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Table of Contents
#1 5$ Brown Back-Ketchum, Idaho Territory--Peter Huntoon
John Douglas-New Orleans Engraver--Mark Coughlan
National Bank Note Circulation Decline--Peter Huntoon
Miss Blackey-The Most Beautiful Woman in Virginia--Tony Chibbaro
CIA Counterfeit Cuban Banknotes of 1961--Roberto Menchaca
Hastings Nebraska National Bank Robbery
WWII Japanese-American Internment Camp Money-Pt. 2--Steve Feller, et al
The Tishomingo Hotel--James Ehrhardt
"Eighteen Ninety-Four"--Bob Laub
Hand-Signed History-A Book Review--Michael McNeil
official journal of
The Society of Paper Money Collectors
Ketchum Idaho Territory
$5 Brown Back
LEGENDARY COLLECTIONS | LEGENDARY RESULTS | A LEGENDARY AUCTION FIRM
Exceptional Prices Realized from
Stack?s Bowers Galleries
Consign Your U.S. Currency to Our November 2024 Showcase Auction
The Official Auctioneer of the Whitman Coin & Collectibles Expo
Auction: November 18-22, 2024 ? Consignment Deadline: September 23, 2024
CC-34. Continental Currency. May 9, 1776. $4.
PCGS Banknote Superb Gem Uncirculated 68 PPQ.
Realized: $18,000
T-45. Confederate Currency. 1862 $1.
PMG Gem Uncirculated 65 EPQ.
Realized: $14,400
Fr. 1700. 1933 $10 Silver Certificate.
PCGS Banknote Superb Gem Uncirculated 67 PPQ.
Low Serial Number.
Realized: $99,000
Fr. 2210-Hlgs. 1928 Light Green Seal
$1000 Federal Reserve Note. St. Louis.
PMG Gem Uncirculated 65 EPQ.
Realized: $43,200
Fr. 2402H. 1928 $20 Gold Certificate Star Note.
PMG Gem Uncirculated 65 EPQ.
Realized: $38,400
Fr. 2405. 1928 $100 Gold Certificate.
PMG Gem Uncirculated 66 EPQ.
Realized: $192,000
Fr. 2407. 1928 $500 Gold Certificate.
PMG Gem Uncirculated 65 EPQ.
Realized: $216,000
Fr. 2221-K. 1934 $5000 Federal Reserve Note.
Dallas. PCGS Banknote Choice Very Fine 35.
Realized: $174,000
Fr. 2301mH. 1934 $5 Hawaii Emergency
Star Mule Note. San Francisco.
PMG Gem Uncirculated 66 EPQ.
Realized: $52,800
Fr. 2200-Jdgs. 1928 Dark Green Seal
$500 Federal Reserve Note. Kansas City.
PMG Gem Uncirculated 65 EPQ.
Realized: $43,200
Fr. 2201-A. 1934 Dark Green Seal
$500 Federal Reserve Note. Boston.
PCGS Banknote Superb Gem Uncirculated 68 PPQ.
Realized: $48,000
Fr. 2. 1861 $5 Demand Note.
PMG Gem Uncirculated 65 EPQ.
Realized: $408,000
Contact Our Experts for More Information Today!
Peter Treglia: 949.748.4828 ? Michael Moczalla: 949.503.6244 ? Consign@StacksBowers.com
America?s Oldest and Most Accomplished Rare Coin Auctioneer
1550 Scenic Ave., Ste. 150, Costa Mesa, CA 92626 ? 949.253.0916 ? Info@StacksBowers.com
470 Park Ave., New York, NY 10022 ? 212.582.2580 ? NYC@stacksbowers.com
84 State St. (at 22 Merchants Row), Boston, MA 02109 ? 617.843.8343 ? Boston@StacksBowers.com
1735 Market St. (18th & JFK Blvd.), Philadelphia, PA 19103 ? 267.609.1804 ? Philly@StacksBowers.com
Info@StacksBowers.com ? StacksBowers.com
California ? New York ? Boston ? New Hampshire ? Oklahoma ? Philadelphia
Sacramento ? Virginia ? Hong Kong ? Copenhagen ? Paris ? Vancouver
SBG PM Nov2024 Consign 240901
a_oM_om
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317 #1 5$ Brown Back-Ketchum, Idaho Territory--Peter Huntoon
324 John Doughlas-New Orleans Engraver--Mark Coughlan
332 National Bank Note Circulation Decline--Peter Huntoon
342 Miss Blackey-The Most Beautiful Woman in Virginia--Tony CHibbaro
344 CIA Counterfeit Cuban Banknotes of 1961--Roberto Menchaca
349 Hastings Nebraska National Bank Robbery
352 WWII Japanese-American Internment Camp Money-Pt. 2--Steve Feller, et al
359 The Tishomingo Hotel--James Ehrhardt
369 "Eighteen Ninety-Four"--Bob Laub
376 Hand-Signed History-A Book Review--Michael McNeil
SPMC.org * Paper Money * Sep/Oct 2024 * Whole No. 353
312
Columns
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
Mark Anderson
Doug Ball
Hank BieciukJoseph BolingF.C.C. Boyd
Michael Crabb
Forrest DanielMartin DelgerWilliam DonlonRoger 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
Brent Hughes
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
From Your President
Editor Sez
New Members
Uncoupled
Cherry Picker Corner
Obsolete Corner
Quartermaster
Small Notes
Chump Change
Robert Vandevender 314
Benny Bolin 315
Frank Clark 316
Joe Boling & Fred Schwan 362
Robert Calderman 366
Robert Gill 371
Michael McNeil 373
Jamie Yakes 378
Loren Gatch 379
Stacks Bowers Galleries IFC
Pierre Fricke 312
Bob Laub 322
Lyn Knight 323
PCGS-C 331
Higgins Museum 340
World BankNote Auctions 341
Fred Bart 346
FCCB 346
Whatnot 351
PM of the U.S. 358
Greysheet 361
Bill Litt 361
PCDA IBC
Heritage Auctions OBC
Fred Schwan
Neil Shafer
Herb& Martha Schingoethe
Austin Sheheen, Jr.
Hugh Shull
Glenn Smedley
Raphael Thian
Daniel Valentine
Louis Van Belkum
George Wait
D.C. Wismer
SPMC.org * Paper Money * Sep/Oct 2024 * Whole No. 353
313
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 II
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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 Timmerm
Wendell Wolka purduenut@aol.com
an andrew.timmerman@aol.com
During our last Long Beach Expo show in June, I learned something new. Don
Kagin stopped by our SPMC table and we had a very nice discussion. Don
mentioned that he was preparing to write a new article or book about Canadian
Card Money. I have never heard of it before and was intrigued. From what I
understand, due to an actual shortage of real currency in ?New France,? playing
cards that were available were cut up and marked with an official stamp on them
and they were used to pay the troops. Evidently there were several series of the
money issued but only a few examples survive from the last issue. I am looking
forward to Don?s article to come out to learn more and do hope he chooses Paper
Money Magazine for publication.
My friend Alan Bailey responded to my last President?s column with an email
titled ?some lawyer out there? to explain why it is ok for businesses to not accept
legal tender cash for transactions. I asked him to write an article for Paper
Money Magazine and he is working on getting permission from his employer to
write that article. I hope he is able to write it, and I am looking forward to
reading about it in a future issue of PM.
The ANA show in Chicago went very well and I, once again, purchased a
bronze bar for my ?railroad track? ANA medal. I have seen many tracks that are
a couple of feet long but mine is not so impressive. My first ANA show was in
1991, so my tracks aren?t that long. Several of our members were in attendance.
On Thursday evening, August 8th, several of us walked down to the Capital
Grille for a nice dinner. Those in attendance were Vice President Calderman,
Member Lauren Calderman, Past President Shawn Hewitt, Member Nancy
Purington, Member Billy Baeder and me. We all seemed to have a good time
right up until the impressive check arrived for payment!
Once again, we participated in the ANA?s Treasure Trivia Game (scavenger
hunt) for children. We used the same question we used at FUN last time where
we asked on what currency does the portrait of Abraham Lincoln appear, with
three correct choices and an all of the above answer. After each child answered
the question, we rewarded them with the choice of either a note from Nepal
featuring a yak, or a note from Mongolia featuring horses. It was funny, but most
of the boys wanted the yak note, and the girls selected the horses. We will come
up with a new question for the upcoming FUN show next January.
We added six new members to our society this week including the new
President of the ANA, Thomas Uram. Mr. Uram is interested in increasing the
exposure of paper money within the ANA and asked me to see if I could locate a
member willing to write a nice article on a paper money subject for publication in
the Numismatist. If any of our members are interested, please send me an email.
At our last governors meeting we voted to give a $1,000 contribution check to
the Higgins Museum seminar and presented the check at the ANA show to
curator George Cuhaj.
SPMC.org * Paper Money * Sep/Oct 2024 * Whole No. 353
314
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 (aka goompa)
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
Welcome to the family--OLIVIA JO BOLIN!!
August 2, 2024. 7# and 20 inches.
Here is grandpa (goompa) and Olivia.
Now, on to paper money stuff. Boy, is it HOT! Reminds me of a
summer we had in the 70's when it got to 110 here. I don't expect to
hear much complaining when it gets wintry and cold! I hope you
are staying safe and out of the heat. Remember--drink lots of fluid
(not the beer kind). The hobby seems to be hot also. I have attended
a few local shows and they have been busy and bustling. Reports
from the recent ANA show were also very encouraging and it
seems that we are doing fine as a hobby. How about doing a newly
imprinted "goompa" a favor? While you are sitting in the A/C
biding your time to winter, write me an article. I am running kind
of low on 3-5 page articles. It is really a charge getting to see your
name in print! Can't write you say? Send me facts and I will turn it
into an article and put your name on the byline.
Recently, Robert Calderman, Cody Regenniter and Wendell
Wolka all stood unopposed for re-election to the board. However,
we still have one spot open so if you are interested, direct your
inquiry to one of the officers.
I want to send a BIG shout-out to Jim Fitzgerald, the bourse
chairman of the Texas Numismatic Association show that was held
in late June in Conroe Texas. It was a great show and I was there
with two exhibits and Robert Calderman was there as a dealer.
Well, it seems there were a couple of empty tables, so Robert
inquired with Jim about the SPMC using one and he gave the club a
table for free! Thank you Jim!! We recruited two new members at
the show and made a lot of other promising contacts.
Speaking of shows--winter FUN is just around the corner. I know
it is hard to think of a winter show, but January will be here soon.
Make plans to attend. The SPMC will have their yearly meetings at
the show, including the awards breakfast and Tom Bain Raffle (mix
'em up)! Also, plan on placing an exhibit. The more exhibits we can
have there, the more exposure we can have for paper money. We
will soon be announcing our meeting times and activities as well as
starting our annual on-line article awards competition. Be looking
for that and vote, vote, vote (only once per member though)!
Due to my work (high school RN) and other commitments, I am
unable to attend many non-local shows. This is a bummer for me,
so I have been somewhat satisfying my paper money desires by
going to some of the social media groups (I only do facebook).
There is a national bank note group, the FCCB has a fractional
group, there is an obsolete currency group and I would imagine
others if you just investigate. These are fun and have some very
insightful information in them.
Till next time! Stay safe and enjoy summer!
SPMC.org * Paper Money * Sep/Oct 2024 * Whole No. 353
315
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 7/05/2024
Dues Remittal Process
Send dues directly to
Robert Moon
SPMC Treasurer
403 Gatewood Dr.
Greenwood, SC 29646
Refer to your mailing label for when
your dues are due.
You may also pay your dues online at
www.spmc.org.
15726 Fred Barton III, Paper Money Forum
15727 Zachary Wilson-Fetrow, Frank Clark
15728 Douglas Adams, Website
15729 Caleb Audette, Susan Bremer
15730 Sam Holder, Website
15731 Gary Hannig, Robert Calderman
15732 Shimon Nussbaum, Frank Clark
15733 Brian Morrow, Robert Calderman
15734 Klaus Andreas Riegler, Website
15735 Mark Pogue, Robert Calderman
15736 Spencer Morgan, Website
15737 Ryan Guderian, Cody Regenniter
REINSTATEMENTS
None
LIFE MEMBERSHIPS
None
Note--new
addressNote--new
address
NEW MEMBERS 8/05/2024
15714 Fred Pasternak, Bob Kvederas
15715 Michael Guzzi, Website
15716 Scott Allinson, Website
15717 Michael Ettner, Rbt Vandevender
15718 Kelly Burgess, Robert Calderman
15719 Jose Roman, Website
15720 Teresa Prewitt, Gary Dobbins
15721 David Stevenson, Frank Clark
15722 Steven Tormollan, Rbt Calderman
15723 Christine Faecke, Frank Clark
15724 Neil Musante, Website
15725 Ralph Stenzel, Nationals
REINSTATEMENTS
None
LIFE MEMBERSHIPS
None
SPMC.org * Paper Money * Sep/Oct 2024 * Whole No. 353
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Uncirculated $5 #1 Brown Back
Ketchum, Idaho Territory
Bank owner and president Isaac Ives Lewis was one of those quintessential entrepreneurs of
western lore who through personal tenacity clawed his way from abject poverty to riches in the western
territories as they opened.
