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1 Dollar Bank of Monroe - Michigan
| Issuer | Bank of Monroe |
|---|---|
| Year | 1856 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 1 Dollar (1 USD) |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is arranged in three vignette panels in the typical antebellum American obsolete banknote style: at left, a portrait bust of George Washington; at center, an allegorical agricultural vignette of a seated female figure with two cattle, a sickle, and sheaves of wheat; and at right, a second seated female allegorical figure. The denomination numeral '1' appears at the upper corners, and the note carries the bank title and promise-to-pay text in letterpress. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is unprinted, presenting a plain paper surface consistent with standard practice for American obsolete state bank notes of the mid-nineteenth century. Handwritten signatures of bank officers are visible in ink, applied to the face side and bleeding through to this surface. |
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| Comments |
The Bank of Monroe was chartered in Monroe County, Michigan, a town with early commercial ambitions tied to the River Raisin and Lake Erie trade routes. By the mid-1850s, Michigan's free banking law of 1837 — which had produced the notorious "wildcat" banking catastrophe of that decade — had been replaced by tighter state oversight, and institutions like Bank of Monroe were operating under the revised 1857 framework's immediate precursor rules.
Rawdon, Wright, Hatch & Edson were among the most prolific bank note engravers in antebellum America, and their New York shop produced notes for hundreds of state-chartered banks across the Midwest. The firm later merged into the American Bank Note Company in 1858.