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Paper Money - Vol. XXXV, No. 5 - Whole No. 185 - September - October 1996


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r, ;6•,„,to VOL. XXXV No. 5 WHOLE No. 185 Mt NI ,9 CSI•4914 N iUNORER 11111111111111 VISA'El, 11111111111•111 We Welcome Call Toll Free 1-800-622-1880 Stephen Goldsmith' Bruce Hagen members SOCIETY OF PAPER MONEY COLLECTORS INC.MEMBER Where Historic Paper Collections of the World Are Researched, Auctioned, Bought and Sold NY 212-943-1880 • Fax 212-908-4047 orwasergi Thinking of Selling? Have You Thought About This? You've enjoyed collecting currency for many years, and now you are seri- ously thinking about selling. Should you value the entire collection and offer it, at a wholesale price to a dealer? Will you publish a full-page advertisement in a paper money newspaper or mail out your own price list or catalogue? We suggest that you do what most experienced collectors have done with their better material - sell at auction. And once you have decided to sell your collection at auction you will need to select an auction company. There are many things that should be taken into consideration, but one question you should always ask is "Where and when will my material be sold?". At R. M. Smythe and Company, we think the answer to the "where" part of that question is relatively simple. Important collections of paper money should be auctioned at paper money shows. If your collection was in our June Memphis International Paper Money Auction it could have been viewed by over 150 of the world's most significant paper money dealers, and by the hundreds of serious collectors who came to the show every day to buy. The auction results speak for themselves. Federal Currency in the June, Memphis Auction was very strong. Lot 1023, the $20 1863 Legal Tender (Fr.126b), Choice Almost Uncirculated realized $3,500. Lot 1051, a cut sheet of four $5 1899 Silver Certificates sold for $3,050. Lot 1140, the Portland, Maine $10 Red Seal brought $4,500 and Lot 1154, the $2 Moniteau NB of California, Missouri "Lazy Two" sold for $4,000. Confederate Currency was in great demand as can be seen by the $10,000 hammer price realized for Lot 1392, an extremely rare contemporary counter- feit of the $5 1861 "Indian Princess" note, and the $100 1861 T-3, Lot 1383, brought $7,000. A superb collection of obsolete bank note proofs from Louisiana, Lots 1,527-1,531, brought record prices of from $3,400 to 4,200 each. The possibly unique Garden City, Minnesota, proof sheet, Lot 1543, sold for $9,500. The most extraordinary results were achieved by an outstanding group of Alaska Clearing House Certificates, meticulously researched and fully-illus- trated in the catalogue. Lots 1440-1446, including the $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50 and $100, realized $5,000, $4,500, $5,000, $5,000, $5,500, $6,000 and $8,000 respectively. We strongly believe that the best way to sell a paper money collection is at auction. There are no substitutes for experience, thorough research, proper pre- sentation, and a location that makes sense, and that is why, at R. M. Smythe and Company, we are committed to conducting our paper money auctions at paper money shows. Consignments are now being accepted for our 1996-1997 Auction Schedule. October 25, 1996. Currency, Stocks and Bonds. The St. Louis National and World Paper Money Show. St. Louis, Missouri. February 22, 1997. Currency, Stocks and Bonds. The Chicago International Paper Money Exposition. Chicago, Illinois June 1997. Currency, Stocks and Bonds. Memphis International Auction. To find out how easy it is to consign your collection to any of the auctions list- ed above, or to subscribe, call Stephen Goldsmith, Douglas Ball or Bruce Hagen at 800-622-1880 or 212-943-1880. 26 Broadway, New York, NY 10004-1701 SOCIETY OF PAPER MONEY COLLECTORS INC. Paper Money Whole No. 185 Page 169 PAPER MONEY is published every other month beginning in January by The Society of Paper Money Collectors. Second class postage paid at Dover, DE 19901. Postmaster send address changes to: Bob Cochran, Secretary, P.O. Box 1085, Florissant, MO 63031. Society of Paper Money Collectors, Inc., 1996. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any article, in whole or in part, without express written permission, is prohibited Individual copies of this issue of PAPER MONEY are available from the Secretary for $2.75 each plus $1 postage. Five or more copies are sent postage free. ADVERTISING RATES SPACE 1 TIME 3 TIMES 6 TIMES Outside Back Cover $152 $420 $825 Inside Front & Back Cover $145 $405 $798 Full Page $140 $395 $775 Half-page $75 $200 $390 Quaner-page $38 $105 $198 Eighth-page $20 $55 $105 To keep rates at a minimum, advertising must be prepaid in advance according to the above sched- ule. In exceptional cases where special artwork or extra typing are required, the advertiser will be notified and billed extra for them accordingly. Rates are not commissionable. Proofs are not supplied. Deadline: Copy must be in the editorial office no later than the 1st of the month preceding issue (e.g., Feb. 1 for March/April issue). With advance notice, camera-ready copy will be ac- cepted up to three weeks later. Mechanical Requirements: Full page 42-57 pi- cas; half-page may be either vertical or horizon- tal in format. Single column width, 20 picas. Halftones acceptable, but not mats or stereos. Page position may be requested but cannot be guaranteed. Advertising copy shall be restricted to paper currency and allied numismatic material and publications and accessories related thereto. SPMC does not guarantee advertisements but accepts copy in good faith, reserving the right to reject objectionable material or edit any copy. SPMC assumes no financial responsibility for typographical errors in advertisements, but agrees to reprint that portion of an advertisement in which typographical error should occur upon prompt notification of such error. Al !advertising copy and correspondence should be sent to the Editor. Official Bimonthly Publication of The Society of Paper Money Collectors, Inc. Vol. XXXV No. 5 Whole No. 185 SEPT/OCT 1996 ISSN 0031-1162 GENE HESSLER, Editor, P.O. Box 8147, St. Louis, MO 63156 Manuscripts (mss), not under consideration elsewhere, and publications for review should be sent to the Editor. Accepted was 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. Mss are to be typed on one side only, double-spaced with at least one-inch margins. A copy should be retained by the author. The author's name, address and telephone number should appear on the first page. In addition, although it is not required, you are encouraged to submit a copy on a 3 1/2 or 51/4 inch MS DOS disk, identified with the name and version of software used: Microsoft Word, Word Perfect or text (ASCII), etc. If disk is submitted, double- spaced printout must accompany disk. IN THIS ISSUE ELLIS H. ROBERTS PRINTER'S DEVIL TO WILLIAM WILLIAMS Forrest W. Daniel 171 THE BUCK STARTS HERE Gene Hessler 173 SORTING THE ISSUES OF NEW YORK CITY Stephen M. Goldberg 174 THE BASICS Bob Cochran 180 ALPHONSE MUCHA, ART NOVEAU AND PAPER MONEY ARTIST Gene Hessler 181 ABOUT TEXAS, MOSTLY TEXAS FIRST CHARTER NATIONAL BANK NOTES Frank Clark 190 HOW MANY NUMBER ONE SHEETS OF 1899 $2 SILVER CERTIFICATES WERE PRODUCED? lack H. Fisher 192 THE SCRIPOPI-IILY CORNER THE ORIGIN OF COLLECTIBLE CERTIFICATES Pierre Bonneau 193 MONEY TALES Forrest W. Daniel 194 SOCIETY FEATURES PUBLICATION CONTRIBUTORS 195 AWARDS IN MEMPHIS 196 NEW LITERATURE 196 NEW MEMBERS 197 MONEY MART 198 ONTHECOVER.This portrait ofAlp honse Mucha was engraved by the Czech security engraver Vadat , Fajt. See page 181. For change of address, inquiries concerning non -delivery of PAPER MONEYand for additional copies of this issue contact the Secretary; the address is on the next page. For earlier issues contact Classic Coins, P.O. Box 95, Allen, MI 49227. SOCIETY OF PAPER MONEY COLLECTORS OFFICERS PRESIDENT DEAN OAKES, Drawer 1456, Iowa City, IA 52240 VICE-PRESIDENT FRANK CLARK, P.O. Box 117060, Carrollton, TX 75011 SECRETARY ROBERTCOCHRAN, P.O. Box 1085, Florissant, MO 63031 TREASURER TIM KYZIVAT, P.O. Box 803, LaGrange, IL 60525 APPOINTEES EDITOR GENE HESSLER, P.O. Box 8147, St. Louis, MO 63156 MEMBERSHIP DIRECTOR FRANK CLARK, P.O. Box 117060, Carrollton, TX 75011 WISMER BOOK PROJECT STEVEN K. WHITFIELD, 14092 W. 115th St., Olathe, KS 66062 LEGAL COUNSEL ROBERT J. GALIETTE, 