Everything pertaining to Lewis? life presented here is from Lewis (1892) unless a particular fact is
explicitly credited to another source.
Isaac Lewis was born February 7, 1825 in Wallingsford Hill, Litchfield County, Connecticut. In
1831, his family, which at the time included his mother, sister, older brother Eli and an uncle, immigrated
to southwestern Illinois to join his father and three uncles who left a year earlier. Their route was via
Hartford, New York City, the Erie Canal to Buffalo, across Lake Erie to Sandusky, overland through Ohio,
Indiana and Illinois. Often, they provisioned themselves by hunting small game along the way.
Figure 1. Note acquired by Jess Lipka in 2024 from the first sheet of 1,469 5-5-5-5 Series of 1882 brown back
sheets sent to The First National Bank of Ketchum, Idaho Territory to support a circulation of $11,500 during
its life. It is the highest grade note of nine currently reported from the territory. Signers are Isaac Ives Lewis,
president; George W. Griffin, cashier.
The Paper
Column
Peter Huntoon
SPMC.org * Paper Money * Sep/Oct 2024 * Whole No. 353
317
The family rented a farm in Marine
Settlement for two years. The settlement, 25
miles northeast of St. Louis and now named
Marine, had been founded in 1819 by a group
of sea captains from Connecticut.
Isaac?s mother died in 1831. Schooling
was minimal and intermittent. He had attended
grammar school in Connecticut during 1828-
1831 where he learned to read as well as stints
in 1832 and the summer of 1834 in Illinois. In
time, he developed into a voracious reader
consuming anything in print that he could get
his hands on.
In the spring of 1834, his father left for
Galena, Mineral Point and Dubuque where he
hired on as a miner. Issac and his sister were
fobbed off on his uncle Jo who had a farm out
on the prairie. At eight years old, Isaac found
himself serving as a full-time farm laborer. He
recalled ?I was always hungry when I lived with
him and many times, he would eat about all
there was on the table and I would have to leave
it hungry?yes, hungry as a wolf. * * * Well, Uncle Jo at that time was a hard master. Aunt Anna was kind
to us children and often screened us from Uncle and fed us when he was absent.?
In 1834, he and his sister moved on to live with his Uncle Will and Aunt Eunice until 1836. They
operated an inn on the stage route between St. Louis and Vandalia, the then capital of Illinois. Issac attended
school during January and February 1836 where he learned to write at age 11. His Uncle Will hired him
out for the summer of 1836 as a full-time laborer on a farm owned by a man named William Gerkie. His
work plowing with teams of horses or oxen was the equal of any man.
His father and uncle returned in 1836 from a profitable mining venture and their extended family
gathered around them including a grandmother, Isaac, his brother Eli and his sister. They returned to Marine
Settlement in 1839, where they rented a productive farm for the next three years. The boys attended school
for three months during the winters.
Isaac proved to be exceptionally entrepreneurial during these formative years trapping, shooting
and dressing game, tanning leather, growing produce, etc. At 24, he ventured up the Mississippi River to
join his brother Eli in surveying the St. Anthony Falls townsite for a developer named William Marshall.
Isaac moved on to plat the first lots in adjacent Minneapolis where he lived on that piece of ground in a log
cabin during the summer of 1849, yielding for him the distinction of being the first settler to live in
Minneapolis. He returned to St. Anthony where at age 25 he managed a mercantile store, was appointed
Assessor of Ramsey County in 1850, and married Georgiana Christmas. He was elected justice of the Peace
in 1852. His first formal business venture came in 1854 when he partnered with another man to purchase a
grocery store in St. Anthony Falls that was renamed I. I. Lewis & Co. This business was soon moved across
the river to Minneapolis.
The capital that he possessed was his acumen, skill at business, self-confidence and tireless work
ethic. He had the ability to recognize potential business opportunities and tenacity to organize the assets
necessary to pursue them. He was learning the power of money and how to manage credit. The pattern that
followed was to buy and sell a succession of businesses, increasingly focus on land deals and pursue mining
opportunities.
A speculative fever grew during the winter of 1855-6 for developing townsites west of the
Mississippi River. To this end, Lewis and nine others organized a company that claimed, plated and
established Rapid City, Union City and Watertown. By then, he had sufficient wealth and property to
Figure 2. Isaac Ives Lewis, 1825-1903, founder of The First
National Bank of Ketchum, Idaho Territory. Ketchum
Community Library photo.
SPMC.org * Paper Money * Sep/Oct 2024 * Whole No. 353
318
weather the Panic of 1857-8. He moved his family
to his Watertown hotel in late 1858 where he
stayed during the Civil War, which he avoided by
paying the required bounty.
Not all his business pursuits went well. In
1865, the state geologist of Minnesota released a
report advising that gold-bearing quartz veins
existed in the vicinity of Lake Vermillion, 100
miles north of St. Paul. Lewis joined this gold rush
as part of a company of 70 men that had been
organized in St. Paul, which involved transporting
expensive provisions and equipment through the
wilderness. They left St. Paul November 1865 and
by summer of 1866 had established 10 claims. The
company suffered near famine conditions in the
process and their reward was to find that the ore
was uneconomic. Lewis lost $4,000 in the venture,
a considerable sum in 1866,
As a resident of Watertown, he served in
the 1868-1869 Minnesota House of
Representatives representing Carver County.
His appetite for gold was not quenched,
however. He was ripe for a scam that came in the
form of a man named Robinson, who came to
Minnesota in the winter of 1870-1 with specimens
of rich gold and silver ores from what he claimed were his prospects in the mountains near Coeur d? Alene,
Idaho. His pitch was that he was terminally ill with consumption and needed just enough money to see him
through the rest of his days in exchange for his claims. He would be glad to organize a party of men to
funds his needs and take them there at $200 apiece. Lewis joined some 40 or so others in the quest.
As the party moved through Montana, suspicions began to grow. A party of three men accompanied
Robinson to Helena where he was to make arrangements for the party to continue to Missoula. He gave his
escorts the slip at Helena by exiting their hotel by a side door where he hoofed it to the nearest stage station
on the road to Corinne, Utah. He caught the stage the next day at noon.
As fate would have it, the stage stopped at Captain Cook?s roadhouse in Boulder Valley for dinner.
A patron there recognized Robinson as the man who fleeced his party, which had originated in Montana,
using the same gambit two years previously. With the help of Cook, Robinson was relieved of all his money
except $100 and advised to leave the country. This act of partial restitution for the benefit of the Montana
victims did little good for the Minnesota folks. They disbanded and disbursed from Helena. Lewis stayed
on in Montana and tried his hand at placer mining.
Lewis was hooked on mining and the Rocky Mountain west. He circulated between Idaho and
Montana for some years setting up several mercantile and drug stores as well as investing in mines. One of
the first that he bought into was the Legal Tender Mine (silver) in the Argenta mining district of
southwestern Montana (Minneapolis Star Tribune, Oct 16, 1872). He served in the Montana Territorial
Legislature in 1875 where he introduced bills to promote the construction of railroads in Montana. Lewis
perceived great opportunity in the mining district at Butte and spent much time there tending to claims.
C. D. Corbin of the First National Bank of Butte hired Lewis to take over as superintendent of the
Rumley and Hope mines there and Lewis came on board March 1, 1876. He was 51 at the time. It was a
major operation so to be selected to run it recognized the esteem Lewis had earned and the distance he had
come with minimal schooling. However, he held the position for only about a year, being tempted away by
a prospector named Levi Allen working out of Helena.
Allan was offering to sell a silver lode called the Peacock Mine that he had claimed in 1862 in the
Figure 3. Isaac Ives Lewis as a young man.
Ancestry.com photo.
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mountains in the remote northwest corner of what is now Adams County in southwestern Idaho. Ore
samples that he had assayed at 50 percent copper with some gold and silver. Samuel T. Hauser, owner of
The First National Bank of Helena and future governor of Montana Territory, also was interested in the
play and commissioned Lewis as his agent to look at the property (Mitchell, 1997, p. 9).
Allan, Lewis and a small party of men including Lewis? son John departed Helena at the end of
July, 1877 with a wagon filled with provisions and tools for the arduous 600-mile, 65-day journey to the
prospect. They passed through Boise City September 7th where they replenished their provisions. Upon
arriving at the prospect, they spent 10 or 12 days staking the claim, staking additional claims in the vicinity
and collecting samples for assaying. Both Hauser and Lewis acquired an interest in the Peacock Mine.
Upon returning to Helena, Hauser hired Lewis to return to Butte to buy ore for his S. T. Hauser &
Co. Bank at Butte. The assistant cashier of the bank pulled Lewis aside with the proposition that he would
teach him how to run the bank. Thereupon he immediately showed Lewis how to make up the day?s work.
This was the first time Lewis had ever been on that side of a bank counter. The cashier told him to come
back the next day at 4 pm to do the same saying he probably could get him posted to run the bank. Lewis
thereupon found himself hired as bookkeeper and assistant to Hauser in addition to buying ore and
handling the silver and gold bullion for a few silver mills.
As at the Ramsey Mine, Lewis became restless by late 1879 claiming attention to the business of
the bank was taking a toll on his health. Meanwhile, he was hearing glowing reports from returning
prospectors about their finds in the Wood River country of Idaho. That area was not overrun by prospectors
yet. The urge was overwhelming so he took a 60-day leave of absence on the pretense of his health from
Hauser?s operation.
On April 5, 1880, Lewis, his son John and Charles Swan set off for the Wood River Valley. In
business, Lewis served as the point of the spear, not the handle. He was the risktaker who excelled at
spotting opportunities, launching new ventures and then moving on. In mining he relished the rough and
tumble of buying claims, even staking claims, and pulling together the capital, men and equipment to exploit
them. It appears from his tracks that when he found himself a cog in an established corporation where his
job was simply to keep the operation humming or in a bank largely pushing paper, it wasn?t a good fit.
Besides, Lewis was used to being the principal in his ventures.
Here he was at age 55 on the make again, this time embarked on a life-changing oddesy that would
enshrine him in western lore. All his ambitions, talents and tenacity converged to bring this to fruition.
The expedition consisted of Isaac Lewis, his son John Lewis and Charles Awan. Their wagon held
their provisions, tents, mining tools and Lewis? assay and surveying equipment. Lewis was jumping the
gun because spring rain and snow storms lay ahead and plenty of accumulated winter snow became
especially troublesome on passes they had to navigate. On May 3rd they pitched their tents on the site that
would become Ketchum, probably the first tents ever on the place. They had traveled some 400 miles from
Helena.
A party of six or so had passed through the day before without staying the night and laid claim to
the townsite that they called Leadville. They left a piece of brown paper with a sketch of the townsite with
numbered blocks and lots as well as placing a few stakes in the snow to mark Main Street. Lewis? party
occupied four lots paying someone $8 before setting up their tents. William Greenhow arrived the next day,
chose a lot and set up a saloon. Lewis surveyed-in the streets and lots and set up a tent for the first assay
office in the Wood River country. John Lewis and Charles Awan collected logs for the first house. People
began to arrive by the hundreds to look the place over. Those who bought lots had to shovel the snow off
well into May to start building.
In nearby Elkhorn Gulch where John Keeler had staked a viable claim, Lewis in due course
purchased it for $12,000. Ultimately Hauser financed the purchase. The ore from that mine was the first
shipped from the region for smelting, an event that took place in July 1880 via wagon to Kelton, Utah and
on to Salt Lake City by rail.
Lewis was elected Justice of the Peace in August 1880. The town name Leadville was changed to
Ketchum, after David Ketchum, a trapper and guide in the area.
Lewis arranged for a man to go 4 miles up Trail Creek in April 1881 to lay claim to a water right
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for the town. At the same time, Lewis also laid claim to and fenced about 700 acres of tillable land up Trail
Creek that was then used for hay and grain. In the summer of 1881, Lewis opened a drug store, eventually
expanded it with groceries, and later bought half interest in a mercantile store. Ketchum was taking shape,
all the while with Lewis trading in mines and prospects. Lewis emerged as Ketchum?s leading citizen.
It was only a matter of time before he opted to open a bank. To this end he went to New York
during December 1883 to organize a national bank. He met George W. Griffin, a charmer who squired him
around town. However, it was Hauser in Helena who advised him how to get the job done through a
correspondent bank there. The organization certificate with shareholder signatures was dated February 16,
1884 as submitted to the Comptroller of the Currency?s office in Washington, DC. The First National Bank
of Ketchum, Idaho Territory received its charter allowing it to open once Lewis? bond deposit of $12,500
to secure a circulation of $11,500 was received by the U.S. Treasurer on March 21st. The bank received
charter number 3142, being the fourth national bank chartered in Idaho Territory after one in Boise City
and two in Lewiston.
Lewis had a 22-foot by 54-foot brick building erected for the bank. He hired George Griffin from
New York City to serve as cashier, who moved his family to Ketchum.
