official journal of The Society of Paper Money Collectors Neil Shafer 1933-2023 America’s Oldest and Most Accomplished Rare Coin Auctioneer 1550 Scenic Ave., Suite 150, Costa Mesa, CA 92626 • 949.253.0916 470 Park Ave., New York, NY 10022 • 212.582.2580 • NYC@stacksbowers.com 84 State St. (at 22 Merchants Row), Boston, MA 02109 • 617.843.8343 • Boston@StacksBowers.com 1735 Market St. (18th & JFK Blvd.), Philadelphia, PA 19103 • 267.609.1804 • Philly@StacksBowers.com Info@StacksBowers.com • StacksBowers.com California • New York • Boston • Philadelphia • New Hampshire • Oklahoma • Virginia Hong Kong • Paris • Vancouver SBG PM Nov2023 HLs 231101 LEGENDARY COLLECTIONS | LEGENDARY RESULTS | A LEGENDARY AUCTION FIRM Featured Highlights from the STACK’S BOWERS GALLERIES November 2023 U.S. Currency Showcase Auction Auction: November 14-17, 2023 • Costa Mesa, CA Expo Lot Viewing: November 7-10, 2023 • Baltimore, MD Contact Us for More Information Today! West Coast: 800.458.4646 • East Coast: 800.566.2580 • Info@StacksBowers.com Fr. 658. Tucson, Arizona. $20 1902 Plain Back. The Tucson NB. Charter #11159. PMG Very Fine 25. Fr. 2221-G. 1934 $5000 Federal Reserve Note. Chicago. PMG Choice Extremely Fine 45. Fr. 268. 1896 $5 Silver Certificate. PCGS Banknote Superb Gem Uncirculated 68 PPQ. Fr. 2231-C. 1934 $10,000 Federal Reserve Note. Philadelphia. PMG Choice Extremely Fine 45. CC-9. Continental Currency. May 10, 1775. $20. PMG Choice About Uncirculated 58 EPQH. CC-21. Continental Currency. February 17, 1776. $1/2. PMG Gem Uncirculated 66 EPQ. Fr. 248. 1896 $2 Silver Certificate. PCGS Banknote Superb Gem Uncirculated 67 PPQ. Fr. 121m. 1901 $10 Legal Tender Mule Note. PCGS Banknote Superb Gem Uncirculated 67 PPQ. Plattsburgh, New York. Iron Bank. Haxby 2230-UNL1aP. 18xx $1. Proof. PMG Uncirculated 62. From the Caine Collection. 391 2% Consols of 1930--Peter Huntoon 399 Taxing non-Federal Currency Out of Existence--Peter Huntoon 404 How the 1914 San Francisco #1 Red Seals were Sold--Allen Mincho 405 Daniel Webster Valentine--Benny Bolin & Jerry Fochtman 411 Paper Money of the Sefton Internment Camp--Steve Feller 418 The White House & Treasury Talk Autographs--Lee Lofthus 422 The SPMC National Bank Lookup Website 427 The Story of Normans Bridge, AL--Bill Gunther & Charles Derby 432 Gutter Fold Errors on Fractional Currency--Richard Merlau & Rick Melamed 439 Oakland, CA Series 1883-94 Postal Note History--Bob Laub 441 The "Real" Rhett Butler--Tony Chibbaro SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 386 Advertisers SPMC Hall of Fame The SPMC Hall of Fame recognizes and honors those individuals who have made a lasting contribution to the society over the span of many years.  Charles Affleck Walter Allan Doug Ball Hank Bieciuk Joseph Boling F.C.C. Boyd Michael Crabb Forrest Daniel Martin Delger William Donlon Roger Durand C. John Ferreri Milt Friedberg Robert Friedberg Len Glazer Nathan Gold Nathan Goldstein James Haxby John Herzog Gene Hessler John Hickman William Higgins Ruth Hill Peter Huntoon Glenn Jackson Don Kelly Lyn Knight Chet Krause Allen Mincho Clifford Mishler Barbara Mueller Judith Murphy Dean Oakes Chuck O’Donnell Roy Pennell Albert Pick Fred Reed Matt Rothert John Rowe III Herb & Martha Schingoethe Hugh Shull Glenn Smedley Raphael Thian Daniel Valentine Louis Van Belkum George Wait D.C. Wismer From Your President Editor Sez New Members Uncoupled Quartermaster Small Notes Chump Change Cherry Picker Corner Obsolete Corner Columns Robert Vandevender 388 Benny Bolin 389 Frank Clark 390 Joe Boling & Fred Schwan 445 Michael McNeil 449 Jamie Yakes 451 Loren Gatch 452 Robert Calderman 453 Robert Gill 455 Stacks Bowers Galleries IFC Pierre Fricke 386 PCGS-C 398 Fred Bart 415 FCCB 416 Higgins Museum 416 World BankNote Auctions 417 Lyn Knight 421 Bob Laub 440 Chemicograph Book 448 Greysheet 448 ANA 457 DBR Currency 457 Tom Denly 457 PCDA 458 Heritage Auctions OBC Fred Schwan Neil Shafer SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 387 Officers & Appointees ELECTED OFFICERS PRESIDENT Robert Vandevender II rvpaperman@aol.com VICE-PRES/SEC'Y Robert Calderman gacoins@earthlink.net TREASURER Robert Moon robertmoon@aol.com BOARD OF GOVERNORS APPOINTEES PUBLISHER-EDITOR Benny Bolin smcbb@sbcglobal.net ADVERTISING MANAGER Wendell Wolka purduenut@aol.com Megan Reginnitter mreginnitter@iowafirm.com LIBRARIAN Jeff Brueggeman MEMBERSHIP DIRECTOR Frank Clark frank_clark@yahoo.com IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT Shawn Hewitt WISMER BOOk PROJECT COORDINATOR Pierre Fricke From Your President Robert Vandevender IIFrom Your President Shawn Hewitt Paper Money * July/August 2020 6 jeff@actioncurrency.com LEGAL COUNSEL Robert Calderman gacoins@earthlink.com Matt Drais stockpicker12@aol.com Mark Drengson markd@step1software.com Jerry Fochtman jerry@fochtman.us Pierre Fricke pierrefricke@buyvingagecurrency.com Loren Gatch lgatch@uco.edu Derek Higgins derekhiggins219@gmail.com Raiden Honaker raidenhonaker8@gmail.com William Litt billitt@aol.com Cody Regennitter cody.regennitter@gmail.com Andy Timmerman andrew.timmerman@aol.com Wendell Wolka purduenut@aol.com Greetings: The Pittsburgh ANA Show was a big success for the SPMC. The location of the convention center downtown was fantastic with many restaurants, hotels, and events within easy walking distance. We had a lot of activity at the SPMC table and over the course of the show, added around ten new members to our Society. I would like to thank the several members who helped staff the table over the four days. During the show, several of our members took advantage of being so close to the Pittsburgh Pirates baseball stadium with home games being played almost every night of the show. Nancy and I made it to one game along with Past President Shawn Hewitt and Governor Derek Higgins and his wife Jessica. Another fun evening was a group dinner several of our board members attended at Nicky's Thai Palace. I don't believe anyone left hungry that evening. At the show, I had the opportunity to be offered a spectacular $5 Educational note that really did belong in my collection. However, the price tag was a little too high for my checkbook at the moment so it will have to find another home. I had the opportunity to meet Ventris C. Gibson, Director of the US Mint. Ms. Gibson gave me an autographed card and posed with me for a picture. Governor Derek Higgins and his wife Jessica help to develop a QR code for our Society. Scanning the QR code will take the viewer directly to our membership page to encourage people to sign up for membership. We plan to make the QR code available to anyone who would like to include it on their website or other communications. Several of our members attended the Tampa Paper Money Show in October and we did have an SPMC table set up. Unfortunately, due to a family commitment to attend a wedding, I will not be able to attend the show this year but I am excited that we now have a paper money only show in the growth stage and I certainly home that as many people as possible can attend. Again, I am sad to have to discuss the passing of one of our long-time members and Hall of Fame member, Neil Shafer. Neil was a fantastic person and very knowledgeable in our avocation. I always enjoyed speaking with Neil and he will certainly be missed among our ranks. Planning for our upcoming events at the FUN Show in January is continuing. We have confirmed our participation in the Youth Treasure Hunt and have developed a new question for the orange treasure hunt card handed out to the youth participants. Several other board members are busy arranging other activities including our annual breakfast and raffle drawing event, during which our highly esteemed and respected board member, Wendell Wolka, will officiate and display his usual humor while calling out the winning ticket numbers. I hope to see many of you at the show in January and if you are there, please attend our events. Breakfast tickets will be on sale on our website very shortly. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 388 Terms and Conditions  The Society  of  Paper Money  Collectors  (SPMC)  P.O.   Box 7055,  Gainesville, GA    30504, publishes    PAPER    MONEY (USPS   00‐ 3162)  every  other  month  beginning  in  January.  Periodical  postage  is  paid  at  Hanover,  PA.  Postmaster  send  address  changes  to  Secretary  Robert  Calderman,  Box  7055, Gainesville,  GA  30504. ©Society  of  Paper Money  Collectors, Inc.  2020.  All  rights  reserved.  Reproduction  of  any  article  in whole  or  part  without written approval  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  cannot  be guaranteed. Opinions  expressed  by  authors  do  not necessarily  reflect those  of  the  SPMC.   Manuscripts should be  submitted  in WORD  format  via  email (smcbb@sbcglobal.net)  or  by  sending memory stick/disk  to  the  editor.  Scans  should  be  grayscale  or  color  JPEGs  at  300 dpi. Color  illustrations may be changed to grayscale at  the  discretion  of  the  editor.  Do  not  send  items  of  value.  Manuscripts are  submitted with copyright release of the author  to  the  editor  for  duplication  and  printing as needed.  ADVERTISING  All advertising on space available basis. Copy/correspondence  should be sent to editor.  All advertising is pay in advance.  Ads are on a “good faith”  basis.  Terms are “Until Forbid.”  Ads  are  Run  of  Press  (ROP)  unless  accepted  on  a  premium  contract basis. Limited premium space/rates available.  To keep rates to 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  (i.e.  Feb.  1  for  the  March/April  issue). Camera‐ready art or electronic ads  in pdf  format are required.  ADVERTISING RATES  Editor Sez Benny Bolin Required file    submission format    is    composite    PDF v1.3  (Acrobat 4.0   compatible).   If   possible, submitted files should  conform to ISO 15930‐1: 2001 PDF/X‐1a file format standard.  Non‐  standard,  application,  or  native  file  formats  are  not  acceptable. Page  size: must  conform to specified publication  trim  size.  Page  bleed:  must  extend minimum  1/8”  beyond  trim for page head, foot, and front.  Safety margin:  type  and  other  non‐bleed  content must  clear  trim by minimum 1/2”.   Advertising c o p y   shall be restricted to paper currency, allied  numismatic material, publications,   and   related   accessories.    The SPMC  does  not  guarantee advertisements,  but  accepts  copy  in good faith,  reserving  the right  to  reject objectionable  or  inappropriate  material  or  edit      copy.  The          SPMC   assumes      no      financial       responsibility for  typographical  errors  in  ads  but  agrees  to  reprint  that portion of an ad  in  which a typographical error occurs.  Benny Space  Full color covers  1 Time  $1500  3 Times  $2600  6 Times $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 Fall is falling. I woke up this morning to an icy-cold temperature of 41! It has been in the 80s and 90s. Now, about that rain which we need so sorely in my neck of the woods. With the cooler weather, a new time for coin shows is nearing. We have been having a great time so far, but more are still to come. The most exciting for me is the Winter FUN show in January 2024. The SPMC has a lot of activities on tap, pulling from our days of Memphis IPMS glory and fun. We will have a BoG meeting on Friday followed by a general membership meeting at 9a. Come to that meeting and see where your society stands and listen and learn at our educational presentation. We don't have a speaker confirmed as yet, but we will have one soon. Then, on Saturday, we will have our annual SPMC breakfast and Tom Bain Raffle with our pre-eminent emcee--the amazing Wendell! During the breakfast, we will be handing our our literary (article and book) awards for 2023 as well as our service awards. The cost this year of $25 includes five raffle tickets to add to your stash you bought at the door! Tickets will go on sale on the website soon. Come join us for a delicious convention center breakfast and take home some suitcase fodder and maybe even the BIG prize. Starting December 1, voting will begin for the best articles in many categories for 2023. Also for best books published in 2023. Voting will only be for three weeks so vote early (and maybe if you are from Chicago--often! so sorry--bad attempt at humor. Sadly, this issue is dedicated to the incomparable Neil Shafer. A long-time member of SPMC and many other hobby groups, he was a wonderful author, reference and a general all-around good guy. I often say Neil at shows and he was always very cordial and always had a throng around him hoping some of his knowledge would wear off on them! He was a member of our Hall-of-Fame and a winner of our highest award, the Nathan Gold Award. The SPMC and the hobby of numismatics as a whole will sorely miss Neil and we send our condolences to his family. As we enter into this winter holiday time, I hope you can find time to enjoy things and try to forget all the bad that is happening in the world. I hope you can find some solace and relaxation in these few pages of Paper Money and that reading what your peers are writing will put a smile on your face, no matter how short- lived. I hope to see you all on the bourse at FUN and at the SPMC activities, especially the Mix 'em Up raffle. 389 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 Meeting of the SPMC is held in June at the International Paper Money Show. Information about the SPMC, including the by-laws and activities can be found at our website-- www.spmc.org. The SPMC does not does not endorse any dealer, company 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 17 years of age and of good moral character. A parent or guardian must sign their application. Junior membership numbers will be preceded 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 eligible to hold office or vote. DUES—Annual dues are $39. Dues for members in Canada and Mexico are $45. Dues for members in all other countries are $60. Life membership—payable in installments within one year is $800 for U.S.; $900 for Canada and Mexico and $1000 for all other countries. The Society no longer issues annual membership cards but paid up members may request one from the membership director with an SASE. Memberships for all members who joined the Society prior to January 2010 are on a calendar year basis with renewals due each December. Memberships for those who joined since January 2010 are on an annual basis beginning and ending the month joined. All renewals are due before the expiration date, which can be found on the label of Paper Money. Renewals may be done via the Society website www.spmc.org or by check/money order sent to the secretary. WELCOME TO OUR NEW MEMBERS! BY FRANK CLARK SPMC MEMBERSHIP DIRECTOR NEW MEMBERS 09/05/2023 NEW MEMBERS 10/05/2023 Dues Remittal Process Send dues directly to Robert Moon SPMC Treasurer 104 Chipping Ct Greenwood, SC 29649 Refer to your mailing label for when your dues are due. You may also pay your dues online at www.spmc.org. 15615 John Thomas, Website 15616 David Hegg, Cody Regennitter 15617 Michael Butchko, Website 15618 Robin L. Hite, PMG 15619 Gary Harris, Robert Calderman 15620 Jennifer Kibbey, Robert Moon 15621 Bradley J. Spontak, Rbt. Vande. 15622 Stephen Curran, Website 15623 Torbjorn Bjork, Website 15624 Gamal Amer, Derek Higgins 15625 Mathew Monahan, Website 15626 Donald Janelle, Website 15627 Michael Jackson, Rbt Vande REINSTATEMENTS 10027 Roy Putze, Website LIFE MEMBERSHIPS None 15628 Kevin Fazekas, Robert Vandevender 15629 Anthony Vilutis, Frank Clark 15630 Richard Houchard, Website 15631 Al Zumpf, Website 15632 Daniel Greenbaum, Website 15633 Barry Murphy, ebsite 15634 David Fanning, Website 15635 Jeff Keough, Mark Drengson 15636 John Miller, Robert Calderman REINSTATEMENTS None LIFE MEMBERSHIPS None SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 390 2% Consols of 1930 The Paper Column Peter Huntoon SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 391 Figure 1. The preceding page and this illustrate the type of backs used on the bearer form of the 2% Consols of 1930. The bond along with its coupons were quarter folded vertically for storage. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 392 Authorization Section 11 of The Gold Standard Act of March 14, 1900, the act that placed United States currency on a gold standard, contained a provision that authorized the issuance of a loan to the Treasury in the form of bonds that were called the 2% Consols of 1930. The word Consol is short for a consolidated government debt issue. In this case, the debt being consolidated by the 2% Consols of 1930 consisted of the redemption and re-funding of three earlier bond issues; namely, 5% bonds payable February 1, 1904, 4% bonds payable July 1, 1907, and 3% bonds payable August 1, 1908. Obviously, the credit of the Treasury and fact that the country was now on a gold standard had improved to the point that the Treasury could borrow at a lower interest rate. The Consols were the first Treasury bonds authorized by Congress that expressly stated that they and the interest on them was payable in gold, a direct result of the fact that the currency of the country had been placed on a gold standard by the act that authorized them (BPD, Jan 14, 1933). This provision was nullified by President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s gold confiscation order of April 5, 1933 and subsequent passage of the Gold Reserve Act of 1934, which took the United States off the gold standard. Thereafter, the bonds and interest were payable in legal tender. The bonds were payable at the pleasure of the United States after 30 years from their April 1, 1900 date of issue. These bonds, as with all other Treasury bonds issued up to that date, carried the circulation privilege. This meant that national bankers could buy and deposit them with the U.S. Treasurer to secure their national bank note circulations. Thus, they became the dominant security for national bank note issues during the remainder of the note-issuing era. The Consols were called for redemption on July 1, 1935 by the Treasury. That call represented the single greatest stroke on the part of the Treasury to kill off national bank currency as Treasury in 1935 called the bonds that could be used by bankers to secure their circulations or the circulation privilege expired by limitation on the remainder. Use The Consols could be purchased by anyone or any institution. The registered form of the Consols Figure 2. The Consols of 1930 came in denominations of $50, $100, $500, $1000, $5000, $10,000 and $50,000. This is the bearer version of a $1000 2% Consol of 1930. This type of bond was payable to whomever possessed it and it came with coupons that represented the interest payable on specific dates. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 393 (Figure 3) was the most widely used and was the type that bankers deposited with the U.S. Treasurer to secure their circulations. The coupon/bearer variety (Figure 2) found limited use in the public sphere where quick liquidity on the part of the owners was desirable. On August 31, 1929, only 630 bearer Consols were outstanding having a face value of $344,850 (BPD, Nov 21, 1929-a). Otherwise, the registered variety was preferred by most individual and institutional investors. The Consols became the dominant security used by national bankers to secure their circulations after they became available in 1900. On February 28, 1935, $599,724,050 worth of them were outstanding, of which $480,506,250 were used to secure national bank circulations. Those used to secure circulations represented slightly over 80% of the total. The total national bank circulation at the time was $657,937,080 so the Consols represented backing for 73 percent of that circulation (BPD, Apr 1935). The Consols were redeemable at the pleasure of the United States after April 1 1930; however, Treasury allowed them to run until finally being called for redemption on July 1, 1935, at which time interest ceased to be paid. This created an interesting situation for holders of the bearer/coupon variety because there were no coupons left after the one payable April 1, 1930. The remedy in 1930 was to allow holders to exchange them for the registered variety, after which the interest was paid by check as it came due (BPD, Nov 21, 1929-b). Designs and Aesthetics It is doubtful that any other bond issue of the U.S. Treasury surpasses the aesthetics of the 2% Consols of 1930. The coats-of-arms for the existing 45 states current at the time are represented on the backs of both varieties of the bonds. Territorial seals for the then current territories of Alaska, Arizona, New Mexico and Oklahoma are not present. Entire images of the seals for Texas (top), Nebraska (left center), Wyoming (right center), Washington (bottom), and Delaware (top of shield) are present on the backs of the bearer bonds whereas only the Washington seal is complete on the backs of the registered variety. Figure 3. This is the registered version of a $1000 2% Consol of 1930 where the ownership by an individual or institution was registered with the U.S. Treasurer. Registered Consols did not come with coupons. Interest was mailed by check to the owner or agent when due. The Treasury seal was overprinted above the Register of the Treasury’s signature over some of the text. This is the type of Consols that bankers deposited with the U.S. Treasurer to secure their national bank note circulations. .. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 394 The ship on the right side of the backs of the bearer variety symbolizes that the United States had arrived as a serious maritime player having recently entered the ranks of the colonial nations following its victory over Spain in the Spanish-American War of 1898. That war yielded for the United States the possessions of Puerto Rico, Cuba, Guam and the Philippines. Packaging The bearer/coupon variety of the 2% consols consisted of a package that included the bond (Figure 2) and three sheets of coupons, each representing a decade’s worth. The coupons were stacked on top of the bond with the earliest on top, then bound on the left edge. This package could then be turned over to reveal the back of the bond (Figure 1), which then could be quarter folded vertically so that the shield was folded inward, the ship faced down and the label faced up for easy filing. When unfolded, the coupons faced up so the holder readily could see if any were due. In contrast, the registered variety of the Consols was a standalone item with the bond on the face (Figure 3) and back consisting of the ownership transfer form illustrated on Figure 5. Acknowledgment Rick Hickman owns a $100 registered example that allowed for verification of the layout of that type of bond. Sources Photos are of Bureau of Engraving and Printing certified proofs in the National Numismatic Collection, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. The Treasury seal and bond serial numbers are omitted from the faces of the bonds illustrated on Figures 2 and 3. Bureau of the Public Debt, Loans, subject files 1917-1980: Record Group 53, UD UP 8 boxes 1-6 & UD UP 9 boxes 4-10 (450/53/35/06}; specifically, • Memorandum dated November. 21, 1929-a from William S. Broughton, Commissioner of the Public Debt, to Ogden Mills, Secretary of the Treasury, with a statement of bearer 2% Consols of 1930 outstanding on August 31, 1929: Redemption Official, File 380, Box 3. • Draft dated November 21, 1929-b of a Treasury Circular to be signed by Secretary of the Treasury Andrew W. Mellon advising holders of bearer 2% Consols of 1930 to exchange them for registered Consols after they used the last coupon attached to them: Redemption Official, File 380, Box 3. • Note dated January 14, 1933 by William S. Broughton, Commissioner of the Public Debt, advising that Hon. G.H. Cross had been notified by letter that the 2% Consols of 1930 were the first Treasury bonds that expressly stated that they and their interest were payable in gold: Redemption Official, File 380, Box 3. Federal Reserve Bulletin, April 1935, Table listing U.S. Government bonds bearing the circulation privilege on February 28, 1935: Federal Reserve Board of Governors, Washington, DC, p. 203. United States Statutes, Act of March 14, 1900, An act to define and fix the standard of value, to maintain the parity of all forms of money issued or coined by the United States, to refund the public debt, and for other purposes: U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington, DC. Figure 4. This is a typical quarterly coupon (enlarged) that accompanied a $500 Consol of 1930. The coupons came in sheets of 39, 40 and 40, respectively dated October 1, 1900-April 1, 1910, July 1, 1910-April 1, 1920, and July 1, 1920-April 1, 1930, that were bound along with a bearer bond (Figure 2). The owner clipped the coupons as they came due for submission through a bank or agent for payment. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 395 SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 396 Figure 6. Examples of the backs of the coupons used for bearer 2% Consols of 1930. There was a different design for each denomination. The $1000 back includes the colored tint underlay Figure 5 on the preceding page is an owner transfer form printed on the backs of the registered variety of the 2% Consols of 1930 for use when the bond was sold or redeemed. They sported various colors, in some cases more than one color for the same denomination over time. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 397 You Collect. We Protect. Learn more at: www.PCGS.com/Banknote PCGS.COM | THE STANDARD FOR THE RARE COIN INDUSTRY | FOLLOW @PCGSCOIN | ©2021 PROFESSIONAL COIN GRADING SERVICE | A DIVISION OF COLLECTORS UNIVERSE, INC. PCGS Banknote is the premier third-party certification service for paper currency. All banknotes graded and encapsulated by PCGS feature revolutionary Near-Field Communication (NFC) Anti-Counterfeiting Technology that enables collectors and dealers to instantly verify every holder and banknote within. VERIFY YOUR BANKNOTE WITH THE PCGS CERT VERIFICATION APP Taxing non-Federal currency out of existence Overview What numismatists know as obsolete currency, scrip and ilk were driven out of circulation by taxes instituted during the Civil War. The taxes served two purposes: (1) commerce was rid of non-Federal currencies and currency substitutes thus leaving the field to Federal currencies that came into being during the Civil War and (2) the funds raised helped finance the Union war effort. The latter was the decidedly lesser consideration. There were two types of taxes. The first instituted in 1864 was a 10% yearly tax on the outstanding circulation of non-Federal currencies levied against the issuer. The second instituted in 1865, but which went into effect in 1866, was a 10% tax on every non-Federal note paid out by every bank. Prior to the Civil War, the primary source for income to the U.S. Treasury consisted of customs taxes on imports payable in gold. Once the war descended on the nation, Congress in league with the Treasury scrambled to devise ways to keep the Treasury solvent as war costs mounted. One method was to impose taxes. These came in the form of income taxes and all sorts of excise taxes. Just about every item and activity the framers could think of was taxed. Included were sin taxes on beer, liquor, tobacco products, matches and playing cards; taxes on all sorts of commodities; taxes in the form of professional and manufacturing licenses; taxes on commercial paper such bank checks, stock and bond transfers, real estate transfers, etc. Voluminous revenue tax laws and amendments were passed annually as Congress attempted to tighten up and tweak language so as to reach into as many pockets as possible. The first of these acts was passed August 5, 1861, followed by July 1, 1862, March 3, 1863, June 30, 1864, March 5, 1865 and July 13, 1866. A later act dated February 8, 1875 carried the final word pertaining to the taxing of non-Federal currencies. Each of these acts was a work in progress until the provisions were made workable. For example, an income tax was a centerpiece of the 1861 act, but the 1862 act repealed it before it could take effect. Heritage Archives photo. The Paper Column Peter Huntoon Wendell Wolka SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 399 Clearer language was forthcoming in the 1862 version, which is the income tax that went into effect. An amendment in 1864 raised the income tax on high earners as that tax evolved. Our Setting Going into the Civil War, before the advent of Federal currency, any person or other entity of any kind or stripe could make lots of money if they could push out currency and get people to accept and circulate it. The only Federal money that was available before 1861 was coin. The paper currency of those times consisted of a plethora of promissory notes issued by all sorts of entities, most of whom pledged to the bearer that they would redeem the stuff in Federal coin on demand. The best of it indeed was as good as gold. This early currency was only as sound as the backing behind it held by the issuer. Thus, it wasn’t always reliable and as such it served to impede commerce even under the best of circumstances. Then came the Civil War wherein the Federal Treasury, which was supported primarily by customs taxes payable in gold, found itself having to finance a war whose costs were well beyond its income. In desperation, Congress authorized the virtually bankrupt Treasury to issue Federal currency in the form of promissory notes, first demand notes in 1861 and next legal tender notes in 1862. These notes were circulating Civil War debt instruments that promised to pay the bearer dollars of unspecified value at an unspecified date. The U.S. Treasurer announced that the Demand notes would be accepted for payment of customs taxes so they circulated at par with gold and quickly left circulation as they flowed back into the Treasury. Public confidence in the inflationary legal tender currency was low so it traded at a sharp discount against gold coin. Congress authorized national bank notes in 1863, a currency scheme built on a foundation consisting of legal tender currency. It was a currency designed to circulate without resistance across the land unlike the non-Federal paper currency that was available. The national bankers would buy Federal bonds from the Treasury using legal tender notes that they scavenged from circulation. They would deposit those bonds with the Treasurer and receive 90 percent of the par value of their bonds in national bank currency. If the bank failed, the Treasurer would sell the bonds, deposit the proceeds in a redemption fund, and redeem its outstanding national bank notes with legal tender notes from the redemption fund. The attraction of this money was that the note holder was fully protected; specifically, if the bank failed, the holder could redeem the bank’s notes for legal tender currency. Consequently, the national bankers created a market for the Treasury’s reviled legal tender notes in order to buy the bonds used to secure their national bank notes. This in turn created a market for the bonds. Suddenly there developed a demand for both U.S. Treasury bonds and legal tender currency, both of which the Treasury formerly was having difficulty peddling. Why would bankers buy into this new system? Because they could earn interest twice on the same investment. They earned interest on their bonds and also on their national currency that they could loan. Everything being done at the Federal level was propping up the Treasury in order to fund the war effort. The proceeds from the bonds created needed funds. The legal tender notes were used to pay the troops and anyone else who would take them for supplies, and thus were in essence loans without interest to the Treasury. There was no difference between the value of a legal tender note and a national bank note because national bank notes were redeemable in legal tender notes. Although the national bank notes were always fully redeemable, they circulated at the same discount as legal tender notes relative to gold, the discount being a measure of the confidence that the public had that the legal tender notes ultimately would be redeemed and that the dollars they would receive would be gold. Back to the issue at hand, the other paper currency that was still in circulation was issued by all sorts of entities included but not limited to private banks, state-chartered banks, state governments, local governments, corporations, merchants and individuals. The Treasury and Congressional framers of the national bank act assumed that their new currency system would entice existing bankers to switch to it. However, the entrenched interests still could make plenty of money with their own currency issues and do so without burdensome Federal oversight, which they resented. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 400 How could Congress and the Treasury entice the holdout bankers into the national banking fold? Could the incentive also enrich the Treasury? And furthermore, could the fix clear commerce of the non- Federal currency? It didn’t take rocket science to come up with the solution. Tax the use of the non-Federal currencies to made them unprofitable. How about taxes on the circulations of the non-Federal currency issuers and/or on the use of the non-Federal currency? If designed well, the taxes also would cure a major social ill, that of bankers who issued currency well beyond their means to back it! We will walk you through the taxing provisions that did the job in the sections that follow. You will observe that the language in the acts evolved. The taxes started to go to work in 1864. Act of June 30, 1864 An Act to provide Internal Revenue to support the Government, to pay Interest on the Public Debt, and for other Purposes The Act of 1864 was the first to target bank note circulations. Section 110: * * * and a duty of one twelfth of one per centum each month upon the average amount of circulation issued by any bank, association, corporation, company, or person, including as circulation all certified checks and all notes and other obligations calculated on intended to circulate or to be used as money, * * * and an additional duty of one sixth of one per centum, each month, upon the average amount of such circulation, issued as aforesaid, beyond the amount of ninety per centum of the capital of any such bank, association, corporation, company or person and upon any amount of such circulation beyond the average amount of the circulation that has been issued as aforesaid by any such bank, association, corporation, company or person, for the six months preceding the first day of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-four. * * * Provided, That this section shall not apply to [national banks] * * * Provided, further, That any bank ceasing to issue notes for circulation, and which shall deposit in the treasury of the United States, in lawful money, the amount of its outstanding circulation, to be redeemed at par, under such regulations as the Secretary of the Treasury may prescribe, shall be exempt from any tax upon such circulation. Notice that a particularly stiff tax was imposed on circulations in excess of 90 percent of the bank’s capital. Such issues were considered dangerous overissues and this law gave the Federal government a means to crack down on them. The provision that exempted non-national bankers from the tax if they deposited with the U.S. Treasurer lawful money to redeem their outstanding circulations is particularly curious. What this requested of the bankers was they divulge how much of their currency was outstanding and then deposit legal tender currency with the Treasury so that the Treasury would take over the redemption of their notes. A high-profit incentive for circulating currency was never having to redeem the notes that became irretrievably lost. Under this arrangement, the U.S. Treasury would be the beneficiary, not the issuing bankers. It is very doubtful that the Treasury had many if any takers. Act of March 3, 1865 An Act to amend an Act entitled “An Act to provide Internal Revenue to support the Government, to pay Interest on the Public Debt, and for other Purposes,” approved June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and sixty-four. The 1865 act added the following particularly punishing tax on non-Federal currency. Section 6. That every national banking association, state bank, or state banking association, shall pay a tax of ten per centum on the amount of notes of any state bank or state banking association, paid out by them after the first day of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-six. This was a deliberately onerous per-use excise tax because each time the note was paid out, the tax was due. This provision was the final nail in the coffin for non-Federal circulations. The framers of these laws were well aware that a percentage of circulating notes become irretrievably lost. Thus, the issuing bank would be locked into paying a tax on the unredeemed amount forever under the terms of the June 30, 1864 act. It was determined that a five percent irretrievably lost fraction was realistic, so the following caveat was incorporated into law by the 1865 act to absolve the bankers of perpetual liability. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 401 Section 14: * * * And whenever the outstanding circulation of any bank, association, corporation, company, or person shall be reduced to an amount not exceeding five per centum of the chartered or declared capital existing at the time the same was issued, said circulation shall be free from taxation. And whenever any state bank or banking association has been converted into a national banking association, and such national banking association has assumed the liabilities of such state bank or banking association, including the redemption of its bills, such national banking association shall be held to make the required return and payment on the circulation outstanding, so long as such circulation shall exceed five per centum of the capital before such conversion of such state bank or banking association. Act of July 18, 1866 An Act to reduce Internal Taxation and to amend an Act entitle “An Act to provide Internal Revenue to support the Government, to pay Interest on the Public Debt, and for other Purposes,” approved June thirtieth, eighteen hundred and sixty-four, and Acts amendatory thereof. The 1866 amendment tweaked the language in Section 110 as presented above in the 1864 act by changing “duty” to “tax” and eliminating the following obsolete language: and upon any amount of such circulation beyond the average amount of the circulation that has been issued as aforesaid by any such bank, association, corporation, company or person, for the six months preceding the first day of July, eighteen hundred and sixty-four. Act of February 8, 1875 An act to amend existing customs and internal revenue laws, and for other purposes. The final wording for Section 110 of the Act of June 30, 1864 on taxing circulations of non-Federal currency was spelled out in Sections 19 and 20 of the 1875 act. Section 19: That every person, firm, association other than national bank associations, and every corporation, State bank, or State banking association, shall pay a tax of ten per centum on the amount of their own notes, used for circulation and paid out by them. Section 20: That every such person, firm, association, corporation, State bank, or State banking association, and also every national banking association, shall pay a like tax of ten per centum on the amount of notes of any person, firm, association, other than a national banking association, or of any corporation, State bank, or State banking association, or of any town, city, or municipal corporation, used for circulation and paid out by them. Coercive Tax Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P. Chase turned to Ohio Republican Senator John Sherman to shepherd the national currency act through the Senate. Sherman had replaced Chase as an Ohio Senator upon his appointment as Secretary by Lincoln. Sherman strengthened the bill but it ran into stiff resistance by the entrenched banking interests because it obviously was designed to supplant their operations with the national system. One provision that galvanized their ire was an annual tax of 2 percent on their circulations. The fact was that a similar tax was levied against national bank circulations; however, the national bankers were exempt from state taxes. Thus, the non-national bankers felt victimize. They labeled the levy “coercive” in that it appeared to be designed to force them to convert to the proposed national system. This provision was dropped from Sherman’s bill. Influential Republican Senator Elbridge G. Spaulding of New York, who opposed the act in favor of issuing additional legal tender notes, rose to speak on February 19, 1863 saying the following (Rives, p. 1114). The coercive features in the pending bill against State banks having been stricken out, I intend to give it my vote; not because I think it will afford any considerable relief to the Treasury in the next two or three years, or that it will in any manner lessen the issue of paper money, but because I regard it as the commencement of a permanent system for providing a national currency that will, if wisely administered, be of great benefit to the people, and a reliable support to the Government in the future. Resistance lessened and the bill squeaked through the Senate on a 23 to 21 vote that day. The House passed it the next day on a 78 to 64 vote. Lincoln signed it into law February 23, 1863. It is doubtful that Sherman had any illusions that the non-national bankers would quickly convert to the national system without a bit of coercion. But that issue could be deferred to a later date; and when it arrived, the 10 percent taxes were truly coercive and effective. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 402 The Aftermath Both Section 110 of the Act of June 30, 1864 and Section 6 of the Act of March 3, 1865 as amended remain in force. These acts are occasionally dusted off when the Treasury has to go after non-Federal currencies that entrepreneurial souls try to float. The taxes on non-Federal currency made such issuances unprofitable so they quickly went out of circulation. The impacted issues are broadly classified as obsolete currencies by numismatists. The bankers who wished to remain in the currency-issuing business had one option and that was to join the national banking system. Confidence in the ability of the U.S. Treasury to redeem its Civil War debt steadily improved after the close of the Civil War fueled by good economic times that followed. Thus, the discount between legal tender and national bank notes against gold gradually diminished. In 1875, Congress passed an act that obligated the Treasury to resume species payments on January 1, 1879, which meant that the distinction between gold and legal tender dollars would be obliterated and they both would circulate at par. When species payments resumed, there were $5s in legal tender and national bank notes outstanding for every gold dollar in the Treasury (Knox, 1884, p. 142-143). Times were good, public confidence was high, so no runs developed on the Treasury, which would have bankrupted it. No one’s interests would have been served by that. All the current Federal currencies at the time—legal tender notes, national bank notes, gold certificates, silver certificates—circulated without resistance across the land at par with gold coin. Commerce was well served. Gone were the obsolete currencies whose value depended on the integrity of the issuers and distance to their banks or businesses. The distance alone imposed a cost on note holder who would have to travel there to redeem the notes. Before the Civil War, a primary profit center for bankers was the exchange business that involved buying at a discount notes of uncertain value and submitting them through couriers to the banks of issue for redemption in coin. Instead of bleeding their customers in this fashion, the exchange business evaporated so bankers could now direct more of their attention to providing loans that positively benefitted the economies of their communities. You may be curious to put all the taxes into perspective that were collected via the revenue acts that were passed during the Civil War. The following data are from Hepburn (1924, p. 203). The total amount of revenue that flowed into the Treasury during the war was $771 million, spit $345 million between customs taxes and $426 million from the myriad of revenue taxes raised through the revenue tax acts including person income taxes. The total expenditures of the Treasury were $3,415 million. This left a deficit of $2,644 million. That deficit was carried forward as national debt in the form of $433 worth of legal tender notes that remained in circulation and the rest as bonded debt. Remember in those days that $1 million had truly significant purchasing power. Aside from customs taxes, the taxes raised by the revenue acts discussed herein amounted to $426 million, offsetting only 12-1/2 percent of Treasury expenditures during the war. Quite obviously, the contribution of the taxes from non-Federal circulation were an insignificant fraction of the $426 million. However, those taxes did serve the public good by getting rid of the non-Federal paper money. Eliminating this impediment to commerce was a major step towards strengthening the economic engine of the nation. On May 31, 1878, President Hayes signed a bill pushed through Congress that forbade the Treasury from withdrawing any additional legal tender notes from circulation as of that date. From then on, $346,681,016 in non-interest-bearing Civil War debt was carried around in people’s wallets. In 1994, thanks to inflation, it was such a trivial amount, it was simply folded into the then existing Federal debt and lost to the right of the decimal point (Huntoon, 2021). Two recurring historic realities are present in this tale. Tax policy can move mountains. Politicians are loathe to tax their citizens for the cost of their wars. Sources Cited Hepburn, A. Barton, 1924, A history of currency of the United States: Macmillan Company, New York, 573 p. Huntoon, Peter, 2021, The end of legal tender notes, 50th anniversary: Paper Money, v. 60, p. 36-42. Knox, John, 1884, United States Notes, a history of the various issues of paper money by the government of the United States: & special session of the Senate: Congressional Globe Office, Washington, DC. United States Statutes: Government Printing Office, available in chronological order from the U.S. National Archives at this site: https://www.loc.gov/collections/united-states-statutes-at-large/about-this-collection/ Charles Scribner's Sons, New York, 247 p. Rives, John C. 1863, The Congressional Globe, the debates and proceedings of the Third Session of the Thirty-Seventh Congress SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 403 How the 1914 FRN Serial #1 San Francisco Red Seals Were Sold By Allen Mincho I read with great interest Lee Lofthus’ superbly researched story How the 1914 FRN Serial #1 San Francisco Red Seals Were Saved in the September/October issue of Paper Money. Here, as old-time radio host Paul Harvey would say, is the “rest of the story” detailing just how those notes, which were previously unknown to the numismatic community, were sold. In January of 2011, I received a phone call from an individual in northern California who inquired whether a set of notes with “Red Seals” in denominations ranging from $5 to $100 had enough value for Heritage to auction. Unsure of whether the caller was referring to Federal Reserve Notes or National Bank Notes, I asked whether he had the notes in front of him so he could describe them more fully. After assuring me that he did, he informed me that they were all Federal Reserve Notes from the San Francisco district and that all appeared to be in perfect shape. I then assured him that the notes did possess considerable value, and that we at Heritage would certainly love to auction them. At that point he asked me whether the fact that each of the notes bore the same serial number of L1A made any difference in their value. I quickly replied that it certainly did, and that such a set would do quite well at auction. I then asked about the provenance of these notes, in the meantime hurriedly checking to make sure that they had not been purloined from the vaults of the San Francisco Fed. A quick perusal of the population reports indicated that they had, very fortuitously, not previously been listed in any census data. My caller then told me he represented a company that had obtained many boxes of documents, correspondence, archives, and the like to dispose of, and that the notes had been discovered by one of the principals shortly before the box was marked for shredding. Quick action was clearly required, and, as luck would have it, both Len Glazer and I were scheduled to attend the upcoming Long Beach show the next week. We quickly made arrangements to fly from Long Beach to Oakland, leaving on the first flight of the morning and stopping just long enough to meet our consignor, do the necessary paperwork, provide holders for the notes, and head back to Long Beach on the next available flight. Our consignor indicated that we need not even leave the airport, so, after our flight landed, we met in the airport’s coffee shop, concluded the necessary formalities, and, after less than an hour on the ground, were on a plane headed back to Long Beach with the notes in hand. The set, sold as separate lots in the Heritage Central States auction in April of 2011, realized an amazing $638,250, an average of well over $100,000 per note. Each was graded by PCGS, with all receiving the PPQ designation. The $5 and $20 were graded 65, the $10 and $100 were graded 64, and the $50, the rarest of the group with only two auction appearances for that Friedberg number, received a 63 grade. To date, none have reappeared at auction. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 404 Daniel Webster Valentine—Fractional Currency& Half-Dimes by Benny Bolin & Jerry Fochtman Daniel Valentine is best known in the paper hobby for his collecting, research and book on Fractional Currency. He is also known in the coin field for his work in half-dimes. I have used his fractional currency numbering system in my pursuit of the fractional hobby for over 30 years and have multiple copies of his books related to the hobby. However, I did not know much about the man, himself until Jerry did a lot of research on him, including contacting surviving members of his family. Daniel Webster Valentine was born in New York City on March 7th, 1863 to Charles W. and Sara E. (Fleetwood) Valentine. Daniel was their second child, having an older brother Charles who was born July 27th, 1861. In 1867, at the age of 4, the family moved to the newly established community of Englewood, NJ, across the Hudson River along the New Jersey shore. There Daniel’s father Charles opened a real estate business. Soon he combined a hardware store with his real estate business and became a prominent citizen in the growing community. Growing up, Daniel worked in his father’s hardware store as a clerk. At that time following the Civil War, tokens were not valid, and a clerk would be reprimanded should they appear in the cash box. So Daniel learned quickly how to examine the change customer’s used. Fractional paper money was still in use, but the government had authorized the issuance of metallic coins and the fractional money was rapidly disappearing. Speculation is Daniel’s background and interest in various types of coins as well as postage and fractional currency began to develop due to his experience working in his father’s hardware store. As a youth, Daniel attended both public as well as private school, and the family were active members of the Englewood Presbyterian Church. Daniel also become interested in the new team sport games that were emerging, and joined the local baseball club called the Pioneers. The team of nine players played well, and there was always a crowd when they played the rival Englewoods, the other local team. Daniel attended college at the New York College of Dentistry. Daniel graduated with the degree of D.D.S. on March 9th, 1887. Following graduation Valentine practiced dentistry in NYC and then traveled to Vienna, Austria where he spent a year furthering his studies before returning to New York City and re-opening his practice of dentistry. The year 1896 brought a number of changes to Dr. Valentine’s life. He moved his dentistry practice from New York City to Englewood, NJ. and purchased a home at 15 Dean St. Then in October he, along with his best friend Harvey Maybee traveled to Harrisburg, MI, and on October 28th, married Ada Belle Colwell. Ada was born on November 16th, 1863, the third child of Benjamin S. Colwell and Sally (Orr) Colwell. The Colwell family lived in Coudersport, PA where Benjamin worked as a salesman for a lumber mill. After attending the public schools, Ada Belle studied at Elmira Female College, Elmira, NY. While there Belle studied teaching and graduated with honors in June, 1884. She then returned home to Portville, PA and taught in the local school system. Speculation is that Daniel and Belle met through Belle’s association with her best friend from college, Kate Jones who settled in Englewood after college. Kate was well-connected in the community, and local community newspaper columns have them traveling back and forth to visit each other a number of times. Then, in 1886 Belle moved to Englewood, NJ at the urging of her good friend from college, Kate Jones. Belle taught school in Englewood for one year, returning to Portville due to illness. In the early 1890s Belle moved to Harrisville, Michigan, apparently with her father and other family members as Benjamin joined his brother in the lumber business in the area. Records show that Belle taught 2nd grade in Harrisville in 1894-1896. The Pioneers baseball club. Valentine is the second from right, top row. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 405 Following their wedding in October 1896, Daniel and Ada returned to Englewood where they lived for the next thirty-five years. On August 26th, 1897, their first daughter, Marion Katherine was born. Then, eighteen months later, on February 8th, 1899, their second daughter Margaret was born. During the early 1900s Dr. Valentine became involved in a number of societies. He joined the Mason’s Chancellor Walworth Lodge #115, the Benevolent & Protective Order of Elks, #1157, First District Dental Society of New York, the New Jersey State Dental Society, and the National Dental Association. He also served on the Board of Directors for the Coney Island and Gravesend Railway Company. In 1908 one of their daughters became gravely ill. Due to a wide-spread flu epidemic, and a prevalence of scarlet fever there was grounds for concern. The Englewood County Health Department attempted to impose a quarantine on the Valentine household on the basis that the daughter had scarlet fever. Dr. Valentine vigorously opposed the quarantine. The county health officials had never examined their daughter while Daniel had four independent doctors from New York City examine her, each declaring she did not have scarlet fever. Dr. Valentine sued the county health department on the ground that they had no authority to impose a quarantine without sufficient evidence. The case went all the way to the New Jersey Supreme Court where the case was dismissed in 1909. In 1910 Daniel joined the newly formed New York Numismatic Club which had just begun holding regular monthly meetings. He was a long-time chairman of the Publication Committee and the Executive Committee as well as President in 1918 and again in 1920. By the time Dr. Valentine joined the club, he had formed fairly extensive collections in both fractional currency, half-dimes, and was attempting to complete a complete collection of one dollar gold coins by mintmark. The members of the New York Numismatic Club felt there was a need for a book on postage and fractional currency as there was no comprehensive or satisfactory list available. So in 1913 the club undertook long-term project “of the preparation of an adequate and complete list of fractional paper notes”. It was felt that such a uniform classification system would serve as a guide to cataloguers. The undertaking was favorable announced in ANA’s The Numismatist magazine of February, 1913, and paper money collectors were pleased that the resources of the NYNC were to be put to use for the benefit of their specialty. President Heath appointed Dr. Valentine as chair of the newly formed “Paper Money Committee” which also included George Blake, F.C.C. Boyd, John Scott, Elliott Smith, Palmer Hartell, William Hidden and David Proskey. Notes in the extensive Valentine and Proskey collections were used in the research along with notes from the collections of H. Russell Drowne, Lyman Low and Robbert Earle and others. Research on the various aspects of postage and fractional currency continued for several years. The February 12, 1915 meeting of the New York Coin Club was opened by Valentine “reading an exhaustive address on ‘United States Fractional Paper Money-Civil War Period’”. The minutes reflect that the address was received with great interest and a rising vote of thanks was extended to Dr. Valentine for his fine work and earnest effort. In 1924 with the backing of Fred Boyd, Dr. Valentine’s treatise titled Fractional Currency of the United States was published. The publication was issued in a limited black leather edition of twenty-five numbered copies priced at $15.00 each, along with 200 copies of a black and red cloth bound cover edition (numbered 26 to 225) offered at $5.00 each. The black leather presentation versions of the book were hand numbered and autographed by Dr. Valentine and the owners name was embossed in gold ink on the front cover. In 1928 Fred Boyd indicated in a letter to M. L. Beistle that only 15 copies of this edition had been sold. Marion Valentine (standing) Margaret and Ada Belle (l-r) c. 1900 (Pictures from the Estate of Marion (Valentine) Ferrer SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 406 Mr. Fochtman has been tracking these numbered editions and has identified 4 copies that still exist. He has copy #4, attributed to Julius Guttag and Mr. Bolin has copy #6 attributed to Moritz Wormser (both men were members of the New York Coin Club). The black and red cloth bound edition, were also numbered but did not come autographed by Dr. Valentine. 200 copies were numbered starting at number 26 through number 225. Mr. Fochtman has a number of these and Mr. Bolin has #s 29, 98, 135 and 198. Books #29 and #98 are ex. F.C.C Boyd and #198 was heavily annotated by Walter Breen. B. Max Mehl purchased the unbound copies not sold by Fred Boyd and re-issued the book with his own blue-green cover and his name on the cover as publisher, but it still had Fred Boyd’s name as publisher on the inside cover page. While each of the authors have a number of copies of this issue, Mr. Bolin has one that is an unnumbed copy that is signed by Glen Smedley. Dr. Valentine’s work was reprinted in 1981 by Sanford J. Durst. The republished edition was bound in white card covers and the title was changed to United States Fractional Currency Dr. Valentine’s numbering system for fractional currency was quickly adopted in the fractional currency collecting community. It was used extensively until Robert Friedberg classification system for all U.S. paper currency became the default standard of the currency market in the late 1950s. Still today, one comes across fractional currency notes where a dealer or collector penciled the note’s Valentine classification number, denoted by the letter “V-###. An in-depth report from the committee, entitled “United States Fractional Paper Money – Civil War Period”, was read to the Club at the February 12th, 1915 meeting by Dr. Valentine. The report was later published in the June issue of the American Numismatic Association’s monthly publication The Numismatist. In addition to the New York Numismatic Club, Dr. Valentine was very active in several other numismatic organizations, including the American Numismatic Association and the American Numismatic Society. In recognition for his service and leadership as President of the New York Coin Club, he was commemorated on a Presidential medal, designed by J. M. Swanson. Many collectors of NYNC medals consider Dr. Valentine’s medal the key to the series as it is quite difficult to obtain, for examples are seldom available. Eight silver and 50 bronze medals were produced. In 1928 Dr. Valentine chose to give up general collecting. For 3 days, December 8-10, 1927, Lyman Low auctioned Dr. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 407 Valentine’s extensive collections including complete collections of gold dollars, half dollars, dimes, cents, half cents, foreign gold, silver and copper along with many rare and choice Continental coins and his three-dollar gold coin collection which included all but three dates. However, Dr. Valentine retained his highly ranked collection of United States half dimes but what happened to his fractional collection is unknown. As half dime collectors know, Dr. Valentine spent the next several years conducting extensive research into die variations of this issue. In 1931 he published his monograph entitled United States Half Dimes. The publication sponsored by the American Numismatic Society was #48 in their series of Numismatic Notes and Monographs. His work continues to be used as reference material for half dime collectors, having been issued in two difference reprints: 1975 by Quarterman Publications, and again in 1984 by Sanford J. Durst Publications. Dr. Valentine’s health had been on the decline for several years. Shortly after the publication of his monograph late in 1931 his heath declined rapidly. Daniel Valentine died of apoplexy (stroke) at home surrounded by his family on January 24th, 1932. He was interred in the Valentine family plot, Brookside Cemetery, Englewood, NJ. Dr. Valentine left an indelible mark in two different numismatic collecting specialties. Although subsequent research and new discoveries have outdated his work, one cannot dispute that because of his dedication and efforts to document these areas of numismatics, other collectors may never have discovered these fascinating areas of collecting our numismatic history. Following the death of her husband, Belle moved to Los Angeles, California to live near her oldest daughter, Marion. She died on February 6th, 1941, and was interred at Forest Lawn Cemetery in Glendale, CA. Marion moved to Hollywood, CA in 1925 and began work in the script department of a major studio. She met and married Don McKay, a talent agent for several stars. Apparently the marriage did not last long, for she was no longer married when her mother moved to Los Angeles following the death of Dr. Valentine. In 1944 she married Paul Ferrer, US Army, Retired. He was a well-respected and highly decorated Army Officer. Paul died in 1955. Marion passed away December 6th, 1966 and was interred at Forest Lawn cemetery, Glendale, CA. Marion had no children by either marriage. Margaret followed her mother’s path and went into teaching. Through a friend she met and married Frank Beattie, and together they taught at Berkshire School, a private boarding school in Sheffield, MA. Peggy, as she was known, taught Art. She died July 24th, 1965 and is buried in Sheffield, MA with her husband Frank Beattie. School alumni established a scholarship fund in the name of both Frank and Margaret Beattie. They had no children. Valentine Family Plot, Brookside Cemetery, Englewood, NJ. Dr. Valentine’s headstone is on the right. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 408 Research Sources American Journal of Numismatics and Proceedings of the American Numismatic Society; 1913; Vol. 47 The New York Numismatic Club Year Book 1918-1919-1920-1921; published by the New York Numismatic Club; 1922 History of the New York Numismatic Club, 1908-1991: 1,000 Meeting Edition, April 10, 1992 ; Courtesy of David Alexander The Dental Cosmos; Vol. 29; S.S. White Dental Manufacturing Co.; 1887 The Beistle Company Archives, Shippensburg, PA Brookside Cemetery, Englewood, NJ; with the Assistance of F.C.C.B. Member Nicholas York The Book of Englewood; By Alaline W. Sterling; published by authority of the Mayor and City of Englewood, NJ; 1922 The Palisades Cook Book; published by the Ladies Aide Society, Tenafy Presbyterian Church; Englewood, NJ; 1910 Documents of the Senate of the State of New York; 133rd Session; Vol. 11—No. 19—Part 3; 1910. The Atlantic Reporter (Annotated); Vol. 71; December 10, 1908—April 1, 1909; West Publishing Co.; 1909. New Jersey Law Reports; Reports of Cases argued and determined in the S. C. of the State of New Jersey; Vol. 47; 1909. The Alcona County Review; Harrisville, MI; October 31, 1896. The Alcona County Review; Harrisville, MI; August 28, 1996 Historical Gazetteer and Biographical Memorial of Cattaraugus County, PA; William Adams; 1883 Educators of Michigan, Biographical Sketches and Portraits of The Teaching Profession; The Wilton-Smith Company, Publishers; 1894. The Widow’s Watch Bed & Breakfast; Harrisville, MI; History of the Lake Huron Shore; H.R. Page & Co; 1883 State of New York, In Senate, Report of the Public Service Commission for the First District; No. 19; January 19, 1910 Dr. Daniel Webster Valentine; e-Gobrecht; Stephen A. Crain; November 15, 2007. Ancestry.com The Estate of Margaret (Valentine) Beatte The Estate of Marion (Valentine) Ferrer New York Numismatic Club Annual Dinner--Hotel McAlpin, January 24, 1913 Foreground Table, l-r: F.C.C. Boyd (w/mustache), Maud Boyd, Henry Chapman, Mrs. Henry Chapman, George H. Blake, Mrs. George Blake Left Table, l-r: Albert R. Frey, Palmer C. Hartell, Miss. L. L. Magus Center Background Table, l-r starting with women wearing what appears to be a tiara: Miss. S. E. Cromie, Edgar H. Adams, Rudolph Kohler, Daniel W. Valentine, Mrs. Ada B. C. Valentine, Bernard Nagley Right Background Table, l-r starting with man in clerical collar: Rev. Tilley, Henry Russell Drowne (mustache), Bauman Belden (partly hidden), Thomas L. Elder, Agustus G. Heaton (white hair w/mustache), Frank C. Higgins, David U. Proskey, & John C. Scott (white hair & goatee) SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 409 In Remembrance Neil Shafer 1933-2023 The SPMC and numismatics as a whole have lost a great stalwart, collector, author and all-around good guy. Neil Shafer passed away on August 25, 2023 at the age of 90. He is survived by his wife of 59 years and one daughter and two sons, one Joel who was often seen with this father at paper money shows. A collector who concentrated on world banknotes, he was the author of many books, periodicals and articles. A ember of many numismatic related clubs, he often gave lectures at their annual meetings. Neil was member #687 and life member #30 of the SPMC. He was awarded the Award of Merit in 1968 and 1985 and the Nathan Gold award in 1967. Finally, he became a member of the SPMC Hall-of-Fame in 2018. Neil was inducted into two other Halls-of-Fame as well—The IBNS and the ANA in 2008. A 50-year member of the ANA he received an Award of Merit in 1990, a President’s Award in 1996 and the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007. For his writing, Neil received the Numismatic Literary Guild’s Clemmy Award in 2004. Neil played the viola and was a member of the Air Force Symphony in Washington D. C. SPMC governors and authors remember Neil President Vandevender says "As a research enthusiast, author, and SPMC Hall of Fame member, Neil was a real asset to our numismatic community and will be greatly missed. I wish to express my condolences to the Shafer family." Vice President/Secretary Robert Calderman says “Neil was always very kind to me and a pleasure to talk to! His knowledge was incredible.” Past President Shawn Hewitt says “In June 2018, as SPMC president, I had the pleasure of presenting the SPMC Hall of Fame award to Neil. The first paper money book I ever bought was the green-covered Modern United States Currency authored by Neil, in 1974 when I was ten years old. I brought this book to the award ceremony and had Neil autograph it for me. It was one of my favorite moments as president.” Governor Pierre Fricke says “Neil was the consummate paper money collector and researcher. His dedication to the hobby manifested itself in his numerous publications and his dedication to the Society of Paper Money Collectors. I enjoyed many conversations with Neil on a wide range of topics and learned something in every interaction. We miss him.” Columnist Joe Boling says “I have known Neil for decades. He has been a perennial participant in MPCFest, three times (and then retired from competition) national champion in military numismatic trivia, and holder of most if not all of Fest’s other achievement and service awards. Over the years he contributed substantially to my collection of counterfeit paper (particularly in 19th century Argentina and Spanish Civil War fantasies). His collection of short snorters is probably unsurpassed - but will be hard to market except for the celebrity-signed pieces.” Long time members, governor, exhibitors John and Nancy Wilson say “With Neil Shafer's passing we have lost one of the greatest numismatist's who ever lived. For most of his life he has advanced our hobby in many ways, especially in World Currency and Depression & Panic Scrip. He will be missed by his thousands of friends around the world. We are fortunate that his son Joel will carry on his great achievements.” 410 Paper Money of the Sefton Internment Camp on the Isle of Man by Steve Feller The Sefton Hotel is a four-star hotel on the well-off Isle of Man. It is a wonderful place to stay and have a fine dinner. In fact, in the late 1990s I ate an excellent meal there while doing research on its civilian internment camps. Here are a few images of the present hotel: Figure 1: The glorious atrium of the Hotel Sefton in Douglas on the Isle of Man today (https://seftonhotel.co.im/) . Figure 2: More of the Hotel Sefton today https://seftonhotel.co.im/) . SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 411 Figure 3: A nice meal from the Bonzai Pan Asian Kitchen restaurant in the Hotel Sefton on the Isle of Man (https://seftonhotel.co.im/). The Isle of Man sits in the middle of the Irish sea, see figure 4: Figure 4: Location of the Isle of Man (https://www.britain-visitor.com/maps-britain/isle-of-man-map.) The capital city of the island nation is Douglas and it was home to several civilian internment camps in the war. Most of the camps were along Douglas Bay, see figure 5. After the war started British authorities eventually rounded up tens of thousands of enemy aliens, including many refugees from Nazi Europe. Like in World War I camps were used on the Isle of Man, a convenient and virtually escape-proof spot to house people the British wanted kept under observation and control. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 412 Figure 5: World War II internment camps in Douglas on the Isle of Man (Manx Museum) The Sefton Hotel and its neighboring buildings was home to 307 Italian, German and Finnish enemy alien residents of WWII Britain. Of these 42 were infirm. See figure 5 above for Sefton Camp’s location. As such it was one of the two smallest of 10 civilian internment camps of WWII on the Isle of Man. Also, like several of these internment camps the Sefton Camp had its own distinctive and today rare paper money issue, as well. Figure 6: Scrip from the Sefton Civilian Internment Camp. Note the use of “Sefton Internment Camp Accounts Office” on the back of the notes. The perforations and placement of the back overprint indicates that at least two notes were connected together horizontally. Location of the  Sefton Camp  SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 413     In fact, a New Year’s card of the camp from 1940 featured the money. This led to the discovery of new denominations. See figure 7. The money is listed in Isle of Man Paper Money by Pam West and Alan Kelly (2015) as well as in Silent Witnesses: Civilian Camp Money of WWII by Ray and Steve Feller (2007). West and Kelly list the notes as follows: Number Denom Color Value (in Unc) MM442 1/2d deep pink $870 (700 GBP as of April 8, 2023) MM443 1d sea green $808 (650 GBP as of April 8, 2023) MM444 6d dark blue $870 (700 GBP as of April 8, 2023) Whereas Feller and Feller catalogue the notes as: Number Denom Color Value (in Unc) IM-1455 1/2d salmon pink $1500 IM-1456 1d sea green $1500 IM-1457 6d azure blue $1500 And now the new listings from Figure 7 using Feller and Feller numbers are: IM-1458 1/- reddish $2000 (as of April 8, 2023) IM-1459 2/6 yellow $2000 (as of April 8, 2023) The reddish and yellow colors are assumed from the New Years Card shown above in figure 7. The blue color for the 6d note is correct on the card and supports this assumption. Serial numbers are more well known now than indicated in West and Kelly: West and Kelly: Number Denom Color Known Serials IM-1455 1/2d deep pink 3181 IM-1456 1d sea green 6589 to 7243 IM-1457 6d dark blue 8136 West and Kelly; Feller and Feller: Number Denom Color Known Serials IM-1455 1/2d deep pink 3116, 3181 IM-1456 1d sea green 6589 to 7243, 7115 IM-1457 6d dark blue 8136, 8349 These notes are extremely rare with populations in single digits. Figure 7: New Year’s Card from Sefton Camp, December, 1940. Notice the 1/- and 2/6 currency issues, unreported to date .Note that the card came from the “Sefton Internment Camp Accounts Office;” the same office that is listed on the back of each note, see Fig 6. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 414 Coventry, England was severely bombed by the Luftwaffe with the main raid taking place on November 14, 1940. Over 500 German bombers severely crippled the city. Nearly 600 died and the famous Coventry Cathedral was destroyed. To this day the cathedral ruins remain a memorial. Residents of Sefton through its camp newspaper, the Sefton Review, wrote to the mayor of Coventry offering free toys to the children of Coventry after the raid. They received a friendly response. Figure 8: Pre-World War II postcard of the Sefton Hotel and camp area. Figure 9: The Sefton Hotel circa 1999. Figure 10: The Sefton Review header for December 23, 1940 https://www.imuseum.im/ douglas-promenade-second-world-war- internment-on-the-isle-of-man/.) Seven issues were published. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 The Sefton Camp only was open from October 1940 to March 1941. The Iowa College Foundation is thanked for financial support of my trip to the Isle of Man internment camps. Yvonne Cresswell is thanked for being a fine host during my visit to the Manx Museum. Bibliography Connery Chappell, Island of Barbed Wire, (Robert Hale: London) 1984. Yvonne M. Cresswell, ed. Living with the Wire: Civilian Internment in the Isle of Man during the two World Wars, (revised edition Manx National Heritage, Douglas, IOM) 2010. Ray and Steve Feller, Silent Witness: Civilian Camp Money of World War II (BNR Press: Port Clinton, OH) 2007. Bernard Osborne, Isle of Man Postal History of 20th Century Internment Mai,l (The Isle of Man Postal History Society: Ceredigion, Wales) 2015. Pam West and Alan Kelly, Isle of Man Paper Money, (Pam West: Sutton, Surrey, England) 2015. https://seftonhotel.co.im/ https://www.imuseum.im/douglas-promenade-second-world-war-internment-on-the-isle-of-man/ https://www.britain-visitor.com/maps-britain/isle-of-man-map https://www.imuseum.im/douglas-promenade-second-world-war-internment-on-the-isle-of-man/ Figure 11: View of Sefton Camp by German internee and artist Martin Bloch (1883-1954) taken from Living with the Wire: Civilian Internment in the Isle of Man during the two World Wars edited by Yvonne M. Cresswell (Manx National Heritage). Figure 12: Isle of Mann 22p stamp of the Gaiety Theatre in Douglas. This was part of the Sefton Camp. Part of the Sefton Hotel is on the left of the Gaiety Theatre. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 416 WORLDWIDE AUDIENCE LIVE BIDDING ON OUR WEBSITE & MOBILE APPS DEDICATED CATALOGS & SALES FOR ADVANCED COLLECTIONS 0% COMMISSION FEE ON ALL CONSIGNMENTS WORLD BANKNOTE AUCTIONS SPECIALIZING IN US PAPER MONEY info@worldbanknoteauctions.com +1 (916)-701-5132 / (888)-707-1564 World Banknote Auctions P.O. Box 348144 Sacramento, CA 95834 United States www.worldbanknoteauctions.com The White House and Treasury Talk Autographs on Dollar Bills By Lee Lofthus On Friday, February 19, 1943, Rudolph Forster, the Executive Clerk at the White House, asked Henry Morgenthau Jr., Secretary of the Treasury, to advise whether it was illegal for the president to autograph a dollar bill. Forster, was responsible for “the orderly handling of documents and correspondence” among other White House duties. He had an understated style and desire to remain in the background, but his longevity and knowledge made him indispensable to ultimately eight presidents. To his chagrin, one New York Times story called him the “Summer Boss of the White House” when the president was away. He was particularly fussy when it came to making sure anything the president signed was in good order, so the note about signing dollar bills was entirely in character. Morgenthau asked his secretary to put the Treasury general counsel office on the question. Her note, signed Figure 2. Henry Morgenthau’s secretary sent this note to the Treasury General Counsel asking for advice regarding the President autographing currency. Figure 1. Series 1935 $1 silver certificate signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt (dark black signature right of center) and other luminaries.This note was in the Amon Carter Sr. and Jr. collections. Heritage Auctions photograph. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 418 simply “S,” is self-explanatory (Figure 2). Morgenthau wanted the answer the next day, Saturday, without fail. The Treasury reply was prepared by Assistant General Counsel Joseph J. O’Connell Jr. As befitting a fast-tracked reply, O’Connell answered the question the same day it was asked. Morgenthau signed and sent the reply to Forster at the White House on Saturday (Figure 6, next page). The question was not difficult to answer, and it was certainly no struggle for O’Connell. Treasury officials had been courtesy autographing dollar bills for years, both the secretary of the treasury and the U.S. treasurers (and do so to this day). Morgenthau had even signed and given Roosevelt an uncut sheet of Series 1928E $1 silver certificates as a gift back in 1934. And Roosevelt had possibly signed bills before, whether Forster was aware of that or not. Roosevelt and Morgenthau saw each other frequently. Morgenthau’s office was next door to the White House, and Morgenthau often stopped in when Roosevelt was having breakfast. The autograph question could have been handled verbally with ease, but it’s very possible that Forster himself wanted something in writing from Treasury to protect his boss. Figures 3 and 4. Ruldoph Forster, left, joined the White House as a temporary clerk under President McKinley. He stayed to work for eight presidents. The photograph above is Forster in mid-career. Joseph J. O’Connell Jr., right, the Treasury Assistant General Counsel, drafted the reply for Morgenthau to send Forster at the White House. O’Connell’s legal advice was short and to the point: the president signing bills was “perfectly legal.” Library of Congress photographs LCN 2016821700 at left, and 2016874987, right. Figure 5. Henry Morgenthau Jr. leaving the White House after seeing Roosevelt. Morgenthau enjoyed autographing notes himself while he was Treasury Secretary. Library of Congress photograph LCN 2016876189. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 419 Notwithstanding the legal advice, there are few notes known with Roosevelt’s signature. The autographed Series of 1935 silver certificate illustrated with this article (Figure 1) was originally from Amon Carter Sr. and Amon Carter Jr. In addition to Roosevelt, the signatures of several luminaries, including several presidents, were gathered by the Carters over many years. Well known numismatic collector, dealer, and author Mark Hotz has written about a 1935E $1 silver certificate in his collection that has both Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt’s signatures, as well as other notables (March 2018). The bill is annotated with the date 11/1/42, but Hotz noted the various signatures may have been obtained over a period time. There is no known direct tie between the Treasury Department documents shown here and any particular autographed bill today, and we don’t know what specific autograph request to Roosevelt sparked Forster’s question. Rudolph Forster’s time at the White House ended on July 7, 1943, only four months or so after his memo on signing dollar bills. Forster died unexpectedly that evening at home, at age 70, after a full day of work at the White House. He had worked at the White House from 1897 to 1943. He was posthumously awarded the Medal for Merit for his service. Sources Forster-Morgenthau correspondence, February 19-20, 1943. Record Group 56, General Records of the Department of the Treasury, Central Files, Office of the Secretary, 1933-1956, 56/450/57/13/3 Box 16, file Bank Notes & Currency. National Archives, College Park, Maryland. Hotz, Mark. “Roosevelt Signs Note.” March 13, 2018. Numismatic News, from original in Bank Note Reporter. numismaticnews.net New York Times. “The Summer Boss of the White House.” New York: New York Times, September 6, 1925, p. 8, and “R. Forster is Dead; White House Aide.” New York: New York Times, July 8, 1943, p, 19. Peters, Gerhard, and John Woolley, The American Presidency Project, University of California at Santa Barbara, “Harry S. Truman, Citation Accompanying Medal for Merit Honoring Rudolph Forster. https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/232076 U.S. Government Manual, Summer 1943 Edition. Division of Public Inquiries, Office of War Information, Washington, DC. Govinfo.gov Figure 6. Morgenthau’s reply to Forster. Forster was very protective of the presidents he served, eight in all, from William McKinley to Franklin Roosevelt. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 420 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 The SPMC National Bank Lookup website Bank Note History Project Overview The Bank Note History Project is sponsored by the Society of Paper Money Collectors as part of its mission to promote the study and appreciation of paper money and related financial history. The purpose of the project is to help organize historical information related to U.S. bank notes issued during the National Bank Note Era (1863- 1935). The project is focused on two of the primary historical aspects of these ‘Hometown’ bank notes: The Banks that issued them, and the Bankers who signed them. The online Bank Note History Project consists of the Banks & Bankers Database, two Search/Lookup websites that access data stored on the database server, and the Bank Note History Wiki website.  The Banks & Bankers Database includes historical data on all 14,348 National Banks that were chartered between 1863 and 1935. It also includes information on 65,000+ bankers, with all the bank Presidents & Cashiers listed in the OCC reports from 1867-1935, as well as many other potential bank note signers (VPs & Asst Cashiers). Currently the primary focus is on the National Banks & Bankers, since we have data available for all the National Banks. In the future, we plan on adding data for the Obsolete Banks & Bankers to the database.  The National Bank Lookup website provides a simple interface to lookup National Banks by Charter# or Town. This is a public website available to everyone at https://banklookup.spmc.org  The Banks & Bankers Search website provides advanced Bank & Banker search capabilities, and requires SPMC member login.  The Bank Note History Wiki is a crowd-sourced, searchable content website (very similar to Wikipedia). The primary content in this wiki is detailed Bank Histories and Banker Biographies for bank note signers. The Banks and Bankers in the B&B Database are linked to these Bank History and Banker Bio wiki pages. State Bank Note History home pages have been set up for all 50 States and the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Each home page focuses on that state's Banks, Bankers, and Bank Notes. National Bank Lookup website Overview In this article, we will go over in detail how to use the National Bank Lookup website and show you the information available for banks and bankers. There are several links available to get to the National Bank Lookup website:  On SPMC.org, on the Education & Research menu there is a National Bank Lookup link.  On SMPC.org main page, scroll down to the Bank Note History Project panel/link. That will get you to the Bank Note History Project home page which has a National Bank Lookup link.  On the Bank Note History Wiki website, there is a National Bank Lookup link on the sidebar.  You can also just type banklookup.spmc.org into your browser, and that should take you directly to the website home page. The website URL is https://banklookup.spmc.org SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 422 Once you are at the National Bank Lookup home page, you will have two search options as shown in Figure 1: 1. National Bank Search by Charter Number To use Search by Charter, simply type in the Bank's charter number. Then click on Find Bank and the Bank Information page for that bank will be displayed. 2. National Bank Search by Town To use Search by Town, type in the Town name. Then click on List Banks for this Town and a list of the National banks for that Town in All States will be listed (See Figure 2). Click on the Bank Title of the bank you are looking for, and the Bank Info page for that bank will be displayed. When you return to the Lookup home page, it will still display the list of banks from your previous Town search results, so you can view the other banks. Figure 2. Town Search Results for Gary   Figure 1. National Bank Lookup Home page  SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 423     Bank Info page Figures 3 & 4 below shows the Bank Info page for Charter 9596, the First National Bank of Starbuck, MN. Figures 3 & 4. Bank Information page Banker Info page SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 424 As you can see on the Bank Info page above, each of the banker names listed in the Bank Officer Pairs section is a link. Clicking on a link will display the Banker Info page for that banker. Figure 5 below shows the Banker Info page for cashier George Washington Hughes. Figure 5. Banker Information page Town Search Options Bank Search By Town has a couple of search options to control how your search works. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 425     Only list 'Note Issuing Banks' option The Note Issuing Banks Only checkbox controls whether ‘No Issue’ banks should also be included in the search results. The Note Issuing banks will always be included in the search results, since those are the primary banks we are interested in. But sometimes you may be interested in also seeing the banks that did not issue notes. The default is to have that checkbox checked, which means Town/County searches will include ONLY those banks that issued bank notes, and any No Issue banks will NOT be included in the search results. (Note: No Issue banks will have (No Issue) included in the bank name to indicate that bank did not issue bank notes). Multi-Town search options You can also include multiple town names in a Search by Town. For example, Pittsburgh, PA had 2 spellings (Pittsburgh & Pittsburg) during its history. Most of their National banks used the Pittsburgh spelling, but 5 banks used the Pittsburg spelling. To include both town spellings in the search results, you would:  Type 'pittsburgh,pittsburg' (separated by a comma) in the Town search box.  