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10 Dollars National Bank Note, 'Brown Back'
| Issuer | United States National Banks |
|---|---|
| Year | 1882 |
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| Currency | Dollar (1785-date) |
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| Obverse description | At left, an intaglio vignette titled 'Franklin and Electricity' portrays Benjamin Franklin in a classical composition. At right, the allegorical vignette 'America Seizing the Lightning' presents a female figure astride an eagle. The note bears the issuing bank's charter name, charter location, and obligation text in letterpress, with decorative guilloche work framing the design. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed with a rich brown ink underprint carrying the bank's charter number in large numerals at centre. To the left oval, the state seal of the issuing bank's home state appears in dark blue intaglio; to the right oval, an American Eagle vignette in the same ink completes the design. |
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| Comments |
The "Brown Back" series takes its name from the solid brown geometric lathe work covering the entire reverse — a deliberate departure from the green-tinted designs that preceded it. These notes were issued by thousands of individual chartered national banks across the country, each printing its own bank title and charter number onto federally produced blanks. That decentralized model means the same Friedberg range encompasses notes from major city banks and tiny rural institutions alike, with surviving populations that vary enormously by issuer.
Charter numbers above roughly 3400 are considerably scarcer in this series, as many newer banks switched to later issues before accumulating large circulation figures. A note from a single-issue bank — one that failed or reorganized before the series ended in 1908 — can outvalue the denomination many times over.