Two private banks already were operating in town. Lewis bought out an operation owned by Judge
T. J. Morgan. along with its furnishings, safe and two lots. T. E. Clohecy & Co. remained a competitor
through 1888.
Lewis served as president for the life of his bank. George Griffin served as cashier from 1884 into
1886 and in that position was the operating officer. Griffin proved to be inept. He gave himself 1-1/2 percent
loans in 1865 and 1866 valued at $2,871.83, absconded to New York and never returned (Ketchum
Keystone, Jul 31, 1885). His 50 shares of stock in the bank were auctioned to partially recover the loss
(Ketchum Keystone, Jun 22, 1889).
Lewis then installed his eldest son Horace Caleb Lewis as cashier and brought in George M. Snow,
Judge Morgan?s son-in-law, as bookkeeper. This combination served through 1889. However, it was
discovered that Snow had been embezzling from the outset bringing the bank to the brink of receivership.
Isaac Lewis made good on the stolen funds thus protecting the depositors
In early 1890, Lewis? son Horace stepped down as cashier in order to devote more attention to his
Ketchum Fast Freight Line. His younger brother George John?called John?filled the position. Shortly
Figure 4. Horace C. Lewis, Isaac?s eldest son and second cashier of The First National Bank of Ketchum,
preferred mules to banking so established the Ketchum Fast Freight Line in 1884, famous for its 20-mule teams
hauling ore wagons throughout the Wood River region and beyond. Sun Valley Mag.com photo.
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thereafter, Lewis liquidated the bank on April 28, 1890, and it was reorganized as First Bank of Ketchum
under a territorial charter with George J, [John] Lewis & Co. listed as owner (Rand McNally, 1891, p. 148).
Often the incentive for such a reorganization was to allow the bank to make loans on real estate, which was
not allowed under national banking law at the time. This probably applied here because land was central to
the Lewis? wealth.
First Bank of Ketchum was liquidated in 1897 having paid all its depositors.
Isaac Lewis died May 8, 1903 in Pasadena, California at 78 years, presumably while on vacation
there. He is interred in the family plot in Watertown, Minnesota, he established while living there.
Acknowledgment
Mark Drengson, curator of the Society of Paper Money Collectors Bank and Bankers Data Base,
conducted a genealogical, newspaper and bank directory search that recovered the newspaper articles and
bank directory cited.
Sources
Ketchum Keystone, Jul 31, 1886, Summons (George W. Griffin), p. 3.
Ketchum Keystone, Jun 22, 1889, Bids solicited: p. 3.
Lewis, Isaac Ives, ca 1892, unpublished typescript autobiography: Idaho State Historical Society, Boise,
Idaho, MF 0110.
Minneapolis Star Tribune, Oct 16, 1872, Have struck it rich, p. 4.
Mitchell, Victoria E., 1997, History of the Peacock Mine, Adams County, Idaho: Idaho Geological Survey,
Staff Report 97-14, 23 p.
Rand McNally & Co?s, Jul 1891, Banker?s Directory and list of bank attorneys: Chicago, IL., 534 p.
Figure 5. The First National Bank of Ketchum, Idaho Territory. Ketchum Community Library photo.
(
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Lyn Knight Currency Auct ions
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Fr. 379a $1,000 1890 T.N.
Grand Watermelon
Sold for
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Fr. 183c $500 1863 L.T.
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Fr. 328 $50 1880 S.C.
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Currency Auctions
Deal with the
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States Currency
John Douglas, New Orleans Engraver
by Mark Coughlan
Introduction
John Douglas may not be known to those who
collect Confederate Treasury notes, but his name
might ring a bell with scripophilists who are collectors
of Confederate Treasury bonds. Douglas, who ran a
small engraving business in New Orleans, Louisiana,
produced some of the first ever Treasury bonds to be
issued by the newly-formed Confederate States
Treasury department. Secession, and the outbreak of
War in April 1861, had created a sudden business
opportunity for Douglas, but the good times would be
short-lived - in late April 1862, New Orleans was
captured by Federal forces after a surprise and daring
naval attack. So, who was John Douglas, and how did
he go from being a simple high street engraver, making
a living from selling wedding invitations and visiting
cards, to someone who manufactured important
Treasury bonds for the Confederate Government, and
later, Treasury notes for several Southern States?
Ireland
John Douglas was born and baptised on February
10th, 1822, in Rathfarnham, County Dublin, Ireland; he
was the fifth of six children, born to George Douglas
and Rose Kilbride. Rathfarnham, some five miles to
the south of Dublin city, was at that time an area of
beautiful countryside, large Georgian homes, and a
small castle. The area had been settled since Norman
times by wealthy landowners from across the Irish
Sea, and indeed, the Douglas family was of Scottish
descent. Unfortunately, few vital records from the
nineteenth century have survived In Ireland - most
being destroyed in 1922 during the Irish Civil War;
only limited church records are now available, making
research into Douglas? early life difficult. Dublin
boasted a small, but well-respected engraving
community, and after leaving school, this is most
likely where John Douglas undertook an
apprenticeship (typically lasting seven years), and
later began work.
The Great Famine of (1845-1852) was Ireland?s
darkest time, with more than one million poor souls
dying from starvation and disease due to repeated
failures of the potato crop due to the blight (fungus).
The British Government was heavily criticised for its
ineffective response to the disaster, leading to
increased calls for Irish independence, a collapse of
the Irish economy, and mass emigration. Almost one
million Irish men, women, and children fled Ireland
during this tragedy, mainly emigrating to the United
States; John Douglas was amongst them.
America
Douglas arrived in the United States during the
summer of 1848, aged twenty-seven, and settled in
New Orleans, Louisiana; the city was predominantly
Catholic, and was quickly becoming one of the largest
and wealthiest in the country. By 1851 Douglas had
established his own engraving business, located at 17
Charles Street, in the commercial area of the city, and
built up an appreciative clientele.
The first concrete reference to his business
activities appeared in the New Orleans Crescent
newspaper, dated June 19th, 1852. The newspaper
included the minutes from a meeting of the ?Board of
Aldermen? wherein a payment of $16 to John Douglas
was approved for ?engraving die and printing?
services. Douglas had engraved a new seal for the city
of New Orleans to commemorate the reunion of the
three municipalities; this was a prestigious assignment
and indicates that he was well respected for the quality
of his engraving work. Advertisements for Douglas?
business appeared regularly from the mid-1850s,
indicating that he was focused on providing general
engraving and printing services.
Figure 1. April 28th, 1857 - Times Picayune.
In 1859, approaching forty years old, Douglas
married Mary Agnes Purcell, aged twenty-four; Mary
had emigrated from County Offaly in Ireland with her
family in 1849. The 1860 U.S. census recorded that
Douglas and his wife had recently been blessed with
their first child, John Jr.; it also revealed that Douglas
was relatively affluent, with real estate valued at
$20,000 and other assets worth some $3,000. Douglas
had acquired several properties in the city as
investments, and this would suggest that he was
already a man of means ? with capital - when he had
arrived in America.
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Secession and War
Between December 20th, 1860, and February 1st,
1861, seven Southern states seceded from the Union,
and this quickly led to the formation of the
Confederate States of America, with Jefferson Davis
being inaugurated as President on February 18th, 1861.
Within days Davis had formed his cabinet, and the
difficult business of running the new country began in
earnest. The most important challenge was to establish
the military capabilities necessary to protect the
South?s new independence, but this required money.
Thus, the newly-formed Confederate States Treasury
department, led by Christopher G. Memminger,
immediately found itself under intense pressure.
The Confederate Congress, which at that time
was based in Montgomery, Alabama, approved the Act
of February 28th, 1861, providing for a loan of $15
million to finance the immediate priorities of the
government. The loan would be effected through the
issue of Confederate Treasury bonds. Unfortunately
for Secretary Memminger, this was easier said than
done, the problem being that the agricultural Southern
states had always relied on engraving and printing
establishments located in the more industrialised
North for this specialised service. Not surprisingly, the
United States Government, and the citizens of the
Northern states in general, felt considerable frustration
and resentment towards the secessionist Confederate
States, and this impacted trade.
Consequently, Secretary Memminger did not
believe it would be feasible to have his Treasury bonds
produced anywhere in the North. Instead, in a state of
near panic, Secretary Memminger sent agents to scour
the South?s major cities in search of solutions; the city
of New Orleans soon came to his attention, given its
position as the South?s most important financial
centre.
On March 1st, 1861, Secretary Memminger
received a response from one of his agents in New
Orleans ? Richard Jones, a partner in a Cotton trading
company ? stating that he had attached bids from two
local companies for the engraving and printing of the
required Treasury bonds. One of these bids was from
the New Orleans branch of the American Bank Note
Company, which was headquartered in New York, and
was one of the largest and most respected such
companies in the world.
In his cover letter, Jones specifically cautioned
that under this bid, the required Treasury bonds would
be manufactured in New York City; however, the
attached proposal and quotation provided by the
branch manager ? Solomon Schmidt ? certainly
implied that the work would be executed locally in
New Orleans. This undoubtedly misled Secretary
Memminger who duly awarded the American Bank
Note Company with a contract to produce a quantity
of Registered Bonds (also known as Stock
Certificates). The work was undertaken in New York.
The second bid was provided by John Douglas,
who ran a small engraving concern in New Orleans.
Whilst Jones had been somewhat dismissive of the
American Bank Note Company?s bid, he was openly
complimentary about Douglas? capability and his
patriotism, clearly recommending him:
?There have gone forward to you, by Adams
Express, specimens of the engravings of Mr. Douglass,
who is a southern institution and has a high reputation
for ability and faithfulness and executes nearly all the
orders for engraving for the city of New Orleans.?
Jones went on to stress the advantage that
Douglas was located in the South, and also insinuated
that, given New Orleans importance to the
Confederacy, it would be appropriate if he was
awarded a contract.
?From inquiries made, Mr. Douglass may be
relied on, and as we have him, identified with the
South, on the spot, and as New Orleans deserves well
of the Confederation, we hope that he will get the
order.?
It is quite likely that Jones did not appreciate the
complexities of engraving bank notes and bonds in
relation to other more general forms of engraving, and
as such, was perhaps guilty of over-stating the
capabilities of Douglas? small business. The
Gardener?s New Orleans business directory for that
year (1861) provided a helpful overview of the type of
engraving services offered by Douglas, and it can be
seen that these did not seem to include engraving bank
notes or bonds:
Figure 2. Gardener?s New Orleans Directory of 1861.
Regardless of whether he had any concerns or
not, Secretary Memminger proceeded to award
Douglas a contract to produce some 10-year bearer
bonds (known as coupon bonds) which offered 8%
SPMC.org * Paper Money * Sep/Oct 2024 * Whole No. 353
325
interest, maturing on September 1st, 1871. These $50
and $100 bonds ? classified as Type 1 and Type 2
respectively in Ball and Simmons 2nd Edition Catalog
of Confederate Bonds ? were initially issued from
Montgomery, Alabama, but later from Richmond,
Virginia, after this had become the seat of the
Confederate Government on May 8th, 1861. The
reference to Montgomery on the bonds produced by
Douglas was simply crossed out and overwritten with
?Richmond? by Treasury clerks.
Figure 3. 1861 $50 8% Coupon bond.
Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions.
Figure 4. 1861 $100 8% Coupon bond.
Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions.
Douglas produced these bonds in the typical
format of the day, featuring a single vignette, a central
body of text defining the terms of the bond, and rows
of interest coupons which enabled the holder to collect
the interest due at six-monthly intervals until maturity.
A letter from Secretary Memminger, dated July 24th,
1861, confirmed that Douglas had successfully
completed the order, delivering a total of 8,346 of the
$50 bonds, and 8,016 of the $100 bonds. Between
April and October of 1861, a total of 7,835 of the $50
bonds and 7,950 of the $100 bonds were issued by
Treasury officials across the South. These bonds
proudly bore the imprint: ?Douglas. Engr. N.
Orleans?.
Keep the bonds coming!
Secretary Memminger was clearly satisfied with
the quality of bonds being produced by Douglas, and
before work had even been completed on the initial
contract, a second order was placed with him. The
Confederate Congress approved the Act of May 16th,
1861, which authorised a more substantial amount of
$50 million in 8% Treasury bonds, with a twenty-year
maturity date of November 1st, 1881. Treasury records
confirm that Douglas had been instructed to produce
the first $10 million-worth of bonds under this Act, in
denominations of $1000, $500, and $100. In a letter,
dated July 21st, 1861, Secretary Memminger specified
the quantities of each denomination required:
?? let the quantities be 6,000 of $1,000 each,
6,000 of $500 each, and 10,000 of $100 each.?
This in itself represented a lot of work for
Douglas, but in the same letter Secretary Memminger
enquired whether Douglas would have the capability
to undertake the full order - $50 million worth of
bonds. The Treasury?s only other suppliers at that time
were already swamped with other urgent orders,
namely the New Orleans branch of the American Bank
Note Company (which had been renamed as the
Southern Bank Note Company), and the Richmond-
based Hoyer & Ludwig company.