Type 'pa' in the State search box, so it will only include Pennsylvania banks.  Make sure the Note Issuing Banks only search option is checked.  Click on List Banks for this Town to list the 51 Note Issuing banks with a Town name of either Pittsburgh or Pittsburg, in the State of Pennsylvania. Bank Search Tips  For Search by Town, you must enter a Town name, but you can usually just leave State blank, and let it search All States for that Town to build the search results bank list. If that list is too long, then you can enter the State for the Bank(s) you are looking for, click on List Banks, and the search results will only include the banks for that State.  Some banks used abbreviations in their town name or bank titles (such as St. for Saint). For some towns with multiple banks, this resulted in both the abbreviation and full word being used on their bank notes. To avoid confusion, and missing banks in the search results, always use the full word instead of the abbreviation for your search value, and the search results will automatically include banks based on both the full word and abbreviation. Three specific examples are automatically handled by the search routines: St./Saint, Mt./Mount and Ft./Fort.  The National Bank Lookup home page and the Bank Info and Banker Info pages were designed so they should work well on most smart phones. Summary To wrap up, in this article we gave you a brief overview of the SPMC Bank Note History Project, and showed you how to use the public National Bank Lookup website to find information on any National banks from the National Bank Note Era (1863-1935). For further information on the other SPMC Bank Note History Project websites, you can browse to the Project home page at https://spmc.org/bank-note-history-project. If you have any questions, or want to help us out with this project, please contact us via email at banknotehistory@gmail.com. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 426 The Story of Norman’s Bridge, Alabama  Bill Gunther and Charles Derby  This Civil War era obsolete note has “Normans Bridge, Ala.” handwritten in the bottom left corner. At first blush, one might interpret this as a village or town where the note was issued on Christmas Day in 1862. It was, however, the location of a covered bridge built in the 1830s by Job Norman about 10 miles south of Montgomery, Alabama. Presumably, it was also the place where one could find the issuer of this scrip, “R. Copeland,” if one wished to redeem it for “Bank or Confederate Notes.” This article is about Job Norman, his famous bridge, and the origins of this note. Job Norman From North Carolina to Alabama Job Norman’s ancestors came to the New World in the 1600s. His great-great grandfather, Henry, emigrated from Cornwall, England, sometime before 1700 and first settled in eastern North Carolina along the coast. Job’s father, Charles Wesley Norman (and his first wife Rebecca Caffey Norman), inherited 200 acres of land and the “manor house” from his father, Nehemiah, conditional until the passing of his step-mother, Mary Edwards (1771- 1839). As was the tradition at the time, land was only distributed among Nehemiah’s four male descendants, although his three daughters received their share of the remainder of the estate, including the slaves. Job Norman was born in 1783 in Greensboro, N.C. He likely spent the better part of his childhood living on the plantation and becoming acquainted with the proper role of a planter. He became, quite literally, a big man: according to one observer, he was “7 feet tall and…400 pounds.” Job’s father most likely gave Job his own parcel of land to farm since he would have appeared capable of managing farming issues at an early age. When he was nearly 25 years old, in 1808, he married 18-year-old Rebecca Eliza Chilcott. Whatever her attributes, it was a productive marriage, yielding eight girls and four boys. As the years passed, Job witnessed the continued decline in fertility of his father’s plantation, a widespread occurrence brought about by over-farming. Job was well aware of “Alabama Fever” and the extensive out-migration of farmers due to the opening of large tracks of fertile lands at low prices in the Alabama Territory. Nevertheless, it was not until his father’s funeral in 1818 that Job brought the subject up with his good friends, neighbors, and relatives, including Thomas Caffey (a first cousin) and William Waller. They all agreed that it was a good time to move West. So in the fall of 1818, Job, Rebecca, five children, a nephew, and several friends set out for the Alabama Territory. The 450-mile journey to the Alabama Territory in wagons over poor “roads” was uncomfortable, made tolerable by the promise of fertile public land for only $2 per acre. Their target destination, selected on the recommendation of a trapper passing through North Carolina, was a town on the Alabama River named New Philadelphia, and they arrived there in late 1818. The nearest Federal land office was in Cahawba, a town 50 miles due west of New Philadelphia. Before they could make their way to the land office, the Panic of 1819 gained a strong foothold on the country and seriously impacted potential buyers of federal land. An 1862 note from Norman’s Bridge, Ala. Unlisted in Gunther & Derby (2020) SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 427 The land boom in the West was fueled by, among other factors, the “unrestrained issue of paper money from banks and business concerns.” Banking regulations were so lax that “All that was necessary to start a bank …was plates, presses and paper.” While specie normally provided a bank’s capital base and a ceiling on its issue of paper money, banks routinely declined to remit specie on demand. The Federal government attempted to regain control over this “credit bubble” by accepting only specie from the land offices and banks. This led to the Panic of 1819. Land prices quickly plummeted by 50 to 75%, and cotton prices fell by as much as 25% in one day. Public land sales, which amounted to $13.6 million in the U.S. in 1818, fell to $1.7 million in 1820. Adding to the rapidly changing environment for Job and his friends was that New Philadelphia was renamed Montgomery on December 3, 1819, and Alabama was admitted as a state into the Union on December 14, 1819. While the type of money that Job and friends carried with them from North Carolina is unknown, local bank and private issues lost value directly proportional to the distance from their place of issue. The N.C. Assembly chartered two private banks in 1804 – the Bank of Cape Fear and the Bank of New Bern – and one state bank in 1811 – the State Bank of North Carolina. In 1816, the N.C. Assembly passed a law forbidding paper issues from any organization except state-chartered banks, with an exemption given to the Bank of Cape Fear and the Bank of New Bern. Therefore, it seems likely that when Norman and friends sold their land in 1818, they were paid with issues such as this 1817 note from the Bank of Cape Fear. Buying Land in Alabama With the effects of the Panic of 1819 extending through 1823, it is not surprising that Job and friends appear not to have officially purchased Public Lands until Nathaniel G. Waller made his official acquisition of land in 1827. Job Norman officially purchased his first land on December 31, 1831, with Caffey following in March 1832. Job made two additional official purchases of land in 1832, one with a partner, Harris Rair Tinker. Tinker was born in North Carolina around 1760. He began his land purchases in Alabama in the 1820s, with three acquisitions for a total of 480 acres in Colbert County in North Alabama. In the 1830s, he made four more purchases in Colbert County for another 480 acres, for a total of 960 acres. Only one of these purchases was made by himself alone, with the others involving partners. Tinker relocated from Lawrence County, which is adjacent to Colbert County, in 1830, and to Greene County by 1840. It was during this time, on March 13, 1832, that Tinker became a partner with Job Norman in the acquisition of 160 acres of land in Montgomery County. In all these land partnerships, Tinker likely provided the capital to purchase land in exchange for a share of the cotton that the land yielded.1 Between 1818 when Job moved to Alabama and 1831 when he purchased his first land through the Federal Land office, Job may have acquired land in other ways. For example, during this time, money-pressed landowners unable to pay their bank loans in specie had to sell their land at depressed prices. However, the lack of a generally acceptable currency could have made even these transactions unlikely. Another way to gain land at the time was to become squatters on the very land that they intended to purchase, with the expectation that any “investments” they made in clearing the land for planting and building cabins for their families would not go to waste if they were able to purchase these properties later. Job Norman’s Family Job and wife Rebecca integrated into the Montgomery community as Job built his businesses.2 Rebecca died in 1834 at age 44 after delivering her twelfth child, Elizabeth. The baby also died several days later. Job remarried two Bank of Cape Fear, Wilmington, North Carolina. 1817. Courtesy of Heritage Auctions. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 428 years later to Mary Edwards, a family friend who was twice widowed. Mary had a son and a daughter by her first husband, John Shelby. When John died, Mary remarried to James Edwards, who also had one son and one daughter from a previous marriage. When Mary died in 1838, Job Norman became the guardian for Mary’s children and step- children, in addition to his own nine living children. When Job Norman died in 1844, he had outlived his two wives, ten of his twelve children, and two grandsons. Norman’s Bridge Job Norman build his bridge crossing Catoma Creek in the early 1830s when he and the Caffey and Waller families had acquired their land, presumably to facilitate personal and professional visits with his neighbors. Job built the bridge with the aid of his slaves, in particular one named Eloch. A testament to Job Norman’s bridge building skills, which he first displayed in North Carolina before moving to Alabama, was that the bridge was still standing in 1869. Years later, the highway leading to the bridge was relocated, and access to Norman’s Bridge was no longer possible. A new bridge over Catoma Creek was built in 1920, and this 1,288-foot bridge was characterized at the time as the longest concrete bridge in Alabama. Of course, it was no longer “Norman’s Bridge.” However, a road leading south from downtown Montgomery toward the now-absent bridge is still known today as “Norman Bridge Road.” While his bridge survived the Civil War, Job Norman family’s home and farm, as well as all of their livestock, were destroyed by Union soldiers at the end of the war. After surviving the first few years of Reconstruction in Alabama, many members of the Norman family moved to Texas in early 1870. Most remained in Texas, but a few members returned to Alabama in 1871. The Norman’s Bridge Note The Norman’s Bridge note is signed by “R. Copeland” and bears the handwritten date of Christmas Day, December 25, 1862. The note’s redemption clause says that the note could be redeemed “in Bank, or Confederate Notes when the sum of Ten Dollars is presented.” The note’s “memo” line indicates that it was issued at Norman’s Bridge, Alabama. The note was printed by Warren Printer, Tuscaloosa. A common practice in those days was to list a place of redemption of private notes in a remote location to discourage holders of these notes from seeking more widely accepted “money.” It is also possible that this is a spurious note and issued to defraud the unsuspecting. One wonders why a person or company in Montgomery County would issue notes printed more than 100 miles away in Tuscaloosa? The fact that anyone could have walked into Warren Printers and purchased these notes certainly places some uncertainty around this issue. Warren Printer, Tuscaloosa “Warren Printer, Tuscaloosa,” which printed the Norman’s Bridge note, was a well-established Alabama printing company in 1862. The firm was founded by James William Warren (1803-1868), born in Margate, England. James learned printing from his family, including from his grandfather, also named James Warren, who was a bookseller and printer in Margate. James William Warren married Henrietta Steber in Dover, England, in 1827. They had nine children, the first four born in England. James and Henrietta emigrated to the United States in 1834 and settled in Tuscaloosa by 1844. There, James established a printing business, where he produced many documents including the Annual Catalog for the Tuscaloosa Female College in 1860. He also edited the Tuscaloosa Observer newspaper. Warren Printer produced Civil War era currency in Tuscaloosa, with examples shown below. Warren Printer probably made currency for merchants beyond those shown here, but none has traded on any of the public markets. Warren was the printer-of-choice for both the City of Tuscaloosa and the County of Tuscaloosa: he printed nine different designs and denominations of the city notes, and 24 different designs and denominations of the county notes. Norman’s Bridge, ca. 1860-1880. Courtesy of Alabama Dept. of Archives SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 429 Warren also printed currency for the North-Port Exchange Company, a local clearinghouse for companies on the north side of the Warrior River from the town of Tuscaloosa. Another note by Warren was for the 22nd Alabama Cavalry Battalion, led by Major James Monroe. The note was endorsed by James Franklin Woodward, captain of his Tuscaloosan company in this battalion. To redeem these 25-cent notes for Confederate Treasury notes, the holder needed to accumulate $10 worth, which is 40 notes, an unlikely accomplishment. R. Copeland The mention of Norman’s Bridge on the memo line could be interpreted as the note being issued either by Job Norman or a company of his but signed by someone else (e.g. Copeland), or by R. Copeland with no connection to Job Norman. Since Job Norman died in 1846, 16 years before this note was issued, it is most likely issued by R. Copeland who resided at or near Norman’s Bridge. A search of appointments of postmasters did not indicate any location called Norman’s Bridge, suggesting that if it existed as a settlement, it was a very small location. The 1860 Census from Montgomery County does not list anyone named R. Copeland. However, a person by this name was living in Lowndes County, Alabama, which is adjacent to Montgomery County. Since there is a difference between the Census date (October 8, 1860) and the date on this note (December 25, 1862), we cannot rule out the possibility that the R. Copeland in Lowndes County had moved to Norman’s Bridge by 1862. This R. Copeland was listed as a “carpenter,” which adds to the uncertainty since notes were typically issued by merchants, banks, railroads, or other commercial ventures and not by individuals whose main asset was their labor. Unfortunately, no additional information on this person was found. It is certainly possible that R. Copeland relocated to Norman’s Bridge by 1862 and used this note as payment for some goods or services. However, it does seem likely that that this note had any direct connection to Job Norman. Items printed by Warren Printer, Tuscaloosa. Top row: Gunther-Derby AO-459-$.25a. 2nd row: AO-455-$3a (left); AO-453-$.05b (right). 3rd row: AO-453-$2a (left); AO-380-$.10a (right). Top of next page New Year’s Post Card from 1902, back and front. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 430 The 1860 Census also shows a “Right Copeland” that was a 25-year-old farmer living at Ramah, a small community across Catoma Creek from the Norman family. There are no financial assets listed with this person, and no additional details are available on him, so it remains uncertain if he issued the Norman’s Bridge note. Without any additional details, it is not possible to find sufficient evidence of who exactly is this “R. Copeland” on the Norman’s Bridge note. Footnotes 1 As a planter himself, Tinker reported owning 129 slaves in 1840. In 1844, Tinker became dangerously ill and visited a hot spring in Virginia for treatment. He died there on August 8, 1844, a very wealthy man, as evidenced by his will which gave six instructions to his family. First, manage the plantation and distribute the proceeds first to his wife and second to the “liberal” education of his children. Second, attempt to purchase 240 acres of land from a neighbor if a reasonable price can be arranged. Third, pay all his debts. Fourth, continue to support his children to age 21. Fifth, provide $20,000 to each child when they reach age 21. Sixth, give 720 acres of land to his son, Harris Tinker. 2 In Montgomery in the Spring of 1823, Job Norman joined an effort to erect a non-denominational church building, led by the local Methodist preacher and an elder of the Presbyterian Church. A total of 95 pledges raised $788. The highest pledge was $50 – by Andrew Dexter, a co-founder of Montgomery, and the lowest pledge was $2, offered by six different people including Job Norman. The church was finished in 1825, but the lack of furniture delayed its first use for church services for seven more years. Sources Alabama Department of Archives and History, www.archives.alabama.gov Ancestry.com Danielson, Joseph W. War’s Desolating Scourge (Lawrence, Kansas: Univ. Press of Kansas, 2012). Farrow, Maynard. “Reinforced Concrete Highway Bridge Replaces Wooden Trestle,” in The American City, Vol. XXIII, July-December 1920, New York: The Civic Press, 1920. Google.books.com Gunther, William, and Charles Derby, A Comprehensive Guide to Alabama Obsolete Notes, 1818-1885 (Privately Printed, 2020). McLaney, Richard, “Early Settlers of Montgomery County, Alabama,” Pintlala Historical Association (www.pintlalahistoricalassociation.com), October 2013. Neeley, Marty Ann, ed., The Works of Mathew Blue: Montgomery’s First Historian, (Montgomery: New South Books, 2010). Norman, Charles Ellison, Norman Bridge Road (Privately Printed, 2014). Rosene, Walter, Jr., Alabama Obsolete Notes and Scrip (Society of Paper Money Collectors, 1984). Rothbard, Murry N. A History of Money and Banking in the United States (Auburn: Ludwig von Mises Institute, 2002). “The Panic of 1819,” Wikipedia.com SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 431 GUTTER FOLD ERRORS ON FRACTIONAL CURRENCY By Richard Merlau and Rick Melamed Over the past few years, Paper Money has published several articles on Fractional currency errors…covering the spectacular such as dual denominations notes, to inverted reverses and surcharges, inverted/mirrored plate numbers, misalignments, etc. One of the more run-of-the-mill appearing errors is the gutter fold (for the sake of space we will periodically abbreviate “gutter fold” to “GF”). While they are common in small sized notes, GFs on Fractionals are truly rare. Many types have known populations in the single digits. This 4th issue Stanton note could be unique. A gutter fold error occurs when a sheet of paper is fed through the printing press with an embedded fold. After the printing process is completed – if the paper fold is slightly pulled apart, the gutter becomes visible, resulting in a note with an unprinted area within the narrow channel. When GFs occur in the note’s corner, a "Butterfly Fold Error" can occur. While GFs are well documented, butterfly is not a term used in any of the Error Currency reference books and is more of an informal identification than a technical term. A Butterfly Fold refers to an extra tab of paper, usually at one of the corners of the note. If it is triangular in form, it has a shape similar to the wing of an actual butterfly. This extra tab of paper can arise in 3 different ways: a Printed Fold or Fold-over, an Unprinted Fold or Fold-over, or a Cutting Error. There is some dispute if butterfly errors are a separate classification. According to error currency expert, Fred Bart (author of U.S. Paper Money Errors), “a “Butterfly” is nothing more than a printed fold (or perhaps a cutting error.)” Bart’s point is valid, but since the term “butterfly” appears in auction descriptions and on 3rd party grading holders, it has become a recognized term in the hobby. To the left is an enchanting note; a 3rd issue 3¢ wide margin specimen (Fr. 1227-WM-OBV). This is first and foremost a true gutter fold, but it also fits the description as a butterfly fold error. A more comprehensive holder description would be: “A Gutter Fold Error Featuring a Butterfly”. Shown below are two butterfly Fractional errors caused by an extra tab of paper. A close examination reveals a fold (but not a gutter fold). SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 432 1st ISSUE There are more examples of 1st issue GFs on Postage Currency notes than any other issue. Perhaps it was the result of rushing to produce the notes to get them into circulation. Shown are some 5¢ notes with impressive GFs. The quad block in the middle right is especially striking. Here is a set of gutter folds on the 10¢ note. The strip of 3 with the sheet plate #31 is especially cool as are the two uncut pairs. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 433 Shown is a set of five 25¢ Postage currency notes. The note on the bottom left exhibits a dramatic GF. GFs on the 50¢ 1st issue Fractional are prohibitively rare. We could only find two examples in the auction archives. The example in the bottom right has a long, thin gutter and a 2nd example (not shown) that has a GF so tiny, that it can only be viewed with magnification.  