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2 Dollars Mechanics Savings and Loan Association
| Issuer | Mechanics Savings & Loan Association |
|---|---|
| Year | 1862 |
| Type | Log in to see details |
| Value | 2 Dollars |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| Composition | Log in to see details |
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| Obverse description | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | $2. MECHANICS Savings & Loan Association. $2. Savannah, May 31, 1862. This Certificate Showeth, That Two Dollars have been deposited bearing Four per cent. Interest, after thirty days notice, payable to bearer on return of this Script, in Treasury Notes. No. Pres't. $2. TWO DOLLARS. $2. on the left side TWO DOLLARS. on the right side |
| Reverse description | The reverse is printed on repurposed pre-printed stock originally intended for another institution's notes, bearing engraved vignettes of a seated female figure and a barrel in a landscape setting. Partial legends reading 'THE STATE OF', 'FIVE DOLLARS', and fragmentary stockholder liability text appear twice across the width of the sheet, consistent with wartime Confederate scrip production practices of reusing available printed materials. |
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| Comments |
Mechanics Savings & Loan Association was one of dozens of Southern mutual savings institutions that resorted to issuing their own scrip when specie vanished from circulation in the early Confederate war years. By 1862, small-denomination coin had effectively disappeared from Georgia commerce, hoarded the moment hostilities made its future value uncertain. Institutions like this one stepped into that vacuum not as banks of issue in any formal sense, but out of sheer transactional necessity.
Savannah-printed scrip of this period varies enormously in quality and survival rate. Much was redeemed quickly and destroyed; the rest was often lost to the city's considerable wartime disruption, including Sherman's occupation in December 1864.