10 Wilcox Lane, Avon, CT 06001 LIBRARIAN ROGER H. DURAND, P.O. Box 186, Rehoboth, MA 02769 PAST-PRESIDENT JUDITH MURPHY, P.O. Box 24056, Winston Salem, NC 27114 BOARD OF GOVERNORS RAPHAEL ELLENBOGEN, 1840 Harwitch Rd., Upper Arlington, OH 43221 C. JOHN FERRERI, P.O. Box 33, Storrs, CT 06268 GENE HESSLER, P.O. Box 8147, St. Louis, MO 63156 RON HORSTMAN, 5010 Timber Lane, Gerald, MO 63037 MILTON R. FRIEDBERG, 8803 Brecksville Rd. #7-203, Brecksville, OH 44141-1933 STEPHEN TAYLOR, 70 West View Avenue, Dover, DE 19901 WENDELL W. WOLKA, P.O. Box 569, Dublin, OH 43017 STEVEN K. WHITFIELD, 14092 W. 115th St., Olathe, KS 66062 The Society of Paper Money Collectors was organized in 1961 and incorporated in 1964 as a non-profit or- ganization under the laws of the District of Columbia. It is affiliated with the American Numismatic Associa- tion. The annual meeting is held at the Memphis IPMS in June. MEMBERSHIP—REGULAR and LIFE. Applicants must be at least 18 years of age and of good moral character. JUNIOR. Applicants must be from 12 to 18 years of age and of good moral character. Their application must be signed by a parent or guardian. They will be preceded by the letter "j". This letter will be removed upon notifica- tion to the secretary that the member has reached 18 years of age. Junior members are not eligible to hold office or vote. Members of the ANA or other recognized numismatic societies are eligible for membership. Other applicants should be sponsored by an SMPC member or provide suitable references. DUES—Annual dues are $24. Members in Canada and Mexico should add $5 to cover additional postage; members throughout the rest of the world add $10. Life membership, payable in installments within one year, is $300. Members who join the Society prior to Oct. 1st receive the magazines already issued in the year in which they join. Members who join after Oct. 1st will have their dues paid through December of the following year. They will also receive, as a bonus, a copy of the magazine issued in November of the year in which they joined. BUYING and SELLING CSA and Obsolete Notes CSA Bonds, Stocks & Financial Items Extensive Catalog for $3.00, Refundable With Order ANA-LM SCNA PCDA HUGH SHULL P.O. Box 761, Camden, SC 29020 (803) 432-8500 FAX 803-432-9958 SPMC-LM BRNA FUN Page 170 Paper Money Whole No. 185 HAT United States Treasurer Ellis Henry Roberts (Sep- tember 30, 1827-January 8, 1918) began his career as a printer's devil figures large in his biography. Rob- erts was the last apprentice hired by William Williams near the end of a long and distinguished career as printer, editor, publisher and book seller in Utica, New York. While a young man, Williams produced vignettes for scrip issued by the Vil- lage of Utica in 1815, so there are solid numismatic creden- tials in the background of the man who had some influence on the boy who was to become Treasurer of the United States. William Williams, of Puritan descent, was born at Framingham, Massachusetts in 1787. The family moved to the Utica area in 1790. He was a printer's devil, the stage leading to an apprenticeship, in the printing shops of William McLean and Asahel Seward in Utica from 1800 to 1807. As an appren- tice, Williams may have had some part in the production of A Description of Counterfeit Bills, published by Seward in 1806. 1 Upon completion of his seven-year apprenticeship he became a partner in the firm Seward & Williams at age twenty. Seward & Williams, and later Williams as sole proprietor, printed a wide variety of books and pamphlets as well as the usual run of job printing. The printer's devil and apprentice was exposed to it all: the annual almanacs, newspapers, school text books on a wide variety of subjects, lectures, essays, nov- els, religious and anti-Masonic books and collections of mu- sic. The printer read the books, not sentence by sentence but letter by letter, often correcting the copy as he set the type. In 1808 William Williams began to manufacture the paper the firm used in many of their books. The paper was a thin and tough rag paper used later for bank notes printed for Utica banks, and in 1815 for the Village of Utica bearer checks drawn on the Manhattan Branch Bank. Those notes, dated Aug. 1, 1815, were printed in sheets having two each of 3 cents, 6 1/4 cents, 12 1/2 cents, 25 cents, 50 cents and 75 cents; the imprint "Seward and Williams Printers" appears on the 75 cent notes. T V91 Acttatem, e Promise to pay Manhattan THREE On Demand. Taal, AVtca, the Bearer at the Branch Bank, CENTS, mi., Au , 1, 1815. By order, Ggut ,1t age olt Akt.tt-a ) Promise to pay the 4, Bearer, at the Manhattan., ',":33r.tIttch Bank, A F1 %TX CENTS, GAR, .'9crr \xecd.m. oVu, eV"&i.ea., Bearer at tho •°41- Branch Bank, FIVE CENTS mica, august 1,1815. By order, I Promise to pay the Manhattan 1 SEVENTY- ] On Demand. TWELVE AND On Demand. Utica,durast 1, 1815. By order, Paper Money Whole No. 185 Page 1 71 ELL s OBER PRINTER'S DEVIL To W EL AM ILL -AMS by FORREST W. DANIEL Editors in the nineteenth century asserted that an apprenticeship in a printing office was a practical equivalent to a college education. They named many men who had gone from the print shop to national prominence in law, literature and poli- tics; even to naming James Buchanan, future presi- dent of the United States, a printer—a talent not mentioned in modern biographical sketches. Fractional currency from the Village of Utica, 1815, with wood cuts by William Williams. (Illustration from An Oneida County Printer.) The center of each note had a wood engraving by William Williams; most of the cuts had appeared before as ornaments or tail-pieces in 1811 publications. Williams is considered by some to have been the third person in the United States to engage in the art of wood engraving. The Utica Directory for 1817 carried only the name of Will- iam Williams as publisher; when Seward retired from the pub- lishing business, he retained his interest in the book store until 1824. Williams was in and out of the newspaper business sev- eral times, was very active in political, community and church affairs and publications relating to them; some of the subjects he published were considered quite controversial—several had been refused by other printers. The firm Balch & Stiles, engravers on copper and plate print- ers, was established in Utica in 1824 and did some work for Williams. Vistus Balch and Samuel Stiles engraved maps of Page 1 72 Paper Money Whole No. 185 New York state and Michigan as well as bank notes for Utica and other western banks. Williams became a partner in the company in 1828; their reputation and growth of business led them to establish an office and workshop in New York City— Balch, Stiles & Company, 34 Merchants' Exchange. That firm, with others, established a forerunner of American Bank Note Company. Robert Roberts joined Williams's printing office in 1830 and became foreman and the successor to the business. The year 1832 was a bad one for William Williams. His agency for the Edinburgh Encyclopedia of Philadelphia, which he had held since 1814, failed. It had been profitable for many years but recent collections were poor; that, and nonpayment by princi- pals of notes that Williams had co-signed, eventually caused the failure of his entire enterprise. Williams's stock in trade was sold at two sheriff's sales in 1834, but sale of his real es- tate was delayed for several years, driving him further into debt. The creditors operated the printing establishment with his name as manager until 1840, but there is little doubt Robert Roberts actually ran the business. Williams moved to Tonawanda in 1836, but returned often to Utica to take care of business matters. He was thrown from the top of a stage coach in 1841 and struck his head; he never fully recovered from the injury and financial loss and died in Utica in 1850. Ellis Roberts was the last apprentice, hired about the time William Williams left Utica; it was 1836, and Ellis was nine years old. The usual age for printer's devils was about thirteen, but a printer's children began to set type as soon as they could read and hold a composing stick; and of course, his oldest brother, Robert, was the foreman. As printer's devil, Ellis had the heavy and dirtiest work (printers need clean hands to handle the paper). He wrote: "My own tasks were to push a hand [ink] roller over the forms on the press; and, to reach the handle, a box of considerable size was necessary to lift