Catalog
1 Dollar
| Issuer | Maryland State Colonization Society |
|---|---|
| Year | 1837 |
| Type | Standard circulation banknote |
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| Obverse description | Central vignette of a goat standing in profile facing right, rendered in fine letterpress engraving on a lightly tinted ground. The denomination ONE appears in oval panels to the left and right of the vignette, with the numeral 1 in the outer corners; the vertical legend ONE DOLLAR runs along the right margin. The issuer's title is set in bold typeface across the top, with place and date below, and the redemption text in script and bold type across the lower half of the note, above two signature lines identifying the Governor of Maryland in Liberia and the President of the Maryland State Colonization Society. |
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| Obverse lettering | MARYLAND STATE COLONIZATION SOCIETY. Baltimore, November, 1837. ONE This note will be received for ONE DOLLAR, at the Government Store, in Harper, Maryland in Liberia, Africa in payment for goods. Governor of Md. in Liberia. Pres't Md. State Col. Society. |
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| Comments |
The Maryland State Colonization Society was an auxiliary of the American Colonization Society, organized to settle free Black Americans in what became Liberia. This note was issued in 1837 to raise operating funds for that project — it functioned more as a fundraising instrument and promissory scrip than as conventional circulating currency, though small-denomination notes like this one did move through sympathetic hands in Baltimore commercial circles.
The Society never had banking authority. Notes of this type occupied an uncertain legal status, and redemption depended entirely on the organization's solvency and continued donor support — neither of which was guaranteed.