Douglas had begun work on the order, but we will
never know if he would have been able to complete it
successfully. A letter dated August 15th, 1861, from
Secretary Memminger to his contact in New Orleans -
the esteemed James D. Den?gre, President of the
Citizens Bank of Louisiana ? advised that Congress
wanted to change the terms of the proposed bonds, and
that Douglas should cease all work on them.
Douglas was paid for his work to date on the new
bonds, but unfortunately would not be awarded the
contract to resume work after Congress had agreed the
changes. The contract was handed over to Hoyer &
Ludwig in Richmond, Virginia.
Secretary Memminger had a wariness of the
engraving and printing community, who were known
to be a rowdy bunch, and liked to keep a close eye on
things, especially given the desperate need for the said
Treasury notes and bonds. Thus, he felt uncomfortable
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about the great distance between the engravers in New
Orleans and his office at the Treasury department in
Richmond; this anxiety was compounded by
operational delays with the orders placed with the
Southern Bank Note Company run by Schmidt, and
with the amateurism of another minor New Orleans
engraver, Jules Manouvrier, when a delivery of his
notes failed to reach Richmond securely.
Douglas lands on his feet
Douglas must have been disappointed with the
sudden end to his brief relationship with the
Confederate States Treasury, and the fact that he had
only produced two bonds in their name. Perhaps, as an
act of sympathy and support, he was soon awarded
some work for the City of New Orleans; this involved
engraving four change notes in denominations of 50-
cts, $1, $2, and $3 dollars.
Figure 5. 1861 $2 City of New Orleans.
Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions.
Douglas also produced a set of change notes
(dated November 1st, 1861) for the New Orleans,
Jackson & Great Northern Railroad Co.
Figure 6. 1861 $3 New Orleans, Jackson & Great
Northern Railroad Company.
Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions.
The State of Louisiana
As the War rolled into its second year, the demand
for more Treasury notes and bonds continued to
increase. This demand was not just from the
Confederate States Treasury, but also the Treasury
departments of many Southern States, which were
permitted to issue limited amounts of their own paper
money to supplement that issued by the Confederate
States Government. In early 1862, Douglas was
awarded contracts by the State Treasuries of Louisiana
and Georgia.
The Act of January 23rd, 1862, approved by the
Louisiana State Legislature, authorised the issuance of
change notes in the denomination of $1, $2, and $3;
these notes were dated February 24th, 1862. Douglas is
known to have produced the first series of these notes,
which bore his imprint ? ?Douglas, N. Orleans?.
Figure 7. 1862 $1 The State of Louisiana (face).
Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions.
These notes were of reasonable quality, similar to
those that he had produced for the City of New
Orleans. Paper was in short supply in the Confederacy
at that time, and Douglas? notes were printed on the
backs of unused sheets - manufactured in the 1850s by
Draper, Toppan, Longacre & Company of
Philadelphia, and New York - for the Commercial and
Agricultural Bank of Texas, based in Galveston.
Figure 8. 1862 $1 The State of Louisiana (back).
Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions.
A second series of change notes ? in the same
denominations, but with much simpler designs ? were
issued by the Louisiana State Treasury at this same
time. These notes did not feature an engraver?s
imprint and did not resemble any of Douglas? prior
notes. If he was involved with them at all, it was
probably only to subcontract the work to another local
engraver.
The state of Georgia
Whilst the notes that Douglas had produced for
the City of New Orleans and the State of Louisiana
were low denomination and of average quality, his
work for the State of Georgia was much more
impressive. The Act of December 5th, 1861, approved
by the Georgia State Legislature in Milledgeville,
authorized the production of $2,500,000 in Treasury
Notes, which were dated January 15th, 1862. Douglas
was contracted to produce the $10, $20, $50, and $100
denominations, which involved a total of some 80,000
notes. This was clearly the most prestigious, but also
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the most challenging engraving work that Douglas had
ever undertaken. The resulting notes were of
admirable quality as illustrated by the two examples
below.
Figure 9. 1862 $10 The State of Georgia.
Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions.
Figure 10. 1862 $50 The State of Georgia.
Image courtesy of Heritage Auctions.
These notes were issued across Georgia between
mid-1862 and mid-1863. Douglas placed his imprint
along the lower right edge of the note: ?Douglas Engr.
N. Orleans?.
The fall of New Orleans
In 1861, New Orleans was undoubtedly the
largest, wealthiest, and most important city in the
Confederate States of America, with a population of
almost 170,000. Its location at the mouth of the
Mississippi River on the Gulf of Mexico, made it a
powerful commercial hub; the port of New Orleans
handled half of the South?s cotton exports, a value of
more than $500 million. The city?s importance made it
a prime target for Federal forces, and it was not long
before the U.S. Naval blockade began to hamper
maritime trade activities.
Worse was to come for the city, when on April
17th, 1862, U.S. Flag Officer David G. Farragut led a
daring naval attack on the city from the Gulf of
Mexico, disabling several heavily-armed forts which
defended the mouth of the Mississippi river, and then
sailing upriver where his fleet of seventeen warships
and nineteen gunboats destroyed the smaller
Confederate fleet after a ferocious naval battle.
The Confederate defenders, lulled into a false
sense of security, had been caught completely by
surprise; it was assumed that any naval attack would
be launched via the Mississippi river from the North,
almost 800 miles away. The beleaguered city
surrendered on April 28th, 1862, and was duly
occupied by Federal forces from May 1st until the end
of the War. Not surprisingly, these dramatic events
brought an abrupt end to the bank note manufacturing
activities of John Douglas and New Orleans? other
engravers.
The War-time economy had undoubtedly
presented John Douglas with a significant business
opportunity, one which he gratefully exploited during
the fourteen months that it lasted. After occupation, his
business returned to normal ? wedding invitations and
visiting cards ? as an 1863 newspaper advertisement
showed. Federal authorities had quickly declared all
Confederate paper money illegal, and New Orleans
banks were forced to reissue stocks of their own pre-
War notes as a temporary measure.
Figure 11. June 19th, 1863 ? The Daily True Delta.
Understandably, the citizens of New Orleans
were wary of the creditworthiness of these old notes,
but Douglas? advertisement bravely showed that he
had no such reservations.
Douglas? second child, a girl named Mary, was
born in September 1862, and a third child, another
daughter named Alice, was born in December 1864.
Tragically, his wife Mary would die within days from
complications following the birth of their third child;
the infant, Alice, would also die four months later.
Post-War life and activities
The widowed Douglas and his two children were
surrounded with support from his deceased wife?s
family; in 1866, he married his wife?s younger sister,
Margaret Purcell, then aged twenty. The couple went
on to have six children of their own.
After the War?s end and the subsequent period of
Reconstruction, Douglas continued to operate his
engraving business, relocating in 1866 to new
premises at 10 Camp Street.
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Figure 12. January 10th, 1869 ? The Times Picayune.
By 1878 Douglas? son, John Jr., had begun
working alongside him, and the father and son team
remained together for the next twenty years.
John Douglas Sr. died on August 30th, 1900, aged
seventy-eight; he was buried in the family plot at the
Metairie cemetery, at the northern end of Canal Street.
Several local newspapers printed obituaries of
Douglas, all of which were warm and praising of the
stout and genial Irishman from Dublin, who had lived
and worked in the city for more than half a century.
Figure 13. August 31st, 1900 ? The Times Picayune.
Douglas was survived by his second-wife,
Margaret, who lived in New Orleans until 1921, and
eight children. His eldest son John Jr., continued the
family business until around 1930, living until 1936.
John Douglas?s last surviving child, Laura, died in
1963, more than a century after her father had issued
some of the first ever Confederate States Treasury
bonds; she was buried alongside her father.
The legacy of John Douglas
There can be no doubt that John Douglas stepped
up to the opportunities that secession and War had
briefly presented him with between February 1861
until April 1862. Had New Orleans not been captured
so early in the War, his activities in producing Treasury
notes and bonds for the Confederate Government and
for individual Southern States, may well have been
more extensive.
However, the question arises as to whether the
bonds and notes bearing the imprint of John Douglas
were all his own work? It would seem to require quite
a jump in skills from engraving simple wedding
invitations to producing tens of thousands of Treasury
notes and bonds. It is conceivable that Douglas was
obliged to engage other specialised engravers to assist
him in completing such sophisticated work, especially
given the extreme urgency involved; piecework and
subcontracting, were common practices in the
engraving industry.
New Orleans was home to several engravers who
were skilled in the production of bank notes and could
have assisted Douglas. These included John V. Childs
(1813-1870), originally from New York, who
produced various pre-War mercantile notes, and
engraved various State of Arkansas Treasury Warrants
during 1861; Childs also produced the famous New
Orleans Postmaster provisional postage stamps prior
to the availability of Confederate States stamps.
Perhaps Solomon Schmidt at the former
American Bank Note Company branch on Royal
Street might also have helped? He is known to have
supplied Douglas with paper and quantities of ink, and
almost certainly loaned many of the pre-engraved
vignettes which appeared on his notes and bonds.
From mid-1861 Schmidt was totally consumed with
his own work for the Confederate Treasury, but he may
well have assisted Douglas with the Treasury bonds
produced earlier in 1861.
Douglas also may have used Schmidt?s facilities
for printing; there would certainly have been periods
when these presses were idle whilst Schmidt was busy
engraving new Treasury notes. But perhaps this is
being unfair on Douglas, and he was able to raise his
game. His obituary claimed that he ?? enjoyed a wide
reputation for the finish and perfection of his steel and
copper-plate engraving, which could not be surpassed
by the best foreign talent.?
With such praise, perhaps we should give the
benefit of the doubt to Mr. Douglas. What happens in
N?Awlins stays in N?Awlins.
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SOURCES
? ?Collecting Confederate Paper Money - Field
Edition 2014?: by Pierre Fricke (2014).
? ?Confederate States Paper Money: Civil War
Currency from the South?: by George S. Cuhaj
(2012).
? ?Criswell?s Currency Series Vol 1.
Confederate and Southern States Currency?:
by Grover Criswell Jr, (first published 1957).
? ?Correspondence of the Treasury of the
Confederate States of America?: by Raphael P.
Thian (1878).
? ?Register of the Confederate Debt?: by
Raphael P. Thian (1880, reprint 1972).
? ?A Guide Book of Counterfeit Confederate
Currency?: by George B. Tremmel (2007).
? ?Comprehensive Catalog and History of
Confederate Bonds 2nd Edition?: by Douglas B.
Ball, Henry F. Simmons Jr. (2015).
? ?Guide Book of Southern States Currency
(The Official Red Book)?: by Hugh Shull
(2006).
? ?Battle Cry of Freedom: The Civil War Era?:
by James M. McPherson (2003).
? ?The Life and Times of C.G. Memminger?: by
Henry D. Capers (1893).
? ?Empire of Cotton: A Global History?: by
Sven Beckert (2014).
? ?Southern Wealth and Northern Profits: As
exhibited in statistical facts and official
figures? by Thomas Prentice Kettell (1976).
? ?The Great Hunger, Ireland 1845-1849?: by
Cecil Woodham-Smith (1991).
? ?Confederate Finance?: by Richard Cecil Todd
(1954).
? ?Dictionary of Louisiana Biography -
Louisiana Historical Association?:
www.lahistory.org
? ?Origins of the Train Vignette on Confederate
Type-39 Treasury Notes - Paper Money
Mar/Apr 2019?: by Marvin D. Ashmore &
Michael McNeil (2019)
? ?Historic New Orleans Collection?:
www.hnoc.org
? ?Gardener?s New Orleans Directory - 1861?
by Charles Gardener (1861).
? ?Heritage Auctions Online Archives?:
www.ha.com
? ?Genealogy and History Websites?:
o www.ancestry.com
o www.familysearch.org
o www.fold3.com
o www.findagrave.com
o www.newspapers.com
FURTHER INFORMATION
This short article has been abridged from the Author?s
remarkable new 535-page book on ?Engravers and
Printers of Confederate Paper Money?. Available now
in paperback format at $55.00 through
www.amazon.com.
SPMC.org * Paper Money * Sep/Oct 2024 * Whole No. 353
330
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National Bank Note Circulation
Hit with a Forced 8% Decline
by Redemption of the
Loan of 1925
Introduction and Purpose
The total circulation of national bank notes dropped abruptly by 8 percent in 1925 from $778
million to $716 million. No financial shock had rocked the economy during 1925 to account for this
decrease. Instead, the cause was the result of an arcane technicality: the redemption by the Treasury of a
series of bonds used to secure part of the circulation of national banks that matured on February 1, 1925.
Without the bonds, the impacted bankers had to reduce their circulations until they could purchase other
bonds to replace them. This was problematic because virtually all of the available bonds that carried the
circulation privilege already were tied up by other banks to secure existing circulations.
It is the objective of this article to explain what happened. The spotlight will fall on the Loan of
1925, a 4 percent 30-year loan consisting of U.S. Treasury bonds that originated in 1895. That bond issue
arose from the ill-conceived Series of 1890 and 1891 Treasury note emissions authorized by the Sherman
Silver Purchase Act of 1890.
The Sherman Silver Purchase Act caused havoc to the U.S. monetary system in the mid-1890s.