me to the required level. Incidentally I washed the rollers [and the inked type forms after the printing was finished], and as I re- member well, carried wood and water up the high stairs." The book store was on the ground floor, the bindery on the level above and the printing office on the third floor at 60 Genesee Street. Whenever Ellis had some free time from his devil's chores he read books borrowed from the book store downstairs. He recalled for Williams's biographer: "Your grandfather came to the office occasionally, ... Mr. Williams found me reading Cooper's 'Lionel Lincoln,' . . . He questioned me of my esti- mate of the characters, encouraged me to read good books, saying that the story was a good lesson in patriotism, but some other of Cooper's were of higher merit and more enjoyable. That is the chief incident, to a lad of ten, which he has carried in his memory for nearly half a century of a man with whom his start in life was connected. . . ." In a time when many apprentices labored under varying de- grees of hardship and ill-treatment, Williams was noted for the benevolent care and technical training his apprentices received. Usuallywith several boys in training, Mrs. Williams maintained a large-scale boarding house for the boys; she was a second mother to them, mending their clothes, caring for them in sick- ness and encouraging them to read in order that they might be better editors and publishers. Under her influence several oth- ers became ministers and missionaries. Mrs. Williams, herself, is cited in a book about apprentices; but that prosperous period was over before Ellis Roberts became the printer's devil. Roberts continued his education at Whitestown Seminary and Yale College by working as a printer; and upon his gradu- ation in 1850 returned to Utica to be principal of Utica Free Academy for a year. In 1851 he became editor of the Utica Herald newspaper which his brother Robert, along with oth- ers, established in 1847. He served the newspaper in an edito- rial capacity until 1890, even while serving terms in the New York state legislature in 1866 and Congress 1870-1875. In the New York legislature Roberts, a Republican, was ac- tive in the ways and means committee and his interest in fiscal affairs continued in Congress where he took a prominent part in the debates for the resumption of specie payments, refund- ing the national debt and other legislation relating to mon- etary policy. In 1889 he was appointed assistant treasurer of the United States, a post he held until 1893 when he was re- placed by a Democrat. He then accepted the presidency of the Franklin National Bank in New York, a post he filled until he was appointed Treasurer of the United States by the following Republican administration in 1897; he held that position un- til 1905. Afs.-7rA_ z I, 7g a-7Y Card autographed by Ellis H. Roberts After his retirement Roberts returned to Utica and was ac- tive in banking, consultation and a wide variety of civic and cultural organizations until his death at age ninety. Thus the relationship, however brief, between two printers from Utica, New York: William Williams, who engraved and printed fractional currency scrip in 1815, and his last printer's devil, Ellis H. Roberts, whose facsimile signature, as Treasurer of the United States, guaranteed the nation's currency for eight years at the turn of the twentieth century. END NOTE: 1. The earliest lists of counterfeit notes appeared in newspapers. Ac- cording to Bank Note Reporters and Counterfeit Detectors, 1826-1866, by William H. Dillistin, a single sheet with descriptions of coun- terfeits was printed by The Centinel newspaper in Boston in the latter part of 1805 and followed it in June 1806 with a small 12- page pamphlet guide to New England bank bills and counterfeits. Asahel Seward's A Description of Counterfeit Bills was advertised as just published in the July 2, 1806 issue of The Patriot newspaper in Utica. (Continued on the following page) Tin CENTRAL BANK Or TRB BARAMAS KAI. MARKT Of NO 410lifn 1,111..1.71111. ---4c--••-•...S.7.-tt, . GOVFPN, D852968 Paper Money Whole No. 185 Page 173 ACKNOWLEDGMENT: Jack H. Fisher's article headed "Ellis I I. Roberts never got a break; he worked," in the August 1995 Bank Note Reporter, prompted this sketch of Roberts's younger years using specialized sources unfamiliar to his reference librarians. Fisher's story gives a much broader view of Roberts's long public career. SOURCES: Biographical directory of the American Congress, 1 774-1961. (1961). Washington: GPO. Dictionary of American Biography. (1935). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. (Both Roberts and Williams.) Fielding, Mantle. (1974). Dictionary of American painters, sculptors and engravers. Green Farms, CT: Modern Books and Crafts, Inc. Hamilton, Milton W. (1936). The country printer, New York State, 1785- 1830. New York: Columbia University Press. Rorabaugh, W.J. (1986). The craft apprentice: from Franklin to the ma- chine age in America. New York: Oxford University Press. Williams, John Camp. (1906/1974). An Oneida County Printer: William \Vahan's, Printer, Publisher, Editor .... Harrison, NY: Harbor 1-1 ill Books. The Weekly Minnesotian, St. Paul, April 3, 1852. The Starts Here A Primer for Collectors by GENE HESSLER UST about everyone wants to be associated with or claim a hero. Christopher Columbus has been claimed or at least honored on more bank notes than any other human being. About 20 countries, including the United States and Canada, have placed the image of the Italian sailor on bank notes. U.S. federal notes that show images of Columbus are: the $5 first charter national bank notes and national gold bank notes; $1,000 U.S. notes 1869-1880; $1 U.S. notes 1869- 191 7; all largesize $5 Federal Reserve and Federal Reserve Bank notes. In nice condition all of these will cost more than the average collector can afford. However, as an alternative, you might consider souvenir cards. Each of the previously-men- tioned notes is available on a souvenir card for under $10. U.S. obsolete hank notes from about ten states also include images of Columbus. Most of these might also be too expen- sive. However, from the remaining countries who honored Columbus there are at least three countries that issued notes that most collectors can afford. The most recent note was issued in 1992 by the Bahamas for the 500th anniversary of the 1492 sailing. The Bahamas $1 note, produced by the Canadian Bank Note Co., includes a very nice portrait engraved by the Canadian engraver Yves Baril. Mr. Baril's engraving was based on a portrait by the Italian painter Ridolfo Ghirlandaio (1483-1561). This extremely col- orful note, with interesting anti-counterfeiting devices is avail- able for $3 or $4, perhaps less. The esteemed English-born American engraver Alfred Jones (1819-1900) engraved a portrait for a series of notes printed by American Bank Note Company for Costa Rica. The least expensive note is the 50 centimos P(ick) 147; it should cost about $20 in fine condition. Mr. Jones based his engraving on a portrait that was adapted for a medal by Francisco Asis Lopez; the medal was struck for the Centennial of Calderon. Some say the Ghirlandaio portrait is the most accurate like- ness of Columbus; others say it is the Lopez version. Costa Rica issued a 2 colones P195, with a portrait also based on the Lopez version. This was done by the British bank note firm of Thomas De La Rue. In fine condition you should find one for about $10. It should not surprise you to find that Italy honored its na- tive son. Two 5,000 lire notes, P72 and P76, should cost no more than $10 each in nice condition. The model for this en- graving is the portrait by Charles Legrand in the Naval Mu- seum in Madrid. The Legrand portrait also appears on a note from Spain, the country that sponsored the voyage of Columbus. A 100 pese- tas P118 in fine condition might be available for under $20. In addition, Spain issued four other notes, three with images of Columbus and one with Queen Isabella alone. The 1 peseta notes P127 and P128, and the 5 pesetas P126 and P129 should be modestly priced in uncirculated or near uncirculated con- dition. These notes and souvenir cards along with a selection of world coins that bear the portrait of Christopher Columbus would make an attractive display for a class at school or at your local coin club. (Copyright story reprinted by permission from Coin World, Oct. 24, 1994.) ■■ OBSOLETE MOTES ■ ■ Also C5A, Continental & Colonial, Stocks &■ Bonds, Autographs & Civil War Related■ ■ Material. • • LARGE CAT. $2.00 Ref. ■ Always Buying at Top Prices ■ ■ RICHARD T. HOOBER, JR. ■ P.O. Box 3116, Key Largo, FL 33037• ■ FM or Phone (305) 853-0105■ golden -Wnniversary NEW -YORK CITY Yo, JUL 31 9 - A M la Mrs. Ralph Bennett Coopersville, Mich, Page 1 74 Paper Money Whole No. 185 SORTING THE ISSUES OF NEW YORK CITY Not-es from The Territorial Area of Ore0er New York by STEPHEN M. GOLDBERG ODAY'S New York City, unofficially called Greater New York when distinction with the original city is neces- sary, comprises five sections called boroughs, an ar- rangement dating only to 1898. Having grown-up in the current version, I wasn't particularly conscious that it had not been always thus, so that when I began to collect its obsolete notes, I didn't realize that I was inadvertently confining my- self to only one of the boroughs: "New York" as a location on a note meant the entire modern city to me, but meant Man- hattan only at the time the notes were issued. It was quite awhile before it finally dawned on me to look for notes marked "Brooklyn." At some point I began to inquire about issues from the remaining boroughs, but all I got were strange looks, at least initially. In the absence of a definitive New York State scrip catalogue it is difficult to be precise, but on the basis of conversations with individuals far more experienced than I, it appears that obsolete notes are known from nine locations within the territorial area of the present city. It is probable that scrip once existed from many other villages and towns but no longer survive and, with the absence of records, are forever lost to history. I'll set the stage with a brief, essentially geographic history of Greater New York, continue with a de- scription of the real New York— never mind what I said in PAPER MONEY No. 179—then illustrate a specimen, with some hopefully appropriate commentary accompanying, from each locality for which an obsolete note exists. A convenient map of the scene may be found in Figure 1. I: A Basic History of Greater New York No one really knows how Manhattan got its name. The tradi- tional story is that the island was inhabited by an Indian tribe variously called the Manhattans or Manhattoes, but some scholars believe that there were no permanent settlements on the island so that the Indians that Peter Minuit encountered were just a group of original New Yorkers passing by who took the opportunity to flimflam a tourist out of $24. A second, independent tradition has it that Henry Hudson invited some natives to sup aboard the Half Moon, and when the chiefs and braves regained consciousness, they named the place Manahatchtanienk, which means, in the Delaware language, "the place where we all got drunk," or so it is written. Popular-type city histories give two different dates as the date of the first settlement. The first of the first settlements began in 1624 when a ship from the Dutch West India Com- pany under Captain Cornelis May dropped off a small group at Governors Island, just south of Manhattan. The second of the first settlements began in 1625 when an expedition under Governor William Verhulst arrived on Manhattan with explicit instructions to establish a colony. By the time Minuit had ar- T Figure 1: A map of New York City, 1948. Paper Money Whole No. 185 Page 175 rived, the Governors Island settlers had already floated them- selves and their cattle the 500 yards north to the larger island. His famous 1626 purchase may be taken as the formal or "le- gal" founding of the settlement. Originating as New Amsterdam with a municipal govern- ment first established in 1653, the city grew into a farming, ship building, and shipping community as its port developed, and by the end of the eighteenth century it was for brief peri- ods both the capital of the state and the capital of the United States. In the nineteenth century it became the seat ofTammany Hall, the most corrupt municipal government ever seen; the site of the Draft Riot, the worst urban riot in the history of the United States; and the center of, in the view of some histori- ans, the greatest financial plot ever hatched, the successful scheme to destroy the second Bank of the United States and make Wall Street the country's principal money power. Whereas the original Dutch settlers formed a concentrated settlement in Lower Manhattan, everywhere else they seem to have preferred to spread out, living in sparsely populated farm- ing hamlets and leaving it first to the English and later the Americans to create the villages and towns that began to dot the map. One of the hamlets was little Breukelen at the middle of the western edge of Long Island. The newcomers moved into the area, creating first a fire district with the hamlet at the center, a town on the boundaries of the fire district, a village on the boundaries of the town, and in 1834, a city by now called Brooklyn, although at this point it occupied only one square mile. Brooklyn's much slower political development, in contrast to that of New York City, which was a formal city almost from the start, has a religious origin: the newcomers were of various Protestant denominations and were far more interested in establishing their own sections and acquiring land for the construction of their respective churches than they were in creating a larger community, and they joined politically only to the extent needed at any given time. It was the temperance movement of the 1820s that provided the spur toward cityhood: the village's one square mile had 47 taverns, and temperance was a subject all the different groups could agree upon. Afterwards, the city grew in parallel with New York, with increasing industry, including ship building and port activity, but it never became a financial center. Henceforth, both New York and Brooklyn expanded greatly, rolling over every town and village in their respective domains of Manhattan Island, being New York County, and Kings County, but New York's expansion did not stop at the water's edge. The pre-New York City stories of the remaining three bor- oughs are very different from those of the first two, each re- gion being a collection of small villages and towns no one of which ever dominated over any of the others. One borough however, formerly Richmond but now called the Borough of Staten Island, may be said to have an intrinsic island-wide his- tory of its own: Its settlements were wiped out three times in the seventeenth century during murderous fights with the Indians, the worst of which began in Manhattan when a certain Van Dyke killed an Indian female who had committed the horrible crime of eating some peaches from one of his trees. The outraged Indi- ans swarmed into New Amsterdam where they confined them- selves to rioting and looting, then swarmed over Staten Island, and while the island's patroon was barely escaping with his life, the Governor, Peter Stuyvesant, was down in Delaware with 600 troops dealing with the "threat" to the colony posed by peaceful New Sweden. Staten island was the site of the first European-style peace conference in the colonies, an attempt by John Adams, Ben- jamin Franklin, Admiral Howe, and others to head off hostili- ties between the colonists and the British. It was an island of sanity during the Draft Riot, when blacks who managed to escape the rampaging Irish mobs by somehow reaching the island were carried by horseback, wagon, and carriage over- land by the white population to the western side, then ferried to New Jersey and safety. And it was also the site of the first distillery in the Americas, as well as a hideout of bank robber Willie Sutton. The Bronx and Queens are best described in the larger con- texts of the respective histories of Westchester County and Long Island from whence they come. Westchester County was one of the original counties set up when the English established the county system in 1683, and the Bronx was eventually formed at its southern-most end from four townships and parts of two others, tacked on to New York in two stages. Although the annexation of lower Westchester was considered as early as 1864, no action was taken until the '70s. The section west of the Bronx River, now known as the West Bronx, joined New York on January 1, 1874, in the aftermath of a referendum the previous year in which the residents of the towns of Morrisania, West Farms, and Kingsbridge