Catalog
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| Issuer | Bank of De Soto |
|---|---|
| Year | 1863 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Reference(s) | Kelly#NE60-05 |
| Obverse description | At lower left, an intaglio vignette of Native Americans in a traditional scene; at upper center, a pastoral agricultural vignette with farmers at work; at lower right, an engraved portrait of statesman Daniel Webster. A green guilloche underprint with the word ONE serves as a denomination protector at lower center. |
|---|---|
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| Protection description | Green denomination underprint with the word ONE printed in mirror image on the reverse as a counterfeit deterrent |
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| Comments |
De Soto, Nebraska was a Missouri River town that briefly threatened to outgrow Omaha in the early 1860s — land speculators had big plans for it. The Bank of De Soto operated under Nebraska's territorial free banking laws, which allowed private institutions to issue notes backed by deposited bonds. The American Bank Note Company supplied the plates, as it did for dozens of such frontier banks, and the notes circulated well beyond Nebraska's borders, since western notes frequently drifted east along trade routes.
De Soto the town effectively ceased to exist when the river shifted course and Omaha consolidated its grip on regional commerce. Notes from the bank are survivors of a financial experiment that outlasted the town itself by years on paper alone.