4 Dollars Bank of Washington - North Carolina

The Bank of Washington operated out of Washington, Beaufort County, a small but active port town on the Pamlico River. The $4 denomination was a peculiarly American habit of the antebellum free banking period — designed partly to frustrate counterfeiters, who were less likely to prepare plates for odd amounts, and partly to produce change combinations that larger round-denominate notes couldn't cover cleanly.

The American Bank Note Company's colored underprint security feature on this series was among the more sophisticated anti-counterfeiting measures available to provincial issuers in the 1850s. The long date range reflects the note's use through the Civil War years, though by 1861 North Carolina's secession made any Bank of Washington issue of questionable practical value outside Confederate territory.