Then 30 years later, through the maturation of the 1925 bonds, it delt another blow by forcing an 8 percent
reduction in the volume of national bank notes in circulation.
Retirement of the 4 Percent Bonds of 1925
Our knowledge of this story began to unfold when co-author Lofthus happened upon a writeup
warning of the consequences coming with the redemption of the Loan of 1925. The writeup was buried in
the December 1924 Federal Reserve Bulletin (FR Board, 1924, p. 944-947). It led off as follows.
The Secretary of the Treasury has announced that $118,489,900 of 4-percent United States bonds
payable on February 1, 1925, will be redeemed on that date. Over $76,000,000 of these bonds were on
deposit in the Treasury to secure national bank notes on October 31, 1924, and their redemption will
necessarily result in some reduction in the circulation of these notes, since there will not be enough bonds
The Paper
Column
Peter Huntoon
Lee Lofthus
Figure 1. The entire circulation of this Phoenix bank was terminated by the redemption of 4%
Loan of 1925 bonds by the Treasury on February 1, 1925.
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bearing the circulation privilege outside the Treasury to replace those redeemed. Only about $11,000,000
of such bonds will be left outstanding in the market after the withdrawal of the 1925 issue.
The anticipated reduction of national bank circulation by $65,000,000 or more is about 10 per cent
of the total of notes outstanding.
National bankers were required to deposit U.S. Treasury bonds with the U.S. Treasurer to secure
national bank notes issued to their banks. Congress legislated which bonds could be used, thus endowing
them with what was called the circulation privilege. The eligible bond issues varied over time. Table 1 lists
those that were current in 1924.
The law permitted a given bank to issue circulation up to 100 percent of its capital stock. However,
in 1924 the total outstanding circulation of the country equaled only 54.7 percent of the total capital stock
of all the banks.
The report went on to point out that the total of outstanding bonds bearing the circulation privilege
had diminished markedly since 1914, whereas the total circulation of the national banks continued to grow.
Therefore, the availability of the bonds on the market was severely constrained and declining. As revealed
on Table 1, all but about $11 million worth of the Consols of 1930 and Panama Canal Bonds already were
tied up as security for existing national bank note issues. Once the Loan of 1925 was redeemed in 1925,
there would be an acute shortage of available bonds that the impacted banks could purchase in order to
maintain their circulations. The result was inevitable, most of the bankers who held the 1925 bonds could
not replace them, so they would be forced to contract their circulations. Nationwide, there would be a
reduction of about $65 million or more.
It was pointed out that smaller banks tended to have the largest note issues in proportion to their
capital and they also tended to have the largest share of their circulations secured by the 1925 bonds. This
finding wasn?t surprising because many small banks had entered the system in recent years and their officers
were buying the then available 1925 bonds. See Table 2. However, despite the disproportionate
vulnerability of the smaller banks, the bulk of the circulations secured by the 1925 bonds resided with the
big city banks owing simply to their overwhelming capital.
Origin of the Loan of 1925
A fair question is, what was the origin of the 4% Loan of 1925?
The answer is the ill-conceived Sherman Silver Purchase Act of July 14, 1890, which ran up the
national debt. The act authorized the Series of 1890 and 1891 Treasury notes.
Table 1. U.S. Treasury bonds available and bonds used to secure national bank
note circulations on October 31, 1924.
2% Consols of 1930 2% Panama Canal Bonds 4% Loan of 1925
Total Outstanding $599,724,050 $74,901,580 $118,489,900
Total Used to Secure NBNs $589,086,200 $74,069,640 $76,687,050
% Used to Secure NBNs 98 99 65
Tabl 2. L a f 1925 4% U.S. Treasury bonds deposited with the U.S. Treasurer to
s c re national bank note circulations on October 31st for the years listed.
1895 $13,856,500 1905 $4,465,000 1915 $32,304,800
1896 $36,531,650 1906 $4,602,100 1916 $26,214,400
1897 $30,474,150 1907 $10,732,900 1917 $34,743,900
1898 $23,990,650 1908 $14,960,450 1918 $50,240,800
1899 $18,242,750 1909 $15,463,050 1919 $58,055,050
1900 $7,503,350 1910 $21,022,650 1920 $68,578,000
1901 $2,911,100 1911 $22,854,300 1921 $77,257,400
1902 $2,208,600 1912 $26,817,000 1922 $82,509,900
1903 $1,410,100 1913 $35,302,700 1923 $85,823,150
1904 $1,791,600 1914 $34,699,300 1924 $76,687,050
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The Sherman Silver Purchase Act required the Treasury to purchase up to 4,500,000 ounces of
silver per month if offered at a price not to exceed $1 per ounce. The Treasury was to pay for the silver with
Treasury notes, which were issued in denominations ranging from $1 to $1000. Two million ounces of the
silver was to be coined into standard silver dollars each month until July 1, 1891, and after that as much of
the silver bullion purchased as necessary to fully cover the outstanding Treasury notes.
The act also required that the outstanding circulation of the Treasury notes was to be maintained at
a level equal to the cost of the silver bullion and silver dollars held by the Treasury that had been purchased
by the notes.
The act had a serious flaw. Section 2 required the Treasury to redeem the Treasury notes in gold or
silver at the discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury. This provision had been included to demonstrate
the commitment of the United States to a bimetallic monetary standard that at the time was a 16:1 gold/silver
ratio based on $20.67 per ounce gold and $1.2929 per ounce silver.
Silver was a glut on the on the market at the time, causing it to be overvalued at the 16:1 ratio. The
result was that speculators engaged in a merry-go-round of buying silver on the metals market where the
price of silver was steadily decreasing, selling it to the Treasury for Treasury notes, redeeming the notes
for gold coin, selling the gold coin for ever increasing quantities of silver in the market, pocketing the
difference and repeating the cycle.
Most of the gold was exported whereas net silver imports increased during 1890 through 1893
(Carlisle, 1894). The Treasury saw its gold reserves flow overseas while its stock of silver and silver bullion
ballooned. The silver bullion that hadn?t been coined went into storage in the Treasury alongside the bulky
silver dollars the public didn?t want to carry around.
The plight of the Treasury was unsustainable.
Figure 2.
These beauties
ran up the
national debt.
Heritage
Auction
Archives
photo.
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The Panic of 1893
was beginning as Democrat
Grover Cleveland assumed
his second and detached term
as president on March 4, 1893.
Cleveland had two economic
priorities upon taking office:
dismantle the McKinley
Tariff Act of 1890 and repeal
the Sherman Silver Purchase
Act of 1890. The McKinley
Tariff Act had raised import
duties from 38 to 49.5 percent
on average, which curtailed
trade.
Cleveland blamed
both acts as primary causes for
the panic. In particular, he felt
that the Silver Purchase Act
was destabilizing public
confidence in the nation?s
money. On August 8, 1893, he
called on Congress to hold a
special session to repeal the
Silver Purchase Act
(Richarson, 1908, v. 9, p, 401-
405). By a vote of 239 to 108
in the House and 48-37 in the
Senate, Congress complied by
repealing the purchase
requirements in the act but not
the redemption obligation
carried by the Treasury notes.
The repeal became law on
November 1, 1893. Silver
purchases ceased forthwith
but not the cycling of Treasury
notes through the Treasury.
Thus, the enduring
legacy of the Sherman Silver
Purchase Act was its drain on Treasury gold and its adverse impact on the national debt (McAdoo, 1915,
p. 12-13). The latter can be viewed through the lens of the Gold Reserve Fund. A bit of history will set the
stage.
The resumption of specie payments act approved January 14, 1875 directed the Secretary of the
Treasury to provide for the redemption of United States notes in coin beginning January 1, 1879, and if
necessary to sell bonds in order to purchase gold to redeem those notes from what became the Gold Reserve
Fund. The bank act of July 12, 1882 established $100 million as the minimum size of the Gold Reserve
Fund, below which it had to be replenished. The fund was started through a bond sale.
Over the decades, Congress provided sources of income to support the Gold Reserve Fund. The
rate of redemption of United States notes prior to 1893 was not sufficient to reduce the Gold Reserve Fund
below $100 million. However, the cyclic redemptions of Treasury notes of 1890 and 1891 for gold seriously
Figure 3. Total outstanding circulation of national bank notes through time
showing the abrupt decline associated with the redemption of 4% Loan of
1925 U.S. Treasury bonds on February 1, 1925. The Aldrich-Vreeland and
Glass-Borah spikes are discussed in Huntoon (2022) and Huntoon and
Yakes (2021), respectively.
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eroded the fund. By April 1893, the minimum was reached and the drain became serious enough that in
February 1894 an issue consisting of $50 million worth of 10-year 5 percent bonds was necessary to restore
it. This was followed in November by another $50 million in like bonds. These two sales were called the
Loan of 1904, which was the maturation date for the bonds.
The hemorrhage of gold intensified, so in February 1895 the government purchased 3,500,000
ounces of gold coin to bolster the fund, paying for it with 4 percent 30-year bonds amounting to
$62,315,400. This was followed by another sale of $100 million more of the 4 percent 30-year bonds in
January 1896. These comprised the Loan of 1925.
By the time the Loan of 1904 matured, $72 million worth of the bonds already had been rolled over
into 2 percent Consols of 1930 and $8.5 million had been redeemed with funds in the Treasury. The
remaining Loan of 1904 bonds were redeemed in 1904 with funds in the Treasury.
Of the $162 million in the Loan of 1925, $44 million had been redeemed by the Treasury by 1915
leaving $118 million outstanding and payable February 1, 1925.
Thus in 1915, $72 million in public debt was kicked down to 1930 in the form of the Consols of
1930, and $118 million was kicked down to 1925 in the form of the Loan of 1925. Virtually all of this
represented gold that had been depleted through the operation of the Sherman Silver Purchase Act.
Impact
When the outstanding $118 million dollars from the Loan of 1925 matured on February 1, 1925,
those bonds ceased earning interest and the U. S. Treasury redeemed them at their par value upon
presentation. $76 million worth of them were on deposit with the U.S. Treasurer by national banks across
the country as security for national bank note circulations. This represented 10% of the total national bank
note circulation at the time. The redemption of the bonds forced an equal contraction of national bank note
circulation.
The Treasurer redeemed the bonds that he held on behalf of the bankers, deposited their money in
his national bank note redemption fund, and began the process of withdrawing that amount of their national
bank notes from circulation through his National Bank Redemption Agency. Notes ceased being issued to
the affected banks forthwith by the Comptroller of the Currency. No more would be sent until the value of
the notes covered by the liquidated bonds was withdrawn from circulation.
If the bankers wished to increase their circulations to their pre-February 1 levels, they could attempt
to have their agents buy bonds that carried the circulation privilege on the open market. There were only
$11 million worth of such bonds outstanding that were not already tied up as security for national bank
circulations. Even if all those bonds could be pried from the hands of investors, total national bank note
circulation would be reduced by $67 million, or by 8 percent.
Fully Terminated Circulations
The big question for numismatists is did these reductions impact the scarcity of nationals? The
bonds were owned by many hundreds of banks across the country. Many had only part of their circulations
secured by the bonds, but the circulations for others were entirely covered by them. Thus, it was likely that
entire bank circulations could be wiped out.
We were especially interested in the situations where entire circulations were terminated. Potential
candidates could be found by examining the Pollock data set that lists the annual circulations of national
banks. The search consisted of finding banks where their circulations ceased in 1925 but the banks
continued in business thereafter. There were 8,077 national banks on October 10, 1925 in Pollock?s data
set. Of these, we found somewhat over 200 with circulations in 1924 but no circulations in 1925 and 1926.
There are various reasons why bankers decided to get out of the note-issuing business, but at least
many if not most of the 200 plus banks we identified had to be the result of the redemption of the Loan of
1925 bonds. The way to definitively determine if their bonds were indeed the 1925 lone was to examine
the bond record for the candidate banks in the National Currency and Bonds ledgers in the National
Archives.
Three Arizona banks were on our list: Phoenix (3728), Douglas (6633) and Phoenix (11559).
Huntoon had copies of the ledger pages for all three. Only the Douglas bank didn?t qualify. The Douglas
bankers had 2% Consols of 1930 that they sold to take themselves out of the currency-issuing business. In
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contrast, the two Phoenix banks held nothing but the 4% Loan of 1925 bonds. Both of the Phoenix stories
are worth telling.
The simplest tale of the two is that of The Commercial National Bank of Phoenix, charter 11559,
a young bank that was chartered on October 26, 1919. The bankers bought two groups of $25,000 Loan of
1925 bonds, the first on May 11 and the second on June 10, 1920. Those bonds secured a $50,000 circulation
of Series of 1902 plain back $5s. The bankers purchased the Loan of 1925 bonds because they were
practically the only bonds with the circulation privilege that were available on the bond market in 1920.
