1 Dollar - Bank of De Soto

The Bank of De Soto was a short-lived Nebraska territorial bank, and like most frontier institutions of its type, its notes were printed well in advance of any real capitalization. The American Bank Note Company supplied nearly every such issuer during this period, working from a catalog of stock vignettes that could be assembled to order — meaning the plate for this note almost certainly shared design elements with dozens of other small-town issues across the Midwest.

Nebraska achieved statehood in 1867, and De Soto — briefly a significant Missouri River landing — was already losing population to Council Bluffs traffic by then. Notes from banks tied to that town rarely survived in quantity.