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!
2 Dollars
| Issuer | Treasury of the Republic of Texas |
|---|---|
| Year | 1839-1841 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Dollar (1839-1846) |
| 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 is laid out in a typeset and engraved style characteristic of early American territorial currency. A central octagonal vignette carries the large numeral "2" within a lathe-work border, flanked on the left by a small vignette of a deer standing near a waterfall and on the right by an engraved scene of a horseman in pursuit of cattle. The denomination "TWO" appears in large letterpress type at both the far left and far right margins, with "2 DOLLARS" repeated in the lower left corner, and the full promissory text of the Republic of Texas rendered in copperplate script across the lower portion of the note. |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | Log in to see details |
| Reverse description | The reverse is unprinted and blank, showing only the plain paper stock, with the impression of the obverse design faintly visible in show-through. |
| 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 Republic of Texas printed its own currency out of necessity — the young republic had no functioning banking system and a chronic shortage of hard money from the moment of independence in 1836. These "redbacks," as they came to be called from the red ink used on the reverse, were issued by the Treasury rather than any bank, making them direct obligations of a government that was perpetually insolvent.
Inflation was severe. By 1842 the notes traded at a fraction of face value against U.S. specie, and confidence never recovered before annexation rendered them worthless. Surviving examples almost always show heavy use.