The bankers had issued 15,300 sheets of their $5s by the time their bonds matured in 1925 and were
redeemed. The bank remained in the national system until 1931, when its officers relinquished their national
charter to join the state system as the Arizona Bank, Phoenix. Obviously, they felt that the low profitability
associated with circulation no longer was worth pursuing so they didn?t attempt to join the 1925 scramble
buy other bonds in the market. The result was that their $5 Series of 1902 issues ceased in 1925, instead of
1929. Also, collectors were sadly robbed of the opportunity to collect Series of 1929 notes from the bank
before it relinquished its national charter in 1931.
The story of the venerable old National Bank of Arizona at Phoenix, charter 3728, is a bit more
convoluted and involves the fickle finger of fate. Those bankers had built their circulation up to a
respectable $200,000 by 1913 and maintained it at that level into the 1920s. It was secured by 2% Consols
of 1930 until February 21, 1922, when they swapped those bonds out for the more profitable 4% Loan of
1925 bonds.
Then came the redemptions in 1925, so on February 6 their bonds were redeemed and they found
themselves entirely out of the note-issuing business. The last shipment of their 10-10-10-20 Series of 1902
notes had been sent to them on January 12, 1925, which covered redemptions of some worn notes from
circulation. From then on, their notes were actively redeemed from circulation by the National Bank
Redemption Agency.
The officers wanted to get back into the note-issuing business so finally on March 5, 1929 they
were able to purchase $300,000 worth of 2% bonds to reestablish their circulation, but now at the higher
figure. In the interim, they changed the title of their bank in 1926 to First National Bank of Arizona at
Phoenix.
The Comptroller?s clerks immediately sent all the unissued stock of 10-10-10-20 sheets bearing the
old title upon the deposit of the new bonds, but that supply was insufficient to cover the amount due the
bank. A rush order for a new 10-10-10-20 plate with the new title was lodged with the Bureau of Engraving
Figure 4. This is an Arizona scarcity carrying the second title for this Phoenix bank that came
about as a result of the redemption of 4% Loan of 1925 U. S. Treasury bonds on February 1,
1925. After the bank lost its circulation backed by those bonds, it took it until 1929 for the
officers of the bank to replace them in order to reestablish their circulation. In the meantime,
they had changed their bank title in 1926. They finally received notes with their new title in
three modest shipments sent to them over a period of only 8 days in 1929.
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and Printing, and it was quickly pressed into production. It was one of the last large-size national bank note
plates made. The production from it was sent to the bank as soon as the printings arrived at the Comptroller?s
office. The notes came in three shipments totaling 5,298 sheets sent from Washington over the 8-day period
of April 11-18, 1929.
The rarities created in this instance were the new-title Series of 1902 blue seals printed in April
1929. Only a handful of them are reported.
If a bank of interest to you ceased issuing between 1924 and 1925 but continued in business,
chances are excellent that the cause was redemption of 4% Loan of 1925 bonds. The redemption of the
bonds may account for why its notes are unusually scarce. The difficult part is verifying that the redemption
of Loan of 1925 bonds was the cause. That information is available only from the national currency and
bond ledgers.
Partially Reduced Circulations
The vast majority of bankers who held Loan of 1925 bonds also held other bonds, so they
experienced partial reductions in their circulations when their 1925 bonds were redeemed. This accounts
for many if not the majority of stepped-down circulations between 1924 and 1925.
Lofthus has copies of the ledger sheets for several national banks so he readily found three that
held the 1925 bonds; specifically, Butte, Montana (2566), Orangeburg, South Carolina (10674) and
Gardiner, Oregon (10676). All the 1925 bonds held for these banks had been redeemed by February 5,
1925.
The bankers at The First National Bank of Gardiner, Oregon had $10,000 worth of 1925 bonds but
also held another $10,000 in 2% Consols of 1930 and $5,000 in 2% Panama Canal Loan bonds of 1938.
Once their circulation dropped to $15,000 through the redemption of their 1925 bonds, they decided to get
completely out of the note-issuing business and sold the rest on May 8, 1925. Consequently, the bank had
no circulation at the end of 1925 and thus showed up on our list of potential banks that could have had all
their circulation wiped out by the sale of the 1925 banks. This bank didn?t fit that profile though. The
Gardiner bankers didn?t take out circulation again until 1933 when they invested $25,000 in high-interest
bonds that were available at the time. Thus, they got in on the Glass-Borah Spike on Figure 3 with an issue
of Series of 1929 notes.
The case for The First National Bank of Butte, Montana was more typical. The $300,000 circulation
of the bank dropped by a third with the redemption of its $100,000 holding of 1925 bonds. The bankers
took no action to increase their circulation during the remaining large-note era. They were issuing $50 and
$100 Series of 1902 blue seal plain backs at the time and it took the Treasurer?s National Bank Redemption
Figure 5. The circulation of this Butte, Montana bank was cut by 1/3rd when the 4% Loan of
1925 bonds were redeemed that backed its circulation. At the time, the bank was issuing $50
and $100 Series of 1902 blue seal plain backs. This note was issued after the reduction. Such
notes are a third scarcer thanks to the reduction in circulation. Heritage Auction archives photo.
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Agency until July 1926 to withdraw the $100,000 worth of their notes from circulation. Normal shipments
of replacements for their remaining $200,000 circulation resumed July 7th.
The situation at The Orangeburg National Bank, South Carolina, was a bit more interesting because
those bankers wanted to replace their redeemed bonds. Their circulation going into 1925 was $150,000
secured by $100,000 in 2% Consols of 1930 and $50,000 in Loan of 1925 bonds. The 1925 bonds were
redeemed on February 5th, but the bankers were able to replace $18,000 worth of them with 2% Panama
Canal Loan of 1936 bonds on May 13th. Thus, they closed out 1925 with a circulation of $118,000.
The Big Picture
The cumulative national bank note circulation in the country in 1925 was about 15% of all the
money in circulation. Redemption of the 4% Loan of 1925 bonds reduced that percentage to a bit less than
14% of the nation?s total (FR Board, 1924, p. 947). The loss certainly didn?t cause a disruptive economic
impact.
The officers in the banks impacted by the redemption of their Loan of 1925 bonds had to contend
with the inconvenience of the situation, but they had plenty of time to adjust. Although their circulations
on the books suddenly were reduced or even eliminated, it didn?t cause pain. Yes, the bonds were redeemed
and the proceeds of those sales were deposited in the Treasurer?s redemption fund. But the value of the
notes that had been issued to the banks remained the property of the banks. The notes or their equivalent
value in cash either resided in the banks or had been loaned by the bankers. When loaned, the bankers got
their cash value back with interest upon maturation of the loans. The actual nationals in circulation now
were the liability of the Treasury and gradually were retired by the Treasurer?s National Bank Redemption
Agency.
The bankers could either attempt to replace the lost bonds with other bonds in order to obtain more
circulation, or they could simply discount their future loans through their Federal Reserve bank and obtain
either Federal Reserve notes or other Federal currency to continue the conduct of their businesses. As far
as the U.S. Treasury was concerned, the reduction of national bank note circulation was all for the good
because it took inelastic currency out of circulation that was replaced by elastic Federal Reserve currency,
which better served the operation of the nation?s economy.
The result of the redemption of the Loan of 1925 bonds is the abrupt drop in national bank note
circulation in 1925 illustrated on Figure 3. That impact lasted six years until the Glass-Borah Amendment
to the Federal Home Loan Bank Act of 1932 awarded the circulation privilege to U.S. bonds with interest
rates of 3-3/8% or less for a period of three years. This made more bonds temporarily available to national
Figure 6. The bankers in this Orangeburg, South Carolina bank were able to buy $18,000 worth
of 2% Panama Canal Loan of 1936 bonds to partially replace $50,000 in 4% Loan of 1925 bonds
that were redeemed on February 5, 1925. They also held $100,000 in 2% Consols of 1930 so this
left them with a circulation of $118,000 at the end of 1925. The reduction didn?t appreciably
impact the scarcity of 1902 notes with this title. Heritage Auction archives photo.
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bankers as well as improving the profitability of circulating national bank notes. The hope was that an
increase in volume of national bank notes would add liquidity to the economy that was in the grips of the
Great Depression then.
What swirled around the Loan of 1925 constitutes a background story that unexpectedly linked
two classes of currency, Treasury notes of 1890-1891 and national bank notes. The Treasury Notes of 1890-
1891 were long gone from the scene in 1925 but were still causing headaches. National bank notes were
struggling for economic relevance against the glamorous newly instituted Federal Reserve notes.
National bank currency as an element in the nation?s money supply suffered from being inelastic;
that is, unable to expand and contract in response to seasonal business cycles and periodic economic shocks.
A major objective of the Federal Reserve Act of 1913 was to provide for an elastic currency that would
supplant nationals. However, there was money to be made by bankers who engaged in the currency-issuing
business so nationals did not go away.
Secretary of the Treasury Andrew Mellon was actively seeking means to eliminate national bank
notes from the scene short of legislation from Congress to do so. Consequently, his administration used the
call of the 1925 bonds at their maturity as the first concrete step to jumpstart the process. Successive bond
calls and maturities in 1935 after Mellon left office finished the job. By then, banker and public support
for nationals had waned so removal of their bond banking by FRDs New Deal Treasury was not seriously
opposed in Congress so the job could be completed as an administrative action by the Treasury without
Congressional intervention. National bank notes could not exist without available U.S. Treasury bonds that
bankers had to deposit with the U/S. Treasurer to secure their circulations.
Sources
Carlisle, John G., 1894, Gold and silver in the Treasury of the United States, and circulation of silver & silver certificates (chart
with month-end totals including insets for imports and exports of gold and silver, June 1878 through May 1894); in, Annual
Report of the Secretary of the Treasury on the state of the finances: Government Printing Office, 992 p.
Comptroller of the Currency, yearly, Annual reports of the Comptroller of the Currency: U.S. Government Printing Office,
Washington, DC.
Comptroller of the Currency, 1863-1935, National currency and bond ledgers: Record Group 101, U.S. National Archives,
Washington, DC.
Federal Reserve Board, Dec. 1924, National bank note circulation: in, Federal Reserve Bulletin, Government Printing Office,
Washington, DC., v. 10, no. 12, p. 944-947.
Huntoon, Peter, Nov-Dec 2021, Emergency currency, the Aldrich-Vreeland Act & Series of 1882 and 1903 date back national
bank notes: Paper Money, v. 60, p. 405-412.
Huntoon, Peter, and Jamie Yakes, Jul-Aug 2023, Glass-Borah Amendment of 1932 spiked Series of 1929 national bank note
circulation by a third: Paper Money, v. 62, p. 216-281.
Pollock, Andrew, National bank presidents, cashiers, total resources and national bank note circulations by year: Newman
Numismatic Portal, Washington University, St. Louis, MO.
Richardson, James W., 1908, A compilation of the messages and papers of the Presidents 1789-1897, vol. IX: Government Printing
Office, Washington, DC, 853 p.
McAdoo, W. G., Secretary of the Treasury, 1915, Information respecting United States bonds, paper currency and coin, production
of precious metals, etc.: U.S. Treasury, Government Printing Office, Washington DC, 106 p.
United States Statutes, Government Printing Office, Washington, DC.
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Portraits on Parade:
Miss Blackey, the Most Beautiful Woman in Virginia
by Tony Chibbaro
Readers of my articles over the past couple of years may notice a change in the title of this one in comparison
with the others. All preceding titles have begun with the phrase ?It?s Not Just About the Vignettes.? This one,
however, begins with the words ?Portraits on Parade.? As several of my more recent articles have focused on
banknote portraits instead of actual vignettes, I thought this change would be more appropriate and more descriptive
for this and any future columns which feature single or multiple portraits as the primary subject matter.
I first became aware of the identity of the woman appearing on the banknote illustrated below when I was
offered it for sale a few months ago. The seller had noted that cataloger James Haxby had identified the portrait as
being a certain Miss Blackey. Consultation with Volume 2 of Haxby?s United States Obsolete Bank Notes revealed
that the portrait on the $1 note issued by The Bank of Tecumseh, Michigan, was indeed attributed as being Miss
Blackey, but the author offered no information about her other than her name.
Above: Unissued $1 remainder note of The Bank of Tecumseh in Tecumseh, Michigan, (Haxby MI-435-G22a) dated
August 22nd, 1859. Appearing on its left side is a portrait that author James Haxby identified as Miss Blackey.
This Michigan note is not the only one upon which the portrait of Miss Blackey appears. I have multiple notes
in my collection which feature her portrait. A $10 note of the Exchange Bank of Columbia, South Carolina, and a
$20 note of the Bank of Chester, South Carolina, both display her likeness prominently. She also appears on $1 notes
of the Shetucket Bank of Norwich, Connecticut, and the City Bank of Augusta, Georgia, as well as several other
notes issued by banks across the country.
A male portrait appearing on the obsolete notes of several banks widely distributed across the United States
would normally signify that the person depicted was a figure of national importance. But such was not the case with
female portraits in the first half of the 19th century. Instead, this image of Miss Blackey was likely chosen to be
placed on so many different banknotes because of her pleasing looks. Hers is one of a type which banknote engravers
called ?Fancy Heads,? a group of attractive female portraits which graced the notes of scores of financial institutions
from Maine to Texas.
