2 Dollars New England Commercial Bank - Rhode Island

The New England Commercial Bank operated out of Newport, Rhode Island, and this 1864 issue comes from the closing years of the free banking period — the National Banking Acts of 1863 and 1864 were already squeezing state-chartered banks out of the currency business by imposing a ten percent federal tax on their notes. Most state bank circulation dried up within a few years of that legislation passing, which means notes like this had a very short window of active use.

New England Bank Note Co. was a Boston firm that handled a substantial volume of New England state bank work before the federalization of currency rendered most of it moot almost immediately after printing.