2nd ISSUE Shown are a nice array of 2nd issue 5¢ GFs. On the wide margin Specimen, the GF is thin and hard to spot, but it is there. The star of this 5¢ grouping is the top left note with the super wide GF (which is also a butterfly fold). The wide channel with the white paper is quite dramatic. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 434 On the left is a 2nd issue 10¢ Fractional with a GF and it is a very good example. It is quite wide and really bold; unfortunately, the top left corner is torn away. On the right is a scarce fiber Fractional (Fr. 1249) with 2 thin GFs. We can showcase three very nice GFs on the 25¢ note. The note on the left has a broad horizontal GF. The GF on the Experimental in the center is as good as it gets. The obverse GF cuts through the portrait. On the far right is another Experimental with a GF. Second issue 50¢ GFs are also rare. The note on the bottom left with a sizable gap is a wonderful example. It is worth mentioning that often GFs can appear overt on the face but are barely visible on the back (and vice versa). 3rd ISSUE On the 3rd issue 3¢ Fractional, we can present five different examples. The example on the top left is especially vibrant with a wide GF that spans the entire note. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 435 It is interesting to note that we could not find a regular issue 3rd issue 5¢ Clark Fractional with a GF, but we can show a wide margin Specimen example. It’s a thin, short GF which is not very noticeable, but as Clark GFs go, it’s the only one we found. Below are a pair of 10¢ notes with nice long horizontal GFs. The note in the center is a scarce Fr. 1254 with the autographs of Jeffries and Spinner. It is quite desirable since it escaped their attention when it was being signed. We have only one example of a 25¢ Fessenden with a GF. The Fr. 1295 on the far right has an erose vertical GF in the upper left. Onto the 3rd issue 50¢ Fractional. We only found a single regular issue Justice Fractional example on the top left (also a butterfly). The note on the top right is a Spinner face with a broad GF through the portrait. On the bottom left is a Spinner back with a small corner GF. On the bottom right, the red wide margin Type 1 Specimen reverse has a noticeable GF in the center right. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 436 4th ISSUE 4th issue GFs are also rare; the 10¢ Liberty on the left (Fr. 1259) has a tiny GF at the very bottom – between the “A” and ”C” on the word “FRACTIONAL”. The 10¢ example on the far right is also a butterfly. Below the 10¢ notes is a pair of 15¢ Columbia Fractionals (Fr. 1267) with thin GFs through the red Treasury seal. GFs on the 25¢ Washington are nearly impossible to find. We only came up with a single example (Fr. 1301) on the bottom right. There is a long thin GF to the left of Washington’s portrait.   Shown are a trio of Lincoln Fractionals (Fr. 1374). The Lincoln reverse has a long thin GF through the center; the obverse example on the bottom left has a tiny GF in the bottom right. The note on the bottom right has a small GF in the bottom left corner. We only found one example each on the Stanton (Fr. 1376 – see page 1) and Dexter (Fr. 1379). The Dexter has a small horizontal GF in the bottom left. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 437 5th ISSUE GFs on 5th issue notes are probably the rarest of all the issues. We have examples on all 3 denominations (10¢, 25¢ & 50¢). The 10¢ Meredith on the top left and 25¢ Walker in the center left exhibit a GF/Butterfly error. GUTTER FOLDS ON COUNTERFEIT FRACTIONALS We have an interesting bonus to share. Apparently even the counterfeiters used imperfect paper. On the top is a 1st issue 10¢ Postage currency counterfeit with a small GF in the upper right. The bottom 2 notes are a pair of 3rd issue 25¢ counterfeit Fessendens’ with broad GFs. We have been able to locate a gutter fold error on every series except the Grant/Sherman Specimen note. Gutter Folds on Fractionals are elusive – there are far more examples known on the more striking inverted surcharge error. Most Fractional GFs exhibit rather thin gutters; examples wider than 1/8” are the rarest of all. Thanks to the Heritage and Stacks Bowers auction archives for most of the images, thanks to Paper Money Editor, Benny Bolin, for the Spinner and Lincoln images and thanks Fred Bart for his insights. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 438 Oakland California’s Contribution to Series 1883-1894 Postal Note History by Bob Laub A Brief History of Oakland California The city of Oakland, California was originally established as Contra Costa. The name was changed to current day Oakland in March, 1855. The area is located on the east side of San Francisco Bay and got its name from the large oak forests which were surrounding most of the area. By 1860, the region supported a population of only 1,543 people, by 1883, when U.S. Postal Notes were first issued, the city had grown to over 38,000. The census report for 1894, when postal notes ceased being issued, show the cities growth to be over 50,000 inhabitants. One of the more significant factors in Oakland’s tremendous growth was its seaport, which is today the fifth busiest port in the United States. Early Oakland Post Office The earliest post office records I have found show Amedee Marier as Postmaster taking office November 6, 1851. William E. Dargie was Postmaster during the earlier years of postal note distribution and held that position from February 27, 1883 until February 25th, 1887. This is the period that incorporates the main portion of this article. Oakland Postal Note # 3001 A Type II Postal Note from Oakland, serial #3001, issued for one-cent, October 15th, 1884. Type II Postal Notes are in many ways different from Type I notes. The most obvious differences are paper color and size. Type II’s were printed on a very light grey paper, (as were all remaining types II-V), opposed to the bright yellow paper used on Type I’s. Their size is also about 12% smaller than its predecessor. The issuing and paying circles, requiring postal cancellation, were moved to the reverse. There were also four-dollar coupons added to the obverse design. These replaced the hole-punched area for dollars on Type I’s. The similarities are the Homer Lee Bank Note Company of New York printed both types. Additionally, both Type’s needed to have a designated paying city filled in on the obverse. What designates this note as being more unique are the two hand-written red ink inscriptions on the obverse. The first reads: “First of the New Issue, issued at Oakland, CA.” According to the inscription, this note represents the first Type II for that city. (Serial # 3000 was the last of the yellow paper design). This note would be the second half of a changeover pair. Which means a design change took place from the last of the yellow paper type to the first of the light-grey paper type, with no notes sequentially in-between. The note bears a second interesting inscription which reads: “Glorious News from Ohio Republicans Gains a Glorious Old Victory for Blaine and Logan.” This pertains to the nomination of former Speaker of the House James G. Blaine of Maine for President, with Senator John A. Logan of Illinois as his Vice-Presidential running mate. Both candidates were nominated at the Republican National Convention, June 3-6, 1884.That three-day event was held at The Exposition Hall, Chicago, Illinois. The convention was very well-attended with 1,600 delegates and alternates, as well as over 6,000 spectators. The national election took place November 4, 1884.The headlines read, “Governor Grover Cleveland, of New York, defeats James G. Blaine of Maine”. Unfortunately, for candidates Blaine and Logan the results were not in their favor. It was the first election of a Democrat as President since the Civil War. Cleveland won his home state of New York by just 1,047 votes; had he lost New York he would have lost the election. Blaine’s reputation for public corruption and his inadvertent alienation of Catholic voters proved to be decisive1. Some General Oakland Postal Note Statistics There were almost 71 million postal notes issued beginning September 3, 1883 until June 30, 1894. Of that number, 2,222,950 came from California. I do not have an exact number of notes issued from Oakland, but a current census shows three notes from there, credited to an ongoing Postal Note Census2, (PNC). The first note is serial # 1, issued September 3, 1883, the official “first day of issue”. The next is the note in this article. The final, a Type V, printed by Dunlap and Clarke of Philadelphia, was issued May 12, 1894. This final postal note was issued only six weeks prior to the end of the series. This should allow for an accurate time line for some quick math, Considering the last day of the series was publicized well in advance, for many weeks in newspapers, a reasonable assumption could have seen a final serial number around 52,000. Taking that number and dividing it by a series duration of 130 months, we SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 439 have an average of 400 notes per month. With only three surviving postal notes, the City of Oakland still shows a vast contribution to U.S. Postal Note history. I hope you enjoyed the article. I will look forward to any comments or questions at briveadus2012@yahoo.com. I am also interested in hearing about any postal notes you may have. Footnotes 1 Information provided by Wikipedia. 2 A 2004 census, a 30-year endeavor brought forth by Jim Noll. Jim up-dated his findings with seven editions, the last in 2004. Sadly, Jim passed away a few years ago, but his early efforts have now been taken on by Kent Halland, and Charles Surasky. A Ty. II, serial # 3001, which represents the first Ty. II note issued from Oakland, CA. Two inscriptions, in red ink, appear on the notes obverse. “First of the New Issue issued at Oakland, Cal. A second inscription reads: “Glorious News from Ohio Republicans gains a glorious old Victory Hurrah for Blaine, and Logan”. This pertains to the nomination of former Speaker of the House James G. Blaine of Maine, for President, and Senator John A. Logan of Illinois, for V.P. for the June 3-6, 1884 Republican National Convention. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 440 It’s Not Just About the Vignettes: The “Real” Rhett Butler by Tony Chibbaro Inspiration does often strike completely out of the blue, but perhaps in this instance I should call it revelation. Just a few weeks after submitting to our editor my recent article about the nine portraits on South Carolina obsolete currency which, at the time, stubbornly remained unidentified (see banknote illustrated above for two of these portraits), I was serendipitously presented with an attribution for one of them. I wish I could claim that it was the result of a great deal of research and hard work on my part, but that would be far from the truth. In fact, I was simply enjoying myself at the recent 50th Anniversary Convention of the South Carolina Numismatic Association. While perusing the bourse offerings of scripophilist/philatelist Randall Chet I came upon one of the unidentified portrait vignettes illustrated in my recent article, only this one had a name - Geo. A. Trenholm - so lightly engraved on the card directly below the image that it was almost unreadable. But still - instant identification! To say that I was ecstatic would not have been an understatement. When I returned home after the show, I was pleasantly surprised once again as I was researching the life of George Trenholm. It seems that Trenholm was the real-life person upon whom author Margaret Mitchell based her famous Gone with the Wind character Rhett Butler. Mitchell’s forebears were acquainted with Trenholm and through them she was privy to many of the details of his life. When she needed a strong love interest for her character Scarlett O’Hara, it was natural for Mitchell to use Trenholm as a model for Rhett Butler. There exists a multitude of similarities between Trenholm and his fictional counterpart. Both Trenholm and Butler were born in Charleston and lived in opulent mansions there. Both were said to be tall, handsome, intrepid men of somewhat dubious reputation. Both mourned the loss of young children, Trenholm his first four. Each was considered to be one of the richest men in the South and each one amassed further wealth during the Civil War through blockade running. At the war’s end, both men were accused of making off with the Confederate Government’s gold bullion and were later jailed by the Union Army for a period of time. Although the assets of both Trenholm and Butler were almost wiped out by the downfall of the Confederacy, both were believed to have sheltered some money in British bank accounts, enough to give them a start in business again after the war ended. Both recovered quickly and became very rich men again in a relatively short period of time. Proof $5 Note of the Bank of Charleston printed by the American Bank Note Company sometime between 1858 and 1861. Until recently the identities of both of the men portrayed on this note were unknown to modern collectors. George A. Trenholm, a prominent businessman from Charleston who would later serve as the Secretary of the Treasury of the Confederate States of America, is depicted on the left. Arthur G. Rose, who served as the president of the Bank of Charleston between 1850 and 1856, is This portrait vignette, identified as Geo. A. Trenholm in ill-defined lettering below the image, was printed by the American Bank Note Company and numbered “No. 85” on its front. The engraving was executed in the late 1850s and may have been the work of Charles Burt or Frederick Girsch, two prominent portrait engravers who did work for the firm during that time period. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 441 The “real” Rhett Butler, George Alfred Trenholm, was born in Charleston on February 25, 1807, to William and Elizabeth Trenholm. William Trenholm was a second-generation merchant of English descent while Elizabeth Trenholm was the daughter of a major plantation owner on the island of Saint Domingue (now Haiti). When his father died in 1824, George Trenholm left school at the age of 16 and went into business, working for a prominent Charleston cotton broker, John Fraser & Company. He rose to become a partner in the firm and, by 1853, he led the company. When John Fraser died the following year, the firm’s name was changed to Fraser, Trenholm & Company. By the end of the decade, Trenholm had become one of the wealthiest men in the South. He had investments in steamships, hotels, shipping wharves, plantations, and warehoused cotton and his firm had offices in Charleston, New York City, and Liverpool, England. In 1852, he was elected to the South Carolina Legislature and served a total of nine years in the General Assembly. When the Civil War broke out Trenholm’s firm immediately closed its office in New York and opened one in the Bahamas. As the war progressed, its office in Liverpool became extremely important to the Confederacy. It was from this location that goods vital to the South - coal, iron, salt, guns, and ammunition - were shipped. The firm’s commercial fleet of 60 ships carried these supplies past the various Union blockades and into Southern ports. On their return voyages to England, they carried cotton, tobacco, and turpentine. Trenholm’s company also became a sort of overseas banker for the Confederacy, arranging the sale of some of its bonds to European investors. In July 1864, George Trenholm succeeded his friend and fellow Charlestonian, Christopher Memminger, as Secretary of the Treasury of the Confederate States of America. Trenholm had been an unofficial adviser to Memminger for almost four years and was now given the impossible task of shoring up the Confederacy’s sagging finances. Inflation was rampant, consumer goods were scarce, and food was getting increasingly difficult to come by. Trenholm travelled to Richmond to do what he could, but as Union General William Sherman moved through Georgia and into South Carolina, it became apparent that the end was near. During the war’s final days, Trenholm arranged for the remnants of the Confederate treasury to be transported with President Jefferson Davis by train into North Carolina. Trenholm accompanied Davis for part of this trip, but left the train before it reached its destination due to ill health. After the war, he was arrested and subsequently accused by certain Union officers of making off with the gold and later for involvement in the plot to assassinate Abraham Lincoln. Trenholm spent three months in the custody of the Union Army but was released in October 1865 after being pardoned by President Andrew Johnson. Many of his assets had been seized by the federal government as payment for customs duties on the goods imported by his blockade runners during the war. After his release, Trenholm returned to his cotton brokerage business, but it failed in 1867. The firm was then reorganized as George A. Trenholm & Son and shifted focus to take advantage of the state’s post-war phosphate-mining boom. Through prudent investments Trenholm regained much of his wealth and was reelected to the South Carolina State Legislature in 1874. His health failed in 1876 and he died on December 9th of that year. Trenholm was buried in Charleston’s historic Magnolia Cemetery where, under the branches of a Lowcountry live oak, one can find a simple marble headstone inscribed “G.A.T. 1807-1876,” the final resting place of the “real” Rhett Butler. Sources: Museum around the Corner: George A. Trenholm (Special to The Georgetown Times) by Georgetown County Historical Museum, July 1, 2020 Wikipedia page - George Trenholm (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Trenholm) George A. Trenholm, Financial Genius of the Confederacy by Ethel Trenholm Seabrook Nepveux (1999, Electric City Publishing Company) Treasures of the Confederate Coast: The Real Rhett Butler & Other Revelations by Dr. E. Lee Spence (1995, Narwhal Press) Sketch of The Fox made shortly after the ship was built in 1864. The vessel was one of five blockade runners constructed that year for Fraser, Trenholm & Company. Utilizing Charleston as its main port of entry, the ship carried goods necessary to the Southern war effort. Image courtesy of U.S. Navy Archives. Engraving of George Trenholm, circa 1865. Although the Gone with the Wind author never admitted it, evidence uncovered by several researchers strongly suggests that Margaret Mitchell utilized Trenholm as the basis for her character Rhett Butler. Image from The Rise and Fall of the Confederate Government, Volume II, by Jefferson Davis. