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1 Dollar Huntingdon, Cambria and Indiana Turnpike Road Company
| Issuer | Huntingdon, Cambria and Indiana Turnpike Road Company |
|---|---|
| Year | 1817 |
| 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 | Plain cream paper note with two vertical ornamental guilloche border panels flanking the left and right edges, each containing an oval vignette with the numeral "1"; two additional oval counter medallions with the numeral "1" appear at upper left and upper right of the central text field. The body of the note is entirely typeset in letterpress, with the issuer's name in bold uppercase and the promise-to-pay text in mixed case. Handwritten manuscript entries record the payee name and date, while the Secretary and President signatures appear in ink below the printed attestation line, with the printer's imprint "Murray Draper Fairman & Co" in a small cartouche at the foot of the note. |
|---|---|
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| Signature(s) | David Stewart and Jno. Blair |
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| Comments |
Turnpike companies issuing their own paper currency was a short-lived American practice born from chronic small-change shortages in the early republic. The Huntingdon, Cambria and Indiana Turnpike Road Company — chartered to push a road westward across the Allegheny Mountains through three Pennsylvania counties — circulated notes like this one largely among workers, contractors, and local merchants along the construction corridor, where hard money rarely reached.
Murray, Draper, Fairman & Co. of Philadelphia were among the most technically accomplished security printers of the period, their work predating the firm's later evolution into Fairman, Draper, Underwood & Co. Pennsylvania moved to suppress private quasi-banking by non-financial corporations within a few years of this note's issue.