National Bank & National Bank Note Summary Data


These four links will open EXCEL spreadsheets that you can download and manipulate to serve your purposes.

 

1 – Corporate Summary all banks

        Key Bank Data (1863-1935, all charters 1-14348)

                Official bank title defined as name of the bank and town; also, other titles used on issued notes

                Organization date if available

                Charter date

                Opening date (1901-1909)

                Closing date with fate if before 1936

                Last outstanding taxable circulation

                Summary corporate history

               

2 – Pollock data set

        Bank presidents, cashiers, total resources, circulations by year (1863-1935)

 

3 – NBN Issues by bank title

        National bank notes issued by each bank title (1863-1935)

                Title found on issued notes

                Series/type/sheet combination/beginning and ending serial numbers

                Title change dates:

                                ( ) = formal title change date for new titles submitted by the bankers

                                [ ] = date for use of a new title. See NBN Encyclopedia Chapter L06 Table 1 for the

distinction between the official banker-supplied titles and non-official titles found

on the notes for this bank.

4 – BEP Proofs

        Characteristics of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing certified proofs (Series of 1875, 1882,

        1902, some Original) in the National Numismatic Collection

                Smithsonian Scan number

                Bank

                Series

                Type

                Sheet combination

                Plate letters

                Treasury signatures

                Certification date (1876-1929)

                Plate date

                Sorting aids (columns 0 through W)

 

Titles

 

The titles in spreadsheet 1 are the official bank titles submitted by the bankers. In addition, spreadsheet 1 also lists non-official titles that appeared on issued notes. The sources for the official titles are: (1) organization reports, (2) duplicate charters, (3) title change tables in the annual reports of the Comptroller of the Currency, and (4) Office of Comptroller of the Currency (1941). These records are housed in Record Group 101 at the U.S. National Archives, College Park, MD, except for the annual reports of the Comptroller of the Currency. The annual reports are accessible through:

 

https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/annual-report-comptroller-currency-5...

 

Source 4 is a ledger entitled Alphabetic List of National Banks by States, which is a complete listing of the official national bank titles used through 1941 generated by the Comptroller of the Currency’s staff. The ledger contains hand-written corrections made through 1982. It is available in PDF form at:

https://s3.amazonaws.com/NARAprodstorage/opastorage/live/56/1176/6117656/content/arcmedia/nw/6034623/banks-list.pdf?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR1qGOHLKRo5D9lKlf_y13w4kuhM03xbtqSKxLmLmR_xopVqZa4Bo7h72io_aem_O0iEEW5UgyntppUERTmZbw

 

The titles in spreadsheet 3 are the titles that actually appeared on issued notes. They can differ from the official titles submitted by the bankers owing to transcribing mistakes or changes imposed by the Comptroller of the Currency’s clerks to better clarify the location of the banks, A complete listing of the non-official titles is found in NBN Encyclopedia Chapter L06 Table 1 along with the official titles.

 

Caveats

 

The data presented is primarily transcribed from Comptroller of the Currency annual reports and contemporary records that were maintained by the Comptroller of the Currency’s staff that are now housed in Record Group 101 at the National Archives in College Park, Maryland. The accuracy and completeness of these data, particularly such things as the summary corporate histories in spreadsheets 1, is dependent upon reports having been received by the Comptroller’s office from the bankers and the fidelity with which the information was recorded. This information is known to be incomplete, especially information pertaining to predecessor and successor territory/state-chartered banks and mergers involving territory/state-chartered banks. Consequently, the information provided should be viewed as a starting point as you research a particular bank.

 

In cases where specific data such as organization or opening dates are missing, the compilers of these spreadsheets were unable to recover that information from the available records. The reason is that critical records such as groups of organization reports are missing or the information was not recorded such as opening dates, which were documented between 1901 and 1909 only.

 

The sources for the names of the bank presidents and cashiers presented in spreadsheet 2 are listed in the spreadsheet. Most are from the Comptroller of the Currency annual reports. Consult the SPMC Bank and Bankers Database when you delve into a particular bank. This resource often contains the full names of the presidents and cashiers as well as other officers in the bank and even biographical profiles of some of these bankers.

 

Everyone makes transcription mistakes and typos—everyone including the clerks in the Comptroller’s office who recorded the data, the typesetters who prepared the Comptroller annual reports, the clerks who sent plate orders to the printers, the siderographers who laid-in the bank information on the printing plates, the compliers of these spreadsheets. We have made serious strides in cleaning up such problems and continue to do so.

 

If you discover problems, send your finds to: peterhuntoon@outlook.com.

 

Sources for Spreadsheets

 

1-Key Bank Data (1863-1935, all charters 1-14348) – Louis Van Belkum, primary compiler; Peter Huntoon, Mark Drengson and Matt Hansen, revisions.

                Name of bank

                                Organization Reports, “Alphabetic Listing of National Banks by States” Comptroller ledger (1941)

Organization date

                                Organization Reports, National Currency and Bonds Ledgers, plate dates on proofs

                Charter date

                                Organization reports, Certificates of Authority to Commence Business

                Opening date (1901-1909)

                                Organization Reports

                Closing date with fate if before 1936

                                Comptroller of the Currency Annual Reports

                Last outstanding circulation

                                Comptroller of the Currency Annual Reports

                Summary corporate history

                                Individual bank records cards prepared by Louis Van Belkum; Van Belkum, Louis (1968) National banks of the

note issuing period 1863-1935: Hewitt Brothers, Chicago,401 p.; Organization Reports; Certificates of

Authority to Commence Business, “Alphabetic Listing of National Banks by States” Comptroller ledger (1941)

 

2-Bank presidents, cashiers, total resources, circulations by year (1863-1935) – Andrew Pollock, primary compiler; Mark Drengson and Peter Huntoon, supplemental compilers.

                                Comptroller of the Currency Annual Reports (primary)

                                Bankers Magazine, various bank directories (secondary)

 

3-National bank notes issued by bank title (1863-1935) – Louis Van Belkum, primary compiler; Peter Huntoon, exact bank titles and revisions to issuance data

                Exact title found on issued notes

                                BEP certified proofs, observed notes

                                Listing of title changes in Comptroller of the Currency annual reports

                Series/type/sheet combination/beginning and ending serial numbers

                                National Currency and Bond Ledgers

                Title change dates:

                                ( ) = formal title change date for new titles applied for by the bankers

                                                Comptroller of the Currency Annual Reports

                                [ ] = date between the end or start of unofficial titles that appeared on notes

                                                BEP proofs, Series of 1929 overprinting plate billing ledger

                Supplemental title information

                                Comptroller of the Currency annual reports

 

4-Characteristics of the Bureau of Engraving and Printing certified proofs (Series of 1875, 1882, 1902, some Original) – Peter Huntoon

                Smithsonian crowd-sourced project to catalog the BEP proofs