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1 Dollar Farmers' Bank
| Issuer | Farmers' Bank of Belchertown, Massachusetts |
|---|---|
| Year | 1827 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | 1 MASSACHUSETTS 1 The President, Directors and Company of the FARMERS BANK promise to pay (illegible) or bearer on demand ONE DOLLAR BELCHERTOWN Aug 15 1827 CASH.ᴿ PRES.ᵀ ONE DOLLAR 1 1 |
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| Protection type | Lathe-work guilloche, Microlettering |
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| Comments |
The Farmers' Bank of Belchertown received its Massachusetts charter in 1826, one of dozens of rural New England banks capitalized on agricultural landownership rather than commercial trade. Belchertown itself was a small Hampshire County town with no particular financial weight, and the bank's operational life was short — it had folded by the mid-1830s, which keeps surviving note quantities low across all denominations.
The lathe-work guilloche and microlettering on this note reflect the period's rapid adoption of geometric engine-turning as a deterrent against the crude counterfeiting that plagued American fractional currency in the 1820s. Neither feature was unique to this issuer — both were common outputs of the New England bank note engravers competing for rural bank contracts at the time.