But exactly who was this Miss Blackey that was portrayed on the note above? The earliest mention of her
identity that I could locate was printed in the October 31, 1905, issue of The Philatelic West, an illustrated monthly
magazine published at Superior, Nebraska, which catered primarily to stamp collectors. An article entitled ?Bills of
the Monticello Bank of Charlottesville, Va.? presented an additional piece of information about her. Author Fred
Whittemore wrote that ?the $10 (note of the Monticello Bank) has the portrait of Miss Blackey, the most beautiful
woman in Virginia.? A pair of subsequent articles printed in The Numismatist, the official publication of the
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American Numismatic Association, in 1908 and 1924 were clearly derivative of Whittemore?s 1905 piece, but both
replaced the word ?beautiful? with ?handsome? in the phrase describing Miss Blackey. Neither of the three sources
had anything further to say about her, though.
Left: Miss Blackey, proclaimed to be ?the most beautiful
woman in Virginia during the 1850s, as portrayed on the
$1 note of The Tecumseh Bank of Tecumseh, Michigan.
Try as I might, I could find nothing more beyond her surname and her ?title? as the most beautiful woman in
her state. Curiously, the ancestry.com website listed no families by that last name in Charlottesville, Virginia, and
just a few in the entire state. The standard reference work on Virginia banknotes, Virginia Obsolete Paper Money by
Richard Jones and Keith Littlefield, did not identify her by name at all. Searches on google.com and newspapers.com
revealed nothing more, not even her first name. So I now appeal to the readers of this periodical. If anyone has more
information on Miss Blackey, ?the most beautiful woman in Virginia,? please contact me at tony@sctokens.com.
Above: $10 note issued by The Monticello Bank of Charlottesville, Virginia, (Haxby VA-45-G22a) dated October 1,
1860. A larger portrait of Miss Blackey appears on this note. A portrait of Thomas Jefferson and a vignette of his
nearby home called Monticello accompany it.
I also have a second request of Paper Money readers. I mentioned in my last article the database I am compiling
that tracks the identities of the various portraits found on old currency. I now have cataloged in it over 1000 different
portraits, including those referenced in Gene Hessler?s The Engraver?s Line and all three volumes of Roger Durand?s
Interesting Notes: About Portraits. Others from Jim Haxby?s United States Obsolete Bank Notes and The Whitman
Encyclopedia of Obsolete Paper Money are in the process of being added. In the cue await the archives of Heritage
and Stacks-Bowers auction houses. If anyone knows of other sources, such as old books, catalogs, or other private
lists that can aid in such an endeavor, please contact me at the aforementioned email address. I would also be happy
to answer queries from other collectors about the identities of portraits that they might be trying to attribute.
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THE REAL STORY BEHIND THE CIA?S
COUNTERFEIT CUBAN BANKNOTES OF 1961
by Roberto Menchaca
A commonly accepted idea is that a series of Cuban banknotes of 1961 with nominal value of twenty pesos
were produced by the CIA and given to the members of the Cuban Assault Brigade that attempted to overthrow
Fidel Castro during the ill-fated Bay of Pigs Invasion to the island of that year. The topic has been treated with
some detail over the years by both, Cuban and foreign specialists. Most sources indicate that each soldier was
given approximately one-hundred of these forged notes to be carried to Cuba for purchasing supplies from the
peasants and/or bribery (Quesada, 2009; Wayne, 2011). Using essentially the same description, some of these
notes have been sold over the years by the most prestigious numismatic auction houses reaching always
considerable prices.1
While the counterfeit twenty-peso notes closely resemble the authentic ones issued in 1961 by the National
Bank of Cuba, they can be easily distinguished from the latter given that they all belong to the series F69 or F70.
In each case, the notes can display a serial number or not. As a result, four different varieties of these counterfeits
are known to exist.
Obverse of a fake twenty-peso
Cuban note of 1961 (series F70,
serial number 592013)
The present article explains why the generally accepted idea about these counterfeit notes is simply wrong
and discloses for the first time evidence essential to understand the true story surrounding the origin and use of
the banknotes.
Prior to Fidel Castro?s revolution of January, 1959, Cuban currency had been traditionally produced by
American companies. Large amounts of these moneys were brought to the United States by the Cubans that left
the country after Castro?s rise to power. Fearing that the money could be used to destabilize the new government,
the National Bank of Cuba enacted on April 7, 1959 the Law number 210 that demonetized the hitherto circulating
five-hundred and one-thousand-peso banknotes.
Obverse of a one-thousand peso
Cuban note produced in 1950 by
the ABNC
1 See, e.g. Lot nr. 28361, Long Beach Expo World Paper Money Signature Auction, September 5, 2019, hammer price: 780
USD; Lot nr. 26394, idem, September 6, 2018, hammer price: 1140 USD.
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The relations between Cuba and the United States deteriorated rapidly after 1959. The latter sponsored
sabotage and violent acts in the island to provoke the fall of the new regime, to which Cuba responded from 1960
with the nationalization of the American-owned companies established in the island. The subsequent economic
embargo imposed by the Americans, still in force nowadays, caused the island to look for new partners in the
former Communist bloc.
The Bay of Pigs Invasion was a military landing operation covertly financed and directed by the U. S.
Government and the CIA. Around 1400 Cuban exiles organised in the so-called Assault Brigade 2506 landed in
the southwestern coast of Cuba on April 17, 1961. However, the operation failed and already by April 20 the
revolutionary forces were in control of the situation. Most of the invaders were captured (1202 men) whereas 118
men were officially reported dead in action.
Commander Ernesto Guevara had been appointed as President of the Cuban National Bank on November
26, 1959 and a currency reform was carried out between August 5 and 6 of 1961 under his supervision. The Law
number 963 signed on August 4 demonetized all previously circulating banknotes in the country and ordered their
replacement by the new ones that had just been secretively produced by the State Printing Office of Prague in the
former Communistic Republic of Czechoslovakia. The action automatically rendered worthless all the Cuban
money that had been extracted from the country and therefore inflicted a heavy blow on the political opponents
to the revolutionary process.
Front page of the official newspaper ?Revoluci?n? of August 5, 1961
informing on the banknote replacement and picturing the new notes
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A quick look at the dates of the previously referred events already show that it is simply impossible for the
men of the Brigade 2506 to have carried the twenty-peso notes to Cuba during the Bay of Pigs Invasion. As
mentioned earlier, the notes were only placed in circulation at the beginning of August, 1961. That is, more than
three months after the invasion!!
It is a well-known fact that the banknotes had been produced in Prague under great secrecy. Confidentiality
was of outmost importance in order to avoid that the large stock of old banknotes held in the United States was
sent back to Cuba for exchange. It is also documented that the new notes were only sent to Havana from Prague
shortly before the date fixed for the exchange and were kept heavily guarded at all times (Vives, 2007). Thus, the
Cuban people only knew about the new banknotes in August, 1961 at the earliest. As a result, the idea accepted
up to now that the notes had been carried by the members of the Assault Brigade during the invasion of Bay of
Pig held three months earlier to pay and bribe people in the island is obviously not tenable.
Even if for the sake of argument it is admitted that the CIA could have known about the existence of the
notes and could have even forged them even before they were released in circulation, it makes absolutely no sense
to imagine that the plan conceived by the CIA consisted of supplying the soldiers with still-to-be released
banknotes (on a yet to be decided later date) that were obviously unknown by Cubans and therefore could hardly
be used in commercial operations in the island.
It must be further added that while most of the members of the Brigade were captured or killed within
seventy-two hours, neither the Cuban authorities nor the media informed of any single one of these notes being
recovered.
For these reasons alone, the previously accepted idea of the counterfeit twenty-peso notes being prepared
and carried during the invasion should already be ruled out.
It is however plausible that the soldiers were provided with Cuban notes for use in the island. However, the
notes would have necessarily been of the kind circulating in Cuba at the time of the invasion, thus before the
currency exchange of August 1961. Testimonies of Cubans having participated in the invasion recalling being
given notes for use in the island may have been misunderstood and erroneously guessed to be referring to the
twenty-peso counterfeited notes of 1961. In fact, the wrong assumption only appeared much later. Someone may
have boldly supposed that the year printed in the counterfeited notes (1961) could only mean that they were those
carried to Cuba by the members of the 2506 Brigade during the Bay of Pigs Invasion.
In addition to the above, new evidence is presented here for the first time that solves the ?mystery?
surrounding these counterfeits.
An official report elaborated by the Cuban National Bank on April 22, 1964 specifically refers to these
peculiar counterfeits. It was inserted in the main Cuban newspaper of the time and informed the population of the
detection of forged twenty-peso notes in circulation having the specifications identified below. The notes
corresponded to those issued back in 1961, belonged to any of the F-69 or F-70 series and carried serial numbers
higher than 221.000 in both cases. A period of fifteen days was given for the holders to exchange them at the bank
offices for authentic ones, after which their possession would be punishable. The report was further accompanied
by pictures of a fake and an authentic note for comparison.
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Information issued by the National Bank of Cuba on April 22, 1964
The document unambiguously proves that the twenty-peso fake notes of 1961 described above were not used
during the Bay of Pigs Invasion but a few years later. It must also be noted that the report makes absolutely no
reference to these notes having been detected in Cuba on earlier occasions, let alone any reference to their
(otherwise impossible) introduction during the1961 invasion. On the contrary, it conveys the idea that they had
just been detected in 1964 for the first time.
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It can then be assumed that the notes were forged by the CIA and sent clandestinely to Cuba sometime before
their detection by the Cuban authorities on April, 1964. This assumption is confirmed by the records found within
the evidence dating from that time that has been recently declassified by the CIA.
A report found in the CIA records dating from June 2, 1964 discloses that a Cuban exile living in the United
States, Mario Garcia Kohly, had been arrested by the FBI accused of counterfeiting Cuban
notes that were to be introduced in the country to disrupt the nation?s economy and to
finance an anti-Castro underground organization. Despite the abundant evidence submitted
during the hearing proving that this was in fact a CIA covert operation, Kohly was sentenced
in 1964 to two years in prison. While the report does not identify the type of Cuban
banknotes being forged, they must have at least included the twenty-peso notes referred to
above. This is easy to ascertain given the fact that after the emission of the new Cuban notes
of 1961, Cuba did not issue new banknotes until the end of 1964. Hence, only those issued
in 1961 could be forged.
The information is further supported by a Confidential Memorandum dated October
21, 1963 relating to Covert actions against Cuba. The document contains a proposal for
introducing counterfeit currency in the country in order to degrade the economy and cause
internal instability. While the document does not explicitly refers to banknotes, back in 1963 Cuba?s currency
only consisted of the paper money issued in 1961 and minor fractional coins.
First page of the Memorandum dated October 21, 1963
CONCLUSIONS
The evidence disclosed for the first time in the present article allows to establish beyond doubts that the
twenty-peso counterfeit Cuban notes of 1961, previously thought to have been used at the time of the Bay of Pigs
Invasion, were actually introduced in the island some years later, most likely at the beginning of 1964, as part of
the CIA covert operations seeking to destabilize the Cuban regime.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Banco Nacional de Cuba: ?Aviso?, April 22, 1964, Newspaper ?Noticias de Hoy? same date.
CIA Declassified Records under the Freedom of Information Act, ?Cuban Counterfeiter Trial may involve Top US Leaders?, June 2, 1964,
Reference: FOIAb3b, www.cia.org
Gilkes, Paul: ?Collecting the so-called forbidden notes of Cuba?, Coin World, February 18, 2016.
Homren, Wayne: ?The CIA Bay of Pigs Counterfeits?, The E-Sylum, December 18, 2011, vol. 14, nr. 52, article nr. 20.
Memorandum for the Department of Defence Executive Agent for Cuban Affairs, ?Covert Actions against Cuba?, October 21, 1963, Ref.
CM-949-63, www.archives.gov
Menchaca, Roberto: ?History of the Coin Circulation in Cuba?, 2023, Ed. Punto Rojo Libros.
Quesada, Alejandro: ?The Bay of Pigs?, 2009, Ed. Osprey Publishing.
Vives, Juan: ?Las Cajas Misteriosas y el Cambio de Moneda?, September 3, 2007, www.baracuteycubano.blogspot.com
Mario Garci Kohly
(1902-1975)
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The Hastings National Bank Robbery
Let me ask a couple of questions. Do you collect National Bank notes? If you do, I am sure that like me, you
have wondered, ?What life did it have? How was it spent? What did it purchase? Was it ever taken in a bank
robbery??
Was this note part of the Loot?
Back in the 1930?s bank robbery was much more
common than today and the bank robbers grew in fame
to celebrity status. Who has not heard of John
Dillinger, Bonnie & Clyde, Baby Face Nelson or
Machine Gun Kelly? The depression was hard on
everyone with so many people out of a job, their farm
failing or the bank?s foreclosing. This era made the
banks a very popular target for bank robbers.
Located in south central Nebraska, the city of
Hastings, in Adams County, had a population of
around fifteen thousand in 1931. Primarily an
agricultural area, Hastings was also home to many
businesses that were starting to feel the strain of the
national economic depression that began with the
stock market collapse of 1929. Six banks served the
town during the 1920?s, but by 1931, only three banks
remained. All appeared to be doing well. The January
17,1931 edition to the Hastings Daily Tribune ran an
article on the health of these remaining banks. To the
criminal mind, it must have read like an invitation.
