National Currency 1875 Ten Dollar Red Seal National Bank Note | The First National Bank of Belleville, Charter number 2154.
Obverse: At the left, Benjamin Franklin drawing electricity from the sky with a kite and a key. At right, Liberty soaring on an eagle, clutching lightning in her hand.
Reverse: DeSoto discovering the Mississippi in 1541, a painting by W.H. Powell, engraved by Frederick Girsch. Borders in green, the painting in black.
Signatures: (as depicted) John Allison, Register of the Treasury and John Chalfant New, Treasurer of the United States.
Inscriptions: National Currency - This note is secured by bonds of The United States Deposited with the U.S. Treasurer at Washington. - Will Pay Ten Dollars To Bearer on Demand - Register of the Treasury - Treasurer of the United States - Cash. - Pres. - Printed at the Bureau Engraving & Printing Treasury Dept - Continental Bank Note Co New York - Act Approved June 3d 1864 - This Note is receivable at par in all parts of the United States in payment of all taxes and excises and all other dues to the United States except duties on imports and also for all salaries and other debts and demands owing by the United States to Individuals Corporations & associations within the United States except Interest on Public Debt - Counterfeiting or Altering This Note, Or Passing Any Counterfeit or Alteration of it, or having in possession any false or counterfeit plate or impression of it, or any paper made in imitation of the paper on which it is printed, is felony, and is punishable by $1,000 fine or fifteen year imprisonment at hard labor or both.
The First National Bank Of Belleville in Illinois printed $2,419,090 dollars worth of national currency. This national bank opened in 1874 and stopped printing money in 1935, which equals a 62 year printing period. That is considering a long operation period for a national bank. During its life, The First National Bank Of Belleville issued 24 different types and denominations of national currency. For the record, The First National Bank Of Belleville was located in St Clair County. It was assigned charter number 2154.
The First National Bank Of Belleville also printed 2,769 sheets of $10 series of 1875 national bank notes. Hundreds of banks had sheet outputs between 2,500 and 5,000. That is pretty typical for a medium sized national bank in the 1870s. The two vignettes seen on 1875 $10 bank notes are “Franklin and Electricity” and “America Seizing Lightning”. These notes occasionally confuse novices because the year 1752 is printed on them. That is when Benjamin Franklin discovered electricity. It has nothing to do with when these bank notes were issued. The back of each $10 bill has “DeSoto Discovering the Mississippi.”
Notes of the First Charter Period
February 25, 1863 to July 11, 1882
(Notes of First Charter type were issued from 1863 to 1902)
Although the charter period was for 20 years, as prescribed by law, notes of First Charter types were actually issued for 40 years, that is until 1902.
This seeming irregularity is due to the fact that a charter was valid for 20 years from the date of a bank’s organization and not for 20 years from the date of February 25, 1863. Once a bank was chartered during this period it kept issuing the same type notes for 20 years, notwithstanding that the Second Charter Period may have intervened in the meanwhile. A few examples will suffice to show how the system operated.
Charter No. 1 was given to the First National Bank of Phila delphia in June, 1863. It would have issued typical notes of the First Charter Period for 20 years or until June, 1882. If re-char tered, this bank would then in July, 1882 have begun to issue the brown back notes of the Second Charter Period.
Likewise, a bank chartered in 1873 issued First Charter notes until 1893, and if re-chartered, issued brown backs shortly there after. An extreme example would be the case of any bank chartered in the year 1882 but before July 12th of that year, that is, in the last few months of the First Charter Period. Such a bank would have issued First Charter notes up to 1902. If this bank, however, were chartered in 1882 but before April 12th, its first re-charter notes in 1902 wouldhave been brown backs; but if it had been chartered between April 12 and July 12, 1882, its first re-charter notes in 1902 would have been the red seals of the Third Charter Period, and such a bank would not have issued any notes at all of the Second Charter Period.
There were two series of notes issued under the First Charter Period, the so-called Original Series and the Series of 1875. The notes of the Original Series were issued from 1863 to 1875 and did not bear the charter number of the bank, except for some rare instances. The Series of 1875 came into being as a result of the Act of June 30, 1874, which henceforth required the charter number of the bank to be printed on all National Bank Notes.
The charter numbers were normally printed in red, but a few banks issued 5 Dollar notes with the charter number printed in black in script numerals rather than block numerals. These notes are very rare.
The serial numbers were printed in either red or blue, the records indicating that notes with blue serial numbers are some what scarcer.
National Bank Notes were first issued to the public on December 21, 1863, but notes are known dated in November 1863. These notes were issued in denominations from 1 to 1,000 Dollars, there being two issues: the Original Series and the Series of 1875.
The obligation on notes of the First Charter Period is as follows, “This note is secured by bonds of the United States deposited with the U.S. Treasurer at Washington ... The (name of bank and location) will pay the bearer on demand...... Dollars ... This note is receivable at par in all parts of the United States, in payment of all taxes and excises and all other dues to the United States, except duties on imports, and also for all salaries and other debts and demands owing by the United States to individuals, corporations and associations within the United States, except interest on public debt.”
Notes of this period rank among the most beautiful examples of American currency. The obverses bear vignettes pertaining to American history or tradition; the reverses, which are bicolored, show some of the famous paintings on Americana that hang in the Capitol at Washington. All notes of the First Charter Period are very rare in new condition, and when found so, they are of extraordinary beauty and appeal.
United States 10 Dollar Bills
1875 Ten Dollar National Currency 2154 The First National Bank of Belleville
10 Dollar Bill : United States Military Payment Certificates US MPC