Catalog
See full images - free registration
Continue with Google - no registration!
or register with email
Why register? Just to keep bots out of our catalog. Your email stays private - we will never share it or send you anything uninvited. We guarantee you that!
100 Dollars Citizens' Bank of Louisiana, New-Orleans, Bilingual
| Issuer | Citizens' Bank of Louisiana |
|---|---|
| Year | 1857-1899 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 100 Dollars (100 USD) |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
| Size | Log in to see details |
| Shape | Log in to see details |
| Printer | Log in to see details |
| Designer(s) | Log in to see details |
| Engraver(s) | Log in to see details |
| In circulation to | Log in to see details |
| Reference(s) | Log in to see details |
| Obverse description | The obverse carries three allegorical vignettes across the upper register: a central bust composition flanked on the left by a vignette of a young female figure surrounded by foliage, and on the right by a portrait vignette of a statesman amid American patriotic symbols. Large numeral counters reading '100' appear at the lower left and right corners, with the bank title arching across the top and denomination text in the centre panel. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed entirely in red on a pale ground, with two large guilloche rosettes containing the numeral '100' flanking a central oval portrait vignette of a bearded male figure. The French bank title 'BANQUE DES CITOYENS DE LA LOUISIANE' arches across the top, and 'NEW ORLEANS' is lettered along the lower margin. |
| Reverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Signature(s) | Log in to see details |
| Protection type | Log in to see details |
| Protection description | Log in to see details |
| Variants | Log in to see details |
| Comments |
The Citizens' Bank of Louisiana was chartered in 1833 as a mortgage bank, its capital secured against sugar and cotton plantations — which meant, in practice, against enslaved people held as collateral. That financial architecture underpinned every note the bank issued. By the time the American Bank Note Company was producing this series, the bank had survived Louisiana's catastrophic 1842 banking crisis, during which it was one of very few New Orleans institutions to avoid outright suspension.
The bilingual French-English format was not decorative. Louisiana's Civil Code and its commercial culture remained substantially Francophone well into the late nineteenth century, and notes printed only in English would have faced real friction in the parishes.