The article began with the eye-opening statement,
?With almost $5,000,000 on deposit in Hastings banks
at the close of 1930, financial conditions in the
Hastings trade territory were reflected as being
unusually favorable here.?
The first bank robbery in Adams County was
carried out on October 18,1906, in the village of
Pauline, ten miles south of Hastings. Robbers blew
the safe of the Bank of Pauline, which was connected
to the First National Bank of Hastings (Charter 2528),
and got away with $1,500.
The second robbery is the subject of this article,
occurred on February 25, 1931, when the Hastings
National Bank was robbed of over $27,000. William
B. Hughes Jr., secretary of the Nebraska Bankers
Association called it ?the slickest job that has been
pulled on a Nebraska bank in history.?
The robbery began about 4:00 am when three
men had jimmied a rear side window of the bank.
William Meininger approached the front door of the
bank about 6:20 am, to start his shift as the janitor. He
was responsible on winter mornings to fire up the
furnace so the bank would be a comfortable
temperature when employees started to arrive. As he
stepped inside, two men took him by surprise. He
grabbed one of his attackers by the throat and started
yelling. The men told him if you don?t stop, we will
kill you!
The janitor came upon three masked bandits that
bound his hands with wire. They wanted information
about any alarm system and how many employees
were going to be arriving. One of the bandits asked the
janitor for instructions on how to light the furnace so
that the employees would be comfortable when they
arrived. Eventually, thirteen bank officers and
employees came to work and all were taken to the
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basement and their hands and feet were bound by wire.
The men were forced to lie on the floor while the
women were allowed to sit in chairs. Interestingly, a
sign painter had arrived to change the name on the
building from the State Bank of Hastings to the
Hastings National Bank as the bank had changed
hands just a month before. He was forced to join the
others, tied up, in the basement.
The banks vault?s time lock was set to release at
8:30 am and after the Assistant cashier Herbert Nelson
was forced to unlock the vault door, a masked bandit
went about emptying the vault. Less than ten minutes
later, the three bandits walked out with $22,943 in
currency, $1,800 in gold, $2,930 in silver and a $100
diamond ring, for a grand total of $27,773. The take
is equivalent to $541,410.88 in today?s dollars.
Marguerite Bierman, a teller for the bank, arrived
minutes after the bandit?s departure. Seeing no one in
the lobby but hearing voices in the basement, she went
down and found them bound by wire. After she untied
her fellow employees, the alarm was sounded.
The Hastings National Bank of Hastings, NE was
organized on December 26, 1930, and chartered
December 31, 1930 with capital of $100,000. The
officers were: H.G. Pratt, President (1931-1935), I.C.
Riley, Cashier (1931-1935) and H.E. Nelson, Asst
Cashier (1931-1935) The bank issued the following
notes:
1929 Type 1 $10?s 1-1234 = $74,040
1929 Type 1 $20?s 1 ? 420 = $50,400 = $124,440
1929 Type 2 $10?s 1 -182 =$1,820
1929 Type 2 $20?s 1- 70 = $1,400 =$127,660 TTL
No Type 2?s are known / Outstanding in 1935 $63,040
For all of you that got this far, the answer to the
question is: No!
None notes issued by the bank were taken in the
robbery.
The first shipment of notes to the Hastings
National Bank left the BEP on October 19, 1932 and
consisted of 750 sheets of type 1 ten-dollar notes and
250 sheets of type 1 twenty-dollar notes for a total of
$75,000. The note pictured above was from the first
shipment.
What happened to the bank robbers and the
recovery of the money is an interesting tale for another
time.
REFERENES CITED AND SOURCES OF DATA
The 1931 HASTINGS BANK JOB & the Bloody Bandit Trail by Monty McCord, The History Press, 2013
Comptroller of the Currency, National Currency and Bond Ledgers. Record Group 101, U.S. National Archives,
Archives II, College Park, Maryland. (1863-1935).
Society of Paper Money Collectors, The Bank Note History Project, Banks & Bankers Database. (1782-1935).
spmc.org (2022).
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Shop Live 24/7
Scan for $10 off your first purchase
whatnot.com
Money Used in the Japanese-American Internment Camps of World War II?Part II
By Katherine Ameku, Momo McCloskey Feller, Ray Feller, and Steve Feller
(Part I in July/August Issue)
Reparations After the War
After decades of effort, those interned in these camps finally received financial compensation from the United
States. President Reagan signed the Civil Liberties Act of 1988 into law, which paid each living resident, spouse, or
parent $20,000, accompanied by a letter of apology from the president. A sample check is signed below, See Figure
21. Japanese people deported from Latin America to the United States and interned in places like Crystal City, Texas
received $5,000 and a presidential letter of apology. Over the course of the redress program, more than 82,219 people
received more than $1.6 billion (US National Archives).
Among the estimated 82,219 individuals paid, 189 were Japanese Latin American claimants eligible for the full
$20,000 in redress compensation under the Act because they had the required permanent residency status or U.S.
citizenship during the war period. In addition, $5,000 was paid to 145 Japanese Latin Americans who were deported
from their homes in Latin America during WWII and held in internment camps in the U.S (US National Archives).
The government rules included:
In order to have been eligible for restitution, an applicant had to have been:
1. alive on August 10, 1988
2. a United States (U.S.) citizen or permanent resident alien during the internment period December 7, 1941 to
June 30, 1946
3. a person of Japanese ancestry, or the spouse or parent of a person of Japanese ancestry
4. evacuated, relocated, interned, or otherwise deprived of liberty or property as a result of Federal government
action during the internment period and based solely on their Japanese ancestry (US National Archives)
Figure 21: Compensatory $20000 payment to Ms. Dorothy Nakamura for being interned in WWII. (Image from Densho)
Visiting Jerome and Rohwer in Arkansas
There is an incredible wealth of information about the camps through online portals like Densho Digital
Repository or the Library of Congress? Digital Collection. However, we have also learned from previous experience
that going to the actual sites provides information that is not possible to glean from a distance. With that in mind, and
funding from the Newman Numismatic Portal, the authors traveled to McGehee, Arkansas in October. This is where
The World War II Japanese American Internment Museum is located. It is also near two relocation campsites: Rohwer
and Jerome. We visited all three places and found new numismatic information, as well as additional insights.
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We began our visit at the phenomenal Taylor?s Steakhouse in Dumas, AK, a town of 4,700 people. We were
welcomed by the waitress, who noticed that we were not familiar faces (or accents). When we told her we were there
to learn more about the Japanese internment camps, she was very familiar with the history. In fact, nearly everyone
we spoke to was fully aware that there had been Japanese internment camps--and considered them a regrettable part
of the country?s past. She actually connected us directly to the mayor of McGehee--Mr. Jeff Owyoung? through his
personal phone number(!) She also served us a delectable dinner.
We stayed at the Furr House, a beautiful bed and breakfast in historic Arkansas City. Our host, Rick Hales,
introduced us to Robert S. Moore, Jr, former Speaker of the House of Representatives in Arkansas, and an impressive
resource on the history of the area. He took us on a tour of Arkansas City, including a surprise visit to a church that
had used a Jerome barracks building as an addition (see Figure 22).
Figure 22: Japanese-American camp barracks used as an addition to a
now-closed church in Arkansas City, AR.
Barracks at the Japanese-American internment camps
typically held several families, only provided with cots and a
small stove. It is difficult to imagine so many families packed
in such a small space with limited privacy.We did not
anticipate being able to step into a barracks building from the
camp--in fact, we had read that none of the barracks remained.
This is one concrete example of the kind of learning that can
only happen with a visit. Per Robert, after the camps were shut
down, the materials were gathered up and used by many
people in the area--he said his own house had windows from the barracks.
Our first morning in town, we visited the World War II Japanese American Internment Museum. It is a small
museum, located in the old train depot. We were welcomed with a short documentary and then invited to explore the
exhibits, as well as a plethora of scrapbooks, newspapers, and yearbooks that were left out for people to look through.
Momo, our youngest researcher at age 6, took notes and helped with photographing the artifacts. We saw many
numismatic-related items: ration books, photographs of one of the canteens, employment paperwork, documents from
the Co-op, tickets to events, and even a Co-op receipt we had never seen before (See Figures 24-26). We also observed
tokens from Wilson Plantations (see Figure 28), a local farm that attempted to entice internees to stay and work in
Arkansas after the war. We learned that, despite a peak population of over 16,000 internees, only one family chose
to remain in Arkansas long-term (World War II Japanese American Internment Museum).
Figure 23: Jerome-Rohwer Interpretive Museum and Visitor Center at the World
War II Japanese American Internment Museum in McGehee, AR. This is located
on the site of the passenger train terminal in McGehee. Co-authors Katie Ameku,
Momo McCloskey Feller, and Ray Feller are shown.
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Figure 24: Purchase receipts good for profit sharing in the co-op at the Jerome Camp (World War II Japanese American Internment
Museum, McGehee, AR).
Ration Cards:
Figure 25:
Ration card
from the Jerome
Relocation
Camp (World
War II Japanese
American
Internment
Museum,
McGehee, AR).
Figure 26: Badges for use at Camp Rohwer (World War II Japanese American Internment Museum, McGehee, AR).
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Figure 27: Raffle ticket for
Jerome (World War II Japanese
American Internment Museum,
McGehee, AR)
Figure 28: Tokens from the Wilson Plantation (National Japanese-American Relocation Camp Museum, McGehee, AR).
We also visited the campsites of both
Rohwer and Jerome. Although very little
remains--two brick chimneys from the camp
hospitals, a cemetery, and some monuments--we
were able to get a sense of the scale of the camps.
Rohwer also has an audio tour that one can listen
to while reading the signage by the National Park
Service, narrated by Geroge Takai who was
interned at the site. Currently vast farm fields, we
attempted to imagine what they would have been
like with families, schools, shops, and
auditoriums.
Figure 29: The Rohwer Campsite in Arkansas
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Figure 30: War memorial at the Rohrer
Relocation Campsite.
After Jerome closed as a war relocation camp, it served as a prisoner-of-war camp for Germans. As such, it
issued scrip for work done by Prisoners of War. Shown here is a coupon booklet cover along with examples of the
scrip. These coupon books were known to have been redeemable after the war.
These notes were printed in Fort Smith, Arkansas by Weldon, Williams, and Lick printing company. The imprint
of the firm is on the bottom of the coupon cover.
Figure 34: Set of scrip for the Jerome POW Camp.
Figure 31: Memorial at the Jerome
Relocation Camp Site.
Figure 32: Cover to a book of scrip coupons used at the Jerome
POW Camp
Figure 33: The printers of the scrip were Weldon, Williams, and Lick
of Fort Smith, AR.
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Figure 35: The Printing Plant for Weldon, Williams, and Lick in Fort Smith, Arkansas .
The internment of Japanese Americans, including American citizens, is a difficult part of our country?s history.
Our hope is that, by telling the numismatic story of these camps, we will be able to help people to understand an
aspect of these lives that were lived behind barbed wire.
We thank the Newman Numismatic Portal of Washington University, St Louis for their support. Our research
will continue in the summer of 2024 when we visit more camp sites and museums in California.
Sources
Archives:
Densho: The Japanese American Legacy Project. Densho.org
Smithsonian
US National Archives, https://www.archives.gov/research/japanese-americans
War Relocation Centers, National Park Service
World War II Japanese American Internment Museum, McGehee, AR
California State University, Dominguez Hills, Archives and Special Collections.
Articles:
Thompson, David J., 2011. Co-operatives and the victims of internment, Coop News. https://www.thenews.coop/36529/sector/retail/co-
operatives-and-victims-internment/
Books:
Howard, John. (2008). Concentration Camps on the Home Front: Japanese Americans in the House of Jim Crow. The Univ of Chicago Press.
Imahara, W. M., & Meltzer, D. E. (Eds.). (2022). Jerome and Rohwer: Memories of Japanese American Internment in World War II Arkansas.
University of Arkansas Press.
Kashima, Testuden (2003). Judgment Without Trial: Japanese American Imprisonment During World War II. University of Washington Press.
Unrau, Harlan D. (1996). The Evacuation and Relocation of Persons of Japanese Ancestry During World War II: A Historical Study of the
Manzanar War Relocation Center. United States Department of the Interior, National Park Service.
Personal Justice Denied: Report of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians. (1997). Univ of Washington Press.
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Figure 35: Katherine (Katie) Ameku teaches Ramona (Momo) McCloskey Feller
By Momo: It was very hot and there isn?t much right now but there used to be a whole camp there. There was so
much space there and all we saw was a big space with sand. The space was so big. I had fun and there was a lot of
research in it at the same time.
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The Tishomingo Hotel
by James C. Ehrhardt
Many collectors have found an item outside of their main collecting interest that attracted their attention and
inspired them in a new direction. This happened to me with a piece of 1862 scrip from the Tishomingo Hotel in
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