accepted the city's bid. The East Bronx, east of the river obviously, and consisting of Westchester township and parts of Eastchester and Pelham, joined on July 1, 1895. Upon attachment to New York, the sections became known as the Annexed Districts and the state legislature sev- ered them from Westchester County, merging them with New York County. In 1898, when the charter of Greater New York took effect, they became the Borough of the Bronx. Long Island had been divided into three counties, Kings, Queens, and Suffolk. While the western Queens townships of Jamaica and Newtown agreed to join New York, as did the city of Long Island City which had incorporated in 1870, the three townships at Queens' eastern end—Hempstead, North Hempstead, and Oyster Bay—opted out of the arrangement, as did the town of Flushing. Flushing was nevertheless hauled into the city, like it or not, but the state severed the others from Queens, forming them into a newly created Nassau County. It all came together on January 1, 1898. What had begun a few years earlier as an attempt to unite New York and Brook- lyn ended up as a unification of four counties. Kings County and the portion of Queens County not now in Nassau became, from the point of view of the city government, the Boroughs of Brooklyn and Queens. Richmond County became the Bor- ough of Richmond, later renamed the Borough of Staten Is- land, and two Boroughs were formed from New York County: Manhattan and the Bronx. In 1914, the state legislature sepa- rated the Bronx from New York County, creating Bronx County, and today the five city boroughs coincide geographically with the five state counties. II: Being a New Yorker is Never Having to Say You're Sorry A relatively recent tourism campaign has given New York the idiotic name of "the Big Apple" (1), but the natives call the town Gotham, a name first used in Salmagundi, a series of essays by Washington Irving and others satirizing the behav- ior of nutty New Yorkers. The reference is to a thirteenth cen- tury King John who wanted to buy some land in the town of //*/)////;'ififi V470._ 1;231:11::;ftESI.t. n.o."..Vatts: arm rd cipa. c711‘ ee PUBLIC STO CKS ""'"*". .4%7 r0////YieVi9r,ir -7e;? BROOKLYN isa 4',1? titU 501,10,11:31a-gtEMLIZI:ggWiltla 411,V1::: Page 176 Paper Money Whole No. 185 Gotham, but the peasants didn't want him to show up be- cause they'd have to serf the estate, so they conspired to con- vince the king that he didn't want to live there by acting like a bunch of idiots, doing things like spending hours raking the moon's reflection off the lake, and so on. The city's current reputation as an asylum for the insane, as well as the oppressed, is a tad exaggerated, but Gotham it shall always be: In the 1960s, the skinned, headless body of a 450-pound gorilla was found smack in the middle of a street in the South Bronx. The police never did find out exactly what the animal was doing there, but a few blocks away was a hot dog factory, long since closed. III: The Obsolete Notes from Greater New York The Borough of Manhattan Notes are known only from New York City, and it's a matter of some mystery to me why no other locations are represented. Certain villages such as Chelsea and Yorkville were residential areas north of the city line and conceivably had no businesses, but what of Harlem, which certainly did: Milton R. Friedberg's catalogue of postage envelopes (2) illustrates an item by a Harlem and New York Navigation Company, as an example Figure 2 is a $1 note from the Manufacturers' and Merchants' Bank dated December 1, 1859, the best general representa- tion of the city that I've found so far. Its vignettes of agricul- ture, industry, and shipping illustrate the nature of New York's economy at a time just before the Civil War (3). The Borough of Brooklyn Notes are known from the cities ofBrooklyn and Williamsburgh. Williamsburgh was originally part of the Dutch village of Bostwijck, north of Breukelen. It became the subject of a real estate promotion in the 1820s, which led to its eventual incor- poration as a village in 1827, and as a city in 1852. Its only mayor, Abraham J. Berry, suggested that it be absorbed by Brooklyn. When consolidation took place in 1855, the "h" was dropped and the now ex-city became just another Brook- lyn neighborhood, but judging by the existing notes, it seems to have gone unnoticed that the spelling had changed and that the city had vanished from the planet. Figure 3 is a note from the Nassau Bank of Brooklyn dated October 1, 1863. It shows a scene of the Fulton Street railway station at the site of the Fulton Ferry dock. One of the tiny boats in the East River behind is the two-masted ferry steam- ing toward New York in the distance, but it's probably invis- ible in the reproduction. Figure 4, from Williamsburgh, shows an unissued 10-cent note from Rudolph Wenzlik's Lagerbier Saloon dated 186_; that is, after the city formally ceased to exist. Given both the Figure 2: Borough of Manhattan: New York City, Manufacturers' and Merchants' Bank, $1, December 1, 1859, printed by American Bank Note Company X`s szus.,u• Pres! _ Figure 3: Borough of Brooklyn: [City of] Brooklyn, Nassau Bank of Brooklyn, $1, October 1, 1863, printed by American Bank Note Company. zr/y/-?/ et1A+ZSTI-0 ZS "' IM! b F IN FC4 03►, CAS1 76 .:7; .,...,..„ , —=--, .., ' '.1''''' 7e{,st. -v%Illi - nth[ map_ .r.... Provrie Paper Money Whole No. 185 Page 177 Figure 4: Borough of Brooklyn: Williamsburgh, Rudolph Wenzlik's Lagerbier Saloon, 10 cents, 186_ (unissued), printed by Henry Siebert and Brothers. The note is dated after the city formally ceased to exist. nature of Rudolph's business and the redemption clause on the note, its a reasonable assumption that no issued examples survive. The Borough of Queens Notes are known from Flushing and Jamaica. Both settlements were initiated by English colonists operating under Dutch pat- ems. Under the English government they became towns, and the villages of the same names were eventually incorporated within the town boundaries. Flushing struck a major blow for religious freedom in the seventeenth century and hasn't been heard from since. Peter Stuyvesant hated the Quakers and typi- cally had them thrown into prison and tortured. When it was discovered that a group of them were meeting secretly in Flush- ing at the homes of Henry Townsend and John Bowne, he had the homeowners arrested. The Dutch and non-Quaker English residents of Flushing objected to all this mistreatment on the grounds that the Flushing Charter of 1645 had declared that settlers were to have "liberty of conscience, according to the custom and manner of Holland, without molestation or dis- turbance." On December 27, 1657, thirty-one of them drew up a protest addressed to the Governor. The sheriff of Flush- ing, upon delivery of the complaint, was himself arrested, as was the town clerk. Ultimately the Quakers got word to the Directors of the Company who ordered Stuyvesant to lay off. A stamp commemorating the Flushing Remonstrance was is- sued in 1957, but a bill authorizing a commemorative half dollar was vetoed by President Eisenhower and there were no further commemorative coins issued until 1982. Jamaica quickly became the county seat of Queens County and was a place of British occupation during the Revolution- ary War. Today, it is the site of St. John's University. Flushing is represented, Figure 5, by a 121/2-cent note of store owner J. Blake (or I. Blake) dated March 13, 1838. The abbre- viation of Blake's first name is not clear but might be short for Jeremiah. The note was part of Robert Vlack's extensive Hard Times Era holdings for many years, but when I told Bob that Flushing was my home town, incredibly, he retrieved it from his collection and sold it to me, and what do you say to that? Jamaica is represented, Figure 6, by a note from the wholly fictitious Bank of Jamaica. The note is an alteration of an 1861 issue of the Southern Bank of Georgia, Bainbridge. No prop- erly issued obsoletes from Jamaica are known. The Borough of Staten Island Notes are known from North Shore and Port Richmond. North Shore was a post office on the North Shore—where else?