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 442 BOOK REVIEW Paper Tigers by Len Glazer Reviewed by Frank Clark This book was written by paper money stalwart Len Glazer, who was elected to the SPMC Hall of Fame in 2020. Len is widely recognized as one of the country's foremost authorities on paper money. Still in high school, he became a coin dealer at local trade shows, and continued to buy and sell coins throughout his years at St. John's University. Before graduating, he became a recognized dealer of and authority on Fractional Currency. In 1975, Len founded Fractional Currency Incorporated. In 1990, Len helped start Currency Auctions of America, Inc., which was bought by Heritage Auctions in 2001. Today, he is recognized as one of foremost authorities on Fractional Currency, as well as one of the most respected figures in the entire paper money community. Today, he is Director Emeritus of Currency Auctions at Heritage Auctions. Amongst this background, Len was in an unique position to not only remember, but also gather anecdotes during his career. This is a different type of currency book as Len has compiled 491 recollections, in no specific order, about the hobby we all love within the book's 168 pages that includes almost 200 photographs. This book reminds me of the bull sessions that were held on the mezzanine or in rooms of the host hotel of the Memphis International Paper Money Show, where stories about collectors, dealers, and notes flowed freely until all have gone to sleep. We are fortunate that Len was able to put these stories to paper so that they will be preserved. Many of the stories are about collectors and dealers that have passed on or have moved on from the collecting community. It was nice to reflect on these people once again. It was hard to put this entertaining book down until I finished it. This was a book that needed publishing for all of us to enjoy. While writing this review, I opened the book to two differnt pages and read one more time a recollection on each page. I got a chuckle from each recollection once again. The book can be purchased for $50 soft cover or $80 hard cover directly from Len Glazer, P.O. Box 111, Forest Hills, New York, NY 11375. Editor’s note—Len graciously sent me a copy of the book and I could not put it down. In today’s world, with the so much of the numismatic business being done via internet, we rarely have large gatherings like the old-times in Memphis. Len’s book brought back many wonderful memories and I am grateful for him putting this all together. He shows that collecting can be fun and at time irreverent! I was directly involved in only a couple of the stories in the book, but I was there many times when they were not only talked about but when they occurred. This is truly a must-have book in my opinion and I am beyond grateful that Len put this all to ink and paper. Thank you Len!!! Benny Bolin, Editor Paper Money SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 443 The SPMC is planning fun activities at F.U.N. ’24! The SPMC is planning many fun activities, award presentations, meetings and educational presentations at the winter FUN, January 4-7, 2024 in the North Hall of the Orange County Convention Center. Schedule of events Friday Jan 5 Saturday Jan 6 0800 Board of Governors mtg 0800 SPMC Breakfast and Tom Bain Raffle 0900 General membership mtg w/educational program Tom Bain Raffle Meet other collectors and talk paper money SPMC AWARDS Educational talks and paper money exhibits Mix ‘em up! Effervescent and always humorous Auctioneer— Wendell Wolka SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 444 U N C O U P L E D : PAPER MONEY’S ODD COUPLE Joseph E. Boling Fred Schwan Ryukyus reversion—1972 Following World War II, the Ryukyu Islands (Okinawa being the most well-known) were a US trusteeship for twenty years after the signing of the 1952 peace treaty. In 1958 the Ryukyus converted from using Allied military B-yen to using ordinary U.S. currency (“greenbacks” or “green”). From then until 1972 no other form of currency circulated in the islands. As the United States prepared to relinquish the government of the Ryukyus to the Japanese government in 1972, the issue of currency became a serious topic to the islanders. The United States had just released the dollar from gold; the dollar had started to fall with respect to other currencies, particularly the yen. The islanders feared that their dollar holdings would buy fewer yen on reversion day (set for 15 May 1972) than they would have bought if they had been changed for yen anytime during the twenty-plus years of US control. They appealed to the Japanese government for relief. The government agreed to let each resident convert dollars held before the reversion was announced at the longstanding ¥360 per dollar rate, regardless of the rate in effect on reversion day. It would be relatively easy to determine how much each person held in deposit accounts, simply by examining the passbooks, but what about cash? The Japanese are a very cash-oriented society; each family might have a significant part of its liquid assets in cash, and that amount would vary from day to day up to reversion day. The system developed called for all residents to register their dollar cash holdings, which would be recorded on a certificate; that amount of money would be convertible at the old exchange rate later. The registration was a no-notice event—all dollars had to be registered on the day after the notice was given. The cash had to be physically presented, and See Boling page 447. My Home Town Collection Part II We submitted our previous columns under the above title just before the ANA convention in Pittsburgh. It was not marked as “Part I.” In that story I bragged about my recent acquisition of a Port Clinton, Ohio short snorter. I do not find home town items often, so I did not expect to get back to that subject any time soon, but by far my best purchase at the convention was a very nice (they all are) home town item. I should clarify home town for me. Obviously Port Clinton, Ohio is my place of birth and the center of my home town collection. Port Clinton was the home of national bank charter number 6227. The charter had three titles, so the collection is fairly elaborate for a one-bank small town, and of course I collect it in detail. Some day we will look at charter 6227. Port Clinton is in Ottawa County. In national bank note collecting tradition, I collect the other county banks too (in Elmore and Oak Harbor) as part of my home town collection. Quite remarkably Ottawa County was also the home of TWO prisoner of war camps! Johnson’s Island POW Camp (for Civil War prisoners) was not surprisingly on Johnson’s Island, while Ohio National Guard Camp Perry was a World War II POW camp. The camps are about twenty miles apart and close to Port Clinton. I live between the two and money was issued at both camps! I started collecting the camps more than fifty years ago and it took forty or more years before I obtained any pieces from either of those camps. I wrote about the Civil War notes in this column in August 2018. During World War II more than 400,000 Axis POWs were held in the United States. The POWs were paid in chits. I may have mentioned my Port Clinton POW chits in the past (I am not sure), but whether I did or not, I have an interesting new item to show you. At the Pittsburgh convention Dave Frank came up and handed me a holder and a price. I about fell over. It was a $3 coupon book for Prisoner of War Camp, Camp Perry, Ohio! I did not even quibble about the price. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 445 Upon close examination it was not actually a chit book, but a chit book cover. In fifty years of searching, this is the first opportunity that I have ever had to buy a Camp Perry coupon book or cover. I have owned a few complete POW camp coupon books and covers, but never from Camp Perry. I am not sure if I had ever seen an actual cover before.   Dave Frank and Dave Seelye not only listed a Camp Perry cover in their book, but also illustrated one. Today in preparing this column I found that I have that image on my computer. The image that I have is the same (low quality) one that they have. I am sorry to say that I do not know where that cover is or even whence came the image, but it is a great cover. It is for a $1 coupon book. It was printed by Allison Coupon Company of Indianapolis (sort of a Schwan-Boling connection). Still discussing the illustration in their book, the booklet and chits were to expire on 1 September 1945, but this date was changed to Nov 30, 1945 by rubber stamp. The chit books were issued to individuals and not transferable. When issued, the recipient’s and issuer’s names were entered on the cover. Their booklet was issued (or was stated to be) by Lieutenant A. D. Bryant. This is a wonderful little research tidbit. Lieutenant Bryant was probably a member of the camp staff, and it should be possible to find more information about him. Now to the new discovery. It too was printed by Allison of Indianapolis, but with a very different style. This cover too had places to enter the names of the issuer and the person to whom issued. This time the issuer is blank and the issued-to might be Troui. The chit system was a big deal. Much bigger than it would seem. Look at the serial numbers shown here. The numbers on the two booklets are modest (8186 and 28689), but even they represent a lot of chits. The numbers of chits produced that are represented by the two lowest-denomination Camp Perry chits shown here is astounding. Remember, the number on the chit is the serial number of the booklet, with each chit therein having the same number. Consider the 5¢ chit serial number 269756. The 25¢ chit also shown is only four booklets away, so we can assume that they both came from the same denomination booklet. Frank-Seelye shows that this style chit came from booklets of the design of the new-discovery $3 booklet. Say that each $3 booklet had five chits to a page and there were one page of 25¢ chits, two pages of 10¢ chits, two pages of 5¢ chits and five pages of 1¢ chits. That represents 13,487,800 chits! That is just one booklet denomination at one camp! There were many millions of chits. So, where are they? First, they were one-time-use items, so used chits were trashed and maybe recycled (there was a war on), but they were certainly not saved for re-use. The statement on the $3 booklet cover explains why. The chits also had expiration dates, thus encouraging that process, and when the war was over, any that a user may have kept as souvenirs left the country. So if you are looking for material from a specific camp, don’t be surprised at having to wait a few decades before succeeding. Can lightning strike again? Will some additional item pop up before the deadline for our next column? I certainly hope so. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 446 Boling continued: was then marked so that another resident could not present the same cash to be counted and recorded. Initially the dollar notes were to be marked with a rubber stamp that said, in effect, “reversion congratulations.” For reasons not clearly shown in contemporary literature, the “congratulations” character was carved off of most of the stamps to be used, so only two of the three characters in the center of the stamp remain. The US government also complained about having the notes defaced if they were to be returned to US control, so the rubber stamp was used only to validate the document used to register the notes. But the notes still had to be marked some way, to prevent double registration, so most registration stations simply stamped the notes with a pencil eraser used as a rubber stamp (figure 1). Of course, anyone can mark an appropriate series United States dollar note today to make it appear that it went through the reversion registration, so there is no premium on notes thus marked unless a firm provenance can be established tying them to the registration program. However, there is another form of collectible that is very desirable and difficult to fake—the actual registration form used to record the currency (figure 2). In order to control the use of those forms, and to prevent copies from being made that would allow residents to exchange amounts that they had not properly registered, a postage stamp was used to validate the registry forms—an unissued 4¢ Iriomote National Park stamp of the Ryukyu Islands (figure 3). This stamp was called a “cash confirmation certificate label” by the government, and was used only for the currency registration forms. It is known to philatelists as the Iriomote essay, because it was never issued for postal use. Only recently has another reversion-connected object been identified—the yen notes used in the currency exchange. The Japanese government buried the information about the notes being identifiable in a financial history, and does not seem to have announced what the identifying feature is, but a dedicated Japanese numismatist, SUZUKI Wasaburo, has identified isolated blocks of notes issued at that time. His work is available online, in Japanese. Kazuya Fujita has read that website and will make its contents known to US collectors. Our article on these notes will be published by the International Bank Note Society shortly. Fujita’s pursuit of this information was further stimulated by the recent discovery in California of two early post-war notes with ZZ serial prefixes (figures 4a,4b). The dealer who had bought them thought they Fig 4a Fig4b  Fig 3  Fig 2  Fig 1 SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 447 would be replacement notes and asked me to give an opinion. I knew that the Japanese printers have no readily identifiable mark for replacements (no star notes), but when Fujita checked on those blocks, he noted that Suzuki’s work identifies them as likely having been used as reversion cash. That supposition is supported by their having been found in a collection alongside US notes marked with cancellation dots such as were used during the cash registration. Fred writes about his Pittsburgh convention find in this issue. My Pittsburgh find was a ¥1000 note with a YZ block (figure 5). Fujita told me that the YZ-M block was also one of the isolated blocks identified in Suzuki’s work. So here we have the ZZ block notes from the California find, an example of a cancelled US note from the registration process from that same collection, and the YZ block note from Pittsburgh. This ¥1000 note is too circulated to normally be collectible, so its owner (probably the adult child of a service member who had brought it home from Okinawa fifty years ago) had sold it to a foreign exchange dealer for face value— the same price I had to pay to retrieve it (plus the foreign exchange dealer’s commission)—$7. A real cherry-pick. Watch for our article to be published (identifying all the blocks involved) and then start watching for these sleepers. N.B.—some ZZ block notes are not reversion- connected, nor are they replacements. They come from other print plants, or from the same plant as the reversion- conversion operation notes, but they are not in isolated blocks. Fig 5  SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 448 The front of the Type-41 Treasury note endorsed by Maj. Yandell S. Patton, AQM. image: Enrico Aidala and Roger Adamek Major Yandell S. Patton Chief Quarter Master, Hardee’s Corps Endorsements with initials are very common and are most often those of civilians. This endorsement, however, contains the magic word “issued,” and only government officers and agents issued these interest-bearing notes. Dr. Enrico Aidala, a physician in Torino, Italy, and an author familiar to readers of Paper Money, spotted this new discovery. Readers will find 73 documents for “Yandell S. Patton” in the National Archives files for Officers. Flourishes on his signature are highly variable in these documents, but they are consistent with the initials on the Treasury note. Yandell S. Patton was born on October 6th, 1820 in Murfreesboro, Tennessee. He married at age 22 in Davidson, Tennessee, to Frances M. Moore, who far outlived him, dying in 1894. On August 14th, 1860 Patton resided in Brentwood, Tennessee. 1861 Yandell S. Patton was appointed Capt. & AQM on September 18th, reporting to the Quarter Master General in Richmond. 1862 In a letter of July 15th to the Quarter Master General, Patton explained that his last three quarterly reports were delayed “having been constantly engaged since the evacuation of Nashville.” A letter to Secretary of War Randolph, dated September 4th from “G. W. Jones, Tennessee, House of Representatives,” recommended the promotion of Patton to Major. This recommendation was denied, and we see Patton signing documents in 1862 as a Captain. 1863 On January 12th Major M. B. McMicken, the Chief Quarter Master of the Army of Tennessee, gave orders to Patton to “immediately proceed to Atlanta, Ga and receive and receipt to Major Geo. W. Cunningham Quarter Master for such clothing Shoes, Tents, Horse Shoes, & Horse Shoe Nails, as you can procure from him, for this army. [Next paragraph is the same order at Columbus, Ga for the same items] You will make contracts for and The Quartermaster Column No. 33 by Michael McNeil The endorsement reads: “Issued 30 Jan’y 1863, Y(andell) S. P(atton)” image: Roger Adamek SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 449 purchase Horse Shoes & Horse Shoe Nails at all points on your route, at Chattanooga Tenn, Rome Ga and Macon Ga, never interfering with the Contracts of the Quartermasters at those Posts, or paying for any article, a price higher than the price paid by those Quartermasters, and always, applying to the Quartermasters, for articles to be transferred, to you never purchasing yourself, unless the Quartermaster of the Post, should have no need of, or have no orders, to purchase the articles required by you....” This is a rather long letter, and it speaks to the graft and corruption which was commonly noted by other quartermasters. What should have been a short and clear description of orders devolved into a lecture on the avoidance of graft. Patton added a note at the bottom of the letter in his own hand acknowledging that he possessed it as “a true copy of the original letter.” Patton signed a voucher for commutation of quarters from January 7th to May 15th at Chattanooga, Tennessee (at this time under the command of Gen’l Braxton Bragg). By June 30th Patton was signing vouchers for corn and turpentine at Marietta, Georgia. He signed vouchers in August and September for the receipt of thousands of pounds of round and square iron bar stock at this location, supplied by Capt. J. H. Smith of the Niter & Mining Works. The sizes of these bars suggest that they were raw materials for making horseshoes and horseshoe nails. 1864 A letter dated February 12th from Lt. Gen’l Hardee to Adjutant & Inspector Gen’l S. Cooper noted that the office of Chief Quartermaster had been vacated with the transfer of Maj. R. M. Mason to Lt. Gen’l Polk. Hardee stated that Patton had been assigned to this position in his Corps and requested his promotion to Major. Patton took the rank of Major on February 19th. Charles Derby found an Interim Deposit Receipt in the Heritage Auction archives, issued by Patton and dated March 23rd. IDRs are rarely signed and issued by quartermasters. Patton signed a voucher for 2,100 pounds of corn at Marietta, Georgia, on May 1st. The city of Atlanta, Georgia, surrendered to Union forces on September 2nd. A letter dated August 31st to Patton from Maj. A. L. Landis, Inspector Gen’l, requests that Patton turn in excess wagons, horses, ambulances, and mules. There is no record of Patton’s acquiescence to this request, and Gen’l Hood pulled all Confederate troops out of Atlanta the following day. Gen’l Cheatham assumed command of Hardee’s Corps on September 28th. On October 1st Patton asked to be relieved as Maj. & Chief QM of Cheatham’s Corps, asking for permission to “settle outstanding debts,” and saying that he had served in the field since the Army left Bowling Green, Kentucky. Gen’l Cheatham granted this request. An inspection report of December 10th shows Patton as “absent under orders.” 1865 Returns of April 17th and 26th show Patton as Maj. & Chief QM of Hardee’s Corps. He was paroled on April 26th. Postscript: Charles Derby kindly provided biographical information on Patton. In 1870 at age 50 Patton resided in Memphis, Tennessee, working as a railroad contractor. He died in Nashville on February 19th, 1875. His obituary in the Montgomery (Alabama) Advertiser of February 21st, noted that his death was the result of a tragic accident. “In undertaking to board the 6:40 train for Decatur while it was moving off, he made a false step and fell off the platform, under a car, which passed over his leg, literally crushing it from about the middle of the thigh to the ankle. Efforts to rescue him from the perilous situation were of no avail till one pair of trucks had passed over him and done the fatal work. He fell on his face with his head in the direction the train was moving and his right leg resting on the rail in bent form so that the wheels crossed it at a very acute angle, first below the knee and then above. ...He expired at ten minutes past nine o’clock. “Major Patton lived on Sand Mountain, in Alabama, where he was interested in a coal mine. He was intending to go to Alabama, and had his family with him when the fatal misfortune befell him. They had got aboard the train, and he was detained in the depot till the cars started. “...He was [an] agent of the Northwestern, Nashville and Great Southern railroads successively.” ◘ Carpe diem SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 450 $MALL NOTE$ By Jamie Yakes Elston and Kennedy See Their Notes Printed After taking office in January 1969, President Richard Nixon nominated David M. Kennedy for Treasury Secretary and Dorothy Andrews Elston for U.S. Treasurer. Kennedy would replace Joseph Barr, nominated by Nixon’s predecessor Lyndon Johnson, and secretary for a scant 29 days. Elston took over what was then a vacant treasurer’s office after Kathryn O’Hay Granahan, nominated by President John F. Kennedy, and who also served under Johnson, resigned in October 1966. The appointments of Kennedy and Elston meant for the first time in over eight years a new treasury secretary and treasurer would take office together. That June they had the fortunate opportunity to see the new Series 1969 Federal Reserve Notes bearing their signatures.1 Treasury Department June 4, 1969 TREASURY SECRETARY KENNEDY AND TREASURER OF THE U.S. ESLTON WITNESS NUMBERING OF NEW CURRENCY Treasury Secretary David M. Kennedy and Treasurer of the United States of America Dorothy Andrews Elston witnessed the numbering of the first one-dollar Federal Reserve Notes bearing their signatures in ceremonies at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. It was the first time that an issue of currency notes bearing signatures of both the new Secretary and the Treasurer had been prepared since 1961, when those of Secretary Clarence Douglas Dillon and Treasurer Elizabeth Rudel Smith appeared on Series 1957A [Silver Certificates]. The new Kennedy-Elston notes will be designated Series 1969, replacing the present Series 1963B notes. The major series-year change is based on the first use of the new Department of the Treasury Seal—adopted last year—on Federal Reserve Notes in addition to the change in signatures of the Secretary and Treasurer. The new series notes will be produced for each of the 12 Federal Reserve Banks. Because of the major series-year change, the serial numbers for each of the 12 banks will revert to 00 000 01A preceded by the prefix letter associated with each of the banks. Shipments to each of the Federal Reserve Banks will be made in the near future as total conversion to the new notes is completed in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing. All denominations of United States Currency will be converted to the Kennedy 1969 Series. Treasury designated the Elston-Kennedy notes “Series 1969” because they carried the new treasury seal with an English motto instead of a Latin motto. They became the first Federal Reserve Notes to bear the new seal. The seal initially was used in 1968 on Series 1966 $100 United States Notes. The Elston-Kennedy signature combination also holds distinction as the last combination used on different classes of currency. It also appeared on Series 1966A $100 United States Notes, produced in 1970 and discontinued in 1971. From then the Bureau of Engraving and Printing has printed only Federal Reserve Notes. Notes 1. Treasury press release about Series 1969 Elston-Kennedy Notes, June 4, 1969. Record Group 53-Bureau of the Public Debt: Entry UD-UP 13, “Historical Files, 1913-1960,” Box 3, File K231. National Archives and Records Administration, College Park, Maryland. Low serial Series 1969  Elston‐Kennedy $1 note.  (From Heritage Auctions  sale 3531, lot 24785).  SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 451 Just like people, the health of any organization depends a great deal on how it keeps busy and on the move. Given our mission to “promote the study and appreciation of paper money”, most activities the SPMC sponsors revolve around acquiring and communicating knowledge about paper money. Over the last couple years, many excellent changes have been made to the SPMC’s website that reflect well on its mission. This column takes a moment to sum up what these recent changes offer to the SPMC’s growing membership. The Paper Money Article Index. While back issues of Paper Money have been accessible for a while through the Newman Numismatic Portal, the SPMC now makes available on its website in convenient pdf form the entire backfile of over 2,500 articles that have appeared in Paper Money since 1962. Available to members and non-members alike (except for the latest issues), this trove of writing organized into sixteen topic categories represents the cumulative wisdom and effort of over sixty years’ worth of research into currency and paper money. The Bank Note History Project. Based upon compiled OCC reports between 1865 and 1935, this project has produced a database of information about the banks and bankers that issued and signed bank notes of nationally chartered institutions. In addition to basic information about these banks’ personnel and note circulations, this database increasingly includes biographical details and even pictures of the thousands of bankers active during the era. Additions and improvements to this database occur regularly through the research efforts of a team of SPMC admins who comb through the relevant genealogical and historical records. Full access to this database is limited to SPMC members. For the general public, a more recently established National Bank Lookup website provides a more limited access to the same records, confined to searches by individual charter number or town. The Bank Note History Wiki. As a supplement to the banks and bankers database, this wiki provides more in-depth institutional and biographical studies of individual banks and bankers. A crowd-sourced publishing enterprise similar to Wikipedia, this website currently features detailed histories of nearly 200 bankers and over 500 banking institutions. Not only are the contents of this wiki available to all, historical and biographical contributions by anyone with the relevant interests in banking or financial history are both welcome and encouraged. The Huntoon-Shiva Encyclopedia of National Bank Notes. The work of Peter Huntoon, Andrew Shiva, and their collaborators, this encyclopedia takes the form of several dozen article-length explorations of all aspects of the National Banking Era of paper money. This project reflects in particular the intellectual generosity of Peter Huntoon, who has insisted upon the unrestricted availability of his decades’ worth of research into currency issues of this historical period. Significant National Bank Note Collections. Featuring prominent national bank note collections provides a way of closing the loop between the research and writing of banking and financial history and appreciation of the numismatic artifacts themselves. Accordingly, the SPMC now hosts three different major collections of notes from the National Banking Era: The Huntoon Collection of U.S. National Bank Notes, the Walton Collection of Nebraska Bank Notes, and (most recently) the Jorde Collection of North Dakota National Bank Notes. Each collection is presented in the form of a searchable and sortable table, with links to high resolution images of each note. In addition, each table embeds links for all note images back to the relevant records in the Bank Note History Project. The Collecting Paper Money Website. Finally, the SPMC has recognized that growing its membership requires reaching out to a wider public about the basics of currency collecting, including the types of currency that might attract peoples’ interest. To this end, the Collecting Paper Money website offers a wiki-like introduction to the range of paper money categories familiar both to U.S. and world currency collectors. As a famous pitchman may have once said, “But wait, there’s more!” And indeed there will no doubt be much more to come. As impressive as all this work is, it represents only one small part of the much larger universe of paper money collecting interests. Exploring these interests, both in the present and future, depends upon the work and dedication of individual members of the SPMC. If you have a passion for, or expertise in, a subject, get involved! While all the undertakings outlined above represent group efforts, including some contributions that go back many decades, one person in particular has been the guiding force behind these recent initiatives, and that is SPMC Governor Mark Drengson. We deserve to pat ourselves on the back for what we have accomplished so far, but we also all owe Mark a debt of gratitude for putting it all together and making it happen. Chump Change Loren Gatch The SPMC—An Organization on the Move SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 452 Robert Calderman Catching Falling Stars! Series of 1928B $5 Legal Tender notes do not seem to get much attention in conversations around the bourse these days. Understandably, it is not too difficult to find an example of a regular issue note on this series in uncirculated condition. In fact, PMG alone has graded nearly seven-hundred examples with almost five-hundred of these in uncirculated grades! So what makes a note on this series worthy of mention here in this column? Is there a special block that is ultra rare? There are two regular blocks for the series and stars: D-A, E-A, *-A, but all three of these are attainable with a reasonable amount of hunting. What is worth noting here that makes this series so incredibly special are the Mules! This is actually the very first series for any type or denomination, by series date, to encounter mules. All 1928B $5 LT’s received micro plate serial number faces, but some of the E-A block as well as some of the stars have macro back plate serial numbers! The D-A block was printed too early and no mules will be found on this block. Sometimes mules can be the more common variety for the catalog number as is found with 1934 dark green seal $5 Federal Reserve Note mules. However, for the 1928B $5 LT’s this is not the case by far. These legal tender mules make up less that 10% of the series! Surprisingly, an E-A block mule can still be located without much difficulty, in fact at the time of this writing there are six certified uncirculated examples currently available on eBay! The mule stars in nice condition are a completely different animal. For decades these were regarded as bar none the toughest of all the red seal $5 stars by a mile. This was prior to the discovery of a 1928E mule star with micro back plate 637 which there are now two examples observed, one in VF and the other in VG. Regardless, over the decades, time has not changed the fact that a $5 Legal Tender 1928B mule star is an absolute treasure in any condition! PMG has graded only 13 examples of these legendary notes, 9 of which are VF25 or lower! The remaining four examples are (1x) VF35 and (3x) Gem 65EPQ. What is completely dumbfounding is the fact that prior to the year 2020; I could only locate one sale for an uncirculated example that took place in March 2008 via SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 453 Lyn Knight Auctions for a raw example described as Choice Uncirculated that sold for $5,750. It was not too uncommon during 2008 for some high value small size notes to still be sold raw. The grading services were still somewhat in their infancy and collectors were willing to buy raw notes at high levels provided they or an agent could lot view the material. 2008 was a high point for U.S. paper money prior to the pricing correction that followed the dramatic bursting of the housing market bubble. Surprisingly, even at the height of the market, this 28B Mule Star actually sold cheaply vs. its original auction estimate of $8,000 - $16,000. So what has happened since 2008 for this incredible rarity? It took a full 12 years before another example hit the auction block. This next example sold via Heritage Auctions during the 2020 FUN sale. Billed as the only one of its kind at the time in 65EPQ with no equals, the lot realized a staggering $10,200 nearly doubling the price of the previous 2008 example! Then only three short years later another 65EPQ appeared from a different serial number range again at Heritage Auctions during the FUN sale January 2023. This note also brought strong attention listed as the second of only two graded GEM with none higher. This time bringing a very significant $8,400 at auction! Now at this point you would expect the dust to settle a bit and this would be the last we would hear about GEM 1928B $5 LT Mule Stars… Shockingly, this would not be the case as miraculously a third example hit the market during the recent Long Beach Heritage Auction in September 2023! How is this possible that there could be so many suddenly appearing on such a rare variety? It is not uncommon for big numbers at auction to then drive out other notes from hiding. Collections that have been in the dark tend to suddenly find motivation to appear when major dollar signs are flying in the air! Looking closely and doing a little digging, this third example is actually the same exact note that previously sold at Lyn Knight Auctions in 2008! Having so many examples of an ultra rare variety appearing seemingly back-to-back can be detrimental to the market. Yes, three in three years, well better yet, two appearing only eight months apart is extremely hard for the market to bear. This previously raw CCU mule star not only achieved a grade of 65EPQ, now bringing the tally up to three examples in this grade with none higher, it is actually the finest centered example of the known trio! Poised to be an ultimate crown jewel for the next owner to admire, this note would no doubt be a featured trophy for their high caliber collection. So did this most recent example that previously sold in 2008 break through the ceiling and create a new record number as the most attractive of the three? No!!! Instead, it became the deal of a lifetime for one lucky collector that had his catcher’s mitt on at the time and caught this massive falling star! This note if you can believe it, sold for LESS than it did in 2008 bringing only $4,920.00 an absolute gift price! Incredibly, by comparison, a more common 28B non-mule star with a micro face plate number and micro back plate number that out paces the mule survivors by a huge leap at nearly 10 to 1 will bring virtually the same price level at one or two grade points higher. So what does this mean? Are 28B $5 LT mule stars common now? Are they even worth pursuing now that one sold for so cheap? The joy of collecting includes those landmark moments when collectors “Steal a note”. When they win a lot at auction or find a note at a coin show that is too good to be true! Not only are they beaming on cloud nine for a time, but they are motivated beyond measure to keep hunting for the next great note. Never knowing what treasures they may find next and what amazing deals they can gloat about to all their fellow collecting brethren. Do you have a great Cherry Pick story that you’d like to share? Your note might be featured here in a future article and you can remain anonymous if desired! Email scans of your note with a brief description of what you paid and where it was found to: gacoins@earthlink.net.   SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 454 The Obsolete Corner The Bank of Wisconsin by Robert Gill Hello paper money lovers. As you read this, Winter will be quickly coming. I hope the cold weather will be easier on us than what this past Summer was. Here in Southern Oklahoma, we went for over two straight months without rain. And during that time, almost every day hit the one-hundred-degree mark of actual temperature. It was one of the worst seasons that I can remember, and I’m glad it’s in the past. But the hot Summer did not deter my paper money ambitions. In the last several months, I’ve been able to add a couple of nice, tough additions to my collection of Obsolete sheets. I hope you have been successful in your collecting desires also. And now, let’s look at the sheet that I’ve chosen to share with you. In this issue of Paper Money, let’s go to the Badger State, and look at The Bank of Wisconsin. These pretty notes are by no means rare, in either uncut sheet form or as single notes. But it’s interesting to read about the history of this short-lived Institution, and the shenanigans that its officials tried to get away with. Wisconsin was more favorably situated than most other states, in that, at the very outset, it produced a surplus that commanded a fair price in honest money in the markets of the world. The lead ore dug from the earth with so little labor, and in such large quantities, was always easily exchangeable for specie. The mining towns furnished a convenient market for the surplus products of the farms in the southwestern counties. The lakeshore ports were already inviting commerce, and means for transportation were furnished for all kinds of surplus products, equal if not superior to those available to states in the South and East. These favorable conditions, however, seem not to have been apparent, or at least not to have impressed themselves upon the minds of those who controlled the destinies of the new Territory. It is not difficult to imagine the arguments that were advanced in favor of more money and its seductive influence upon a people eager for higher prices for their products, and anxious for the rapid development of the agricultural and industrial interests of a new community. An increase in the volume of the currency could be had by the issue of paper money, which could be supplied in sufficient quantities only by banks and banking institutions. The few institutions that were incorporated seem to have had the support of strong and influential personality in the Territorial Legislature. These enactments were secured by the influence of the parties interested, and were not passed in response to any popular demand. The Bank of Wisconsin, established in Green Bay, was the first institution of its kind west of Lake Michigan. It was incorporated under an act of the Territorial Legislature Council of Michigan on January 23rd, 1835. The charter was to last for twenty-five years. Morgan L. Martin served as its first President. His official connection with the Bank seems to have been rather brief, as shown by its subsequent history. The capital prescribed was $100,000, which could be increased on a vote of the stockholders to $500,000. The shares were to be $50 each. Stipulations were put in to insure payment of the capital by stockholders. The total liabilities of the Bank, over and above the specie then actually deposited, were not to exceed three times the capital paid in. There was no other limitation upon the amount of notes that might be issued. Any note of less denomination than one dollar was to not be permitted. A restriction was set in place so that the loaning of Bank funds to the Directors could not exceed one- fourth of the amount of paid-up capital. The Bank was to render statements of its condition to the Legislature when required to do so. But there was not a provision made for regular reports at definite intervals. It was limited to six percent interest or discount. If it should at any time fail to redeem its notes on demand, its charter would be dissolved. Green Bay’s bank operated for four years, but in early 1839, the Wisconsin Territory Legislature learned that it did not have the required specie to back the large sum of notes that it had issued. A committee was appointed to undertake an examination of operations. But their labors were rendered difficult and practically fruitless by recalcitrant and dishonest Bank officials. The officers of The Bank of Wisconsin refused to produce their books or to answer under oath the questions propounded to them by the committee. They showed a determination to conceal the true condition of the Bank. It was admitted, however, that the Bank was not paying specie for its notes, and had not since May of 1837. Henry Stringham, the Cashier, submitted an unverified written communication, accompanied by a statement of the Bank's financial condition, attempting to explain why the Bank was not SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 455 able to resume its responsibilities. He claimed that the situation of its customers had rendered it necessary to extend accommodations, as they were not able to make voluntary payments, and that the Bank was unable to coerce payments of its debts by reason of State Laws enacted by the Legislature. These laws had impaired the value of personal securities by rendering a prompt collection of them impossible. For this reason, he said that the Bank had not been able to convert its securities into available assets with which to redeem its liabilities. The financial statement furnished to the State Committee by the Cashier, but which he refused to verify, however, told a different story. From that partial statement it appeared that The Bank of Wisconsin, with a capital of $39,125, had issued circulating notes that were then outstanding in the sum of $182,498. It had deposits to the amount of $88,250.28, increasing its outstanding obligations, which were subject to immediate payment, to the sum of over $275,000. To meet these demands, he claimed the Bank had specie to the amount of $29,236.46, and bills of other banks to the amount of $23,123, and other assets that were not fully described. But he refused the Committee access to the books or vaults in order that they might verify the accuracy of these figures. He also refused to furnish the names of the Stockholders and Directors of the Bank, of whom, according to this statement, a large amount was due to the Bank. The apparent helplessness of the Committee seemed pitiful when, had it seen fit, it could have called to its aid the entire power of the Territorial Government to compel a full disclosure of the condition of this Institution. The Attorney General was authorized to commence a suit against the Bank for violation of its charter. When the records and assets were seized, the required specie turned out to be a keg in the vault containing $86.20 in specie, a sufficient reason for suspending the redemption of the Bank’s notes. Paper assets included a draft on The Mineral Point Bank for $61,507. Liabilities were many times over the amount that was initially reported. Because if its financial state, the inevitable happened. Based on the insolvency of The Bank of Wisconsin, its charter was repealed on March 11th, 1839. So, there’s the history behind this old bank. And, like so many during Obsolete times, it was short-lived, and left its supporters with tremendous loss. As I always do, I invite any comments to my cell phone (580) 221-0898, or my personal email address robertdalegill@gmail.com. So, until next time, I wish you HAPPY COLLECTING. SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 456 Visit www.money.org/account/join or call (800) 214+2646 to join now! SPMC.org * Paper Money * Nov/Dec 2023 * Whole No. 348 457 OUR MEMBERS SPECIALIZE IN LARGE SIZE TYPE NOTES They also specialize in National Currency, Small Size Currency, Obsolete Currency, Colonial and Continental Currency, Fractionals, Error Notes, MPCs, Confederate Currency, Encased Postage, Stocks and Bonds, Autographs and Documents, World Paper Money . . . and numerous other areas. THE PROFESSIONAL CURRENCY DEALERS ASSOCIATION is the leading organization of Dealers in Currency, Stocks and Bonds, Fiscal Documents and related paper items. PCDA To be assured of knowledgeable, professional, and ethical dealings when buying or selling currency, look for dealers who proudly display the PCDA emblem. For further information, please contact: The Professional Currency Dealers Association PCDA • Holds its annual National Currency Convention in conjunction with the Central States Numis- matic Society’s Anniversary Convention. Please visit our Web Site pcda.com for dates and location. • Encourages public awareness and education regarding the hobby of Paper Money Collecting. • Sponsors the John Hickman National Currency Exhibit Award each year, as well as Paper Money classes and scholarships at the A.N.A.’s Summer Seminar series. • Publishes several “How to Collect” booklets regarding currency and related paper items. Availability of these booklets can be found on our Web Site. • Is a proud supporter of the Society of Paper Money Collectors. Or Visit Our Web Site At: www.pcda.com Susan Bremer – Secretary 16 Regents Park • Bedford, TX 76022 (214) 409-1830 • email: susanb@ha.com Paul R. Minshull #16591. BP 20%; see HA.com 71679 DALLAS  |  NEW YORK  |  BEVERLY HILLS  |  CHICAGO  |  PALM BEACH LONDON  |  PARIS  |  GENEVA  |  BRUSSELS  |  AMSTERDAM  |  HONG KONG Always Accepting Quality Consignments in 50+ Categories Immediate Cash Advances Available 1.75 Million+ Online Bidder-Members PLATINUM SESSION™ & SIGNATURE® AUCTION FUN 2024 – Dallas | January 10-12 Now Accepting Consignments to Our Official FUN 2024 Auction Highlights Already Consigned Biddeford, ME - $100 1882 Brown Back The Biddeford NB Ch. # 1575 Serial Number 1 Port Jervis, NY - $5 Original Fr. 399 The FNB Ch. # 94 Central City, CO - $5 1875 The FNB Ch. # 2129 Black Charter Number Serial Number 1 Woonsocket, RI - $1 Original Fr. 380a The Woonsocket National Bank Ch. #1058 PMG Choice Fine 15 From the Wade Boughton Collection Providence, RI - $50 1882 Brown Back Fr. 509 The Providence National Bank Ch. # 1302 PMG Very Fine 25 EPQ From the Wade Boughton Collection Westerly, RI - $5 Original Fr. 397a The National Phenix Bank Ch. # 1169 PMG Choice Very Fine 35 From the Wade Boughton Collection For a free appraisal, or to consign to an upcoming auction, contact a Heritage Expert. 800-872-6467, Ext. 1001 or Currency@HA.com