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3 Dollars City Bank of Hartford - Connecticut
| Issuer | City Bank of Hartford |
|---|---|
| Year | 1854 |
| Type | Local banknote |
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| Obverse description | The obverse is executed in intaglio by Toppan, Carpenter, Casilear & Co. and arranged in a horizontal format. A central upper vignette presents a pastoral and industrial scene with cattle being driven before a steam locomotive, flanked at left by an oval portrait vignette within an ornate lathe-work border and at right by a figural vignette of a seated allegorical figure. The bold bank title "CITY BANK OF HARTFORD" occupies the centre of the note in decorative letterpress, with the promise-to-pay text in script below, a numeral "3" counter at upper right, and the notation "CHARTER-PERPETUAL" at the foot alongside manuscript cashier and president signatures. |
|---|---|
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| Reverse description | The reverse is unprinted, consisting of plain unadorned cotton paper with no vignettes, lettering, or other design elements. |
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| Comments |
Toppan, Carpenter, Casilear & Co. was among the most technically accomplished bank note engravers operating in antebellum America, and their work for Connecticut state-chartered institutions in the early 1850s reflects that — fine lathe-work borders, tightly rendered vignettes, and the kind of geometric engine turning designed specifically to defeat contemporary counterfeiters. The City Bank of Hartford was chartered under Connecticut's general banking laws, which by 1854 required note-issuing banks to maintain specie reserves, a rule more honored in theory than in practice during periods of credit expansion.
The $3 denomination was a nuisance to counterfeiters precisely because it was odd enough to invite scrutiny from recipients.