidst the debauchery of easy money—are they thinking, “Well, at least we can make a piece of art out of this stuff”?
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