—not a village or town, in which case the location as given on the known note is non-specific, being more like a mailing address than anything else. It was probably a sufficient identification at the time the note was circulating. The surrounding area was called Factoryville and the site would be in West Brighton today. The village of Port Richmond got its name in the mid-1800s but was not formally incorporated until 1866. As Decker's Ferry, it was the site of an attack by American forces under General John Sullivan, who destroyed thirty-five tons of hay and burned a barn in August of 1777. I've always been puzzled irnEl.;‘1?. HALF CEN'A' N le 6.442.--/fgf Figure 5: Borough of Queens: Flushing, J. Blake, 121/2 cents, March 13, 1838, pt nter unknown but probably I. Neale, New York. r. 4.t:, .0tsvttu sew, )1V it lU to 10 TEM1P CENTS, ,„„/ „.,y/ „ „,,,, ( 67/14 ei ei Et, en Cents.; Page 1 78 Paper Money Whole No. 185 Figure 6: Borough of Queens: Jamaica, Bank of Jamaica (fictitious), 510, January 10, 1861 (printed), an alter- ation of a note from the Southern Bank of Georgia, Bainbridge, counterfeiter unknown. 7: Borough of Staten Island: North Shore, C.M. Pine and Company, 10 cents, July 1, 1862, printed by Cook and Snedeker. The Chinese merchant was drawn by Whitney Jocelyn. why my note from the village has a whaling scene on it, never having associated the whaling industry with New York, but Port Richmond was the site of a whale oil processing plant from 1838 until the plant burned down in 1842, and the note is dated 1840. North Shore is represented, Figure 7, by a 10-cent note from C. M. Pine and Company dated July 1, 1862. The Chinese figure is an unusual design for the New York area. The only other example that I know of appears on the Brooklyn scrip issued by Reese, an importer of Young Hyson tea. Port Richmond is represented, Figure 8, by a $2 note from the Staten Island Bank dated November 28, 1840. The princi- pal vignette is a stock design of a seated woman found on other notes of the state and perhaps elsewhere; the tiny en- graving between the signatures is the whaling scene, which I've seen nowhere else. There is no connection between the bank and the later Staten Island National Bank in the same local. The Borough of the Bronx Notes are known from the towns ofMorrisania and Westchester. Morrisania, in the first Annexed District, was one of twenty- one townships created in Westchester County by the state leg- islature in 1788. It was originally the sparsely inhabited estate of Lewis Morris, a signer of the Declaration of Independence, who had his property incorporated as a town for purposes of enticing the federal government to establish its capital there, but the effort failed. The capital moved from New York to Phila- delphia, and the town was disestablished in early 1791 and attached to the town of Westchester at a time when the latter occupied both sides of the Bronx River. It was formally rein- corporated as a town by an act of the legislature on December 7, 1855. Westchester originally spanned lower Westchester County from west to east and was made even larger by the acquisition of Morrisania. But the portion west of the Bronx River was formed into the town of West Farms in 1846, out of which the second incarnation of Morrisania was carved, so that well be- fore its acquisition by the city, it had been reduced to the sec- tion now within the East Bronx. The annexation referendum was actually defeated, by literally one vote, which result was of course ignored, and the town was dragged against its collec- tive will into New York. By contrast, the voting residents of the city of Mount Vernon defeated annexation by a margin sufficiently large enough that Tammany Hall didn't dare make the grab, a shame from the New York City collector's point of view since scrip exists from this city, issued while it was still a village. The note from the Morrisania Bank, Figure 9, has been cata- logued by Haxby as a fantasy, but I'm not so sure I agree. Cer- Paper Money Whole No. 185 Page 179 tfitirel) isirijogiczer'17-"' /YD . 01101111i§: /77(//////7////:.?e;! 1) 41 - 1 , V16/AK PORT RICIIXOND _ / 77-77t-e- (/(4/A tr/fi_P• • ____;;ALittelittiliklaWAVIAMtps; Figure 8: Borough of Staten Island: Port Richmond, Staten Island Bank, $2, November 28, 1840, printed by Rawdon, Wright and Hatch. Figure 9: Borough of the Bronx: Morrisania, Morrisania Bank, $1 proof, 185_, printed by W.L. Ormsby. Figure 10: Borough of the Bronx: Westchester, Browne Brothers, 25 cents, July 15, 1862, printer unknown but possibly Ferdinand Mayer, New York. tainly no bank of this name was ever incorporated in New York State, but the existing printer's proofs show a proper state seal at left and a copyright registration statement (4) at lower right, which raises some questions. Would a security printer have created such an elaborate engraving, limit himself to what appears to be four specimens—two each of two variants— and dare the wrath of the state by entering onto the plate the seal and statement, just for his own amusement? And one can't help but notice that the date on the note, 185_, corresponds to the date of the reincorporation of the town. It is far more likely that the proofs, rather than being fantasies, were pro- duced for a proposed legitimate bank that never got off the Page 180 Paper Money Whole No. 185 ground. Proving this conjecture, of course, is a lot more difficult. The note's design was used one other time, on an issue of the so-called Security Bank, about which I have no opinion. Westchester is represented by a 25-cent note from the Bowne Brothers, Figure 10, issued on July 15, 1862. Jenkins refers to a Sydney B. Bowne, a merchant engaged in the sloop trade be- tween Westchester and New York, who opened a general store "after the restoration of peace"—that is, at the end of the War of 1812. Jenkins also writes that the firm was one of only three or four in the town but doesn't say when. Jenkins provides a photo of the store as it looked in 1903, but I haven't repro- duced it since the accompanying text states that its appearance had been "rejuvenated almost beyond recognition" from its earlier version and didn't resemble the Civil War era store at all. Clearly seen in the photo on a side of the building is an old sign reading "S. Bowne('s?)" in white, overlapping "...ietor" (for Proprietor) in black. My best guess is that Sydney opened his store ca. 1815-1820 or so and his sons, one named Thom- as, later took it over, retaining the original sign. The nine locations for which obsolete notes are known in- clude three cities, two towns, three villages, and a post office. Both bank notes and scrip are known from each of the cities as one might expect. One village and one of the towns are repre- sented only by bank notes, a second village by a home brew. The scrip from the remaining town and village, and that from the post office, are random survivors out of what were prob- ably a large number of issues from the many towns, towns within towns, villages, and whatever that existed at one time or another during the period of interest. One can always hope that notes from currently unrepresented localities might yet surface from time to time. Any and all that crawl out of the woodwork should be turned-in to the redemption center at the address found in this journal's classifieds. The center also accepts notes from locations already known. Any new findings will be shared with the community. Both the North Shore and Jamaica notes shown here are the prop- erty of the Smithsonian Institution. The North Shore note could not be located for this article, and the photocopy used was made many years ago. The photocopy of the Jamaica note was provided by Rich- ard Doty. ENDNOTES (1) "There are many apples on the tree, but when you perform in New York, you play the Big Apple"—an expression used by trav- eling bands of the 1920s and '30s. (2) PAPER MONEY, January/February 1994, p. 2. (3 ) With the addition of "Jr.", the signature of the cashier, A. Masterton, appears on the note from the New York County Bank of June 4, 1858 that I illustrated in "Seal of the City of New York," PAPER MONEY, September/October 1995, p. 191. In the year and a half between the two note issues, the gentleman evidently changed jobs and lost his father. At the end of the article on the city's seal I mentioned that I had never looked at it once. Apparently I should have, as the City Council changed the date from 1664 to 1625 in 1977. The coun- cil also passed a law making the unauthorized use of the seal a crime. Oops. (4) "Entered according to Act of Congress in the year 1853 by the Morisiania [sic! Bank in the Clerks Office of the District Court of the Southern District of New York" followed by "Eng'd by W L Ormsby" and "Secured by application for Patent." REFERENCES Collins, F.L. (1946). Money town. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons . Ellis, E.R. (1966). The epic of New York City. New York: Old Town Books. Jenkins, S. (1912). The story of the Bronx. New York: G.P. Putnam's Sons. Lyman, S.E. (1964). The story of New York. New York: Crown Pub- lishers. Smith, D.V. (1970). Staten Island. Philadelphia: Chilton Book Com- pany. Weld, R.F. (1938). Brooklyn village. New York: Columbia University Press. THE BASICS by BOB COCI IRAN WHAT IS A PROOF? Proof coins and paper money proofs have little or nothing in common. Proof coins are struck specifically for collectors. Proofs of images intended for paper money, or any other se- curity instrument, are printed in stages of engraved develop- ment, and ultimately when the engraving has been completed. Proof impressions are made or "pulled," so the engraver can see how the subject is progressing. It is necessary to make cer- tain that lines are not engraved too deep or too shallow, too wide or too fine. Proof impressions "pulled" in stages are called progressive proofs. Soft paper, most often India paper, is the best surface to receive every portion of the inked plate. Since security paper proofs are printed for the engraver's use and not for collectors, most are scarce, many are extremely rare and some unique. WHAT IS A SPECIMEN? Specimen notes are non-negotiable. They are most often made and sent to central banks so there is something against which a dubious note can be compared. Specimen notes are printed on the same paper as the issued note, or, at times, on heavier stock; at times they are uniface. "Specimen" is either printed on the note or perforated in the paper. Most often a series of zeroes (00000000), or "12345678" are used in place of regu- lar serial numbers. Some specimen notes from countries other than the U.S. are relatively common. On occasion current or obsolete notes from other countries, intended for circulation, are stamped or perforated specimen. These are given to dignitaries or sold to collectors by central banks. 1918 1958 This portrait of Alfonse Mucha was engraved and signed by Tindra Schmidt (1897 - 1984). It commemorated the 40th anniversary of Mucha's first stamps for the republic in 1918. )CESKOSLOVENSKE POSTOVNi ZNAMK -7 /CTYlkICET LET Paper Money Whole No. 185 Page 18 1 &4/7ohonse i/Ittcha Art Nowa u and raper Vioney Artist "I do not want to be an artist if it should mean creating art for art's sake.... The conception of modern art as subject to passing fashion is an insult to art. Art is every bit as eternal as man's progress, for it is the function of art to light man on his way" (Mucha 1974, 22). by GENE HESSLER O NE could say the world is divided into two groups: those who rec- ognize the style of Alfonse Mucha and those who recognize the style but can't name the artist. This artist is the creator of those beautiful, often sensuous ladies in flowing gowns with overlapping folds. Mucha was influenced by teachers Hans Makart (1840-1884), Carlos Schwabe (1866-1926) and perhaps Jules Joseph Lefebvre (1836-1912). 1 When Mucha be- came the toast of Paris and was in demand throughout the world, including the United States, his art was imitated, and his art was—Art Nouveau. "At the time he had electrified Paris— and, indeed, the whole of France—with his wonderful work, notably his poster of Gistnonda [for Sarah Bernhardt]. His name was on every wall and in every mouth. He was ... lionized wherever he chanced to go" (Reade 5). Just as an understudy re- places the star of the show and becomes an overnight success, Alfonse Mucha had been engaged when the "regular" artist was unavailable. The world could not get enough of Mucha's images. His art appeared on calendars, posters, ad- vertisements for toothpaste, champagne, chocolates and Nestle's Food for Infants, and ultimately bank notes and post- age stamps. Because of his commercial success, primarily from his posters that celebrated the legendary actress Sarah Bernhardt, some purists refused to accept his illustrations as art. Alfonse Mucha also designed jewelry, some specifically for the French actress. Alfons—the world adopted the French spelling of Alphonse—Mucha was born on 24 July 1860 in IvanC ice, in Southern Moravia, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. As a boy he received a choral scholarship to St. Peter's Church in Brno, now in the Czech Republic. Mucha learned to play the violin and the guitar, and retained his love of music throughout his life. It could easily be said that there is music in his art, the music of Claude Debussy (1862-1918) and Frederick Delius (1862-1934); both were composing in Paris at the time Mucha was there. Mucha and Delius were friends, and the artist probably was acquainted with Debussy. In his reminiscences Mucha would write: "For me the notions of painting, going to church and music are so closely knit that I often cannot decide whether I like church for the music, or music for its place in the mystery which it accompa- nies" (Mucha 1966, 13). At 15, after his education at the Slav Gymnasium in Brno, the young artist went to Usti-Nad-Orlici where he met and learned from Johann Umlaut - (1825- 1916), a painter in the Baroque tradition. In 1882 Mucha went to Vienna to paint scenery for the Ring Theater, which was subsequently destroyed by fire. Stranded, the young artist made his way to klikulov (then Nikolsburg) on the Moravian bor- der. With his last Austrian gulden he took a room at the Hotel zum LOwen. He placed one of his female drawings in a local book- shop. On the drawing he wrote "Hotel zum LOwen—five Florins." This was inter- preted as a solicitation by a prostitute and created considerable outrage. The public- ity turned to profit for Mucha; he remained there for two years by selling his drawings (Reade 7). The incident at Mikulov put Mucha in touch with Count Karl Khuen-Belasi. who commissioned the artist to decorate his country house at Emmahof. The frescoes of medieval knights and ladies at Emmahof, now destroyed, "are said to have shown the influence of Delacroix, Makart and Dore " (Mucha 1974, 37). The first formal training for Mucha came when he went to the Munich Academy in 1883 with Count Karl as his patron. There, his teacher was Ludwig von LOfftz (1845-1910), whose folkloristic detail influenced the young Slay. In early 1889 Mucha went to Paris to study under Lefebvre at the Academie Julian. Discouraged, he returned to work for his patron at Emmahof. In the fall of that year Mucha returned to Paris to study at the more comfortable Academie Colarossi. The art student was forced to withdraw when his patron com- mitted suicide. Now on his own, Mucha moved to a small room in Montpamasse. He continued to send drawings to Prague, where his drawings were published in a growing number of publica- tions. At times it was necessary to draw on wood for wood TYE fTTLIBLIGTT TRTRATATCRTT,A ATToArtAli caniATALT T. t 7■11,,,I■6 tt .115tte tItt01 0,4,1 EXPOSITION UNIVERSE LIE INTERNATIONALE DE SILO U 1 S egiSVIS ) DU 30 AVRIL 41/ 30 80008880 1804. 4121 7 .t PARIS 571.0U1S 1 JOUR Oliff,. At TT A. CNINE ttt.1:1 C 51.10,1■R '3600 *3230 6TATI-21 poluttevizin --!rikyonz muml Page 182 Paper Money Whole No. 185 engraving illustrations and on stone for lithographic repro- ductions. Moderate success allowed Mucha to move to an authentic studio just across the avenue where he had been living. Al- though he lived in Paris, the artist remained a champion for Czech nationalism all his life. Extremely sympathetic, he made the "acquaintance of any Slav he saw" (Reade 11). He associ- ated with the Parisian artists including Auguste Rodin (1840- 1917) and Paul Gauguin (1848-1903). Mucha helped Gauguin with his first exhibition. Nevertheless, the Art Nouveau style of Alfonse Mucha had little in common with the impression- ists and realists in Paris. He did, however, join his fellow art- ists and flirt with the occult sciences even though he practiced Catholicism all his life. In 1898 Mucha shared a studio with Anglo-American artist James Whistler (1834-1903), where they taught other artists. This relationship was short-lived. Nevertheless, Whistler deco- rated his personal studio with Mucha drawings. When asked why, Whistler replied: "So that I can show fools like you what it means to be able to draw" (Mucha 1974, 60). "No student was too young or inexperienced to invade [Mucha's] studio and ask for his always kindly criticism; no struggling artist too obscure to apply for his always good advice" (Reade 5). Mucha, the proclaimed high priest of Art Nouveau, kept his Paris stu- dio until 1910, when he returned to Zbirov in Bohemia, now part of the Czech Republic. Alfonse Mucha was a dominant artist at the 1900 World Exposition in Paris. He created posters for Austria, the city of Paris and individual firms represented at the Exposition; he also designed sculpture. Afterward his Art Nouveau was often identified as "Le Style Mucha." The artist received several med- als for his contributions to the Exposition. It was probably about this time that Mucha met Alberto Santos-Dumont (1873-1932). 