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!
5 Dollars Bank of Philippi
| Issuer | Bank of Philippi |
|---|---|
| Year | 1861 |
| Type | Local banknote |
| Value | Log in to see details |
| Currency | Log in to see details |
| 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 | Log in to see details |
|---|---|
| Obverse lettering | STATE OF VIRGINIA THE BANK OF PHILIPPI Promises to pay FIVE dollars to bearer on demand Philippi. April 2, 1861 FIVE DOLLARS Cash Pres WELLSTOOD. HAY & WHITING. NEW YORK . |
| Reverse description | The reverse is uniface, printed on plain paper with no design or lettering, showing only the aged patina of the period stock. A handwritten collector notation appears at lower left. |
| 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 Bank of Philippi was chartered in Barbour County, Virginia — territory that voted overwhelmingly against secession in 1861 and became part of the new state of West Virginia in 1863. Notes issued under the Virginia bank charter were therefore circulating in what would shortly become enemy territory from the Confederate perspective, and the bank itself continued operating under Union-sympathetic governance through the war years.
Wellstood, Hay & Whiting was a New York security printing firm, which means this note was engraved and produced in the North before the political fracture made such arrangements impossible. By mid-1861, Southern banks could no longer place orders with Northern printers.