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1 Dollar McKean County Bank - Pennsylvania
| Issuer | McKean County Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1851-1859 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is divided into three vignette panels: at left, two female allegorical figures — one holding a sickle, the other a basket — flank a numeral 1 with ONE above; at center, a detailed engraved vignette of a rolling mill with a green ONE overprint below; at right, a classical vignette of Rebecca at the Well with a numeral 1 and ONE above. Bank name, denomination, and place of issue lettering appear across the upper and lower borders. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | PENNSYLVANIA PENNSYLVANIA THE McKean County Bank Will pay ONE DOLLAR to bearer on demand SMETHPORT (date) American Bank Note Co. New York |
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| Comments |
McKean County, carved out of Lycoming County in 1804, was still heavily forested and sparsely settled when this note entered circulation. The county's economy ran largely on lumber and early oil speculation — the Titusville strike was still a decade away, but the region was already attracting the kind of speculative capital that made wildcat banking endemic to Pennsylvania's interior counties.
The American Bank Note Company had consolidated several rival engraving firms by 1858, and notes printed under its early imprint are sometimes found with plate elements clearly inherited from predecessor houses. Worth checking whether the Haxby plate designation reflects a reuse of earlier ABNCo stock imagery.