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1 Dollar Somerset and Worcester Savings Bank - Maryland
| Issuer | Somerset and Worcester Savings Bank |
|---|---|
| Year | 1862 |
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| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | 181 × 79 mm |
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| Obverse description | Black intaglio print on white paper with a large red ONE overprint in the centre. At left, an oval vignette of a beehive; at centre, a pastoral vignette of a shepherdess with two sheep; at right, a vignette of a young farm girl. Denomination counters reading ONE appear in the upper corners, with MARYLAND inscribed at upper right. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | Blank, unprinted reverse. |
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| Comments |
Somerset and Worcester Savings Bank was a small institution serving the Eastern Shore of Maryland, and its decision to issue scrip in 1862 places it squarely within the broader collapse of small-denomination federal coinage from circulation — hoarding after the outbreak of the Civil War created an acute shortage of coin, prompting hundreds of state-chartered banks and private firms to fill the gap with their own paper. The American Bank Note Company, then the dominant security printer in the country, handled an enormous volume of this emergency business.
Maryland's ambiguous political position during the war — a slave state that remained in the Union under considerable federal pressure — gave its banking institutions an unusual operating environment throughout 1862.