2 Although he declined voyages aloft in balloons, the artist was fascinated with aeronautics and therefore became friends with the Brazilian airship pio- neer, who was the first to put a flying machine in the air in Europe. It was 1903 when Mucha met Maria Chytilova, a 20-year- old Bohemian art student; he and Maru§ka, as he would call her, were married on 10 June 1906. The year 1903 was also the year the artist met the Baroness Rothschild, who suggested that Mucha go to America, and arranged for his first commis- sion there—a portrait of Mrs. Wismann. Sarah Bernhardt rein- forced this suggestion to visit America. Alfonse Mucha sailed to New York in 1904, the first of six trips he would make to the U.S.; the last was 1913. In addition to mention on the front and back pages of the 3 April 1904 issue, The New York Daily News added a color supplement of his work. The headline proclaimed: "Mucha the life and work of the greatest decorative artist in the world." The American press described his elegant female figures as the "Mucha Woman." The visiting artist rented a studio at 58 W. 57th Street, just off 5th Avenue. It was during a visit to the U.S. in 1905 when Mucha met millionaire Charles R. Crane, whose daughter, Josephine, would have her image immortalized on a Czech bank note. The two men had met by chance, and their friendship was renewed during a visit in 1909. At that time Mr. Crane was having a house built for his eldest daughter, Josephine. The architect would create a specific place in the house for this painting which was to be called Slavic. It would be a develop- Pour ren,elyn •ments et adhesions Loneernaill. is FRANCE s'adress u ATTAIT.tere dt, Cummer“ 1.491191554mA General do Gouvernemeut Frau,;ais 101. Rue de Gremelie, PARIS, it au Comae de in Section Francaise a la Bourse du Commerce de PA R I S. IMPORTANCE DE L•EXPOSITION PHILADELPHIE 1876 _ 55 Htt.11.1, C616460 1890 _ 240 TTECTAAt PARIS __ 1900 135 the LOUIS -_ 1904 ._ 500 tltc TAR This poster (105x77 cm) was created for the 1904 St. Louis Exhibition. (Courtesy of the St. Louis Public Library) The Prague Insurance poster, with Slavia, to honor the life of Alfonse Mocha. ment of a poster the artist had created for the Prague Insur- ance Company in 1907. Charles R.Crane empathized with Mucha in his devotion to and obsession with the history of CESKOSISICO ALFONS MUCHAfi 1860-1939 10ESKOSLOYENSKO 60 ALFONS MUCHA_h AIL^011 1860-1912 ESKOSLOVENSKO ALFONS MUCHA Kry 1860-1939 TAKIMACA[AA,tlint Paper Money Whole No. 185 Page 183 Page one of the New York Daily News color supplement. (ESKOSLOVENSK0 2 ks ALFONS MUCHA 1860-193940 a■reiN A AM, "' " A,L1.10PAIMKAAIr )90, Four examples of Mucha art were engraved as postage stamps by I. 8vengsbir (1921-1983), they are: Painting„ 306, S(cott); Music, 606, S; Dance, 1K, S; and Two Documents Decoratifs, 2K, S. Page 184 Paper Money , Whole No. 185 Alpkore. Maeia /vVicl•-■ MUCHA rpn5TER pn5TcaeRb5 17\1 FULL CnE__,(R 24 beady-40-Mnil Coed> The cover of Mucha Poster Postcards. the Slays. Ultimately he would provide the funds for Alfonse Mucha to create his monumental Slav Epic-20 vast panels in tempera and oil. Crane's daughter Frances married Jan Masaryk, son of T.G. Masaryk (1850-1937) philosopher and Czechoslovakia's first president. 4 titta., i(g.? '4AaM,Q..< ,TWaht, The back of the 10 K., P8 The back of the 100 K., P 11. (Courtesy of Richard Piertnattei) Paper Money Whole No. 185 Page 185 In 1918, when World War I came to an end, Alfonse Mucha was asked to design bank notes and postage stamps for the newly-created Republic of Czechoslovakia, Mucha's homeland. Out of devotion to his native land, Mucha asked for no com- pensation for his designs. The 10 K(orun), P8; 20 K., P9; 100 K., P11; and 500 K., P12 were designed by Alfonse Mucha. The heads on the back of the 10 K. are those of Jaroslava, Mucha's first daughter. Some say that the heads on the hack of the 100 K. are those of the artist's wife, Maru§ka. Soon after the locally-printed100 and 500 Korun notes were issued, both were counterfeited. The notes were withdrawn and American Bank Note Company (ABNCo) in New York City was asked to create plates for more sophisticated notes as quickly as possible. Ultimately ABNCo prepared an entire series of notes, i.e., 100, 500, 1000 and 5000 K. The new 100 K. note, P15, was designed by Alfonse Mucha and included his lovely Slavin on the face. This beautiful im- age, based on the likeness of Josephine Crane, was engraved by the premiere engraver at ABNCo, Robert Savage (1868- 1943). The back of the note shows the St. Charles Bridge, one of the famous landmarks in Prague. As this note circulated there was an exhibit of selections of Mucha's Slav Epic at the Brooklyn Museum. It was the policy to charge admission for special exhibits. However, Mucha in- sisted that admission would be free-600,000 people saw the exhibit. Edwin Blashfield (1848-1936), the designer of the U.S. 1896 $2 silver certificate, spoke out, unsuccessfully, in an at- tempt to have the exhibit period extended in the linited States. One of Mucha's paintings came to the U.S. permanently. In 1887 an altar piece of Sts. Cyril and Methodius went to the Church of St. John of Nepomuk in Pisek, ND. This 100 K. note circulated from 1920 to 1939 and is now extremely scarce in nice condition. Few collectors know the American connection with this beautiful note. Nevertheless, it is a note that many collectors want simply because it is an example of good design and engraving. Less than ten authentic 500 K., P12 notes are known. It was superbly counterfeited by Dr. Julius Meczarosz, a university professor in Budapest; he had 60,000 pieces printed in Weitzeldorf, Austria. At the time 500 K. equaled about $16. Counterfeits have a printed imitation watermark. They also "lack the haCek accent mark (resembling a small 'v') over the letter 'C' of the text 'C.187, – at the top on the back (Krause 398). Most collectors will happily accept a counterfeit of this note, if one can be found. The new 500 K., P19, prepared at ABNCo, was not issued until 1923. How- ever, a 1000 K., P13A and 5000 K., P14, also prepared at ABNCo, preceded it in 1919. In 1931 a new 50 K., P23 was is- sued; it circulated until 1944. This note was de- signed by the aging Alfonse Mucha. The ma- ture image of his daughter, Jaroslava, graces this note. The artist also designed a 1 K. for the first issue in 1919. This unissued design is illustrated in Mucha (1966). Mucha also designed 50 and 1000 leva notes for Bulgaria, and a 10 dinara for Yugoslavia; all \ vent unissued. The 1000 leva and 10 dinara notes are il- lustrated in Mucha (1980). The State Printing Office, where Czech paper money would be engraved and printed, opened in 1928. Alphonse Mucha designed the figures above the entrance. A head of Liberty with her symbolic Liberty Cap was placed in the center. During the German occupation the liberty cap was forcibly removed. As a reminder, the symbol of freedom was never replaced. Anticipating the end of the war and the establishment of a republic, the first stamp was designed in May 1918, engraved Page 186 Paper Money Whole No. 185 It- • Atiy.. NATO STATOVKA VYDANA PQt1ttE Z N Ak.PLA ti7 The face of an authentic 500 K., P12. (Courtesy of Richard Piermattei) The face of the counterfeit 500 K., P12, lacks the haek ("v") above the "C" in "C187" at the top. The back of an authentic 500 K., P12. The female appears to represent laroslava, the artist's daughter. (Cour- tesy of Richard Piermattei) Paper Money Whole No. 185 Page 187 This essai for the back of the 100 K is similar to the 500 K. This essai for the lace of the 100 K is similar to the 500 K. ,.4i,wi„.A-\Ntt, ,...d, ... ..;..,T.:.i■ A■••,•,--,a' Ems Z. rwro•R9t elit a • Ht -3.0901E-eZ545.gi40,1Tiilat+R-rf LIE