1 Dollar

The Farmers' Joint Stock Banking Company of Green Bay was one of dozens of Wisconsin territorial-era institutions that existed primarily on paper — chartered under lax free banking laws that allowed notes to be backed by questionable bond deposits rather than hard specie. Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Edson, the New York security printing firm that would later merge into the American Bank Note Company in 1858, produced the plates, as they did for scores of Midwestern wildcat and semi-legitimate banks during this period.

Wisconsin achieved statehood in 1848, meaning this note dates from the institution's first year of operation under the new state's equally permissive banking framework. Green Bay remained a small lumber and fur trade outpost at the time, and notes from this issuer rarely traveled far before being refused or discounted heavily by merchants skeptical of the backing.