LIST OF FAC-SIMILES AND FORMS OF TREASURY NOTES. Form of One Hundred Dollar Note, Act February 24, 1815, bearing interest at 5 per cent., or one cent and onehalf a cent per day. Page 35 Form of Five Dollar Note, Act February 24, 1815, fundable into seven per cent. bonds. Page 36 Form of One Hundred Dollar one year Note, Act March 31, 1840, bearing interest at five per cent. Page 47 Form of One Hundred Dollar one year Note, Act July 22, 1846, bearing interest at 5 per cent. Page 65 Form of One Hundred Dollar two years Note, Act January 28, 1847, bearing interest at six per cent. Page 67 Form of One Hundred Dollar one year Note, Act December 23, 1857, bearing interest at three per cent. Page 73 Page 81 Form of Fifty Dollar two years Note, Act March 2, 1861, bearing interest at six per cent. Form of Ten Dollar Note, being the first Demand Note ever issued by the United States, Act July 17, 1861. Page 91 xii FAC-SIMILES OF TREASURY NOTES. Form of Seven-thirty Fifty Dollar three years Note, interest one cent per day, Act March 3, 1865. Page 101 Form of Five Cent Postage Currency and Reverse, receivable for Postage Stamps, Act July 17, 1862. Page 105 Form of Ten Cent Postage Currency and Reverse, Act July 17, 1862. Page 106 Form of Twenty-five Cent Postage Currency and Reverse, Act July 17, 1862. Page 107 Form of Fifty Cent Postage Currency and Reverse, Act July 17, 1862. Page 108 Form of Compound Interest three years Ten Dollar Note, bearing interest at six per cent., compounded semiannually, Act June 30, 1864. Page 111 Form of Reverse of Note, giving interest for each six months. Page 112 UNITED STATES NOTES. CHAPTER I. COLONIAL PAPER MONEY. PREVIOUS to the Revolutionary War paper money was issued to a greater or less extent by each one of the thirteen colonies. The first issue was by Massachusetts in 1690, to aid in fitting out the expedition against Canada. Similar issues had been made by New Hampshire, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey, previous to the year 1711. South Carolina began to emit bills in 1712, Pennsylvania in 1723, Maryland in 1734, Delaware in 1739, Virginia in 1755, and Georgia in 1760. Originally the issues were authorized to meet the necessities of the colonial treasuries. In Massachusetts, in 1715, as a remedy for the prevailing embarrassment of trade, a land bank was proposed with the right to issue circulating notes secured by land. John Colman, a merchant of Boston, urgently advocated its establishment. The land bank was forbidden by the Province Council, unless authorized by the General Assembly. There was a large party, however, in favor of paper money in some form. The plan for the land bank was defeated, but the issue of paper money by the treasury was authorized to the extent of £50,000, to be loaned on good mortgages in sums of not more than £500, nor less than £50, to one person. The rate of interest was 5 per cent., payable with one-fifth of the principal, annually. The bills were in form the same as those previously issued for the benefit of the treasury. This round sum or aggregate of £50,000, to be so loaned, was styled a bank, and was the first of the so-called loan banks, which were afterward authorized by nearly, if not quite, all of the colonies. In 1733 an issue of bills to the amount of £110,000 was made by the merchants of Boston, which were to be redeemed at the end of ten years, in silver, at the rate of 19 shillings per ounce. In 1739, the commercial and financial embarrassment still continuing, another land bank was started in Massachusetts. John Colman was one of the corporators. The stock of the land bank was to be £150,000. No one was permitted to subscribe more than £2,000, nor less than £100. The subscribers were to pay down lawful money at the rate of 40 shillings for every £1,000 subscribed, and for the remainder were to pledge security in lands to the satisfaction of the directors. They were to pay 3 per cent, interest per annum, either in bills of the bank or in produce and manufactures, at prices regulated by the directors. Circulating notes equal to the capital were to be issued, payable in twenty years in produce or manufactures, and 5 per cent. of the capital was to be paid annually in the notes, produce, or articles manufactured. The "manufactures, being the produce of FIRST PAPER MONEY ISSUED; BUBBLE ACT. 3 this province," were enumerated as follows: "Hemp, flax, cordage, bar iron, cast iron, linens, sheep's wools, copper, tanned leather, flaxseed, beeswax, bayberry wax, sail cloth or canvas, nails, tallow, lumber or cord wood, or logwood from New Spain." This scheme. was strenuously opposed by Governor Belcher, but in spite of all opposition £49,250 of its notes were struck off, of which the treasurer of the company issued £35,582, and £4,067 were employed by the directors in trade. A specie bank was also formed in 1739, by Edward Hutchinson and others, which issued bills to the amount £120,000, redeemable in fifteen years in silver, at 20 shillings per ounce, or gold pro rata. The payment of these notes was guaranteed by wealthy and responsible merchants. These notes, and those of a similar issue in 1733, were largely hoarded and did not pass generally into circulation. In 1740 Parliament passed a bill to extend the act of 1720, known as the bubble act, to the American colonies, with the intention of breaking up all companies formed for the purpose of issuing paper money. Under this act both the land bank and the specie bank were forced to liquidate their affairs, though not without some resistance on the part of the former. The Governors of Massachusetts rendered themselves very obnoxious to the people by their determined opposition to these banks and to paper money generally," and Governor Belcher 'An Historical Account of Massachusetts Currency, p. 103. By Joseph B. Felt. Boston, 1839. "The History of Massachusetts Bay, vol. ii., p. 396. By LieutenantGovernor Hutchinson. Boston, 1767. |